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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 35 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 With the Beatles / Meet the Beatles
| What No.1 song on the American Billboard charts was included on "Meet The Beatles"? | Meet The Beatles
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I Want To Hold Your Hand. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was the newest single at the time. "She Loves You" was released on the sister album "The Beatles' Second Album".
January 20, 1964. "The Beatles' Second Album" was released on April 10, 1964. The Beatles' first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" was February 11, 1964. "Please Please Me" was released on March 22, 1963.
| According to George, what were the circumstances for writing "Don't Bother Me", his first song which is on this album? | Meet The Beatles
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He wrote it in a hotel room while on tour. George fell ill during while on tour. He was resting in his hotel bed and to keep from being bored, he starting playing with his guitar. That's how the song got started. Bill Harry, editor of the Liverpool paper, the Mersey Beat, claimed that he kept urging George to write a song and not have John and Paul do all the work. He says George got so frustrated he wrote the song to shut him up.
| Which other song on this album has two different theories on how it was written? | Meet The Beatles
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All My Loving. Paul says he wrote this song during a bus tour. According to A-Z magazine, he wrote the song while he was shaving.
It Won't Be Long. John and Paul sang duet on "Little Child" and "This Boy". Paul sang lead on "I Saw Her Standing There".
All of these (All My Loving, Hold Me Tight, Till There Was You). John and George backed him up on "All My Loving" and "Hold Me Tight". Paul sang solo on "Till There Was You".
Till There Was You. This was written by Meredith Wilson for "The Music Man".
Roses. Written in 1957 by Meredith Wilson for the Broadway musical "The Music Man", it became a Beatles standard, and they performed it on their first "Ed Sullivan Show" performance.
"Then there was music and wonderful roses
They tell me in sweet fragrant meadows of dawn and you".
Dance. John Lennon was able to demonstrate his prowess on the harmonica in this song recorded in 1963.
"Little child, little child,
Little child, won't you dance with me?"
Cry. John Lennon was a big fan of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and he wrote this song fashioned after their style.
"You know you made me cry,
I see no use in wond'ring why,
I cried for you".
Girl left. This was the first George Harrison written song to be recorded by The Beatles.
"Since she's been gone I want no one to talk to me.
It's not the same but I'm to blame, it's plain to see.
So go away, leave me alone, don't bother me".
Call. Recorded in September of 1963 entirely by John Lennon, this was another Smokey Robinson inspired song.
"Whenever I want you around, yeah.
All I gotta do,
Is call you on the phone,
And you'll come running home".
Tonight. Paul McCartney was a fan of the Shirelles, and fashioned this song after their style of music.
"Hold me tight,
Let me go on loving you,
To-night to-night,
Making love to only you".
Every night. Singer Neil Young performed "It Won't Be Long" as his first song in front of an audience at his school cafeteria.
"Ev'ry night when ev'rybody has fun,
Here am I sitting all on my own,
It won't be long yeh, yeh".
That boy. Sung in three part harmony by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, "This Boy" later became known as "Ringo's Theme" after his performance in the film "A Hard Day's Night".
"That boy took my love away,
Though he'll regret it someday,
But this boy wants you back again".
Inside. The first Beatles song to catch on in the US, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote it in Jane Asher's basement. Jane was Paul's actress-girlfriend at the time.
"And when I touch you I feel happy inside.
It's such a feeling that my love,
I can't hide, I can't hide, I can't hide".
Miss you. While it was one of the most popular songs of 1963, it was never issued as a single record.
"Close your eyes and I'll kiss you,
Tomorrow I'll miss you;
Remember I'll always be true".
| The first song of the LP: "It Won't Be Long". They began recording on 30th July 1963 in the morning. In the afternoon they taped two BBC radio shows. The first one was an interview for "Non Stop Pop". In the second one they performed six numbers before going back to EMI to continue recording. Which was the second BBC show ? | Still "With The Beatles"
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Saturday Club. They went back to EMI for a 5:00 to 11:00 pm session in which they resumed "It Won't Be Long" and taped "Till There Was You" (five takes), Chuck "crazy legs" Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" (eight takes) and Macca's "All My Loving" (one of my Paul's favourites) in thirteen takes.
