Can't Buy Me Love (single) 1964

1. Can't Buy Me Love
- Released a full 4 months after the last Beatles release, this single would later turn up on the A Hard Day's Night album.
- Written and sung by McCartney. He wrote it while the band was on tour in Paris.
- Actually recorded in Paris, one of the few Beatles songs to not be recorded in the UK.
- George Harrison later re-recorded his guitar solo when the band returned to the UK. Remnants of the original recording of the solo can still be heard on the actual song, underneath.
- Helen Shapiro watched the band record song and observed Ringo overdubbing his cymbals. Apparently he did this a lot.
- The band was under a lot of pressure to deliver another hit after finally cracking the U.S. market with I Want to Hold Your Hand. Perhaps they were preoccupied with this when they came up with the slightly anti-capitalist slant in the lyrics.
- Capitol Records planned to release Roll Over Beethoven as the next big U.S. single until they were given this song instead.
- George Martin suggested altering the structure so that the song started and ended on a hook, and re-arranged the song accordingly. McCartney was happy with the result and so the changed version was the version recorded.
- One of the few Beatles songs to use a 12-bar blues structure (here it is used for the verses).
- One of the first Beatles song to feature only one member of the band doing the vocals. Lennon and Harrison recorded backing vocals but these were eventually dropped in favour of double-tracking McCartney's singing.
- It was included in the film A Hard Day's Night only because the director rejected the song I'll Cry Instead.
- Runs for just over two minutes and took four takes to record.

2. You Can't Do That
- B-side to Can't Buy Me Love. This song was also later featured on the A Hard Day's Night album, though it was dropped from the film version because the lyrics were too bitter.
- Written by Lennon. His lyrics take on a more personal tone from this point onwards, in this case alluding to his jealous side.
- Was slated to be the 6th official Beatles single until McCartney wrote Can't Buy Me Love.
- Lennon sings the main vocals, with McCartney and Harrison providing back up.
- Lennon plays the guitar solo, the first time he does this in a Beatles song.
- Ringo overdubbed some bongos and cowbell. It's the first time he plays cowbells on a recording.
- Just prior to the recording of this song George Harrison was presented with a 12-string Rickenbacker electric guitar (only the second one made). This is the first Beatles recording to noticeably feature it... a lot of the other songs on A Hard Day's Night would feature Harrison using it as well. More on that later.
- George Martin recorded a piano track to be used in the song for when it reappeared on the A Hard Day's Night album, but for some reason this never went ahead.
- Runs for two and a half minutes and took nine takes to complete.

U.S. single cover

1992 CD reissue

I Want to Hold Your Hand (single) 1963

1. I Want to Hold Your Hand
- The last Beatles release of 1963, this stand-alone single was released four days after With the Beatles.
- Written by Lennon and McCartney after their manager, Brian Epstein, told them to aim a single at the American market. The song is an even collaboration between the two, and was written on the piano.
- The song's structure is remniscent of the pre-vinyl era (1885 to 1930) populist music of New York city, a style sometimes known as Tin Pan Alley.
- Lennon and McCartney sing in harmony for the majority of the song - the vocal melody is not clearly defined enough to the extent that it can be sung successfully by just one singer.
- The first Beatles single to get the #1 spot on the American Billboard Top 100 chart. Capitol Records weren't confident the single would sell though and Brian Epstein convinced them to spend a then-whopping $40 000 on pre-promotion. The single sold out so quickly that Capitol Records were forced to enlist the help of rival labels to press more copies.
- The first Beatles song to have an advance order from fans that exceeded 1 million copies.
- The first Beatles song to be recorded on a four-track rather than a two-track.
- Recorded with German lyrics for the German market as Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand.
- Shot to #1 in the UK when it was released, knocking the previous Beatles single She Loves You down to #2. This is the first instance of an artist knocking themselves out of the #1 spot in British music history.
- Bob Dylan was very impressed when he first heard this song. He thought the line "I can't hide" was actually "I get high", and was surprised upon meeting the Beatles that none of them had smoked pot (yet).
- All four band members provide handclaps for the recording.
- Runs for just under two and a half minutes, and only took 4 takes to record.
- The 20th anniversary re-release of this single by Capitol Records airbrushed out a cigarette held by McCartney in the sleeve photo.
- The U.S. version of the single features I Saw Her Standing There as the B-side.

