AllMusic

"She Loves You" was the song that made Beatlemania a rage in England in late 1963, becoming the most popular single that had ever been issued in Britain up to that time. Although it initially (and inexplicably) flopped in the U.S., it was dusted off a few months later in the wake of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and topped the charts stateside, where it became just as linked to the early Beatles' image as it was in the U.K. From the opening drum roll, "She Loves You" takes no prisoners, immediately charging into its indelible "yeah, yeah, yeah" hook; it was George Martin's successful brainstorm to move the chorus to the very beginning of the song. Although lyrically it was, like most of Lennon-McCartney's early compositions, an elementary boy-girl situation heavy on the pronouns, there was a twist in that it was related in the third person, not the first or second. A small innovation, perhaps, but one that the Beatles were proud of. Instead of telling a girl how much they were in love, they were virtually scolding a friend for throwing away the love of a lifetime. What really won over listeners' hearts, though, were the usual block harmonies, clever alternation of major and minor chords, and particularly the ends of the verses, in which the group simultaneously let out with explosive "woo"s. Lennon and McCartney were also especially proud of ending the choruses (and the song itself) on a sixth chord, which they initially believed had never been done before. It fell to producer George Martin to inform them that others had used it, such as Glenn Miller, but that didn't take away from its freshness in a rock context. Those "yeah, yeah, yeah"s and "woo!"s would annoy many a commentator as infantile when the Beatles first broke big. The kids, of course, knew better and embraced them as positive affirmations of the boundless enthusiasm of youth. Today those commentators are forgotten, and the Beatles' "She Loves You" is still played regularly.