Ooh, Paul McCartney’s getting sassy here! It’s hard to imagine a song like this coming out in 2018 and not receiving some mild backlash, but the Beatles could get away with anything, including this not-entirely-fictional threat that Paul’s significant other had better play her cards right, because if she doesn’t, he has another girl lined up and ready to go. “I ain’t no fool and I don’t take what I don’t want,” he taunts, and unlike John Lennon covertly writing about an affair in “Norwegian Wood,” it’s hard to believe Paul’s then-girlfriend Jane Asher didn’t get the message loud and clear.

But unlike, say, “Run for Your Life,” the skeevy lyrics aren’t enough to offset the song’s sheer catchiness (and I really like George Harrison’s guitar fills here too). The verses are sung a little bit lower, a tad more suave than customary for Paul during this period, which underscores brazen lines such as, “She’s sweeter than all the girls, and I’ve met quite a few.” Han Solo called; he wants his dialogue writer back, because there’s enough cockiness in that lyric to last for 12 parsecs.

“I love you.”

“Even when I’m frozen in carbonite, I’mma have a side piece.”

 

In a fun bit of sequencing, on the Help! album this track precedes “You’re Going to Lose That Girl,” which is directed at a guy not unlike the narrator of “Another Girl,” who takes his woman for granted. It’s probably unintentional, but following up “You’re making me say that I’ve got nobody but you, but as from today, well, I’ve got somebody that’s new” with the warning, “If you don’t treat her right, my friend, you’re gonna find her gone” is a pretty spectacular juxtaposition/undercutting courtesy of John Lennon.