2. This Boy
- The B-side to the UK release of I Want to Hold Your Hand.
- Written completely by Lennon. He wrote this as another Motown/Smokey Robinson-styled tune. More specifically, it's a 'do-whop' song.
- The middle-eight section/bridge was originally meant to be a guitar solo, but this was dropped during recording.
- Lennon sings the main vocals, with harmonising from McCartney and Harrison.
- The lyrics are rumoured to be about Lennon's mother, Julia, who was often beaten by her partner John Dykins.
- An instrumental version of this song was arranged for use in the film A Hard Day's Night, and was re-titled Ringo's Theme (This Boy). This version was released as a single on it's own in 1964, but it failed to make any impact.
- I love this song, Lennon's vocals rule in it.

U.S. single cover

Japan single cover.

With the Beatles (album) 1963

- Features 14 new tracks, 8 of which are original and 6 of which are covers (mostly contemporary R&B and mo-town staples).
- Released in November, 1963.
- Unlike the previous album, this one doesn't include the new singles (From Me to You, She Loves You) released prior to it.
- Released in the U.S. (with a few track differences and two less songs) as Meet the Beatles.
- Features the first recording of a song written by George Harrison.
- Ringo starts to mix it up a bit percussion-wise on this album. In one instance he uses something called an 'Arabian loose-skin bongo'.
- The band was also given more time to put this album together than the hastily slapped-together Please Please Me album, and so they went to town with double-tracking everything.
- The album cover harkens to early promotional photos taken of the band back in Hamburg by their friend Astrid Kirchherr.

1. It Won't Be Long
- Such a great album starter. A spiritual successor to the previous album's opening track - equally vibrant and raucous, and even more modern.
- Written mainly by Lennon with some input from McCartney in regards to lyrics and arrangement.
- Pretty standard for this period of the band's songwriting: features call-and-answer vocals, a vocal solo at the end, an unusual chord for the song to end on, and an unusual bridge that bucks the trends of the genre. The unexpected chords and notes that the band often used for the bridges in their earlier songs mark certain exact points where the Beatles really pushed the boundaries of the era.
- The lyrics apparently feature the word 'Yeah' 56 times!
- Lennon intended for this to be another big Beatles single, but I Want to Hold Your Hand was chosen instead.
- This is the first time Lennon would double-track his lead vocals, something that would become commonplace for the rest of his career.
- The original mono version of this song had a few vocal glitches in the final chorus.
- Runs for just over two minutes, and took 17 takes.

2. All I've Got to Do
- Another Lennon track, this time influenced by Smokey Robinson, The Miracles, Arthur Alexander and other similar mo-town artists.
- This is one of three songs that Lennon pretty much wrote all by himself for this album (the other two are the aforementioned It Won't Be Long and Not a Second Time). Lennon later said that he was specifically aiming this song at an American audience, hence the phone references (as at the time phones apparently weren't really a part of British culture yet).
- Ends with Lennon humming over the verse as it fades out.
- This song was never played live, the only time the entire band played it together was during their recording of it for this album. As a result there were a lot of incomplete takes.
- Goes for the exact same amount of time as the previous song on the album, and took the same amount of takes.

3. All My Loving
- Written by McCartney. Unlike a lot of other Beatles song from this time, the lyrics were written before the music.
- McCartney wrote this while the band was on tour with Roy Orbison. He envisioned it as a country & western styled song and primarily wrote the music on the piano. The lyrics were inspired by his girlfriend of the time, Jane Asher,
- The country & western angle was dropped before recording when McCartney realised it had the potential to be a single.
- Harrison's lead guitar work was modelled after country guitarist Chet Aitkens. Unusually (for a pop song), the guitar solo takes place over a specially written bridge that doesn't feature anywhere else in the song. Usually in pop songs a guitar solo will be played over a verse or a bridge that has previously featured in the song as a vocal part.
- The incredibly fast rhythm guitar parts were supplied by Lennon, who liked this song very much.
- This song recieved a lot of praise from the press and music critics due to it's letter-styled lyrics and general composition. As a result it had a lot of airplay despite not being a single in the U.K.
- The only places where it was a single were Scandanavia, where it reach #1 in Finland, and Canada.
- The song's popularity eventually led to it being re-released as the leading track on a 1964 E.P. of other previously released material.
- McCartney did all the vocals on the recorded version, but George Harrison provided the harmony vocals whenever it was performed live.
- Folklore says that this was playing on the hospital P.A. when John Lennon was officially pronounced dead in 1980.
- Runs for just over two minutes and took 14 takes to record.

4. Don't Bother Me
- Considered to be the first song written by George Harrison. Ever!
- Harrison had previously co-written two unreleased Beatles tracks, Cry for a Shadow (an instrumental co-written with Lennon) and In Spite of All the Danger (a McCartney song for which Harrison was given credit for writing the guitar solo). Both remained unreleased until they featured on the Anthology series in 1995.
- Harrison sings the lead vocals, none of the others provided any back up vocals.
- Harrison didn't think very highly of this song but thought it was a handy exercise in songwriting. He proved to himself that he could write a whole song and it encouraged him to keep trying.
- Characteristically for Harrison (but not for the band at the time), the lyrics are downbeat and the song remains mostly in a minor key. This may also be because he wrote the song while he was sick with the flu.
- Ringo provides some latin-styled percussion.
- This song also features in the film A Hard Day's Night.
- There are demo recordings still in existence of Harrison's early attempts at this song, though none have been officially released.
- Runs for two and a half minutes and took 15 takes.

