I've been gone on vacation for a couple of weeks, and was certainly glad to come back first thing Monday morning and start up BBWTB again!I started going in chronological order, or as close as I can get, a while back.  As of this week, we've made it through their first album, Please Please Me.

On Monday, I played the last track off the album, "Twist and Shout".

This one has a pretty storied history. It has John Lennon on lead vocals, and was the last song recorded; producer George Martin knew Lennon's voice would suffer from the performance, so he left it until last, with only 15 minutes of scheduled recording time remaining. Lennon was suffering from a cold, and was drinking milk and sucking on cough drops to soothe his throat. His coughing is audible on the album, as is the cold's effect on his voice. Even so, he produced a memorable vocal performance: a raucous, dynamic rocker.

On Tuesday, I played the single "She Loves You".

Lennon and McCartney had started composing "She Loves You" after a 26 June 1963 concert at the Majestic Ballroom in Newcastle upon Tyne during their tour with Roy Orbison and Gerry and the Pacemakers. They began writing the song on the tour bus, and continued later that night at their hotel in Newcastle. Like many early Beatles songs, the title of "She Loves You" was framed around the use of personal pronouns. But unusually for a love song, the lyrics were not written in the first person; instead the narrator functions as a helpful go-between for estranged lovers. The songwriting credit on the label was switched to "Lennon–McCartney" for this release – a switch from the "McCartney–Lennon" order of nearly all prior Beatles releases – and would remain this way during the remainder of the band's tenure. It was the best-selling single of 1963,and is the Beatles' all-time best-selling single in the UK. It was the best-selling single of any artist in the United Kingdom for 14 years until it was surpassed by "Mull of Kintyre" by Wings.

On Wednesday, I played the "She Loves You" b-side, "I'll Get You".

Typical of the Beatles' vocal style of that period, John Lennon and Paul McCartney sing in unison for the majority of the track, allowing the few occasions when they do harmonize to stand out. But unlike most Beatles songs of the time there is no lead guitar break; the lead guitar is virtually reduced to a second rhythm guitar. The song's opening line "Imagine I'm in love with you" was innovative, drawing the listener immediately into the story. McCartney would cite this as an early example of Lewis Carroll's influence on Lennon's lyrics — a ploy explored again in later compositions such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and Lennon's solo "Imagine".

On Thursday, I played "I Wanna Hold Your Hand".

Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, this one was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment. With advance orders exceeding one million copies in the United Kingdom, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" would have gone straight to the top of the British record charts on its day of release (29 November 1963) had it not been blocked by the group's first million seller "She Loves You", their previous UK single, which was having a resurgence of popularity following intense media coverage of the group. Taking two weeks to dislodge its predecessor, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" stayed at number one for five weeks and remained in the UK top fifty for twenty-one weeks in total. It was also their big breakout hit in the United States, with a quarter million copies sold in just three days.

On Friday, I played the "IWHYH" b-side, "This Boy".

This song's composition was an attempt by Lennon at writing a song in the style of Motown star Smokey Robinson, specifically his song "I've Been Good To You", which has similar circular doo-wop chord changes, melody and arrangement. The tune and arrangement also has an uncanny resemblance to 'You Don't Understand Me', a B-side to a Bobby Freeman single. Paul McCartney cites the Teddy Bears' 1958 hit "To Know Him Is To Love Him" as also being influential. Lennon, McCartney, and George Harrison join together to sing an intricate three-part close harmony in the verses and refrain (originally the middle eight was conceived as a guitar solo, but altered during the recording process) and a similar song writing technique is exercised in later Beatles songs, such as "Yes It Is" and "Because".

We'll start again first thing Monday morning at 6:00 a.m. with the first song off of the group's second album, With the Beatles. Tune in then!

Harmoniously yours,
Behka

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