You Can't Do That

(Lennon/McCartney)

Quick Facts

Composer	John
Lead Vocal	John
Recorded	Feb 1964
Length	2:35
Key	G
Noted Takes	9
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Norman Smith

Originally released on

Can't Buy Me Love (B-side)

A Hard Day's Night

Parlophone — R 5114 / PMC 1230

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Story

“You Can’t Do That” is a song written by John Lennon and released by the English rock band the Beatles as the B-side of their sixth British single “Can’t Buy Me Love”. It was later released on their third UK album A Hard Day’s Night (1964). A live rendition of the song was released on the 2016 re-release of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl. [Wikipedia]

You Can’t Do That is a song by The Beatles, written by Lennon–McCartney and led on vocal by John Lennon. B-side of ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’; jealous Lennon, George on Rickenbacker 12-string. Within the catalogue, its b-side thread connects it to Thank You Girl, I’ll Get You, This Boy; its 12-string thread connects it to I Should Have Known Better. This jealousy-themed Lennon composition premiered George Harrison’s Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitar—a timbral innovation defining the 1964 Beatles sound. Recorded as the B-side to ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ on 25 February, the track finished in nine takes. Paul’s cowbell work and Ringo’s bongo technique produced the track’s signature percussive texture.

The session work falls within the band’s Beatlemania (1962–1964) period, recorded 25 Feb 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. George Martin produced; Norman Smith engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn’s account on p.40 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. The G-major rocker yielded four complete takes from nine total attempts, suggesting rapid-fire efficiency. The session also marked George Harrison’s 21st birthday, “but work came first.”

What’s distinctive

At 2:35 it sits at the 54th percentile by length. One of 101 songs led primarily by John. Carries the unique tag ‘jealousy’ — no other song shares it. Take count: 9 — “by take nine — only the fourth complete take — it was finished.”¹ George Harrison’s Rickenbacker 360-12 twelve-string guitar made its recording debut on this track, introducing “what was to become the distinctive 1964 Beatles sound.”¹

Recording

You Can’t Do That was recorded on 25 February 1964 in EMI Studio Two during the morning session (10.00am–1.00pm). George Martin produced, Norman Smith engineered, and Richard Langham served as second engineer. The song was “the most urgent song to be taped” that day, needed for the B-side of the Can’t Buy Me Love single. “It was not a complex recording and by take nine — only the fourth complete take — it was finished.” The released master is take 9. The same session also began work on And I Love Her (takes 1–2) and I Should Have Known Better (takes 1–3) in the afternoon.¹
George Harrison’s Rickenbacker 360-12 twelve-string debut. “In addition to the Beatles’ regular instruments it features Paul on cowbell and Ringo on bongos and what was to become the distinctive 1964 Beatles sound — George Harrison’s new 12-string guitar.” The Rickenbacker 360-12, acquired during the Beatles’ February 1964 US visit, transformed the group’s rhythmic texture from this session forward. K/R’s 1964 equipment overview lists the Rickenbacker 360-12 under the year’s available electric guitars, confirming its first use in the February sessions. John played the Rickenbacker 325 Capri (electric) and a separate acoustic guitar mic’d independently with a Neumann U47.^1,2
Session equipment context. The recording used the same Studio Two configuration as the subsequent 27 February sessions for Tell Me Why and If I Fell: the REDD.51 console (installed January 1964), the Telefunken M10/T9U four-track, Ringo’s drums mic’d with an STC 4038 overhead and STC 4033-A on the bass drum, John and George’s Vox AC50 Super Twin amplifiers mic’d with Neumann U47 microphones, and Paul’s Vox A.C.100 bass rig. “Paul and John sing into a Neumann U48 microphone set to figure-of-eight, while a U47 is suspended in front of John to record his acoustic.”^1,2
Distinct UK and US mono masters. On 26 February George Martin supervised mono remixes 1–4 from take 9. “‘You Can’t Do That’ was one such task, George supervising two remixes (numbers two and four) for the USA and keeping remix three for the UK and Europe.” With Capitol eager for Beatles material, Martin had “a double-edged brief in preparing masters, in some instances making US versions a little different from the UK.” This makes You Can’t Do That one of the documented cases where UK and US listeners heard subtly different mono mixes of the same recording.¹
Unused piano overdub. On 22 May 1964, while the Beatles were holidaying abroad, George Martin supervised a superimposition session “personally adding a piano track to take nine of ‘You Can’t Do That’, making take ten. But it was never used.” The piano overdub is the only documented post-session work on the track; the released master in all territories derives from the unadorned take 9.¹

