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Toppermost of the Poppermost - UK Number Ones : part 2 - The 1960s

Started by daf, June 12, 2019, 01:55:00 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

kalowski

Quote from: purlieu on September 04, 2019, 10:40:22 PM
Oops, I meant I IV V. My right-hand middle finger got carried away.
No!!! In Louie Louie the fifth is a minor.

machotrouts

Here's my review of the song. It's sweet!!!!!!!!!!

Quote from: purlieu on September 04, 2019, 03:51:25 PM
Gotta be honest, I hate I IV VI sequences.
Quote from: kalowski on September 04, 2019, 09:09:15 PM
Louie Louie is I IV v. Specifically A, D Em.
Quote from: purlieu on September 04, 2019, 10:40:22 PM
Oops, I meant I IV V.
Quote from: kalowski on September 05, 2019, 06:11:26 AM
No!!! In Louie Louie the fifth is a minor.

I'm sad that I don't know what any of this means and probably shouldn't be allowed to post about music on an internet forum.

purlieu


daf

With The Bootle Beetlegs, it's . . .

156.  Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas - Bad To Me



From : 18 August – 7 September 1963
Weeks : 3
Flip side : I Call Your Name
bonus : Live

QuoteFollowing their first Number One (in the NME chart) with a Beatles song, "Do You Want to Know a Secret", the Brian Epstein managed Liverpool based combo decided to take a HUGE gamble . . . and record another Beatles song, "Bad To Me", which swept to the Toppermost of the "Official" Poppermost for 3 weeks in August 1963.

Billy : I grew up with not a lot of money. My father worked on the Liverpool docks. There were seven of us. It was just after the Second World War and we grew up modestly. Two ounces of sweets on Saturday morning and a movie was about it. I was happy. My father wasn't a disciplinarian but I couldn't get away with a lot. I was thrifty with money.

"I was a very shy, overweight kid, I felt very strange that after a few appearances on television I was reading in teen magazines about this good looking guy. My whole thing was how you do get good looking overnight?  I always felt where do I fit in? Then suddenly I was getting all this attention, and I did have a problem dealing with it."

"You didn't get any training or advice in the sixties on how to deal with fame. There is no school for that kind of thing.  I was afraid of the press; I wasn't very open to them which I think was a big mistake. I always thought I went on stage, did a job and what I did outside of that was nothing to do with anybody.  I tried to protect my private life, very much so, and I don't think it did me any favours."

"As soon as I had a hit record Brian [Epstein] formed a company for me, and every week I'd receive a registered envelope with a cheque for me and the band, a run-down of deductions, a total itinerary, hotels, the lot, plus some cash. Brian was great. I remember being in Blackpool and Brian saying I want a flutter tonight, asking if I had any money. I said "£500". He said "that's not enough" and at this casino Brian dropped thousands but said: "I'll get it back tomorrow."

"Looking back, it wasn't right that I was on the same salary as the Dakotas, a five-way split. I thought we're making plenty of money, but I think I contributed a lot more than they did. They thought I was the pretty boy, and insisted on it being Billy J Kramer with the Dakotas. Today in a business sense they'd have been on a salary. But what could I say at 19? I went through all the pressure, did photographic work, the interviews, and I don't think they appreciated it."



Was your collaboration with the Beatles profitable?

Billy : "I've never kept count. When Do You Want to Know a Secret? was No 1, my first cheque from EMI was below £1,000. I don't know what John and Paul made, as writers always got more. My biggest cheque for a song was about £12,000. I'll always be indebted to John and Paul; they gave me some great songs. John Lennon came to EMI and played Bad to Me on piano and we recorded it."

Is it true Paul McCartney offered you Yesterday and you said no?

Billy : I've tried to rationalise it because people have said: "You're a fool, Billy!" I was in Blackpool during the summer season, playing to a very adult audience, and I had a hit with Trains & Boats & Planes. The Beatles were doing a TV show at the ABC studios at Blackpool. I went to see them, and Paul played me Yesterday, but I wanted to do some rock 'n' roll songs and move away from ballads."

"I never thought I was changing the world in any way at all. I just thought I was a lucky guy, who loved rock 'n' roll like a lot of other kids, I still do and I will to my dying day. It's always been my number one thing, I thought I was lucky and I was given some great songs. The Dakotas were good musicians. But I don't think we were creative or adventurous enough like The Beatles."

Quote"Bad to Me" was written by  John Lennon and Paul McCartney. In 1980 Lennon claimed to have written Bad To Me while on holiday in Barcelona, Spain, in April 1963.

