[3] Hiring a private yacht with a crew, the Happy Days,[4] the couples spent their time fishing, swimming and listening to Calypso music.

[3] McCartney bought a cheap acoustic guitar to "keep in practice",[5] playing it below deck in his cabin one afternoon to distract from his seasickness.

[10] It consistently uses a B♭ chord, which musicologist Alan W. Pollack writes "adds even more spice to both the melody and harmony", and is suggestive of the "exotic Phrygian mode".

[8] Everett writes that the "strumming of the minor chord on acoustic guitar" and "vocal arpeggiation" are reminiscent of Bob Dylan's 1963 song "Masters of War", though "the lyrics are worlds apart".

For take three, the band overdubbed several parts onto take two, with McCartney double-tracking his vocal, Starr adding a tambourine and John Lennon playing the piano.

[21] Both mixes omit Lennon's piano overdub, but, due to audio leakage from the other instrument's microphones, it is still heard slightly on the released version.

[31] Author Jonathan Gould calls "Things We Said Today" a "darkly beautiful love song", writing that McCartney "holding out the ends of his lines" suggests his hope to "prolong the happiness of the present moment".

[32] Author Chris Ingham calls the song "skillful" and "haunting", displaying the same "minor-major ambivalence" heard on Lennon's "I'll Be Back".

[27] Howard Kramer of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also compares it to "I'll Be Back", saying they both "ring slightly of melancholy" and anticipate the style of songs heard eighteen months later on Rubber Soul.

[35] Journalist Robert Sandall suggests that the song's "mood of brooding reverie" is more closely aligned with fan's perceptions of Lennon's feelings than McCartney's.

[38] MacDonald similarly writes that the sombre lyric of "Things We Said Today" was inspired by the interruptions in McCartney and Asher's relationship.

[39] In keeping with this practice, the Beatles played "Things We Said Today" twice for radio,[40] recording for the BBC Light Programmes Top Gear and From Us to You on 14 and 17 July 1964, respectively.

[49] EMI released the resulting album, The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, on 6 May 1977, with "Things We Said Today" sequenced as the sixth track, between "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Roll Over Beethoven".

[51] Calling the song "often-overlooked", Beatles writer Robert Rodriguez writes that the live version of "Things We Said Today" features a "rave-up bridge".

[52] Unterberg suggests that, while the song is often overlooked in modern-day listening, its inclusion in the Beatles' 1964 set list points to its major contemporaneous impact.