| John Lennon got his inspiration for "All I've Got To Do" from a black R&B singer. It was the second time that he was influenced by this singer. Which was his name? | Still "With The Beatles"
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William "Smokey" Robinson. Lennon was a big fan of "Smokey" Robinson of whom he covered "You Really Got A Hold On Me" on the same LP. It was an attempt "to do Smokey Robinson again" (as he said himself). His earlier attempt had been on the previous album ("Please Please Me"): the song was called "Ask Me Why" (which was also the flipside of their second single "Please Please Me") and it was inspired by Robinson's "What So Good About Goodbye".
| The third track was Paul McCartney's "All My Loving" (I know it's credited to both Lennon-McCartney, but nonetheless). This song was released in another version (with slight differences) on the LP "The Beatles' Greatest". Which country saw this album release ? | Still "With The Beatles"
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Germany. There was a different intro (on drums) and Paul's breathing. "All My Loving" was the first song they ever performed live in America (on 9th February 1964 on "The Ed Sullivan Show"). They also played it at the famous Hollywood Bowl concert on 23rd August 1964 . It was one of their favourite songs. Nowadays, Macca still sings it in his concerts.
| "With The Beatles" saw George Harrison's debut as a composer (apart from the instrumental "Cry For A Shadow" which he wrote with Lennon and was released on different Tony Sheridan records here and there prior to Beatlemania). The song was composed in Bournemouth in August 1963 where they were fulfilling a six nights engagement. It was a response to a friend of theirs who kept annoying George by asking him why he didn't write songs by himself not to have to sing Lennon-McCartney's anymore. The answer was "Don't Bother Me". What was the name of this Liverpool first days friend? | Still "With The Beatles"
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Bill Harry. Bill Harry was the founder of "Mersey Beat", a Liverpool music paper which ran from 1961 to 1965. As you can imagine, most of the papers referred to the Beatles, including the first one on July 1961. In the second issue Harry wrote about a recording contract that the Beatles would have signed (this was the one with German producer Bert Kaempfert for whom they had recorded eight songs backing Tony Sheridan in Hamburg). George Harrison recorded "Cry For A Shadow" during this session.
| "Little Child" was another Lennon-McCartney song. It was sung by both John and Paul, but originally they intended to give it to someone else. Who should have sung this song? | Still "With The Beatles"
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Ringo Starr. John said in an interview in 1980 that he might have written this song for Ringo. Ringo was given the opportunity to sing one song per album (except on "A Hard Day's Night" but he had a major part in the film, and on "Let It Be") I don't count "Magical Mystery Tour" (in which he doesn't sing either) as an album although I know it was released as such in USA but I'm still referring to British releases.
| "Till There Was you" was a Meredith Wilson cover (as in the previous album "Please Please Me", there were eight original compositions and six covers). This was taken from the film "The Music Man". This song was sung by a duet in the movie. The man was Robert Preston. Who was the woman? | Still "With The Beatles"
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Shirley Jones. I always wondered why the Beatles did this cover. At the time they began to perform it they were still a rock 'n' roll band, but McCartney always loved those ballads ("silly love songs") so that is why they covered it. You certainly know the anecdote of Paul introducing "Till There Was You" at the Royal Variety Show on 4th November 1963: "the next song we'd like to sing now is a little bit slower, it's from the show "The Music Man" and it has also been recorded by our favourite American group: Sophie Tucker". Dear Paul.
| Another cover, even though I thought, the first time that I heard it (on this particular record), that it was a Lennon-McCartney song. "Please Mr Postman" sounded more Beatles than even a Beatles song (that was the magic of the Beatles, they appropriated every cover they did). They played it three times for the BBC (radio) and just once for TV. Which TV show saw the Beatles mime "Please Mr Postman"? | Still "With The Beatles"
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Big Night Out. This sequence can be seen in the DVD "Anthology One". The show was hosted by two brothers: Mike and Bernie Winters. The Beatles attended four "Big Night Out", the first one being on September 7th 1963. The one featuring "Please Mr Postman" occured on 29th February 1964 (yes 1964 was a leap year).
