‘I’ll Get You’ is an early Beatles track released in 1963 as the B-side of ‘She Loves You’ but not appearing on any of their official album releases.
Listening to the opening lines of this simple pop track (“Imagine I’m in love with you”), it’s hard to believe John Lennon would be singing “Imagine there’s no heaven” just eight years later. These guys lived a lifetime in less than a decade.
I was racking my brain to figure out what the first “I’ll get you, I’ll get you in the end” in the chorus reminded me of when it finally hit me. Elvis Costello lifted it for the “somebody, somebody has to cry” part of his song ‘No Dancing.’
Costello would surely own up to the nod, as he has cribbed from The Beatles quite lovingly throughout his career.
Woh yeh, oh yeh
Imagine I’m in love with you
It’s easy because I know
I’ve imagined I’m in love with you
Many, many, many times before
[Chorus]
It’s not like me to pretend
But I’ll get you in the end
Yes I will, I’ll get you in the end, oh yeah, oh yeah
[Verse]
I think about you night and day
I need you and it’s true
When I think about you, I can say
I’m never, never, never, never blue
So I’m telling you, my friend
That I’ll get you, I’ll get you in the end
Yes I will, I’ll get you in the end, oh yeah, oh yeah
Well, there’s going to be a time
When I’m going to change your mind (When i’m gonna make you mine)
So you might as well resign yourself to me, oh yeah
[Pre-Chorus]
[Chorus]
I guess I hear the similarity, though I’m not sure it was intentional.
I’d be shocked if it wasn’t intentional, given how well Elvis knows The Beatles’ music, and the number of times he’s worked references to them into his songs.