I’ll Cry Instead

(Lennon/McCartney)

Quick Facts

Composer	John
Lead Vocal	John
Recorded	Jun 1964
Length	1:46
Key	G
Noted Takes	8
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Norman Smith

Originally released on

A Hard Day's Night

Extracts from the album A Hard Day's Night

Parlophone — PMC 1230

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Story

“I’ll Cry Instead” is a song written by John Lennon, and recorded by the English rock band the Beatles for their third studio album, A Hard Day’s Night (1964). [Wikipedia]

I’ll Cry Instead is a song by The Beatles, written by Lennon–McCartney and led on vocal by John Lennon. Originally composed for the A Hard Day’s Night film’s break-out scene, this country-tinged confessional was hastily cut on 1 June 1964. The song was taped in two parts — ‘Section A’ and ‘Section B’ — for editing together at a later date, a method that allowed the production team to assemble the final master from the strongest performances of each half.

What’s distinctive

At 1:46 it is one of the shortest songs on A Hard Day’s Night. One of 101 songs led primarily by John. Recorded on 1 June 1964, the first day of sessions for the non-soundtrack side of the LP — alongside Matchbox, Slow Down and I’ll Be Back. Take count: 8 — six takes of Section A and two takes of Section B, recorded separately and edited together from the best takes of each section.¹

Recording

I’ll Cry Instead was recorded on Monday 1 June 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, Studio Two — the first day of sessions for the non-soundtrack side of the A Hard Day’s Night LP. The afternoon session (2.30–5.30pm) produced Matchbox (takes 1–5), then I’ll Cry Instead (Section A, takes 1–6; Section B, takes 7–8), and Slow Down (takes 1–6). The song was “taped in two parts — ‘Section A’ and ‘Section B’ — for editing together at a later date. Six takes of ‘A’ and two of ‘B’ saw the song through to satisfactory completion.” This two-part recording method allowed the production team to select the strongest performances of each half independently before assembling the final master.¹
The Section A/B editing approach is the song’s defining production event. Rather than attempting the complete song in a single take, the group recorded each half as an independent unit — six takes of Section A and two takes of Section B — then assembled the master by editing together the best mono remixes of each. The technique allowed the short song (1:46) to be constructed from the optimal performance of each structural half, a method that maximised control within the constraints of the Telefunken four-track recording chain. The mono master was assembled from remixes of take 6 (Section A) and take 8 (Section B); the stereo master was similarly assembled from stereo remixes of the same takes.¹
The session context places I’ll Cry Instead within an exceptionally productive day. The 1 June 1964 afternoon session produced three songs — Matchbox, I’ll Cry Instead and Slow Down — in a single three-hour block, with I’ll Be Back following in the evening. This rapid-turnaround pace was characteristic of the summer 1964 sessions, during which the group recorded the entire non-soundtrack side of the LP in just two days (1–2 June).¹
All recording was done on the Telefunken four-track through the REDD.51 console in Studio Two. By January 1964 the Beatles were recording exclusively on the Telefunken M-10 and T9U four-track recorders. A preset track-allocation convention governed the sessions: “Drums, bass, and rhythm guitar were on one track, lead guitar on another; the voices on a third. The fourth track was reserved for any little extras, like piano overdubs or backing voices.” The vocal overdub method employed the standard Abbey Road “White Elephant” speaker practice, in which backing tracks were played out loud through an RLS10 speaker while the performers sang along, with the Neumann microphone positioned in figure-of-eight to reject playback leakage.²
The A Hard Day’s Night LP is notable as the only Beatles album comprised entirely of Lennon–McCartney compositions — “it’s worth noting that the LP is comprised entirely of Lennon-McCartney compositions, the only such occurrence in the Beatles’ career.” I’ll Cry Instead sits within this unique all-original track listing as one of seven non-soundtrack songs recorded across the 1–2 June sessions.¹

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road — Studio Two (recording, 1 Jun 1964); Studio Two (mono remixes, 4 Jun 1964); Studio One control room (stereo mixing, 22 Jun 1964)
Tape machine	Telefunken four-track (M-10 / T9U)²
Console	REDD.51²
Microphones	Neumann U47/U48 (modified to identical spec, early 1964), AKG D19 (drums), STC 4038 (overhead)²
Outboard / effects	EMI RS124 compressor, EMT 140 plate reverb, STEED tape echo
Guitars	Rickenbacker 325 (Lennon), Rickenbacker 360/12 (Harrison), Höfner 500/1 violin bass (McCartney)
Amplifiers	Vox AC50 Super Twin (Lennon & Harrison, from Feb 1964)²

