"Ain't She Sweet" is a song composed by

Milton Ager Milton Ager (October 6, 1893 – May 6, 1979) was an American composer, regarded as one of the top songwriters of the 1920s and 1930s. His most lasting compositions include " Ain't She Sweet?” and “ Happy Days Are Here Again”. Biography ...

, with lyrics by

Jack Yellen Jack Selig Yellen (Jacek Jeleń; July 6, 1892 – April 17, 1991) was an American lyricist and screenwriter. He is best remembered for writing the lyrics to the songs " Happy Days Are Here Again", which was used by Franklin Roosevelt as the th ...

. It was published in 1927 by Ager, Yellen & Bornstein, Inc. It became popular in the first half of the 20th century and typified the

Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the ...

. Like ''

Happy Days Are Here Again "Happy Days Are Here Again" is a 1929 song with music by Milton Ager and lyrics by Jack Yellen. The song is a standard that has been interpreted by various artists. It appeared in the 1930 film '' Chasing Rainbows'' and was the campaign song for ...

'' (1929), it became a

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

standard. Both Ager and Yellen were elected to the

Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work, represent, and maintain, the her ...

wrote ''Ain't She Sweet'' for his daughter Shana Ager, who in her adult life was known as the political commentator

Shana Alexander Shana Alexander (October 6, 1925 – June 23, 2005) was an American journalist. Although she became the first woman staff writer and columnist for ''Life'' magazine, she was best known for her participation in the "Point-Counterpoint" debate seg ...

Recorded versions

''Ain't She Sweet'' was also recorded by

Fabian Forte Fabian Forte (born Fabiano Anthony Forte, February 6, 1943), professionally known as Fabian, is an American singer and actor. Forte rose to national prominence after performing several times on '' American Bandstand''. He became a teen idol o ...

Hoosier Hot Shots The Hoosier Hot Shots were an American quartet of musicians who entertained on stage, screen, radio, and records from the mid-1930s into the 1970s. The group formed in Indiana where they performed on local radio before moving to Chicago and a n ...

Ray Anthony Raymond Antonini (born January 20, 1922), known as Ray Anthony, is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter, and actor. He is the last surviving member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Biography Anthony was born to an Italian family in Ben ...

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...

Tiny Hill Tiny may refer to: Kane Places * Tiny, Ontario, a township in Canada * Tiny, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the US * Tiny Glacier, Wyoming, US Computing * Tiny BASIC, a dialect of the computer programming language BASIC * Tiny Encryp ...

, The Playboys, The Viscounts, and

Frankie Lymon Franklin Joseph Lymon (September 30, 1942 – February 27, 1968) was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of the New York City-based early rock and roll doo-wop group Th ...

. The song was also covered in 1990 on the album '' Funk of Ages'' by

Bernie Worrell George Bernard Worrell, Jr. (April 19, 1944 – June 24, 2016) was an American keyboardist and record producer best known as a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and for his work with Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock and Rol ...

and several former members of

Parliament-Funkadelic Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. Their distinctive ...

Versions by the Beatles

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

regularly performed the song live from 1957 to 1962. According to Beatles historian

Mark Lewisohn Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958) is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps.

, " John ennonmay have known the song through his

mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

; he certainly knew it from

Gene Vincent Vincent Eugene Craddock (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971), known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rockabilly and rock and roll. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, " Be-Bop-a-Lula ...

's 1956 recording on the LP ''

Bluejean Bop! ''Bluejean Bop!'' is the debut studio album by American rockabilly singer and his backing band Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, featuring rock and roll music as well as covers of pop standards. It was released in 1956 on the Capitol Records, Capi ...

''" In ''The Beatles as Musicians'', Walter Everett offers a similar assessment, writing simply that it was "based on Gene Vincent's record."

Musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

and writer

Ian MacDonald Ian MacCormick (known by the pseudonym Ian MacDonald; 3 October 1948 – 20 August 2003) was a British music critic and author, best known for both '' Revolution in the Head'', his critical history of the Beatles which borrowed techniques from ...

also agrees with this view. Lewisohn further notes that, "John Lennon's vocal rendition was different from Vincent's, it would seem that he arranged his own unique version... He may have also been influenced by

Duffy Power Duffy Power (born Raymond Leslie Howard; 9 September 1941 – 19 February 2014) was an English blues and rock and roll singer, who achieved some success in the 1960s and continued to perform and record intermittently later. Career Ray Howard w ...

's 1959 version". In the Beatles' '' Anthology'' book, McCartney recalls that "Songs like '

Till There Was You "Till There Was You" is a show tune written in 1950 by Meredith Willson, originally entitled "Till I Met You." It was originally recorded October 25, 1950, by Meredith Willson & his Orchestra and Eileen Wilson. The song was retitled and used ...

' and 'Ain't She Sweet' would be the late-night

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

material. They showed that we weren't just another rock'n'roll group."