John : "I was on holiday with Brian Epstein in Spain, where the rumours went around that he and I were having a love affair. Well, it was almost a love affair, but not quite. It was never consummated. But it was a pretty intense relationship. It was my first experience with a homosexual that I was conscious was homosexual. He had admitted it to me."

"We had this holiday together because Cyn was pregnant, and I went to Spain and there were lots of funny stories. We used to sit in a cafe in Torremolinos looking at all the boys and I'd say, 'Do you like that one, do you like this one?' I was rather enjoying the experience, thinking like a writer all the time: I am experiencing this, you know. And while he was out on the tiles one night, or lying asleep with a hangover one afternoon, I remember playing him the song Bad To Me. That was a commissioned song, done for Billy J Kramer, who was another of Brian's singers. From Liverpool."


However, in a 1964 interview he said that he and Paul McCartney wrote it in the back of a van, declaring McCartney a contributor.

The Bad To Me demo was recorded in either May or June 1963. It is mostly a solo Lennon performance, although a harmony vocal part is evident towards the end. This was most likely either Lennon double-tracking his vocals, or McCartney making a brief appearance. The purpose of the demo is unclear, since Kramer later recalled Lennon teaching him the song at a piano.

Billy : "I remember doing a show in Bournemouth on my 20th birthday.  John was watching back stage. After the show, he said to me, I have got a great song for you, and it was 'Bad To Me', but he wouldn't tell me what song it was at the time. I remember going to EMI and thinking will John show or not, he did show up and played 'Bad to Me', and at the same time he said he wanted to run a song by me and see what I thought of it. It was 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. It was just me and John in the studio, with John playing the song on the piano.  I asked if I could have that one, but he laughed and said no, we are doing that one ourselves."

Kramer's version was recorded at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, on 26 June 1963. Paul McCartney was present during the session, which was produced by George Martin.

The single was released on 26 July 1963, with another Lennon-McCartney song, I Call Your Name, on the flip side. It became their first (official) number 1 in the UK Singles Chart. The single would be released in the US the following year, and become a top-Ten hit there, reaching number 9 . . . number 9 . . . number 9 . . . number 9

Other Versions include :   Mike Redway (1963)  /  "Tu changeras d'avis" by Lynn (1963)  /  William Tay (1963)  /  Terry Black (1964)  /  Roger Webb and His Trio (1964)  /  "Älä kiusaa tee" by Laila Kinnunen (1964)  /  "Tu chang'ras d'avis" by Les Missiles (1964)  /  Vince Taylor (1964)  /  Les Challengers (1964)  /  "Aujourd'hui c'est congé" by Les Baronets (1964)  /  Hurriganes (1975)  /  Leif Garrett (1977)  /  "Älä kiusaa tee" by Jukka Heino (1980)  /  Seppo Rannikko (1983)  /  firefox2844 (2009)  /  commandopants (2009)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  Flavio1606 (2013)  /  Rocío Azul (2013)  /  a robot (2015)  /  Eric (2016)  /  Mick Wilkinson (2017)  /  another robot (2018)  /  Axxonn (2019)



"I Call Your Name" was one of John Lennon's earliest compositions. It was given first to Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, another Brian Epstein-managed act.

John : "That was my song. When there was no Beatles and no group. I just had it around. It was my effort as a kind of blues originally, and then I wrote the middle eight just to stick it in the album when it came out years later. The first part had been written before Hamburg even. It was one of my first attempts at a song."

According to Paul McCartney, I Call Your Name was written in Lennon's aunt Mimi's house in Menlove Avenue, Liverpool.

Paul : "We worked on it together, but it was John's idea. When I look back at some of these lyrics, I think, Wait a minute. What did he mean? 'I call your name but you're not there.' Is it his mother? His father? I must admit I didn't really see that as we wrote it because we were just a couple of young guys writing. You didn't look behind it at the time, it was only later you started analysing things."

Lennon was reportedly dissatisfied with the Dakotas' arrangement of his song, so The Beatles recorded their own version. The song features George Harrison playing the Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar, offering the distinctive sound of the famous guitar to the world for the first time.

Musically the song is perhaps most interesting for its guitar solo, during which The Beatles fall into a ska rhythm. Lennon in particular particularly loved ska and reggae in later years, although in 1964 it was largely unknown outside Jamaica.