5. Little Child
- Written mainly by McCartney, who was inspired by a song from the Disney movie The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men.
- Is very much 'filler' material, something that McCartney even admitted himself.
- It was originally written for Ringo to sing, but he was eventually given something else.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, and also provides some of his patented harmonica action.
- McCartney plays the piano on this recording... this is the first song to feature him doing so. Due to the prominence of piano and harmonica, the guitar can hardly be heard throughout.
- Runs for just over a minute and a half, and took 18 takes to complete.

6. Till There Was You
- This is a cover of a Meredith Wilson song from the musical play The Music Man. It is the first of six covers to feature on the With The Beatles album.
- Is the only Broadway tune to be covered by the Beatles.
- McCartney first became a fan of this song after hearing Peggy Lee's cover of it in 1961. The song became a part of the band's live set long before they even realised it was from a Broadway musical (lol, sucked in!)
- Ringo plays bongos on the recording.
- The 'original' Peggy Lee version featured a flute, though Harrison replicates the melody here on his guitar. The Beatles version is also faster and a bit more simplified.
- Runs for just over two minutes, and took 8 takes to record.

7. Please Mr. Postman
- The last song of Side 1 of With the Beatles, and another cover.
- Originally performed by the Marvelettes, whose version was the first single from the mo-town label to reach #1.
- The Beatles version isn't really all that famous... the Carpenters released a single of it in 1974 that is probably more famous.
- Lead vocals are sung by Lennon on the recording. I really dig it. Along with Twist and Shout and You Really Got a Hold on Me, these are the only covers recorded by the Beatles that I particularly like.
- The band used to perform this live during their Hamburg days in 1962. When it was time to record this song though they hadn't performed it at all since then (for over a year and a half) and they had a bit of difficulty nailing it quickly as a result.
- Runs for two and a half minutes, and took 9 takes.

8. Roll Over Beethoven
- The first track on side 2 of With the Beatles.
- A live favourite of the band from the days before they were even called 'The Beatles'. The continued playing it live right up until 1964.
- Harrison sings the lead vocals on the recording. He gets several of the lyrics wrong due to mishearing Berry's original lyrics, and also possibly because of how fast the band plays it.
- About a million bands have released covers of this song, including ELO.
- Originally written and recorded by Chuck Berry in 1956.
- This version was released as a single in the U.S. with Please Mr. Postman as the B-side.
- Runs for two minutes and 40 seconds, and took 8 takes to finish.

9. Hold Me Tight
- Written by McCartney, and dates back as far as 1961. It was inspired by the Shirelles, and he re-worked it (with some help from Lennon) as a possible single but it didn't come quite together and was eventually considered barely acceptable as album 'filler' (!)
- Both Lennon and McCartney had a pretty low opinion of this song. As a result the band stopped playing this song before the end of 1963.
- Originally recorded for the previous album, Please Please Me, but didn't make the final cut. This original recording no longer exists.
- McCartney's vocals seem a little bit offkey in some parts, which makes this a rarity among Beatles tracks. The song also starts out strangely, as if it is already mid-song.
- The final recording was sped up a little bit in the hope of giving it some pizazz.
- Unlike over Beatles originals, very few artists have covered this track.
- Runs for two and a half minutes, and took 29 takes.

10. You Really Got a Hold on Me
- Another cover, this one was written by Smokey Robinson for The Miracles, who released a single of it in 1962.
- The Beatles started playing this one live in 1963.
- Lennon and Harrison sing the lead together. It took a lot of overdubs to complete.
- George Martin plays some piano on the recording.
- The band came up with the instrumental outro in the studio, and it was edited onto a seperate take for the ending.
- The "Oh-oh-oh" part of the vocals is a Beatles substitute for the word "though", adding some extra angst to their version.
- Runs for nearly 3 minutes, and took 11 takes to record.

