Perhaps their most notorious lick, George Harrison’s precisely plucked and near hypnotic guitar loop sits neatly in amongst Ringo’s rhythmic rattle of drums. Name three famous Beatle guitar riffs and it’s highly likely that the opening to their 1965 Double A-side “Day Tripper” is one that immediately springs to mind. The intro to “Help!” is perhaps less about musicality and more about song structure.ĭespite their obvious brilliance, a significant portion of the Beatles’ early pop creations were fairly generic in terms of structuring, with an opening verse followed by the chorus, then rinse and repeat.īut when the title track from their 1965 album Help! begins, they add a certain unexpected twist to proceedings, with John Lennon’s emphatic chorus lines immediately bursting into life from the off – in place of the normal instrumental beginnings you might expect. The Beatles’ use of the technique on their seventh number-one hit “Eight Days A Week,” both a daring and groundbreaking achievement, is widely regarded as the first occasion a ‘fade in’ appeared on a pop music studio recording. Yet the concept of a track slowly emerging from silence would have been a new experience to most listeners of 1960s mainstream music. In today’s music world, a ‘fade in’ hardly seems revolutionary. It shouldn’t be understated, that the bassy groan at the beginning of “I Feel Fine,” which quickly morphs into a swirling wave of noise, was incredibly innovative for the time. But in the mid-1960s, the technique of utilizing interference between an electric instrument and speaker was much rarer, especially as part of the opening to a pop song. “I Feel Fine” is one of the earliest examples of ‘feedback’ ever used on a studio recording.įeedback is common in modern-day music with numerous artists choosing to use it excessively. “But you’ll have to ask Paul about the bass note to get the proper story.” “It is F with a G on top,” George Harrison would finally confirm in 2001. Strummed aggressively and left to ring out, the exact chord has become the subject of much speculation over the years. This title track from the Beatles’ third album opens with a very distinctive note, created using a combination of twelve-string electric guitar, an acoustic six-string, bass, and piano. “A Hard Day’s Night’s” intro is all about a single sound. The bouncing bassline and clanking guitar work are pure magic, perfectly setting the scene for the rest of the band’s first LP and also their formative years. Paul McCartney’s sharp and purposeful count of “One, Two, Three, Four!” injects raw energy into this relentless rock and roll classic. One of the most simplistic yet impactful Beatles intros appears immediately on track one of their debut album Please Please Me.

Here are nine of the best intros by the Fab Four. The band’s finest introductions are typically iconic in their own right, innovative for their time, and often acts of musical genius in and of themselves. The Fab Four were particularly expert in doing so throughout their eight years together.

An often underappreciated element of the Beatles’ songwriting is their seemingly effortless ability to craft a truly memorable ‘intro.’ The art of writing a timeless song opening is a masterful skill.

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