On This Day :
Quote19 August : Joey Tempest, (Europe), born Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson in Stockholm, Sweden
21 August : Martial law declared in South Vietnam, following raids on Buddhist pagodas
22 August : Tori Amos, singer-sonwriter, born Myra Ellen Amos in Newton, North Carolina
23 August : The Beatles release single "She Loves You"
27 August : Downtown Julie Brown, TV presenter, born Julie Dorne Brown in Cardiff, Wales
28 August : Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech addressing a civil rights march at Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
29 August : Elizabeth Fraser, (The Cocteau Twins), born in Grangemouth, Scotland
30 August : Paul Oakenfold, record producer & DJ, born in Mile End, London
30 August : Guy Burgess, English-born Soviet spy, dies of acute liver failure at 52 in Moscow, USSR.
31 August : Georges Braque, French cubist painter and sculptor, dies at 81
31 August : Todd Carty, (Grange Hill - "Tucker"), born in London
6 September : Pat Nevin, (NME reading footballer), born Patrick Kevin Francis Michael Nevin in Glasgow, Scotland
7 September : Eazy-E, American rapper, born Eric Lynn Wright in Compton, California

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote

Lennon and McCartney had written more Record Retailer No. 1s for Kramer than themselves at this point.


kalowski


famethrowa

I think it's stretching it a bit to claim the guitar solo bit of "I Call Your Name" falls into a ska rhythm. It's just a standard blues shuffle flat tyre groove that the boys would have played a hundred times on 12-bar blues. (except Ringo chooses to ignore it)



Also, Madness invented ska anyway



daf

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeeeeeaaaah!, it's . . .

157.  The Beatles - She Loves You



From : 8 September – 5 October 1963 (4)
       + 24 November – 7 December 1963 (2)
Weeks : 6
B-side : I'll Get You
Bonus : Live

The Story So Far : Decca
QuoteBrian Epstein met with record companies in London to secure a record contract, and he was rejected by many, including Columbia, HMV, Pye, Philips, and Oriole. After Epstein had meetings with both EMI and Decca at the start of December 1961, Decca A&R executive Mike Smith travelled to Liverpool to see the Beatles perform at The Cavern Club, and was impressed enough to ask Epstein to bring the band down to London for a test in Decca's recording studios, scheduled for 1 January 1962.

Neil Aspinall drove the Beatles down to London on New Year's Eve 1961 but lost his way, and the trip took ten hours, and arrived at 10 p.m., "just in time to see the drunks jumping in the Trafalgar Square fountain", as Lennon described it.

The Beatles arrived at the audition at 10 a.m. However, Smith was late, as he was suffering from a New Year's party hangover as well as cuts and bruises from a car crash three days before Christmas, causing the start of the audition to be slightly delayed.



For the setlist, Epstein and the Beatles decided on a selection of songs that the Beatles had performed in various clubs over the years, along with three Lennon–McCartney originals :

"Like Dreamers Do" (Lennon / McCartney)
"Money" (Gordy / Bradford)
"Till There Was You" (Meredith Willson)
"The Sheik of Araby" (Smith / Wheeler / Snyder) (Not Half!)
"To Know Her Is to Love Her" (Phil Spector)
"Take Good Care of My Baby" (Goffin / King)
"Memphis, Tennessee" (Chuck Berry)
"Sure to Fall (In Love with You)" (Cantrell / Claunch / Perkins)
"Hello Little Girl" (Lennon/McCartney)
"Three Cool Cats" (Leiber / Stoller) (I Love these!)
"Crying, Waiting, Hoping" (Buddy Holly)
"Love of the Loved" (Lennon / McCartney)
"September in the Rain" (Warren / Dubin)
"Bésame Mucho" (Consuelo Velázquez)
"Searchin'" (Leiber / Stoller)

About a month later, Decca Records rejected the Beatles, noting that : "guitar groups are on the way out" and "the Beatles have no future in show business". Decca instead chose Brian Poole and the Tremeloes who auditioned the same day as the Beatles, because they were local and would require lower travel expenses.

Many have speculated about who made the decision to reject the Beatles. While various accounts of the audition have been published, most agree it was Dick Rowe, producer Mike Smith or ex-Shadow Tony Meehan.

While Epstein was negotiating with Decca, he also approached EMI marketing executive Ron White. White was not a record producer, but he contacted EMI producers Norrie Paramor, Walter Ridley, and Norman Newell, all of whom declined to record the Beatles. However, there was one record producer at Parlophone who was more receptive . . .

