“It Won’t Be Long” is a John Lennon-led Beatles song (credited to Lennon-McCartney) and the opening track on With The Beatles (1963). It is a smart choice for track one: fast, vocal-driven, and built around a tight call-and-response hook that sounds like Beatlemania captured on tape.
Although it was never released as a single, Lennon later described it as an early attempt to write another hit. It also became tangled in Beatles mythology because he linked it to The Times’ famous “Aeolian cadences” remark, even though that phrase actually related to “Not A Second Time“, another With The Beatles track.
Key Facts
- Publisher: Northern Songs
- Release Date: 22 November 1963 (UK) – on With The Beatles; 20 January 1964 (US) – on Meet The Beatles!
- Recorded: 30 July 1963
- Studio: EMI Studios (Studio Two), London
- Genre: Rock
- Track Duration: 2:13
- Record Label: Parlophone (UK); Capitol (US)
- Songwriters: Lennon-McCartney
- Producer: George Martin
- Engineer: Norman Smith
Performers And Instruments
- John Lennon: double-tracked lead vocal, rhythm guitar
- Paul McCartney: backing vocal, bass guitar
- George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
- Ringo Starr: drums
Where To Find “It Won’t Be Long”
For the original UK album placement, start here:
In the US, the same master first appeared on Meet The Beatles! in January 1964.
Background
Coming off the success of “Please Please Me“, the band needed a second album that sounded bigger, tougher, and more confident. “It Won’t Be Long” delivers that immediately: Lennon upfront, harmonies answering him, and a chorus built to feel like the room is shouting back.
The song is also a neat example of Lennon using a simple pop idea and sharpening it with structure. The line “It won’t be long till I belong to you” is both a promise and a pun, and the backing vocals turn the “yeah-yeah” chant into a precise call-and-response rather than a free-for-all.
The “Yeah-Yeah” Hook
The “yeah” answers are not just decoration. Lennon delivers the lead like a demand, and McCartney and Harrison reply like a crowd. That back-and-forth is the whole engine of the track, giving the record movement, tension, and lift. As a result, it does not need extra instruments or studio tricks.
The Times Review Myth
Lennon later linked “It Won’t Be Long” to the famous Times piece that helped spark the “Beatles as serious music” narrative. The problem is that the specific “Aeolian cadences” remark is associated with William Mann’s writing about “Not A Second Time”, not “It Won’t Be Long”. Lennon seems to have folded the story together in hindsight, but the broader point still stands: critics started analysing Beatles songwriting like it mattered, and the band noticed.
“It Won’t Be Long is mine. It was my attempt at writing another single, [but] it never quite made it. That was the one where the guy in the London Times wrote about the “Aeolian cadences of the chords” – which started the whole intellectual bit about The Beatles.”
John Lennon – All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Wordplay And The Middle
McCartney later pointed to the lyric hook as the best part of writing it: the “belong” line works because it is direct pop language with a built-in twist. Whether you treat it as pure Lennon or a true co-write, it sounds like the partnership at its most efficient: get in, land the hook, and get out before the energy drops.
“In ‘It won’t be long till I belong to you’ it was that same trip. We both liked to try and get a bit of double meaning in, so that was the high spot of writing that particular song. John mainly sang it, so I expect that it was his original idea, but we both sat down and wrote it together.”
Paul McCartney – Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Recording
The Beatles recorded “It Won’t Be Long” at EMI Studios on 30 July 1963. They worked on it across two sessions, recording 10 takes in the morning and a further seven in the afternoon, misnumbered as takes 17 to 23. The finished master was edited together from takes 17 and 21 on 21 August, which explains why it feels both tight and slightly explosive rather than like a single straight-through live take.
Unlike later Beatles recordings, there is no elaborate studio concept here. This is the band doing what they did best in 1963: tight rhythm, aggressive vocal attack, and harmonies that hit like punctuation.
Live And TV Performances
“It Won’t Be Long” was not one of the band’s regular stage numbers, and it was not recorded for their BBC radio sessions. Its main screen afterlife came through television: The Beatles lip-synched to the track on Ready Steady Go! in March 1964, which makes it more of a TV-era album track than a true live staple.
Take A Listen To “It Won’t Be Long”
Listen to the song, then post your thoughts in the Beatles Fan Club Forum.
Prefer not to accept optional cookies? Open this video on YouTube.
Sources And References
- The Beatles – Official song facts and album placement.
- The Beatles – With The Beatles release context.
- The Paul McCartney Project – Session detail and Lennon/McCartney comments.
- Wikipedia – Aeolian cadence mix-up and release notes.
BeatlesFan.Club operates independently and does not affiliate with The Beatles, Apple Corps, or any official rights holders.