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studio Two, Abbey Road (recording, 25 Feb 1964); Studio Two control room (mono mixing, 26 Feb; experimental stereo mixing, 10 Mar); Studio One control room (stereo mixing, 22 Jun 1964)
Tape machine	Telefunken M10/T9U four-track (recording); BTR-2 mono mixdown; BTR-3 stereo mixdown²
Console	REDD.51 (Studio Two, from January 1964)²
Microphones	STC 4038 (drum overhead), STC 4033-A (bass drum & bass cab), Neumann U47 (guitar amps, John’s acoustic), Neumann U48 figure-of-eight (vocal)²
Outboard / effects	RS124, RS114, Fairchild 660 (compressor/limiters); RS127 (EQ); echo chamber²
Guitars	Rickenbacker 325 Capri (John Lennon, electric); acoustic guitar (John Lennon); Rickenbacker 360-12 twelve-string (George Harrison); Höfner 500/1 violin bass (Paul McCartney)^1,2
Percussion	Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl kit (Ringo Starr) + bongos (Ringo); cowbell (Paul McCartney)¹
Amplifiers	Vox AC50 Super Twin (guitars); Vox A.C.100 (bass)²

Recording Timeline

25 February 1964 (Tue) — recording, EMI Studio Two — 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Langham. Recording: You Can’t Do That (takes 1–9). “It was George’s 21st birthday too, but work came first. The most urgent song to be taped was John’s inimitable ‘You Can’t Do That’, for the B-side of the ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’… It was not a complex recording and by take nine — only the fourth complete take — it was finished.” The afternoon session (2.30–5.30pm) then recorded And I Love Her (takes 1–2) and I Should Have Known Better (takes 1–3). The day opened a concentrated six-day recording period (25 Feb – 1 Mar 1964) that produced the bulk of the A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack material.¹
26 February 1964 (Wed) — mono mixing, EMI Studio Two (control room only) — 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Langham. Mono mixing: You Can’t Do That (remixes 1–4, from take 9); also Can’t Buy Me Love (from take 4). Remix 3 prepared for the UK and Europe; remixes 2 and 4 for the USA. “With Capitol, EMI’s US label, now keen to see as much Beatles material as possible, George Martin had a double-edged brief in preparing masters.” The afternoon session re-made I Should Have Known Better (takes 4–22) and the evening session re-made And I Love Her (takes 3–19).¹
10 March 1964 (Tue) — experimental stereo mixing, EMI Studio Two — 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: unknown. Stereo mixing: You Can’t Do That (from take 9), alongside Can’t Buy Me Love, Long Tall Sally, and I Call Your Name. “The stereo remixes — and the mono remix of ‘Long Tall Sally’ — were experimental and none was ever released.”¹
22 May 1964 (Fri) — superimposition, EMI Studio Two — 10.00–11.00am. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: A.B. Lincoln / B.T. Recording: You Can’t Do That (SI take 10). George Martin personally added a piano track to take 9, making take 10. The Beatles were on holiday abroad. The overdub was never used.¹
22 June 1964 (Mon) — stereo mixing, EMI Studio One (control room only) — 2.30–5.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. Stereo mixing: You Can’t Do That (from take 9), part of an exhaustive day’s remixing for the A Hard Day’s Night LP. The Beatles were on tour in the southern hemisphere. This stereo mix — unlike the unreleased 10 March experimental — became the released stereo master.¹

It was George’s 21st birthday too, but work came first. The most urgent song to be taped was John’s inimitable ‘You Can’t Do That’, for the B-side of the ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’… It was not a complex recording and by take nine — only the fourth complete take — it was finished. In addition to the Beatles’ regular instruments it features Paul on cowbell and Ringo on bongos and what was to become the distinctive 1964 Beatles sound — George Harrison’s new 12-string guitar.— Mark Lewisohn¹