Recording Timeline

1 June 1964 (Mon) — recording (two-part), afternoon, Studio Two — Studio Two, 2.30–5.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. Recording: Matchbox (takes 1–5); I’ll Cry Instead (Section A) (takes 1–6); I’ll Cry Instead (Section B) (takes 7–8); Slow Down (takes 1–6). The 1 June session was the first day of recording for the non-soundtrack side of the A Hard Day’s Night LP. “Next recording was ‘I’ll Cry Instead’, for the LP. This was taped in two parts — ‘Section A’ and ‘Section B’ — for editing together at a later date. Six takes of ‘A’ and two of ‘B’ saw the song through to satisfactory completion.”¹
4 June 1964 (Thu) — mono remixes + editing, Studio Two — Studio Two, 2.30–7.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Langham. Mono mixing: I’ll Cry Instead (Section A) (from take 6); I’ll Cry Instead (Section B) (from take 8). Editing: I’ll Cry Instead (of mono remixes of takes 6 and 8). The mono master was assembled by editing together the best mono remixes of each section. The same session also produced mono remixes of Long Tall Sally, Matchbox, I Call Your Name, When I Get Home, and Any Time at All, plus a piano superimposition onto Slow Down take 6 played by George Martin.¹
22 June 1964 (Mon) — stereo remixes + editing, Studio One — Studio One (control room only), 2.30–5.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. Stereo mixing: I’ll Cry Instead (Section A) (from take 6); I’ll Cry Instead (Section B) (from take 8). Editing: I’ll Cry Instead (of stereo remixes of takes 6 and 8). “An exhaustive day’s remixing… The Beatles themselves could not have been further away from the action — they were in Wellington, New Zealand, at the time.” The 22 June session produced the stereo masters for the album’s non-soundtrack side, all without the band present.¹

Next recording was ‘I’ll Cry Instead’, for the LP. This was taped in two parts — ‘Section A’ and ‘Section B’ — for editing together at a later date. Six takes of ‘A’ and two of ‘B’ saw the song through to satisfactory completion.— Mark Lewisohn¹

