Ain't She Sweet

Album

Single

Label

ATCO Records

Genre

Rock & Roll

Media Type

45s

Duration

2:10

Composer(s)

Jack Yellen,;Milton Ager

Entered Chart

Jul 18, 1964

Peak Date

Aug 22, 1964

Released

29 May 1964 (UK) 6 July 1964 (US)

Recorded

22 or 24 June 1961

Catalog #

Atco 45-6308

B-Side

Nobody's Child (with Tony Shridan)

Original Artist

Gene Austin

This was written in 1927 by songwriters Milton Ager and Jack Yellen, and it quickly became a standard. Ager wrote the lyrics for his daughter Shana, who later became an actress and political commentator named Shana Alexander. This song was first recorded in 1927 as a piano tune by Frank Banta. Some of the many artists who recorded this include Frank Sinatra, Harry James, Lawrence Welk and Gene Vincent. >>> The Beatles recorded this in June 1961 in Hamburg, Germany, where they honed their skills playing clubs in 1960 and 1961. When they hit it big in 1964, their recording of "Ain't She Sweet" was released as a single; it's an anomaly in their discography, placed between their massive self-written hits "Can't Buy Me Love" and "A Hard Day's Night." It's a testament to the power of Beatlemania that a standard the band recorded three years earlier still did well, charting at #19 in the US and #29 in the UK. The song didn't appear on a Beatles album until 1995 on the Anthology 1 compilation. John Lennon decided to play this "as a march," whereas the Gene Vincent version is much softer. The Beatles recorded an off-the-cuff version in this softer style in 1969 when they were recording their Abbey Road album. This version surfaced in 1996 on the compilation Anthology 3. Among Beatles covers, this 1927 standard was an outlier; most songs they covered were '50s R&B hits. >>> Original Beatles drummer Pete Best played on this track, which earned him some royalties when it was released on the Anthology album. It was one of the few times he benefited from The Beatles' success. The Beatles didn't release this in the US until 1964, three years after it was recorded. The Muppets, including Sweetums, performed this with Dom DeLuise on a 1977 episode of The Muppet Show.

Oh, ain't she sweet?
Well, see her walking down that street
Yes, I ask you very confidentially
Ain't she sweet?

Oh, ain't she nice?
Well, look her over once or twice
Yes, I ask you very confidentially
Ain't she nice?

Just cast an eye
In her direction
Oh me oh my
Ain't that perfection?

Oh, I repeat
Well, don't you think that's kind of neat?
Yes, I ask you very confidentially
Ain't she sweet?

Oh, ain't she sweet?
Well, see her walking down that street
Well, I ask you very confidentially
Ain't she sweet?

Oh, ain't that nice?
Well, look it over once or twice
Yes, I ask you very confidentially
Ain't she nice?

Just cast an eye
In her direction
Oh me oh my
Ain't that perfection?

Oh, I repeat
Well, don't you think that's kind of neat?
Yes, I ask you very confidentially
Ain't she sweet?

Oh, ain't she sweet?
Well, see her walking down that street
Well, I ask you very confidentially
Ain't she sweet?
Well, I ask you very confidentially
Ain't she sweet?