Studio Notes

Twelve-string introduction and timbral impact — You Can’t Do That is the first Beatles recording to feature George Harrison’s Rickenbacker 360-12 electric twelve-string guitar. K/R’s 1964 equipment overview describes the instrument as “one of the most easily identified Beatles instruments,” with it “featured on many recordings this year.” The twelve-string’s jangly, chorus-like timbre defined the guitar sound on I Should Have Known Better, A Hard Day’s Night, and much of the 1964 output. Its introduction on this track — the first song recorded on the first day back at Abbey Road after the US trip where George acquired the guitar — marks a documented inflection point in the group’s sound.^1,2
Extra percussion: cowbell and bongos — Lewisohn singles out Paul’s cowbell and Ringo’s bongos as additions “to the Beatles’ regular instruments.” The supplementary percussion gives the track a Latin-inflected rhythmic drive absent from the February 1964 ballads recorded in the same week (If I Fell, And I Love Her). The bongo part is one of several instances of Ringo extending beyond the standard kit during the A Hard Day’s Night sessions — he also played bongos and claves on the And I Love Her re-makes (26–27 Feb).¹
REDD.51 console — first months of operation — The session fell within the first two months of the REDD.51’s installation in Studio Two (January 1964). The REDD.51 replaced the REDD.37 and, while similar in design, offered new EMI-designed amplifier stages. A peculiarity of the REDD.51’s stereo mixing mode influenced the standard four-track tape layout: “directly influenced by a peculiarity of the REDD.51 mixing console during stereo mixing.”²
Four-track process and monitoring — The Telefunken M10/T9U four-track had been the exclusive tracking machine in the EMI studios since January 1964. “Four-track was a huge leap forward,” recalled George Martin. During overdub sessions, the already-recorded backing track was played back through a White Elephant RLS10 speaker positioned in the studio. The Beatles never recorded with headphones — the figure-of-eight setting of the Neumann U48 was positioned with its dead side facing the speaker to minimise leakage.²
Echo chamber and dry-sound preference — Norman Smith preferred a drier sound for the instruments, allowing the natural ambience of Studio Two to provide the room character: “the way I tried was to keep the sound good and dry. Get the basic rhythm more forward.” George Martin generally favoured more echo on the vocals: “George wanted more echo on the LP.” Echo Chamber Two at Abbey Road, with a STEED pre-delay, provided the vocal reverb treatment.²
George’s 21st birthday — The 25 February session was George Harrison’s 21st birthday. Lewisohn notes that “bearers of gifts — in this instance Dick James — had to travel to St John’s Wood” because George “spent virtually all of his 21st birthday in Abbey Road, working.” The session ran concurrently with the immediate post-US-tour schedule: the Beatles had returned from America just three days earlier (22 February), and the film was to start shooting on 2 March.¹

Releases

1964 UK single Can’t Buy Me Love / You Can’t Do That (20 March 1964, Parlophone R 5114) — B-side. Released mono master from the 26 February remix 3 (from take 9), prepared specifically for the UK and Europe. “Truly a worldwide smash hit single, topping the charts in almost every country of release. In the USA, where it came out on 16 March, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ sold more than 2,000,000 copies within a week and earned a gold disc on its day of issue, an unprecedented achievement.” The US single used the separate mono remixes 2 and 4 prepared for Capitol on the same 26 February mixing session.¹
1964 UK mono LP A Hard Day’s Night (10 July 1964, Parlophone PMC 1230, side B track 12) — Same 26 February mono master (remix 3 from take 9).¹
1964 UK stereo LP A Hard Day’s Night (10 July 1964, Parlophone PCS 3058, side B track 12) — Stereo master mixed from take 9 on 22 June 1964 at EMI Studio One. An earlier stereo remix (10 March) was experimental and never released. The REDD.51’s stereo mixing mode imparts a subtly different tonal character from the mono remix.^1,2
2009 Stereo Remasters — 24-bit flat transfer of the original stereo master (Allan Rouse / Guy Massey / Steve Rooke), preserving the 22 June 1964 REDD.51 stereo mix characteristics. The Mono Masters companion carries the original UK mono master.

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), pp. 39–40, 42, 44, 46–47.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), pp. 361, 374, 376, 378, 385.

Frequently asked

Who wrote You Can’t Do That?

“You Can’t Do That” was written by John Lennon (credited Lennon–McCartney).

Who sings lead on You Can’t Do That?

The lead vocal on “You Can’t Do That” is by John Lennon.

When was You Can’t Do That recorded?

“You Can’t Do That” was recorded on 25 February 1964 at EMI Studio Two, Abbey Road (takes 1–9, morning session 10.00am–1.00pm). Mono mixing from take 9 on 26 February 1964; stereo mixing from take 9 on 22 June 1964.¹

How many takes did You Can’t Do That require?

9 takes — “by take nine — only the fourth complete take — it was finished” — one of the most efficient completions in the February 1964 sessions.¹

On this page

Story

What’s distinctive

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked