Title:	No Reply
Credits:	John Lennon - Paul McCartney
Recorded:	EMI Studios, London, 30 September, 1964, Abbey Road 2
Line- up:	Lennon double-tracked vocal, acoustic rhythm guitar, handclaps; McCartney harmony vocal, bass, handclaps Harrison acoustic rhythm guitar, handclaps Starr drums, handclaps; George Martin piano
Producer:	George Martin
Engineer:	Norman Smith
Locations:	Beatles For Sale - track 1 Anthology 1 - disc 2, track 23
UK release:	4th December 1964 (LP: Beatles For Sale)
US release:	15th December 1964 (LP: Beatles '65)

Probably written on holiday in May 1964, Lennon's No REPLY was recorded as a demo for Tommy Quickly on 3rd June (1). Featuring the bossa nova beat introduced to the world beyond Brazil by Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz, and Charlie Byrd, the song was lyrically inspired by 'Silhouettes', a Top 5 American hit for New York R&B quartet The Rays in late 1957. In terms of Lennon's own music, it is a development of When I Get Home, with which it shares the same 'pushed' phrase ('Woh-oh-woh I . . .', 'I saw the light').

Recorded in an evening session, No REPLY required eight takes. The final mix shows The Beatles starting to master the studio, using tracking and echo to create depth and space. As in I'll Be Back, a cushion of acoustic guitars provides the basic timbre, with George Martin's piano paradoxically producing a larger sound by being reduced to a darkly reverbed presence rather than a voice in its own right. Massively haloed in echo and set 'big' against the backing, the double-tracked vocals generate a stunning power in the climactic middle sixteen with its surprising feint to A major from the tonic C. So strong was this section that the group tried repeating it and its full verse, adding a full minute to the track. Wisely - and in the less-is-more now governing their arrangement and production ideas - they de against this, leaving the central bars of No REPLY, with their steep dynamic and driving drums and claps, as among the most exciting thirty seconds 'm their output.

Chosen as an enticingly downbeat opener for the album, No REPLY is one of Lennon's most affecting songs of this period, its lyric matching the sad succinctness of its melody. Almost nothing is said, but the story is complete,

Anthology Notes:

Almost four months after the song had been recorded in demo form, the Beatles returned to No Reply and taped a definitive version, Take 8, for Beatles For Sale. Here, as balance engineer Norman Smith announced, is Take 2, unreleased, which underlines the more dramatic, bluesy style that John perhaps meant for his song. Laughter ensured that this particular take could no have been used, but it was clearly an important stepping-stone to the master version, John concluding "Well, we just found out what to do, anyway - it's good!"