Recording

On June 22 or 24, 1961, during their first professional recording session, the Beatles recorded a cover of "Ain't She Sweet". Recorded at the

Friedrich-Ebert-Halle Friedrich-Ebert-Halle (also known as Eberthalle) is an indoor arena located in Ludwigshafen, Germany, which can accommodate 2,250 guests. The facility was designed by Roland Rainer and completed in 1965. It is used for sporting events, fairs ...

in Hamburg, Germany, produced by

Bert Kaempfert Bert Kaempfert (born Berthold Heinrich Kämpfert; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the mus ...

and engineered by Karl Hinze, the session saw the Beatles backing

Tony Sheridan Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity (21 May 1940 – 16 February 2013), known professionally as Tony Sheridan, was an English rock and roll guitarist who spent much of his adult life in Germany. He was best known as an early collaborator of th ...

. George Harrison later recalled that the group misunderstood the purpose of the recording session and only learned upon arrival that they would be backing Sheridan. Harrison further added, "It was a bit disappointing because we'd been hoping to get a record deal as ourselves." "Ain't She Sweet" was one of two songs recorded without Sheridan with Lennon instead on lead vocal. In 1968, Lennon reflected, "We thought it would be easy: the Germans had such shitty records, ours was bound to be better." MacDonald surmised that the Beatles decided to record a cover to save their stronger originals, such as McCartney's "

Like Dreamers Do "Like Dreamers Do" is a song written by Paul McCartney in 1959 and is one of the earliest written songs credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was most notably performed by the Beatles at their unsuccessful 1 January 1962 audition for Decca Record ...

" and Lennon's " Hello Little Girl". In a 1975 radio interview, Lennon explained that Gene Vincent's cover was "very mellow and very high pitched, and I used to do it like that, but they said ''harder, harder''—you know, Germans all want it a bit more like a march—so we ended up doing a harder version of it." Lewisohn remarks that Lennon "gives it a good and powerful go, but there's a strange timbre to his voice, as if he was suffering from 'Hamburg throat' while also straining to deliver Kaempfert's brittle sound on a song that didn't suit it." Everett describes Lennon's singing style as "very detached, slightly hiccuping" and notes his use of a

mordent In music, a mordent is an ornament indicating that the note is to be played with ''a single'' rapid alternation with the note above or below. Like trills, they can be chromatically modified by a small flat, sharp or natural accidental. The t ...

for emphasis. Lewisohn further evaluated that

Pete Best Randolph Peter Best (né Scanland; born 24 November 1941) is an English musician known as the drummer of the English rock band the Beatles who was dismissed immediately prior to the band achieving worldwide fame. Fired from the group in 1962 ...

's drumming "lacks imagination" and McCartney's "bass is accomplished." Harrison's guitar solo "judged even in its place and time... wasn't good." Everett comments that, "as a whole, these recordings are hardly representative of the future Beatles." MacDonald judges it similarly, writing, "...it Ain't She Sweet"made little sense as a choice for the Beatles' first professional recording and fails to reward attention in hindsight." In ''The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles'', Howard Kramer writes that the session was "musically unspectacular" and "the Beatles' instrumental backing shows competence, but little more."

Release

After the session, the Beatles expected that a single of "Ain't She Sweet" b/w "Beatle Bop" would be released in America, Germany and Britain in the weeks that followed. It was not until October 23, 1961 that a single was released in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

exclusively, except it was instead "

My Bonnie My or MY may refer to: Arts and entertainment * My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station * Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe * ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak * ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon Business * Mar ...

" b/w " The Saints", credited as "Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers". The Liverpool music newspaper ''

Mersey Beat ''Mersey Beat'' was a music publication in Liverpool, England in the early 1960s. It was founded by Bill Harry, who was one of John Lennon's classmates at Liverpool Art College. The paper carried news about all the local Liverpool bands, and s ...

'' reported that the Beatles were dissatisfied with "Ain't She Sweet" and "Cry For A Shadow" and so sold their rights back to Kaempfert's company, Bert Kaempfert Produktion (BKP).

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States ...

's first worldwide release of "Ain't She Sweet" was on the February 1964 French EP, '. Polydor released it in the U.K. as a single on May 29, 1964 b/w "If You Love Me, Baby", a mistitling of the

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

song " Take Out Some Insurance". On July 6, 1964

ATCO Records ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the comp ...

released the track as a single in America b/w the

Hank Snow Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian-American country music artist. Most popular in the 1950s, he had a career that spanned more than 50 years, he recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on ...

song " Nobody's Child". In August 1964, the song peaked at number 19 on the US

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streamin ...

. In Sweden, it reached number 4 on Sweden's Kvällstoppen Chart and also reached the top spot on the ''

Tio i Topp ''Tio i Topp'' (English: ''Ten At The Top'') was a Swedish record chart and radio program broadcast by Sveriges Radio P3 between the years of 1961 and 1974. It was launched to combat pirate radio charts and was the first official Swedish record ...

'' chart. It was the highest-charting Beatles single with original drummer

. The Beatles were neither paid nor owed royalty payments for the release. The track has been included on several releases, including ''

Ain't She Sweet "Ain't She Sweet" is a song composed by Milton Ager, with lyrics by Jack Yellen. It was published in 1927 by Ager, Yellen & Bornstein, Inc. It became popular in the first half of the 20th century and typified the Roaring Twenties. Like ''Happy ...