11. I Wanna Be Your Man
- The Rolling Stones asked the Beatles for a song, so Lennon and McCartney promptly and literally knocked this off for them whilst they watched. McCartney had already been working on it previously, but the Stones were still very impressed with how fast the duo could write a catchy song.
- A fairly straightforward and bluesy rock n roll track, the Stones released it as a single and had an early hit with it. The Stones version is in a lower key to the Beatles one, and has a slightly different structure.
- The Beatles later decided to record their own version in order to fill out the With the Beatles album.
- Ringo sings the lead vocals, and also provides a percussive maracas track. When the band played it live Ringo would often forget the second verse and simply repeat the first one in it's place.
- George Martin plays the hammond organ on the recording.
- The Beatles played it live right up until 1966. The Stones ditched it from their set by the end of 1963 though, they had been inspired by the Beatles to start writing their own originals (the first original Rolling Stones track was an instrumental called Stoned, which featured as the B-side to their single for I Wanna Be Your Man).
- Features in the film A Hard Day's Night.
- The Beatles version runs for under two minutes and took 16 takes to record.

12. Devil in Her Heart
- A cover, originally performed and recorded by the Donays (a girl group), whose version was called Devil in His Heart. This is probably one of the most obscure songs the Beatles ever covered.
- The band often played this live in 1962, with Harrison providing lead vocals both on stage and for the recording.
- The Beatles version changes a couple of lines and is a little bit faster.
- The band spent very little time recording this, with Lennon and McCartney always keen to rush through any material sung by Harrison (unless they had written the song for him).
- Harrison's vocals are double-tracked.
- Runs for almost two and a half minutes, and took 6 takes to record.

13. Not a Second Time
- Written by Lennon, another attempt at doing something Smokey Robinson-ish.
- Has some odd chord changes, such as the end of the chorus and the notes Lennon sings at the end of the song.
- George Martin plays piano on the recording.
- Harrison doesn't feature on this recording at all.
- Music critic William Mann wrote a famous essay on this song for the British newspaper, The Times, appreciating the band's supposed adherence to classical music theory. Mann was most likely unaware that no one in the band could actually read music.
- Runs for two minutes, and took 9 takes to complete.

14. Money (That's What I Want)
- The last track of With the Beatles, and another cover.
- Originally released as a single by Barrett Strong in 1959.
- Compared to the original, the Beatles version is in a lower key and a bit slower (the opposite to how they would usually perform covers).
- The band regularly played this live during their Hamburg sets in 1962.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, and (rarely for a Beatles-recorded track), continued to perform it live post-Beatles. On the recording Lennon added a new line, "I wanna be free!"
- Evidently the band was trying to re-capture the magic of their previous album-closer, Twist and Shout. They come pretty close... Lennon's vocals are a lot more heartfelt here than on earlier live recordings of the band performing the song.
- George Martin plays piano on the recording.
- The mono and stereo mixes of this song have slightly different lead vocals.
- Runs for two minutes and 45 seconds, and took 7 takes.

She Loves You (single) 1963

1. She Loves You
- The 4th official Beatles single, released between the albums Please Please Me (1963) and With the Beatles (1964). It's B-side is I'll Get You.
- This is pretty much the Beatles' biggest selling single. It was their biggest selling single in the UK ever, and was one of five singles released in the U.S. that got into the Top 5 at the same time.
- A German version was released as Sie Liebt Dich in both Germany and the U.S. The German branch of the record label apparently believed that the band would never be popular in Germany unless they sang in German... the band was against the idea but complied for this song and one other, I Want to Hold Your Hand.
- As you might guess, the band was beginning to get bored of retreading the same lyrical ground - so they decided to move their 'I Love You' motif into the third person to mix it up a bit. This was McCartney's idea.
- McCartney's original plan was for the song to be a duet between himself and Lennon, with McCartney trying to convince Lennon that a girl loved him. He was inspired by the song Forget Him by Bobby Rydell, though the idea was quickly abandoned in favour of something more straightforwardly catchy.
- Lennon and McCartney co-wrote this song fairly evenly whilst the band was on tour Gerry and the Pacemakers and Roy Orbison. They recorded it only two days after it was written.
- Interestingly (at the time), the song launchs right into the chorus at the beginning.
- George Martin didn't want the song to end on the jazzy 6th chord that features in the recording but the band overruled him. It was Martin's idea to the vocal harmony that the song also finishes on - he felt it was a bit of a classical cliche but also a unique touch for a pop song of the era.
- The band famously performed this song on The Ed Sullivan Show, and it is considered by many to be the high point of 'Beatlemania'.
- The music press gave the band a bit of flack for this song, feeling that it was more of the same as their previous singles. Several people (including Paul McCartney's own dad) also complained about the inclusion of the colloquial words 'yeah yeah yeah' instead of 'yes yes yes', feeling that it was encouraging improper use of English.
- Runs for just under 2 and a half minutes.
- Reissued as a CD single in the UK in 1992.

