“Eight Days a Week” is the seventh number one for the Beatles in just a little over a year. It was written by the usual team of Lennon and McCartney. Surprisingly, it is the first song by the Beatles to go number one in the United States, but was never released in England. In the U.S., it was part of the Beatles VI album, but in England it was on the Beatles For Sale album.

It was recorded in London on October 6, 1964 in two sessions that lasted nearly seven hours and made it into America by early 1965. They took the song into the studio unfinished and worked on the arrangement as they recorded. Maybe that is why it took seven hours. This was common for Lennon and McCartney. It is the first pop record to use the technique of “fade-in” at the beginning of the song. A “fade-in” is a gradual increasing of the level of the audio as the record begins.

This song is reported to have come into existence because of another one of Ringo’s malapropisms, which is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound. The Beatles used to call them “Ringoisms.” The group had been working hard and Ringo was tired. He complained that they were working the group “eight days a week,” and Paul picked right up on the phrase. He said, “Really? Got it!” and so it became the title of the song.

It turns out that Ringo got it from a chauffeur who had been driving them around all day. When he was asked “How’ve you been?,” the chauffeur responded. “Oh you know, working eight days a week.” So, whether it originated with Ringo or the chauffeur is open to question. Paul was smart enough to pick up on the phrase and turn it into a song.

Two major events occurred to the group just before “Eight Days a Week” was released. First, Ringo got married to Maureen Cox on February 11, 1965. John and George were in attendance,but Paul was out of town and missed it. Then on February 22, all four of the guys flew to the Bahamas to begin work on their first motion picture, A Hard Day’s Night.

The Beatles hated the song, however, and refused to play it live. The first time any Beatle sang the song in public was on May 4, 2013, when Paul McCartney sang it during a concert in Brazil.

“Eight Days a Week” with its flip side “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” was released on February 20, 1965 and entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 55. It took only three weeks to get to number one (on March 13) where it stayed for two weeks. “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” made it to the Top 40, peaking at number 39.

The management company that controls the Beatles music is very fussy about their music being out for all to hear. At the time I wrote this, there were no videos on YouTube for “Eight Days a Week” done by the Beatles (several cover groups are there, however). The ones I found had been removed because of copyright infringement. Maybe you will have been luck.

Here is a video of the song, but this is not the Beatles singing. It is one of the many cover groups who pretend to be Beatles. As explained about, I could find no version of “Eight Days a Week” done by the Beatles themselves. This may became more and more of a problem the closer we get to the present.