Not a Second Time

"Not a Second Time"
Song by The Beatles from the album With the Beatles
Released	22 November 1963 (mono) 30 November 1963 (stereo)
Recorded	11 September 1963
Genre	Rock
Length	2:08
Label	Parlophone
Writer	Lennon/McCartney
Producer	George Martin
With the Beatles track listing
14 tracks Side one "It Won't Be Long" "All I've Got to Do" "All My Loving" "Don't Bother Me" "Little Child" "Till There Was You" "Please Mister Postman" Side two "Roll Over Beethoven" "Hold Me Tight" "You Really Got a Hold on Me" "I Wanna Be Your Man" "Devil in Her Heart" "Not a Second Time" "Money"

"Not a Second Time" is a song by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney) performed by The Beatles on their second United Kingdom album, With the Beatles. Lennon said he was "trying to write a Smokey Robinson or something at the time."^[1]

This song inspired a musical analysis from William Mann of The Times, citing the "Aeolian cadence" (Aeolian harmony) of Lennon's vocals as the song draws to a close, and noting that the same chord progression appears at the end of the final movement of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde".^[2] Lennon, years later, remarked: "To this day, I have no idea what [Aeolian cadences] are. They sound like exotic birds."^[3] The actual meaning of the term "Aeolian cadence" is when a major key song resolves on the VI chord, which is the tonic chord of the relative minor key. The term derives from the fact that the Aeolian mode is rooted on the sixth step of the major scale.

The song was recorded in nine takes on 11 September 1963 at EMI Studios.^[4]

Personnel

• John Lennon – double-tracked vocal, acoustic guitar
• Paul McCartney – bass
• George Harrison – acoustic guitar
• Ringo Starr – drums
• George Martin – producer, piano
• Norman Smith – engineer

Personnel per Ian MacDonald^[3]

Cover versions

• R. Stevie Moore covered the song in 1978 on his album The North.
• Robert Palmer covered the song in 1980 on his album Clues.
• The Pretenders covered the song in 1990 on a single
• The Smithereens on their 2007 album Meet The Smithereens!.

Notes

1. ^ The Beatles 2000, p. 96.
2. ^ Mann 1963.
3. ^ ^{a b} MacDonald 2005, pp. 97–98.
4. ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 35.

References

• The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8. 
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1. 
• MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised Edition ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3. 
• Mann, William (27 December 1963). "What Songs The Beatles Sang". The Beatles Bible. http://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/12/27/the-times-what-songs-the-beatles-sang-by-william-mann/.