2. I'll Get You
- The B-side to She Loves You.
- Predominantly written by Lennon, and intended as the next single after From Me To You. She Loves You ended up being the stronger song though and supplanted it.
- McCartney lifted one of the chord transitions from a Joan Baez song called All My Trials
- Unusually (for a Beatles song) McCartney and Lennon sing together for the majority of it, rather than taking turns or harmonising.
- The guitar is relegated mainly to rhythm duties so Lennon's trademark harmonica can take centrestage, and there is virtually no lead guitar work to speak of as a result.
- Runs for just over 2 minutes. for the bridge section.

US Single cover

1992 CD single reissue

From Me to You (single) 1963

1. From Me to You
- This is the third official Beatles single. It's B-Side is Thank You Girl.
- It was released between the albums Please Please Me and With The Beatles (both released in 1963), but features on neither of them. From this point on most of the band's singles would not feature on their albums.
- It was written as a fan-pleaser, the title is a reply to all the fan letters the band was already getting, and was inspired by the letters section of NME magainze, titled 'From Us to You'.
- Written by McCartney and Lennon while the band was on tour with Helen Shapiro. It was pretty much co-written 50/50.
- Kenny Lynch (he who tried to score a hit with a cover version of Misery), who was also on tour with the band at the time and fancied himself as a bit of a songwriter, sat down with the band to help them write it... after about half an hour he got frustrated with the way they would ignore the then-established rules of writing pop songs and told everyone on the bus that they were idiots, knew nothing about songwriting and that the song was "bloody rubbish!" He also called them 'fairies' for singing the "woo" bits.
- The song ends on a minor chord despite being in a major key, indicating the kind of rule-breaking that annoyed Kenny Lynch so much.
- This is the first Beatles song to use the aforementioned "woo" device, which would become one of the band's many trademarks. McCartney's use of this was inspired by Little Richard.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, and plays the harmonica again.
- It was George Martin's idea to do the "da-da-da-da-da-dum-dum-dah" bit at the beginning, as well as using the harmonica for the intro.
- Both McCartney and Lennon felt that the song could be re-arranged as a blues/ragtime-styled tune and spoke about this in seperate interviews later in their careers.
- Reached #1 in the UK charts but failed to make an impression in America, where it was released as their first US single. It probably didn't help that American rock n roll artist Del Shannon (best known for the song Runaway) released a cover version of this song at the same time. Copies of the American first-pressing of this single are very sought after by Beatles-record collectors.
- It was later re-released in America in 1964 as the B-side to the US single for Please Please Me.
- It runs at just under 2 minutes and took 13 takes to record.
- The band also wrote an alternative version of this song with the title From Us to You, for use in a radio program of the same name (it ran from 1963-1965).

2. Thank You Girl
- The B-side to From Me to You. It doesn't feature on any of the Beatles UK studio albums, though it is on The Beatles' Second Album (the band's imaginatively titled album for the US market).
- Lennon had started writing this song and then McCartney filled in some gaps. This was originally intended as an A-side but both Lennon and McCartney came to regard it as a bit of a 'hack' job quite early on, especially after they wrote From Me to You. Lennon wrote the verses and McCartney did the chorus.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, and also does some more of his trademark harmonica. His vocals are double-tracked here for the first time.
- At the time of it's recording, in 1963, two other songs were recorded as well - What Goes On and The One After 909. These songs would not turn up on any releases until much later on - specifically the albums Rubber Soul (1966) and Let It Be (1970).
- The version released on The Beatles' Second Album actually had a slightly different harmonica part.
- It was also released in America as the B-side to the US single for Do You Want to Know a Secret.
- Runs for 2 minutes, and took 28 takes to finish.

1992 CD single cover

Please Please Me (album) 1963

- Features 14 tracks, 4 of which were original tracks that appeared on the two previously released singles. 6 of the tracks were covers, and the other 4 were more Lennon/McCartney compositions.
- Like the first two singles, and most of the Beatles' other output, this was produced by George Martin.
- Another track, Hold Me Tight, was written and recorded for the album but Martin decided that 14 tracks were enough and so this song was held over and re-recorded for the next album.
- Two tracks on the album are sung by George Harrison, and one is sung by Ringo.
- 10 of the songs (the ones that hadn't been recorded for the first two singles) were recorded in one day.
- The album was recorded while the Please Please Me single had yet to be released, meaning it was made before the band was yet to get a #1.
- When it came to selecting covers to record for the album, Martin vetoed the recording of songs by rock n roll artists like Chuck Berry and Little Richard as he felt that rock n roll was a dying fad.