| Let's rock. The first track of the B side (on vinyl disc, those were the days!) was Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven". In the early days the Beatles were a rock band and they covered lots of Berry's tunes, mostly in their BBC radio shows. By the way, how many Chuck Berry hits did they perform at the BBC? | Still "With The Beatles"
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9. They recorded two songs: "Roll Over Beethoven" on "With The Beatles" and "Rock'n'Roll Music" on "Beatles For Sale" . At the BBC they did :
"Carol" (once)
"I Got To Find My Baby" (twice)
"I'm Talking about you" (once)
"Johnny B. Goode" (once)
"Memphis Tennessee" (5 times)
"Rock'n'Roll Music" (once)
"Roll Over Beethoven" (7 times)
"Sweet Little Sixteen" (once)
"Too Much Monkey Business" (4 times)
| 11th February 1963. The Beatles are at Abbey Road recording their first album. Everybody (at least the Beatles fans) know the fourteen tracks of this LP. But some extra songs were recorded. Amongst them was a song that would become a track on "With The Beatles". What was its title? | Still "With The Beatles"
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Hold Me Tight. They did thirteen takes of "Hold Me Tight" during the "Please Please Me" album session on 11th February 1963 and then turned it down, then they resumed work on it on 12th September 1963. Paul said it was only "a work song" and John said that he was never really interested in it either way. That was John!
| The Beatles covered "Smokey" Robinson's "You Really Got A Hold On Me" on the album "With The Beatles" . It was one of John's favourites and they performed it four times at the BBC. Maybe you have "The Beatles Live At The BBC" CD . What is the title of John's intro on it (don't cheat)? | Still "With The Beatles"
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Dear Wack. It was always a pleasure for them to do radio shows where they could express their wit. Apart from that, they could perform all the rock numbers they wanted to, not being forced to play their last tunes like it is nowadays. Thank god we can hear them on the "BBC Live" and certify that they were great performers.
| You know that Ringo had his moment of glory on each record (well almost). For this one, it was Lennon and McCartney's "I Wanna Be Your Man". They also gave it to a young British group who was looking for a tune at the time. Which band was it? | Still "With The Beatles"
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The Rolling Stones. This was the first top twenty hit for the Rolling Stones. Now I take the opportunity to say that the Beatles and the Stones never were enemies. This "I Wanna Be Your Man" thing would be a proof and more: John and Paul did the chorus on "We Love You" as well as Mick on "Baby You're A Rich Man" and so on. They even managed not to release their records at the same time, to avoid competition.
| George had his piece of glory with "Don't Bother Me". He sang two other songs on this record. One was "Roll Over Beethoven". The other one was a cover of the Donays' "Devil In Her Heart" (where did George find it, we'll never know!). Who wrote this song ? | Still "With The Beatles"
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Richard B. Drapkin. I first thought that George had found this obscure song by the Donays during his first trip in America in September 1963 but it turned out to be impossible because the Beatles first recorded it on July 18th 1963. So where did George find a song which never even made it in its own country? It's shrouded in mystery!
| The thirteenth track was a Lennon-McCartney song: "Not A Second Time". In 1963 the Beatles songs were not analysed yet (they were considered as teen songs with not much to say). But for the first time, a musical critic analysed this particular one. Which was his name? | Still "With The Beatles"
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William Mann. John Lennon laughed at it saying that William Mann was "a jerk". William Mann compared "Not A Second Time" with Gustav Mahler's "Song Of The Earth". He wrote about "aeolian cadences" at the end of the song and John replied "I didn't know what the hell it was all about". In the same paper (from "The Times" 23rd December 1963 issue) Mann wrote about "chains of pandiatonic clusters" in "This Boy". Lennon didn't understand that either. All those Beatles songs analyses drove him mad.
In 1967 he received a letter from a pupil of Quarry Bank School (his former school in Liverpool) which mentioned that the Beatles songs were analysed in class So, he wrote the remarkable nonsense "I Am The Walrus" saying to his friend Pete Shotton: "Let the .... work that one out". And it worked: to this day "I Am The Walrus" is the most analysed song Lennon ever wrote. This guy was just great!
| The release date of "With The Beatles": This day is known in the world for something else. Which tragic event occured the day "With The Beatles" was released? | Still "With The Beatles"
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John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination. "With The Beatles" was released on 22nd November 1963. Do I have to say more. Of course it was JFK's assassination. As for the other answer options, only one occured in 1963: Edith Piaf's death (on 11th October). War in Viet-Nam really started in 1964 and the Aberfan disaster occured on 21st October 1966 (a tip of coal waste slid onto the village of Aberfan in South Wales destroying the school and killing 116 children).
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