The Beatles, album "Introducing... The Beatles"

Studio albums - Studio Capitol Records - 1964

Introducing... The Beatles

1. 02:53 I Saw Her Standing There (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2009 - 11.02.1963

   JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul doing his usual job of producing what George Martin used to call a 'potboiler.' I helped with a couple of the lyrics.'

   PAUL 1988: 'I wrote it with John.
   We sagged off school and wrote it on guitars.
   I remember I had the lyrics, 'Just seventeen/Never been a beauty queen,' which John… it was one of the first times he ever went, 'What? Must change that!' And it became, 'you know what I mean.''

   PAUL circa-1994: 'Sometimes we would just start a song from scratch, but one of us would nearly always have a germ of an idea, a title, or a rough little thing they were thinking about and we'd do it.
   'I Saw Her Standing There' was my original.
   I'd started it and I had the first verse, which therefore gave me the tune, the tempo, and the key.
   It gave you the subject matter, alot of information, and then you had to fill in.
   So it was co-written… and we finished it that day.

2. 01:48 Misery (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2009 - 20.02.1963

   JOHN 1980: 'It was kind of a John song, more than a Paul song… but it was written together.'

   PAUL 1988: 'John and I were a songwriting team, and what songwriting teams did in those days was wrote for everyone.
   'Misery' was for Helen Shapiro, and she turned it down.
   It may not have been that successful for her because it's rather a downbeat song… 'the world is treating me bad, misery.' It was quite pessimistic.
   And in the end Kenny Lynch did it.
   Kenny used to come out on tour with us, and he used to sing it.
   That was one of his minor hits.'

3. 02:57 Anna (Go to Him) (Arthur Alexander) - Remastered 2009 - 17.09.1962

4. 02:25 Chains (Gerry Goffin and Carole King) - Remastered 2009 - 11.02.1963

5. 02:26 Boys (Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell) - Remastered 2009 - 11.02.1963

6. 02:21 Love Me Do (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2009 - 11.09.1962

   JOHN 1963: 'It came to the charts in two days.
   And everybody thought it was a 'fiddle' because our manager's stores send in these… what is it… record returns.
   And everybody down south thought, 'Aha! He's just fiddling the charts.' But he wasn't.'

   JOHN 1972: 'Paul wrote the main structure of this when he was sixteen, or even earlier.
   I think I had something to do with the middle.'

   RINGO 1976: 'The first record, 'Love Me Do,' for me that was more important than anything else.
   That first piece of plastic.
   You can't believe how great that was.
   It was so wonderful.
   We were on a record!'

   JOHN 1980: ''Love Me Do' is Paul's song.
   He had the song around in Hamburg even, way, way before we were songwriters.'

   PAUL 1982: 'In Hamburg we clicked… At the Cavern we clicked… but if you want to know when we 'knew' we'd arrived, it was getting in the charts with 'Love Me Do.' That was the one.
   It gave us somewhere to go.'

   PAUL 1984: ''Love Me Do' …the first song we recorded, like, for real.
   First serious audition.
   I was very nervous, I remember.
   John was supposed to sing the lead, but they changed their minds and asked me to sing lead at the last minute, because they wanted John to play harmonica.
   Until then, we hadn't rehearsed with a harmonica; George Martin started arranging it on the spot.
   It was very nerve-wracking.'

   PAUL 1988: ''Love Me Do' was us trying to do the blues.
   It came out whiter because it always does.
   We're white, and we were just young Liverpool musicians.
   We didn't have the finesse to be able to actually sound black.
   But 'Love Me Do' was probably the first bluesy thing we tried to do.'

   PAUL circa-1994: 'George Martin said, 'Can anyone play a harmonica? It would be rather nice.
   Couldn't think of some sort of bluesy thing, could you John?' John played a chromatic harmonica… I actually had one too but he'd been clever – he learned to play it.
   John expected to be in jail one day and he'd be the guy who played the harmonica.
   The lyric crossed over the harmonica solo, so I suddenly got thrown the big open line, 'Love me do,' where everything stopped.
   Until that session John had always done it.
   I didn't even know how to sing it… I can still hear the nervousness in my voice.'

7. 02:04 P.S. I Love You (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2009 - 11.09.1962

   JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul's song.
   He was trying to write a 'Soldier Boy' like the Shirelles.
   He wrote that in Germany, or when we were going to and from Hamburg.
   I might have contributed something.
   I can't remember anything in particular.
   It was mainly his song.'

   PAUL circa-1994: 'A theme song based on a letter… It was pretty much mine.
   I don't think John had much of a hand in it.
   There are certain themes that are easier than others to hang a song on, and a letter is one of them… It's not based in reality, nor did I write it to my girlfriend from Hamburg, which some people think.'

8. 02:40 Baby It's You (Burt Bacharach, Luther Dixon and Mack David) - Remastered 2009 - 20.02.1963

9. 01:57 Do You Want to Know a Secret? (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2009 - 11.02.1963

   JOHN 1980: 'Well, I can't say I wrote it 'for' George.
   My mother was always… she was a good comedienne and a singer.
   Not professional, but she used to get up in pubs and things like that.
   She had a good voice.
   She could do Kay Starr.
   She used to do this little tune when I was one or two years old… she was still living with me then.
   The tune was from a Disney movie: (sings) 'Do you want to know a secret? Promise not to tell? You are standing by a wishing well.' So, I had this sort of thing in my head, and I wrote it and just gave it to George to sing.
   I thought it would be a good for him, because it had only three notes and he wasn't the best singer in the world.
   He has improved a lot since then; but in those days, his ability was very poor.'

   PAUL 1984: 'A song we really wrote for George to sing.
   Before he wrote his own stuff, John and I wrote things for him and Ringo to do.'

   GEORGE 1994: ''Do You Want To Know A Secret' was my song on the album.
   I didn't like the vocal on it.
   I didn't know how to sing.'

10. 02:03 A Taste of Honey (Ric Marlow and Bobby Scott) - Remastered 2009 - 11.02.1963

11. 01:50 There's a Place (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2009 - 11.02.1963

    JOHN 1980: ''There's a Place' was my attempt at a sort of Motown, black thing.
    It says the usual Lennon things: 'In my mind there's no sorrow…' It's all in your mind.'

12. 02:35 Twist And Shout (Bert Russell and Phil Medley) - Remastered 2009 - 11.02.1963

    JOHN 1963: 'I always hate singing the song, 'Twist And Shout' when there's a colored artist on the bill with us.
    It doesn't seem right, you know.
    I feel sort of embarrassed… It makes me curl up.
    I always feel they could do the song much better than me.'

    JOHN 1971: 'The more interesting songs to me were the black ones because they were more simple.
    They sort of said shake-your-arse, or your prick, which was an innovation really.
    The blacks were singing directly and immediately about their pain, and also about sex, which is why I like it.'

    JOHN 1976: 'The last song nearly killed me.
    My voice wasn't the same for a long time after – everytime I swallowed it was like sandpaper.
    I was always bitterly ashamed of it because I could sing it better than that, but now it doesn't bother me.
    You can hear I'm just a frantic guy doing his best.'

    PAUL 1988: 'There's a power in John's voice there that certainly hasn't been equaled since.
    And I know exactly why – It's because he worked his bollocks off that day.
    We left 'Twist And Shout' until the very last thing because we knew there was one take.'

    RINGO 1994: 'We started (recording the album) about noon and finished it at midnight, with John being really hoarse by 'Twist And Shout.''