1. I Saw Her Standing There
- The opening track on the album, and it rules. One of my all time favourite Beatles songs.
- McCartney started writing it and showed what he had to Lennon and they finished it off together in 1961 whilst wagging school. Lennon mainly helped with the bridge.
- It's original title was Seventeen, and is rumoured to be about Iris Caldwell, sister to Rory Storm of local Liverpool band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes (who sometimes featured Ringo on the drums).
- McCartney admits to stealing the bassline from from a Chuck Berry song, specifically I'm Talking About You.
- Bootleg recordings and alternate takes of this song reveal that McCartney sometimes changed the bassline in the chorus part of the song.
- The count-in at the beginning of the song would've normally been edited out of the final recording but Martin felt it was rather enthusiastic and left it in as an album starter.
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, with Lennon providing backup.
- Runs for 2 and a half minutes, and was completed in 12 takes.
- It was included as the B-side to the American release of the single I Want to Hold Your Hand.
- McCartney still includes this song in his live sets today. One of the most recent performances of it featured Dave Grohl on the drums. Lennon also once performed it live post-Beatles, in 1974, with Elton John.

2. Misery
- Lennon and McCartney wrote this together whilst on tour with Helen Shapiro and Kenny Lynch in 1962.
- McCartney wasn't particularly proud of it, and Lennon took more credit for the songwriting overall.
- It was originally written with the intention of giving it to Helen Shapiro to record. Her management/record label turned it down but Kenny Lynch jumped right on it, obviously not afraid of a bit of sloppy seconds. He failed to chart with it, but is often credited as the first person to cover a Beatles song. Lynch can be seen amongst the celebrities featured on the cover of the Wings album Band on the Run.
- Lennon and McCartney co-sing the lead vocals, and George Martin plays the piano.
- Martin's piano bit took it's cues from a part played by Harrison on guitar.
- Runs for 1 minute and 47 seconds, and took 16 takes to complete.

3. Anna (Go to Him)
- This is a cover of a ballad-ish Arthur Alexander song.
- Alexander's version was released in 1962. It was a minor hit but the Beatles version eventually became more famous.
- Lennon was a fan of the song and it was a part of the band's live set throughout 1962, hence it's appearance on the album, though the band would never perform it live again after it was recorded.
- The 'riff' (or phrase, or whatever you'd like to call it) was played on the piano for the original version but Harrison adapted it for the guitar for the Beatles' cover.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, whilst McCartney and Harrison provided backing vocals. The band also performs the song in a different key to the original.
- Lennon had a cold on the day of the album's recording, most noticeable on this song and Twist and Shout, which accounts for the raspy tones he sometimes hits.
- Runs for 2 minutes and 56 seconds, and only took 3 takes to record.

4. Chains
- This is a cover of a song originally released by the Cookies, and written by Carole King and her husband.
- A lot of Liverpool-based bands covered this track in their live sets during 1962, including the Beatles.
- Harrison sings the lead vocals in this recording. Lennon and McCartney provide backing vocals, and Lennon also plays the harmonica. Like Anna (Go to Him), the band performs this song in a different key due to the original being performed by a female singer.
- Lennon's harmonica replaces a part played on the saxophone on the original recording.
- The recording runs for 2 minutes and 21 seconds, and only took 4 takes to complete (though Martin ended up using the very first take).

5. Boys
- Another cover, originally peformed by another girl group - the Shirelles. The Shirelles released this song as a B-side.
- This was a live favourite for the band during their Hamburg and Cavern days in 1962, original drummer Pete Best would sing the vocals. I presume this was an inside joke on Lennon and McCartney's part, who were reputedly jealous of Pete Best's reputation as a pretty boy.
- The lead vocals were passed on to Ringo, from one drummer to another. Ringo also used to sometimes sing the song as a duet in his old band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
- Ringo didn't seem to mind that he was singing about boys.
- Runs for 2 minutes and 24 seconds, and was recorded in just one take.

6. Ask Me Why
- Released on the Please Please Me single prior to the album's release. See full song info here.

7. Please Please Me
- Same as above. Full song info here.

8. Love Me Do
- Released as the band's first single. See full song info here.

9. P.S. I Love You
- Originally released as the B-side to Love Me Do. Full song info here.

10. Baby It's You
- Another Shirelles cover, a girl band that Lennon was a big fan of. This one was written by Burt Bacharach.
- The Beatles often performed this live between 1961 and 1963.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, and also provides some of his trademark harmonica.
- Martin plays the celesta on this recording. A celesta is a kind of piano/organ that uses vibrating metal plates instead of strings. Martin also recorded a piano track as well but decided not to use it.
- Harrison replicates the original version's organ part on his guitar.
- Runs for just over 2 and a half minutes, and only took 1 take.
- A live recording of the Beatles playing this song later surfaced and was included on the band's Live at the BBC album, released in 1994. This version was also released as a single/live EP in 1995, and reached #7 in the UK charts.

