About This Track
“No Reply” is a song by the Beatles from the UK album Beatles for Sale and the US album Beatles ‘65. It was written mainly by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney.
The song is about a young man who is unable to contact his possibly unfaithful girlfriend, even though he sees her through her windows.
According to Lennon in 1972, the Beatles’ music publisher Dick James was quite pleased with “No Reply”:
“I remember Dick James coming up to me after we did this one and saying, ‘You’re getting better now — that was a complete story.’ Apparently, before that, he thought my songs wandered off. ”
Reviewer David Rowley found its lyrics to “read like a picture story from a girl’s comic,” and to depict the picture “of walking down a street and seeing a girl silhouetted in a window, not answering the telephone.”
In his last major interview, Lennon said that the song was sort of his version of “Silhouettes”, a 1957 song written by Bob Crewe and first recorded by The Rays.
Music
The song is in the key of C major. The song form is standard AABA (verse-verse-bridge-verse), without a chorus as such, but including the refrain “No Reply”. The instrumentation includes acoustic guitar, bass, drums and piano.
Originally Lennon had intended to sing the higher harmony part of the chorus, as this was the original melody. However, his voice had deteriorated due to excessive use and Paul McCartney had to take this part, relegating Lennon to the lower harmony line.
Lyrics
This happened once before,
When I came to your door,
No reply.
They said it wasn’t you,
The song is about a young man who is unable to contact his possibly unfaithful girlfriend, even though he sees her through her windows.
According to Lennon in 1972, the Beatles’ music publisher Dick James was quite pleased with “No Reply”:
“I remember Dick James coming up to me after we did this one and saying, ‘You’re getting better now — that was a complete story.’ Apparently, before that, he thought my songs wandered off. ”
Reviewer David Rowley found its lyrics to “read like a picture story from a girl’s comic,” and to depict the picture “of walking down a street and seeing a girl silhouetted in a window, not answering the telephone.”
In his last major interview, Lennon said that the song was sort of his version of “Silhouettes”, a 1957 song written by Bob Crewe and first recorded by The Rays.
Music
The song is in the key of C major. The song form is standard AABA (verse-verse-bridge-verse), without a chorus as such, but including the refrain “No Reply”. The instrumentation includes acoustic guitar, bass, drums and piano.
Originally Lennon had intended to sing the higher harmony part of the chorus, as this was the original melody. However, his voice had deteriorated due to excessive use and Paul McCartney had to take this part, relegating Lennon to the lower harmony line.
Lyrics
This happened once before,
When I came to your door,
No reply.
They said it wasn’t you,
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Albums featuring this track
-
A Hard Day's Night
The Beatles
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Beatles for Sale
The Beatles Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
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- iTunes $12.99
- Buy Album
- Amazon $14.99
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Anthology 1 (disc 2)
The Beatles Buy- Download Album
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- iTunes $29.99
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- Amazon $23.17
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Beatles '65
The Beatles Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
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- iTunes
- Buy Album
- Amazon Search
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Shouts
-
WWOMENN wrote:
HOW I LOVE THEM♥
-
promisedeyes wrote:
My goodness, it's so wonderful that I feel goosebumps :-D
-
MrPsychedelia wrote:
I love the beggining of this song. <3
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Hulum wrote:
Very underrated and very beautiful song.
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pablo_cerve wrote:
one of my favourites
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chlorres wrote:
<3 <3 <3 beautiful song *
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williamc99 wrote:
Amazing song.
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corky64 wrote:
Great....<3
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DinDan306 wrote:
Greatest bridge ever written.
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chlorres wrote:
me too. had this experience one time x ;( beautiful song anyway...
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dundee12 wrote:
I NEARLY DIED
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LovePaulMc wrote:
"If I were you, I'd realize that I love you more than any other guy..." ♥
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david_588 wrote:
I nearly died!
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papua23 wrote:
i saw the lies
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ceratitekken wrote:
The Beatles Fantastic
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barryvs wrote:
The way they do "lies" and "realize" in that harmony bit is brilliant.
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TheT1nk wrote:
I know I was very pleased about "No Reply" :>
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Cheapskateninja wrote:
I love this song, I love this song so darn much. Anthology version is amazing as always.
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Monophobic289 wrote:
<3
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noideaasusualxD wrote:
Just wow
Track Stats
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201,635 Listeners
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Recent Activity
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XChampz, efeoge, Mechapyro and 23 other people loved The Beatles – No Reply. yesterday evening
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adriana399 added No Reply to adriana399’s library. Wednesday evening
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Jacus-Z, tools13 and chrisdknell loved The Beatles – No Reply. Wednesday afternoon
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chrisdknell added No Reply to chrisdknell’s library. Wednesday morning
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camiloalvarez21, glhermepaiva, sovietacademy and 18 other people loved The Beatles – No Reply. Wednesday morning
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cousinbull added No Reply to the playlist ol' time rock 'n' roll. 11 days ago
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AcidBarret, NaamaGur, aniichan6 and 4 other people loved The Beatles – No Reply. 11 days ago
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djmchenry67 added No Reply to the playlist Easy Listening. last month
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gabrielecialla and martin_rigs loved The Beatles – No Reply. last month
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Fab4Fan4Life updated the wiki page for No Reply. (diff) last month
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