The Story So Far : Parlophone
QuoteGeorge Martin was born George Henry Martin on 3 January 1926 in Highbury, London.

As a child, he attended several schools, including St Ignatius' College, where he had won a scholarship. When WWII broke out, and St. Ignatius College students were evacuated to Welwyn Garden City, his family left London, and he was enrolled at Bromley Grammar School.

In 1943, when he was 17, he joined the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy and became an aerial observer and a commissioned officer. The war ended before Martin was involved in any combat, and he left the service in 1947.

Martin attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1947 to 1950, where he studied piano and oboe, and was interested in the music of Rachmaninoff and Ravel, as well as Cole Porter.

George Martin : "I remember well the very first time I heard a symphony orchestra. I was just in my teens when Sir Adrian Boult brought the BBC Symphony Orchestra to my school for a public concert. It was absolutely magical. Hearing such glorious sounds I found it difficult to connect them with ninety men and women blowing into brass and wooden instruments or scraping away at strings with horsehair bows."

Following his graduation, he worked for the BBC's classical music department, then joined EMI in 1950 as an assistant to Oscar Preuss, the head of EMI's Parlophone Records from 1950 to 1955.  After taking over Parlophone, as head of artists and repertoire, when Preuss retired in 1955, Martin recorded classical and Baroque music, original cast recordings, and regional music from around Britain and Ireland.

Martin also produced numerous comedy and novelty records. His first hit for Parlophone was the "Mock Mozart" single by Peter Ustinov with Antony Hopkins – a record reluctantly released in 1952 by EMI, only after Preuss insisted they give his young assistant, Martin, a chance.

Later that decade Martin worked with Peter Sellers on the comedy LPs : The Best Of Sellers (1958), "Songs for Swinging Sellers" (1959), and in 1960 the album 'Peter and Sophia' (featuring Exotic Sauce-pot Sophia Loren) - and included the hit singles "Goodness Gracious Me" and "Bangers And Mash".

In early 1962, under the pseudonym "Ray Cathode", Martin released an early electronic dance single, "Time Beat" – recorded at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.



Around this time, Martin was contacted by Sid Coleman of Ardmore & Beechwood, who told him about Brian Epstein, the manager of a band whom he had met. He thought Martin might be interested in the group, even though they had been turned down by Decca Records. After the telephone call by Coleman, Martin arranged a meeting on 13 February 1962 with Brian Epstein. Martin listened to a tape recorded at Decca, and thought that Epstein's group was "rather unpromising", but liked the sound of Lennon's and McCartney's vocals.

The Beatles auditioned for George Martin on 6 June 1962, in studio three at the Abbey Road studios. The session took place in studio 2 from 7-10pm. The Beatles first ran through a number of songs, and then recorded four, taped in the following order : Besame Mucho, Love Me Do, PS I Love You and Ask Me Why.

Norman Smith (engineer) : "The Beatles didn't make a very good impression, apart from visually. I mean, we heard nothing of John and Paul's songwriting ability. They had tiny little Vox amplifiers and speakers, which didn't create much of a sound at source. Of course, every sound engineer wants some kind of sound at source that he can then embellish and improve, but I got nothing out of The Beatles' equipment except for a load of noise, hum and goodness-knows-what. Paul's was about the worst — in those days we had echo chambers to add onto the reverberation, and I had to raid the Studio Two echo chamber in order to fix him up with a sound so that we could get something down on tape."

McCartney's bass amp wasn't the only problem during the session.

Norman Smith : "We actually had to tie string around John Lennon's guitar amplifier to stop the rattling. There were also problems with Pete Best's drums – his cymbals, I believe. But we eventually got everything sorted out and finally we started to record."

Ron Richards was initially in charge of the session – George Martin was only brought in when balance engineer Norman Smith was struck by the quality of 'Love Me Do'. It was unusual for a producer to be present for an artist test. However, on this day Martin stayed for most of the session.

Norman Smith : "The control room door opened and in walked George Martin himself. And I thought to myself, 'This must be some kind of special artist test for him to show up.' Because producers didn't normally attend artists test. It was always their assistants. And, of course, up to that time, George was not involved at all with any guitar groups. He did a lot of comedy records, like Peter Sellers and stuff like that."

Smith instructed tape operator Chris Neal to fetch Martin, who took over the rest of the session. Afterwards he invited them to the control room to talk and listen to the playback.