11. Do You Want to Know a Secret?
- This is probably one of the most hugely popular Beatles songs to have never been released on any Beatles Greatest Hits albums.
- Harrison sings the lead vocals on this song.
- Lennon and McCartney wrote about half of this song each, with Lennon taking inspiration from the song I'm Wishing, from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The song may have been specifically written for Harrison to sing, with Lennon and McCartney mindful of keeping the vocal notes fairly simple and close together (as Harrison's vocals weren't as strong as theirs).
- Lennon wrote the lyrics and it's often been said that he wrote them about his wife Cynthia, whom he was forced to marry after knocking her up. The band's manager, Brian Epstein, encouraged Lennon to keep the marriage secret for the sake of the band's fans. Lennon subsequently maintained that the song's meaning was a lot more generic than that and wasn't specific to any real life events.
- Lennon jokingly changed the lyrics to "Do you want to hold a penis?" during the recording sessions for the Rubber Soul album. It can be heard on some of the outtakes.
- Released as a single in the U.S. in 1964, where it got #2.
- Billy J. Kramer covered this song no less than 3 months after the Please Please Me album was released and put it out as a single in the U.K., getting to #1. Imagine if someone did that today! You wouldn't get away with it.
- Runs for 1 minute and 55 seconds, and took 8 takes to complete.

12. A Taste of Honey
- Written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow in 1960 as an instrumental track, and considered to be something of a pop standard. Lenny Welch released the first version of it with vocals in 1961.
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, and was quite fond of the song.
- Ends on a major key, despite the rest of the song being entirely in a minor one. This was a trick of McCartney's, and he would use it to more famous effect in later songs.
- The band often performed this song live prior to it's recording. Lennon didn't really like the song much, and often changed the lyrics to "A waste of money".
- Runs for 2 minutes, and took 7 takes.

13. There's a Place
- Written entirely by Lennon, who was inspired by various Motown artists.
- In terms of harmonising vocals and the scale used by the harmonica in the intro, this song is considered to have pushed the boundaries of the band at the time (and pop music in general).
- Lennon's self-referential lyrics were highly unusual for pop music at the time of this song's release. Singers never sang about their own state of mind, and Lennon was unaware of being the first to do this.
- The harmonica intro follows a guitar part originally played by Harrison.
- Runs for 1 minute and 49 seconds, and took 13 takes to finish.

14. Twist and Shout
- A cover, and the last song on the album. Previously performed by the Topnotes and the Isley Brothers, but the Beatles' version is now the most familiar to modern listeners. It's also arguably the most famous Beatles' song that happens to be a cover. The Isley Brothers version was released in 1962 and reached #17 in the U.K. charts, generated enough money for them to start their own label at the time.
- Martin intentionally had the band record this song last as he knew Lennon's voice wouldn't last beyond it (especially as he had a cold at the time, and all the songs had been recorded in just one day).
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, though McCartney can be heard quite distinctly throughout. The vocal build up goes, in order, of Lennon, Harrison and McCartney - something owed to the version recorded by the Isley Brothers. The "woo" part though was a Beatles trademark, lifted from Little Richard.
- Lennon's voice took a while to recuperate after recording this, and the band was only given 15 minutes to record their vocals! The version heard on the album is the first take... Lennon's voice had virtually disappeared by the time they attempted a second take.
- Released as the title track of the Twist and Shout EP in the UK in mid-1963. Also released as a single in the U.S. in 1964, where it reached #2.
- The song had a resurgence in popularity in 1986 after it featured in two comedy films at the time, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School. It was re-released and reached #23 in the U.S. charts at the time.
- Runs for 2 and a half minutes, 2 takes.

Please Please Me (single) 1963

1. Please Please Me
- This is the second Beatles single, and was released in early January 1963. It's B-side is Ask Me Why.
- Love Me Do had been a minor hit so there was enough interest for George Martin to justify a follow-up single. He originally wanted the band to release their version of How Do You Do It (later made famous by Gerry and the Pacemakers) but they were keener on recording their own stuff.
- John Lennon wrote this one. It was originally quite basic and slow, but Martin fobbed it off (still keen on How Do You Do It) and asked them to make it faster and more interesting. When the band came back with the more pepped-up version that we're now all familiar with he gave in and let them record it as their 2nd single.
- Lennon wrote this in 1962, inspired by Roy Orbison's Only The Lonely and Bing Crosby's Please.
- It's highly possible that the lyrics are a reference to oral sex, but it's never been confirmed.
- An early version of this song was recorded in the 1962 Love Me Do sessions with Andy White on drums. This version remained unreleased until the release of the Anthology compilations in 1995.
- The original stereo version of this song (which has never been made available on CD) is actually an alternate take. In this version Lennon and McCartney mess up their vocals a bit.
- McCartney and Lennon stole some inspiration from the Everly Brothers in terms of their vocal harmonising. McCartney would hold a high note whilst Lennon dropped down through several lower notes.
- Lennon plays both harmonica and a rhythm guitar track, whilst the rest of the band do their usual instrumental duties. Lennon sings the lead vocals.
- The U.S. version of the single was released in 1964, with From Me To You as it's B-side instead of Ask Me Why.
- Please Please Me became the band's first #1 in the UK, and was used as the title of their debut album. It reached #3 in the U.S.
- It was reissued as a CD single in 1992.
- It runs at just over 2 minutes, and took 11 takes to complete.