Studio Notes

Double-tracking — universal on A Hard Day’s Night — 1964 was the year double-tracking became pervasive: “every single song on A Hard Day’s Night featured double-tracked vocals at some point, as did every single [song] the group released that year.” The available fourth track of the Telefunken four-track machine “proved impossible to resist, and it made double-tracking a more instantly accessible procedure than it had been with Twin-Track.” On I’ll Cry Instead, the fourth track was available for vocal layering or instrumental extras, consistent with the standard convention: “The fourth track was reserved for any little extras, like piano overdubs or backing voices.”^1,2
White Elephant speaker overdub method — Vocal overdubs on the session were recorded using the standard Abbey Road practice throughout 1964 in which the pre-recorded backing tracks were played out loud through an RLS10 “White Elephant” speaker in the studio while the performers sang or played along, with no headphones available. The Neumann microphone was positioned in figure-of-eight with its dead side facing the speaker to minimise leakage. “The performers could hear the sound quite clearly” while the microphone rejected most of the playback signal.²
REDD.51 console — the 1964 desk — By early 1964 the REDD.51 had replaced the REDD.37 in Studios Two and Three. The desk’s channel architecture directly influenced the four-track layout convention: the track allocation was “not arbitrarily chosen, but was directly influenced by a peculiarity of the REDD.51 mixing console during stereo mixing.” Most recording and mixing from 1964 onward took place on the REDD.51, and the desk was used for the entirety of the A Hard Day’s Night sessions.²
U47–U48 microphone conversion (early 1964) — In early 1964, Abbey Road’s Neumann U47 microphones were sent to Berlin for modification to behave as U48s, gaining the figure-of-eight capability previously exclusive to the U48. “For all intents and purposes, the U47s and U48s had become essentially the same microphones. The engraved names of the U47s had even been altered by Neumann to reflect their new capabilities; instead of ‘U47’, their labels read ‘U47/8’ or ‘U47/48’.” This conversion is the reason vocal microphone attributions from mid-1964 onward do not meaningfully distinguish U47 from U48.²
Tea towel on the snare — Norman Smith’s practice of covering Ringo’s snare drum with a tea towel (“a lightweight cloth common in UK kitchen and tea services”) to create a thicker, shorter snare sound was active during the 1964 sessions. Smith described wanting “a fairly thick sound with a nice crisp top” and “occasionally, I would ask Ringo to put a tea towel over his snare.” The practice dates to at least 1963 and was part of the drum sound across the A Hard Day’s Night sessions.²
Vox AC50 Super Twin amplifiers (from February 1964) — Session photographs from February 1964 onward show John and George using Vox AC50 Super Twin heads, replacing the earlier AC30 models. “John and George’s new A.C.50 Super Twin rigs are mic’d with Neumann U47 microphones.” Paul’s bass rig had also been upgraded to a Vox AC100. These amplifier changes were in place by the A Hard Day’s Night sessions and define the guitar sound on I’ll Cry Instead.²
Echo chamber practice change — dry-to-tape from 1964 — “At the start of 1964, Norman Smith finally stopped printing the chamber to tape during recording. Instead, everything was recorded to tape dry, and chamber was added during the mix.” This shift means the echo heard on the released I’ll Cry Instead master was applied at the 4 June mono remix and 22 June stereo remix stages, not baked into the 1 June recording passes — a reversal of the 1963 practice that had printed chamber live.²
Four-track track allocation convention — The standard 1964 track-allocation scheme placed drums, bass and rhythm guitar on track 1, lead guitar on track 2, vocals on track 3, and “any little extras” on track 4. This preset convention was “not arbitrarily chosen, but was directly influenced by a peculiarity of the REDD.51 mixing console during stereo mixing.” On I’ll Cry Instead, the convention would have placed John’s lead vocal on track 3 with the backing track distributed across tracks 1 and 2, leaving track 4 available for any additional vocal or instrumental overdub.²

Releases

1964 UK mono LP A Hard Day’s Night (10 July 1964, Parlophone PMC 1230, side B track 2) — Released mono master assembled by editing together mono remixes of take 6 (Section A) and take 8 (Section B), mixed 4 June 1964. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Langham. The same session produced mono remixes for several other tracks on the LP.¹
1964 US release A Hard Day’s Night (26 June 1964, United Artists / Capitol) — US release with Capitol mastering-chain differences (cutting EQ, generally brighter top end on early US pressings). I’ll Cry Instead appeared on the Capitol version as a non-soundtrack track.¹
1964 UK stereo LP A Hard Day’s Night (10 July 1964, Parlophone PCS 3058, side B track 2) — Stereo master assembled by editing together stereo remixes of take 6 (Section A) and take 8 (Section B), mixed 22 June 1964. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. “The Beatles themselves could not have been further away from the action — they were in Wellington, New Zealand, at the time.”¹
1964 UK EP Extracts from the album A Hard Day’s Night (6 November 1964, Parlophone GEP 8924) — EP release using the same UK mono master (edited remix of takes 6 and 8).¹
2009 Stereo Remasters — A Hard Day’s Night (9 September 2009, Apple/EMI) — Allan Rouse / Guy Massey / Steve Rooke 24-bit flat transfer of the 1964 stereo master. Mono Masters companion carries the 1964 mono master with no documented remix.
2014 US Mono Box — A Hard Day’s Night (The Beatles in Mono, 8 September 2014, Apple/Capitol) — Vinyl and CD reissue of the 1964 UK mono master.

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 43–47.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), 372, 374, 376–79, 381, 385.

Frequently asked

Who wrote I’ll Cry Instead?

“I’ll Cry Instead” is credited to John Lennon (Lennon–McCartney).

Who sings lead on I’ll Cry Instead?

The lead vocal on “I’ll Cry Instead” is by John Lennon.

When was I’ll Cry Instead recorded?

“I’ll Cry Instead” was recorded on 1 June 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road (Studio Two). Six takes of Section A and two takes of Section B were taped, with the two sections edited together at a later date.¹

How many takes did I’ll Cry Instead require?

Eight — six takes of Section A (takes 1–6) and two takes of Section B (takes 7–8). The two sections were recorded separately and edited together for the released master.¹