Norman Smith : "We gave them a long lecture about their equipment and what would have to be done about it if they were to become recording artists. They didn't say a word back, not a word, they didn't even nod their heads in agreement. When he finished, George said 'Look, I've laid into you for quite a time, you haven't responded. Is there anything you don't like?' I remember they all looked at each other for a long while, shuffling their feet, then George Harrison took a long look at George and said 'Yeah, I don't like your tie!' That cracked the ice for us and for the next 15-20 minutes they were pure entertainment. When they left to go home George and I just sat there saying 'Phew! What do you think of that lot then?' I had tears running down my face."

Only the recordings of "Besame Mucho" and "Love Me Do" survive today – The other recordings were destroyed after it was decided that nothing from the session could be commercially released.

Norman Smith : "They left, and George [Martin] turned to me and said, 'Well, what do you think?' And I said, 'I've seen a lot of groups come in for artists test, but this one – there is something special about them. I can't tell you what, but there is something there.' As I said, the test hadn't gone too well, and I wasn't impressed by their sound. But they had an appealing quality, a kind of charisma. And I told George, 'In my view, I think they should be signed.' And I'll never forget, his last words to me before he left were, 'Okay. I'll think about it.'  Now, there was quite a bit of controversy that came about after that, as to whether they were actually signed before the artist test. A lot of it that came out did make sense as to why, in my view, George Martin turned up himself for an artist test, when no other producer ever did that. As I said, it was always their assistants. For the artist test, it was George Martin himself. And there was no question of them them being signed at that time. But, later I began to wonder, 'Were they already signed? Is this why George Martin himself turned up? Was it because this was the first time that he'd seen them? Was there something more attached to the whole thing?'"

Ken Townsend (tape operator) : "We did that test, and the tape went into the library. And about a week later, Norman says to me, 'Here Ken, what's the name of that group we had in last week? I've got to send a tape down to Manchester Square.' I said, 'The Beatles'. I mean, he'd actually forgotten the name of the group!"

After the first recording session on 6 June 1962 Martin had one reservation, as he felt that using an experienced studio session drummer rather than Pete Best would improve the recording. Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison asked Epstein to sack Best when they learned that Martin wanted to replace him on their recordings. Epstein agonised about the decision, asking the Cavern's disc jockey Bob Wooler if it was a good idea. Wooler replied that Best was "very popular with the fans", who would not like it at all.

Bob Wooler : "Brian Epstein told me that Pete Best was going to be sacked. I could imagine it with someone who was constantly late or giving him problems, but Pete Best was not awkward and he didn't step out of line. I was most indignant and I said, 'Why are you doing this?' but I didn't get an answer."



On 15 August 1962, The Beatles played their 91st evening show at the Cavern Club Liverpool. More significantly, it was Pete Best's final show with The Beatles, two years and three days after he first performed with them.

Pete Best : "On the night of Wednesday 15 August, we played at the Cavern and, in the normal way, talked later about the arrangements for the following night, when we were due to appear at the Riverpark Ballroom in Chester. The regular drill was that Neil Aspinall and I would collect the other Beatles in his van and drive to the venue. As Lennon was leaving, I called : 'Pick you up tomorrow, John.' 'No,' he said, 'I've got other arrangements.' At the time this didn't strike me as being odd, even though it didn't conform to the usual pattern. John was going through a trying domestic period; in eight days' time he was due to marry Cynthia, who was already pregnant."

The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein asked Best to come to the NEMS office the following day, although the drummer failed to see anything unusual in the request.

Pete Best : "Epstein said he'd like to see me in his office the next morning. This was quite normal because, with the family phone, I fixed the bookings and he'd ask me about venues and prices. I went down the next morning without a care in the world and he said, 'The lads don't want you in the group any more.'"

In the meantime, Brian Epstein asked Ritchie Galvin, the drummer with Earl Preston and the TTs, about joining The Beatles. Galvin declined the offer.

Ann Upton (Ritchie Galvin's girlfriend) : "Brian Epstein asked Ritch about joining The Beatles and he went to see Ritch's dad as he was still under age. Bob Wooler was with him to. Ritch said that he didn't agree with Pete being replaced and he didn't like John Lennon's sarcasm as he thought that they would fall out. Also, to my credit, he didn't want to be leaving me as they would be working away from Liverpool quite a lot. He never regretted it and he said, 'No, I wouldn't have you and I wouldn't have my kids and I wouldn't have this life.' I was quite surprised when they chose Ringo. He was little and skinny and weedy and had a joke of a moustache. I always thought he needed a good scrub, but it worked out OK."