'' (1964), ''

The Beatles' First ''The Beatles' First!'' (subtitled ''Recorded in Hamburg 1961 - Featuring Tony Sheridan and Guests'') is a German compilation album of songs recorded in Hamburg in 1961 and 1962 by Tony Sheridan with the Beatles as his backing group. It was or ...

'' (1964) and ''

In the Beginning (Circa 1960) ''In the Beginning (Circa 1960)'' is the first American packaging of the 1964 German album by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, called " The Beatles' First !". History ''In the Beginning (Circa 1960)'' was released by Polydor Records in 1970 (ca ...

'' (1970). The Beatles included the recording on the 1995 compilation album ''

Anthology 1 ''Anthology 1'' is a compilation album by the Beatles, released on 20 November 1995 by Apple Records as part of ''The Beatles Anthology'' series. It features rarities, outtakes and live performances from the period 1958–64, including song ...

''. On 24 July 1969 during a recording session for "

Sun King , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

"/" Mean Mr. Mustard", Lennon began an impromptu jam of "Ain't She Sweet" along with the other Gene Vincent songs, "Who Slapped John?" and " Be-Bop-a-Lula". Lewisohn remarked that this version was more in the style of Gene Vincent than the Beatles' original 1961 version. The Beatles included this version of "Ain't She Sweet" on the 1996 compilation album ''

Anthology 3 ''Anthology 3'' is a compilation album by the Beatles, released on 29 October 1996 by Apple Records as part of ''The Beatles Anthology'' series. The album includes rarities and alternative tracks from the final three years of the band's c ...

''.

Personnel

According to Ian MacDonald: The Beatles *

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

– lead vocal, rhythm guitar *

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

– bass guitar * George Harrison– lead guitar *

– drums

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Film appearances

* Hazel Green & Company, a

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...

musical short (1927) * In January 1928, a short film of ''Ain't She Sweet'' sung by

Chili Bouchier Chili Bouchier (born Dorothy Irene Boucher; 12 September 1909 – 9 September 1999) was an English film actress who achieved success during the silent film era, and went on to many screen appearances with the advent of sound films, before progre ...

was filmed in the DeForest

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. Introduction In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film proce ...

sound-on-film process * '' Duck Soup'' (Paramount Pictures, 1933) * ''

Margie Margie is a feminine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Margaret, Marjorie or Margarita. Margie may refer to: People * Margie Ackles (born 1939), American retired figure skater * Marjorie Margie Alexander (1948–2013), American ...

'' (Twentieth Century Fox, 1946) * '' You Were Meant for Me'' (Twentieth Century Fox, 1948) * ''You're My Everything'' (Twentieth Century Fox, 1949) * ''

Force of Arms ''Force of Arms'' (reissued under the title ''A Girl for Joe'') is a 1951 romantic war drama film set in the Italian theater of World War II. It reteamed William Holden and Nancy Olson in the third of their four movies together (''Sunset Boul ...

'' (Warner Brothers, 1951) * '' Strangers on a Train'' (Warner Brothers, 1951) * '' Feed the Kitty'' (1952) Merrie Melodies cartoon * '' East of Eden'' (Warner Brothers, 1955) * ''

The Eddy Duchin Story ''The Eddy Duchin Story'' is a 1956 Technicolor film biopic of band leader and pianist Eddy Duchin. It was directed by George Sidney, written by Samuel A. Taylor, and starred Tyrone Power and Kim Novak. Harry Stradling received an Academy Award ...

'' (Columbia Pictures, 1955) * '' Picnic'' (MGM, 1955) * '' Miss Mary'' (1986)John King, Sheila Whitaker, Rosa Bosch. An Argentine Passion: Maria Luisa Bemberg and Her Films. 2000. p.129-130 * ''

Midnight in Paris ''Midnight in Paris'' is a 2011 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materialis ...

'' (Sony Pictures Classics, 2011)

TV appearances

* ''

The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family f ...

'' Season 1, Episode 8: "Jethro Goes To School" (Sung by '' Phil Gordon (actor)'') (1962) * '' Coronation Street'' Sung by Sylvia Goodwin and others * ''

All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series ''Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...

'', Season 5, Episode 1: "The Bunkers and Inflation", Part 1 (1974) * '' House M.D.'' Season 2, Episode 9: "Deception" * '' You Rang, M'Lord?'' Season 2, Episode 5: "The Wounds of War" * '' Heartbeat (UK TV series)'' Series 16, Episode 12: "Vendetta" (2007) * ''

Bunheads ''Bunheads '' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and Lamar Damon that aired on ABC Family from June 11, 2012, to February 25, 2013. Starring Sutton Foster, the show centers on a Las Vegas showgirl who g ...

'' Season 1, Episode 1: "Pilot" (2012) * '' Being Human'' Season 4, Episode 5:The Honeymooners

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{authority control 1927 songs Eddie Cantor songs The Beatles songs American songs Songs written by Jack Yellen Songs with music by Milton Ager 1964 singles Polydor Records singles The Beatles with Tony Sheridan songs Jazz compositions in C major Articles containing video clips Atco Records singles Music published by MPL Music Publishing Number-one singles in Sweden