Beginning with the band's UK tour in December 1965, "If I Needed Someone" replaced "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", written by Carl Perkins, as Harrison's lead vocal spot in the Beatles' live shows. "If I Needed Someone" thereby became the only Harrison composition that the Beatles played in concert during their touring years of 1963–66. In addition, with the group finding it increasingly difficult to replicate their studio recordings in concert, it was one of only two "Rubber Soul" tracks that they performed live, the other being "Nowhere Man". In their 1966 concerts, McCartney introduced Indian-style melisma into his singing on "If I Needed Someone", similar to the vocal ornamentation he had used on the recording of Harrison's "Revolver" track "I Want to Tell You". In a segment subtitled "Beatlemania goes sour", the 1982 documentary "The Compleat Beatles" used a clip from the Beatles' ragged performance of the song, at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo, as an illustration of the growing division between the band as recording artists and live performers.