2. Ask Me Why
- This is the B-side to Please Please Me and also features on the Please Please Me album.
- Written by primarily by Lennon, with a bit of input from McCartney. Lennon was inspired mainly by Smokey Robinson.
- The band often performed this song in Hamburg throughout 1962.
- At the time of Ask Me Why's recording the band was also showing Martin another Lennon composition called Tip of My Tongue. George Martin felt that Tip of My Tongue needed more work done to it before it could be recorded and it was eventually given to another artist, Tommy Quickly, who failed to to make it into the charts with it. There are no known recordings of the Beatles playing this song, but if you listen to the Tommy Quickly version you can imagine the Beatles version pretty easily.
- Only took 6 takes to record, and clocks in at nearly two and a half minutes.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals.
- This song was recorded by the band during a mid-1962 audition, featuring Pete Best on the drums. The recording is thought to no longer exist.
- An American promo record of this song mistakenly featured the band's name spelled as 'The Beattles'. It was quickly corrected after the first pressings, and is subsequently very rare.

1964 U.S. single cover

1992 CD single cover.

Love Me Do (single) 1962

1. Love Me Do
- This song was mainly written by Paul McCartney, probably around 1959. Lennon wrote the bridge segment.
- Lennon originally sang the low 'Love me do' part at the end of each chorus but this had to be changed when the harmonica was brought in as Lennon's harmonica part comes in too quickly for him to do both. McCartney had never sung this part until the day of the recording.
- Lennon had apparently picked up the harmonica trick from Hey Baby by Bruce Channel, and the band had considered Love Me Do to not really be that much of a standout song prior to the harmonica being added.
- The song was recorded with three seperate drummers. The first time was a demo version with original drummer Pete Best (this can be found on the rarities compilation Anthology 1). The second time was with new drummer Ringo, I think this was the version that went out on the original pressing of the single and didn't really appear again until it was included on the 1988 singles compilation album Past Masters Volume 1. The third recording was then made for the band's debut album Please Please Me and subsequent repressings of the single, this version featured session drummer Andy White as producer George Martin didn't think Ringo was good/experienced enough to do it justice in the studio. The way to tell the Ringo and Andy White versions apart is the addition of a tambourine - Ringo plays a tambourine on the Andy White version (so he could feel like a part of the band I guess, I can only imagine what was going through his mind at the time).
- The harmonica that Lennon plays on the recording is one that he stole from a shop two years earlier. Lennon's use of the harmonica would go on to characterise the Beatles' early sound. It's not known if he ever later sent any money to the shop.
- Love Me Do clocks in at a nifty length of 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The Andy White version (the version heard on the Please Please Me album and most pressings of the Love Me Do single) took 33 takes to record.
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, and Lennon and Harrison provide backing vocals. Lennon recorded a guitar track in addition to his harmonica part, and Harrison played an acoustic guitar for the recording.
- The single peaked at No. 17 in the UK charts in December, 1962. It reached No. 1 in the US for a week in 1964. It was reissued in 1984 in the UK and reached No. 4.

2. P.S. I Love You
- This is the B-side to the Love Me Do single, and it also appears on the Please Please Me album.
- It was almost released as an A-side but as there was already a song out at the time by another artist also called P.S. I Love You it was ruled out.
- As per Love Me Do, Andy White plays drums on this recording as well. This is why the drums sound so wussy. No alternative versions were ever recorded with Ringo.
- McCartney wrote this song in early 1962, and employed some rather Roy Orbison-like vocal stylings.
- This song is an early example of the Beatles pushing musical boundaries, in this case they use a 'jazz' chord (C#7) to bridge together some more traditional pop/rock chords.
- Track length: 2 minutes and 2 seconds. It took 10 takes to record.
- Ringo plays the maracas on this recording due to old mate Andy White playing the drums.
- The song probably wouldn't have made it onto the Please Please Me album if it hadn't already appeared as the B-side on this single.

1964 U.S. single cover