The last song recorded before breaking off to make the film, it was composed at Lennon's house in Weybridge. In the lyrics the singer tells his "friend" that, if he does not value his girl, the singer will "make a point of taking her away" from him. To the Beatles' familiar twist beat and using variations of familiar doo-wop chords, Lennon's lead singing is set in a call-and-response with the enthusiastic answering harmonies of McCartney and George Harrison, offering a last glimpse of the early Beatles' musical home turf. The song's bridge has a key change similar to that of the record's previous track "Another Girl", moving up a minor third to G major, the relative major of the tonic minor. In this case the bridge concludes a measure early, diving a semitone down to meet the verse. To fatten the sound, McCartney overdubbed a background piano and Ringo Starr added bongos, the addition of Latin-American percussion being another way the Beatles often exploited their new-found access to four-track recording.
In the film ''Help!''
In the film, the group appears singing this song in the recording studio. In addition to the group's familiar guitar-and-drum setup, there is also footage of Paul McCartney at a piano and Ringo Starr playing the bongos, both miming instruments they had overdubbed onto the recording. Towards the end, one of the thugs uses a chainsaw to saw a hole in the floor around the drum kit. The producer reports that they will have to re-record the song due to a buzzing noise, at which point The Beatles begin asking one another who was buzzing. As they look to Ringo, he and the drums fall through the floor.
The song was released in 1965 on the Help! album. In November 1977, Capitol Records scheduled the release of "Girl" backed with "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" as a single to accompany the release of Love Songs, a compilation album which contained both songs. However, the single was canceled before it was issued. The Ramones performed a song titled "You're Gonna Kill That Girl" which may have been intended as a parody of the Beatles song. The Rutles' song "Now She's Left You" is a pastiche of this song. Stars on 45 covered this song as part of an eight-song Beatles medley in their hit "Stars on 45", which went to #1 in June 1981.
