Anna Trivia Quiz

Answer:

American R&B/soul musician Arthur Alexander wrote this song (about his then-rocky relationship with his wife Ann, whose name was changed for metrical reasons) and released it in 1962. Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney (along with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and others) were big fans of Alexander's music. 'Anna (Go to Him)' was only one of the Alexander numbers the Beatles were performing live at Hamburg's Star-Club during their 1962 residency. Others included 'Soldier of Love (You Better Move On)', 'A Shot of Rhythm and Blues' and 'Where Have You Been'.

Because there was not much budget for the recording sessions of the Beatles' UK debut album, 'Please Please Me', they were asked to select songs they could perform without much rehearsing, so relied on their well-developed live repertoire. 'Love Me Do' and 'Please Please Me' had already been released as singles, a common practice at the time when singles were the dominant market for popular music, and expected to drive the sales of the subsequent albums. The album included six covers, including 'Anna', seven Lennon-McCartney numbers and one from the pen of George Harrison ('A Taste of Honey'). George sang lead for his song, Ringo got his chance with 'Boys', John and Paul shared the role on the remaining songs, with John on lead for 'Anna'.

In the US, Vee-Jay released 'Introducing ... the Beatles' in January of 1964, days before Capitol released 'Meet the Beatles'. It was almost identical to the UK album, but omitted 'Please Please Me' and 'Ask Me Why', because they only wanted 12 tracks. Due to delays in getting the album released, several other companies had acquired rights to some of the tracks, and Vee-Jay was forced to withdraw the album and re-release it again without 'Love Me Do' and 'P.S. I Love You', returning the two songs that had originally been omitted. (That is the version my father bought me for my 12th birthday, when my twin brother got 'Meet the Beatles', and our younger brother's un-birthday present was a copy of the single 'She Loves You'.)

Vee-Jay eventually was decreed to have rights to 16 tracks until mid-October of 1964, and took advantage of that to re-package the songs in several ways, including an EP (extended play record, meaning more than the two songs of a single, fewer than the number for an album) titled 'Souvenir of their Visit to America' in March 1964 which contained 'Misery', 'A Taste of Honey', 'Ask Me Why' and 'Anna'. 'Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles' was 'Introducing ... the Beatles' with a new cover, that included pictures and snippets of the kind of nonsense 'information' popular with teen magazines - who is the funniest, what is their favourite colour, etc. 'The Beatles vs the Four Seasons' was a two-record package, one of which was 'Introducing ... the Beatles', the other being a compilation album of hits from the Four Seasons.