The Story So Far : The Best Drummer
QuoteRingo Starr was born Richard Starkey on 7 July 1940 at 9 Madryn Street in Dingle, an inner city area of Liverpool.

Afflicted by life-threatening illnesses during childhood, he fell behind in school as a result of prolonged hospitalisations. He briefly held a position with British Rail before securing an apprenticeship as a machinist at a Liverpool equipment manufacturer. Soon afterwards, he became interested in the UK skiffle craze and developed a fervent admiration for the genre.

In 1957, he co-founded his first band, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, which earned several prestigious local bookings before the fad succumbed to American rock and roll by early 1958.

In November 1959, Starkey joined Al Caldwell's Texans, a skiffle group who were looking for someone with a proper drum kit so that the group could transition from one of Liverpool's best-known skiffle acts to a full-fledged rock and roll band. They had begun playing local clubs as the Raging Texans, then Jet Storm and the Raging Texans before settling on Rory Storm and the Hurricanes soon before recruiting Starkey. About this time he adopted the stage name Ringo Starr; derived from the rings he wore and also because it implied a country and western influence. His drum solos were billed as Starr Time.

By early 1960 the Hurricanes had become one of Liverpool's leading bands. In May, they were offered a three-month residency at a Butlins holiday camp in Wales. Although initially reluctant to accept the residency and end his five-year machinist apprenticeship that he had begun four years earlier, Starr eventually agreed to the arrangement.

The Hurricanes became so successful that when initially offered a highly coveted residency in Hamburg, they turned it down because of their prior commitment with Butlins. They eventually accepted, joining the Beatles at Bruno Koschmider's Kaiserkeller on 1 October 1960, where Starr first met the band.

Ringo performed with the Beatles during a few stand-in engagements while in Hamburg. On 15 October 1960, he drummed with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, recording with them for the first time while backing Hurricanes singer Lu Walters on the George Gershwin/DuBose Heyward aria "Summertime".



Following the sacking of Pete Best, The Beatles were quick to recruit their new drummer, and on 18 August 1962, at 10pm, Starr first performed as a member of The Beatles at the Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight for the local horticultural society's 17th annual dance.

After his appearance at the Cavern Club the following day, Best fans, upset by his firing, held vigils outside his house and at the club shouting "Pete forever! Ringo never!" Harrison received a black eye from one upset fan, and Epstein, whose car tyres they had flattened in anger, temporarily hired a bodyguard.

Starr's first recording session as a member of the Beatles took place on 4 September 1962. He stated that Martin had thought that he "was crazy and couldn't play ... because I was trying to play the percussion and the drums at the same time, we were just a four-piece band".

The 4 September recording of Love Me Do - with Ringo drumming - was released as their first single, possibly in error - as it was quickly replaced by a re-recorded version featuring yet another drummer . . .

For their second recording session with Starr, on 11 September 1962, Martin replaced him with session drummer Andy White while recording takes for what would be the two sides of the Beatles' first single. Starr played tambourine on "Love Me Do" and maracas on "P.S. I Love You". Concerned about his status in the Beatles, he thought: "That's the end, they're doing a Pete Best on me." Martin later clarified: "I simply didn't know what Ringo was like and I wasn't prepared to take any risks."

By November 1962 Starr had been accepted by Beatles fans, who were now calling for him to sing. He began receiving an amount of fan mail equal to that of the others, which helped to secure his position within the band. Starr considered himself fortunate to be on the same "wavelength" as the other Beatles: "I had to be, or I wouldn't have lasted. I had to join them as people as well as a drummer."

The Story So Far : The First Album
QuoteNationwide interest in the Beatles had been piqued with the success of their second UK single and Parlophone Records, hoping to take advantage of this, promptly decided to follow it up with an album.

George Martin : "I asked them what they had which we could record quickly, and the answer was their stage act"

Having established that the Cavern Club was unsuitable for live recording purposes they were booked into EMI Studios in Abbey Road and, on Monday 11 February 1963, recorded there instead. As both sides of their first two singles - Love Me DoPS I Love You  /  Please Please Me  / and Ask Me Why - were to be included, a further ten songs were required. Initially, a morning and afternoon session only were booked; the evening session was added later.

