Released 22 November 1968 Genre Music hall Label Apple Records | Recorded 4 October 1968 Length 2:28 Writer(s) Lennon–McCartney | |
"Martha My Dear" is a song by the Beatles written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney), which first appeared on the double album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). McCartney is the only Beatle to perform on the track.
Contents
Style and form
The song features a music hall-inspired piano line that recurs throughout the piece, as well as a brass section. The song modulates smoothly through several keys.
The song key is E♭ major, showing up embellished chords with jazzy sprinkled dissonances. The verse is a syncopated replicate of the first melodic section adding two extra beats, a technique similar to that used later by McCartney in “Two of Us”. Though the bridge is in the key of F major, the manner in which it abruptly sets in and exits makes it sound more out-of-the-way than it really is.
Origins
The title "Martha My Dear" was inspired by McCartney's Old English Sheepdog, named Martha. McCartney has said that the song itself is probably about his longtime love interest Jane Asher. Asher broke off their engagement in mid-1968. McCartney chides her with the lyrics in the song "...when you find yourself in the thick of it, help yourself to a bit of what is all around you..." Asher inspired many of McCartney's songs, including "Here, There and Everywhere", "I'm Looking Through You", "For No One" and "We Can Work It Out". (A later "Martha" lyric explains, "You have always been my inspiration..." McCartney has also said that the song is about his "muse"—the voice in his head that tells him what words and music to write.)
Cover versions
British rock band Ambrose Slade, later known as Slade, released a cover version on their debut album Beginnings in 1969.
Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau has released versions of the song on his albums Day Is Done (2005) and Live in Marciac (2011).
When Mojo released The White Album Recovered in 2008, part of a continuing series of CDs of Beatles albums covered track-by-track by modern artists, the track was covered by Vashti Bunyan and Max Richter.