Song Lyric Sunday/Song of the Day: The Beatles, “Chains”

Song Lyric Sunday, Song of the Day 1 Minute

There are a lot of songs that have this week’s prompt, "baby," in the title, many of which will no doubt be chosen by everyone doing Song Lyric Sunday. And, you know me, I always strive to be different, so I decided instead to choose a song that featured "baby" in the lyrics.

"Chains" was written by the husband-and-wife super-songwriting duo of Gerry Goffin and Carole King. The Everly Brothers recorded it but never released it as a single, but The Cookies, Little Eva’s backup singers (you might remember that Eva was Goffin and King’s babysitter who recorded "The Loco-Motion"), had a hit with it (#17 on the Hot 100, #7 on the R&B chart) in 1962, and it was a popular tune for bands out of Liverpool, including The Beatles. They recorded it in 1963 for the album Please Please Me. George sang the lead vocal, with John (who added the harmonica solo at the beginning) and Paul on harmony vocals.

The lyrics, courtesy of AZLyrics:

Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains
And they ain’t the kind that you can see
Whoa, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me, yeah

Chains, well I can’t break away from these chains
Can’t run around, cos I’m not free
Whoa, oh, these chains of love won’t let me be, yeah

I wanna tell you, pretty baby
I think you’re fine
I’d like to love you
But, darling, I’m imprisoned by these…

Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains
And they ain’t the kind that you can see
Oh, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me

Please believe me when I tell you
Your lips are sweet
I’d like to kiss them
But I can’t break away from all of these…

Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains
And they ain’t the kind that you can see
Whoa, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me, yeah

Chains, chains of love…

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday (and Song of the Day) for December 15, 2019.

Published by John Holton

I'm a writer and blogger who writes and blogs about things that interest me.

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26 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday/Song of the Day: The Beatles, “Chains””

  1. Pingback: The Christmas Eve Eve Eve Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  2. Don’t point at me and laugh but I don’t remember this Beatles tune. It’s either I’m aging badly or my uncle actually didn’t play EVERY Beatles’ song ever recorded! 😄

    Nice choice! 😊👍

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    1. Thanks! It was on their first album, which was Please Please Me in the UK and Introducing… The Beatles! in the US. I seem to remember a Capitol album called The Early Beatles which was basically Introducing… that they issued after Vee Jay (the label) went belly up. A lot of people forget that one.

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    1. There are some real gems on their first couple of albums, a lot of them covers from other artists. They even covered “Til There Was You,” and did a remarkable job on it. George does a brief solo in it that displays remarkable maturity, and he was only 20 when he recorded it. I think that was when a lot of parents realized “hey, these kids are great musicians.”

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    1. The Beatles did so much great music that it’s easy to forget some of the songs from their early period, when they were doing covers as much as their own songs. They did some great covers of Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins (who was one of George’s idols).

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