Richard Langham (tape operator) : "Well, it was a very cold morning and I didn't know any of them. I actually had to ask Norman Smith, who was the engineer, 'Who are they? Who are who?' so he introduced me and everything else. They were very businesslike, and they just had come down into London from the gig they had done the night before. But they were fine, just like any other group that's coming in to record. We helped them bring all their equipment in and set it all up. Because they were rushing around the country all the time and their amplifiers maybe broke down or something like that, there were no backs on the amplifiers, you see; they were just boxes with their speakers. And as I was putting it all up, we'd look for dirt inside, but there were bits of paper lying around in there, and I picked them up. They were notes from the girls from the dance floor who threw them up on the stage—they said 'Please play this, please play that, this is my phone number.' I guess they just read them and then threw them in the back of the amplifier, all of these bits of paper in there!"



The first session began at 10am. The Beatles recorded 10 takes of "There's a Place" and nine of "I Saw Her Standing There", which at the time had the working title Seventeen.

The first session finished at 1pm and the studio staff took a break for lunch. The Beatles, meanwhile, had other plans.

Richard Langham : "We told them we were having a break but they said they would like to stay on and rehearse. So while George, Norman and I went round the corner to the Heroes Of Alma for a pie and pint they stayed, drinking milk. When we came back they'd been playing right through. We couldn't believe it. We had never seen a group work right through their lunch break before."

The second session began at 2.30pm, and finished at 6pm. The Beatles began with work on "A Taste Of Honey". The best version was take five, onto which Paul McCartney double-tracked his lead vocals. This overdub was recorded in two attempts, making the final version take seven.

In between recording the basic track for A Taste Of Honey and the vocal overdubs, The Beatles recorded eight takes of "Do You Want To Know A Secret", with George Harrison on lead vocals.

With those two songs finished, John Lennon recorded a harmonica overdub onto 'There's A Place' in three attempts, and handclaps were added to take one of 'I Saw Her Standing There'.

The final song to be recorded in the afternoon session was "Misery", a Lennon-McCartney original which had originally been offered to Helen Shapiro. The song was recorded with the tapes running at double speed – 30 inches per second – to allow for a piano overdub to be laid down at the slower speed at a later date. This was added on 20 February by George Martin, without The Beatles being present.

The third session of the day took place from 7.30-10.45pm, although it had been scheduled to finish at 10pm. The Beatles firstly taped 13 takes of "Hold Me Tight", which was later reworked for their second album With The Beatles.

Of this day's attempts at 'Hold Me Tight', only two takes were complete run-throughs. Five were false starts, one broke down mid-way, and four of the takes were edit pieces intended to be spliced into the tape at a later date. The final version was to have been an edit of takes nine and 13, but this was never made and the tape was later destroyed.

The Beatles then recorded three takes of Arthur Alexander's "Anna (Go To Him)", followed by a single recording of "Boys", the latter featuring Ringo Starr simultaneously on vocals and drums.



Two more cover versions came next. George Harrison sang The Cookies' "Chains", written by Goffin and King. Four takes were recorded, although take one was later decided to be the best attempt. The Beatles then performed The Shirelles' "Baby It's You" in three takes, with Lennon on lead vocals.

By this time it was around 10pm, the time EMI Studios normally closed. The Beatles, however, still had one song to record. A discussion took place in the canteen about what this should be, and several suggestions were put forward.

Norman Smith : "Someone suggested they do Twist And Shout, the old Isley Brothers' number, with John taking the lead vocal. But by this time all their throats were tired and sore – it was 12 hours since we had started working. John's, in particular, was almost completely gone so we really had to get it right first time, The Beatles on the studio floor and us in the control room. John sucked a couple more Zubes, had a bit of a gargle with milk and away we went."

The Beatles had been performing the song for many months, and regularly used it as a show-stopper. And so it was on this day, with The Beatles putting all their energies into one final electrifying performance of "Twist and Shout", with John Lennon singing bare-chested.

John : "The last song nearly killed me. My voice wasn't the same for a long time after; every time 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 that I'm just a frantic guy doing his best."

Two takes of the song were recorded, but the first was selected for the album. Although complete, Lennon's vocals in the second take were too far gone for it to be usable. Everyone in the studio knew they had witnessed something truly special, and with the recordings complete The Beatles climbed the stairs to the control room to listen to the playback.

Richard Langham : "Sessions never normally over-ran past 10pm. At 10.05 you'd meet half the musicians on the platform of St John's Wood station, going home. But on this occasion after the first playback they decided they wanted to hear certain songs again. I glanced at Norman and at the clock and said, 'Look, I have to be in at nine tomorrow morning. How will I get home?' Brian Epstein said that he would run me home if I played the tape again. So I played the tape and he drove me back to Camden Town in his little Ford Anglia."

