“If I Fell” by The Beatles

"If I Fell" turned up in 1964 on A Hard Day's Night and, for Capitol's North American fans, on Something New, and it's the moment the Beatles slowed down long enough to break your heart. John Lennon wrote most of it and later called it his first real try at a proper ballad, though Paul McCartney has since said the two of them wrote it together. Either way, the two of them crowded round one microphone to sing it, and their close harmony has the ache of the Everly Brothers all over it.

Lennon strums acoustic, George Harrison chimes on 12-string, McCartney plays bass and Ringo Starr keeps it gentle, with George Martin producing. Lennon's opening line is single-tracked in mono and doubled in stereo. Capitol tucked it on the flip of "And I Love Her", and in Norway it went out as a single and hit number one.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.