That day's recording cost just £400 and lasted for just under 10 working hours.

 

George Martin initially wanted to call the record "Off The Beatle Track"; Paul McCartney drew some cover ideas, although the idea was soon dropped. Martin also had ideas for the cover artwork which failed to come to fruition.

George Martin : "I was a fellow of London Zoo and, rather stupidly, thought that it would be great to have The Beatles photographed outside the insect house. But the zoo people were very stuffy indeed: 'We don't allow these kind of photographs on our premises, quite out of keeping with the good taste of the Zoological Society of London,' so the idea fell down. I bet they regret it now..."

The cover photograph was eventually taken by Angus McBean at EMI's headquarters on London's Manchester Square. Other shots that were considered included a picture of The Beatles on a spiral staircase outside the HQ, and the group kicking their legs while jumping from the steps outside the Abbey Road studios.

George Martin : "We rang up the legendary theatre photographer Angus McBean, and bingo, he came round and did it there and then. It was done in an almighty rush, like the music. Thereafter, though, The Beatles' own creativity came bursting to the fore."

"PLEASE PLEASE ME with Love Me Do and 12 other songs" was released by EMI subsidiary label Parlophone, in mono on 22 March 1963 and stereo six weeks later on 26 April 1963.

At the time of the album's release, Parlophone was in the process of changing its label design. Early pressings of the vinyl disc's label featured gold writing on a black background. This version is now highly sought after, and, due to low public demand in 1963, the stereo version is particularly valued by collectors.

Although it would eventually sell millions of copies, The album wasn't an instant hit. It took six months for sales to top 250,000, although it did top the New Musical Express, Melody Maker, Record Retailer and Disc Weekly album charts.

"Please Please Me" entered the Album charts on 6 April 1963, remaining on the rundown for a total of 70 weeks. It reached number one on 11 May, where it stayed for 30 weeks.



QuoteLennon and McCartney wrote "She Loves You" on 26 June 1963 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 in a room in the Turk's Hotel in Newcastle, prior to The Beatles' second performance at the city's Majestic Ballroom in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Paul : "It was again a she, you, me, I, personal preposition song. I suppose the most interesting thing about it was that it was a message song, it was someone bringing a message. It wasn't us any more, it was moving off the 'I love you, girl' or 'Love me do', it was a third person, which was a shift away. 'I saw her, and she said to me, to tell you, that she loves you, so there's a little distance we managed to put in it which was quite interesting."

John : "I remember it was Paul's idea: instead of singing 'I love you' again, we'd have a third party. That kind of little detail is apparently in his work now where he will write a story about someone and I'm more inclined to just write about myself."

McCartney's original idea was to have a call-and-response song, with him singing the title line and the others answering with "yeah, yeah, yeah". John Lennon, however, persuaded him otherwise.

Paul : "John and I wrote She Loves You together. There was a Bobby Rydell song [Forget Him] out at the time and, as often happens, you think of one song when you write another. We were in a van up in Newcastle. I'd planned an 'answering song' where a couple of us would sing 'She loves you...' and the other one answers, 'Yeah, yeah.' We decided that that was a crummy idea as it was, but at least we then had the idea for a song called She Loves You. So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it."

John : "I don't know where the 'yeah yeah yeah' came from but I remember when Elvis did 'All Shook Up' it was the first time in my life that I had heard 'uh huh', 'oh yeah', and 'yeah yeah' all sung in the same song".

They finished writing She Loves You the following day, at McCartney's family home in Forthlin Road, Liverpool.

Paul : "We sat in there one evening, just beavering away while my dad was watching TV and smoking his Players cigarettes, and we wrote She Loves You. We actually finished it there because we'd started it in the hotel room. We went into the living room – 'Dad, listen to this. What do you think?'' So we played it to my dad and he said, 'That's very nice, son, but there's enough of these Americanisms around. Couldn't you sing, "She loves you. Yes! Yes! Yes!"' At which point we collapsed in a heap and said, 'No, Dad, you don't quite get it!' That's my classic story about my dad. For a working-class guy that was rather a middle-class thing to say, really. But he was like that."

Norman Smith (engineer) : "I was setting up the microphone when I first saw the lyrics on the music stand, 'She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah!' I thought, Oh my God, what a lyric! This is going to be one that I do not like. But when they started to sing it – bang, wow, terrific, I was up at the mixer jogging around."

The Beatles recorded She Loves You five days after it was written, during a five-hour session in Abbey Road's studio two,  on the same day as its B-side, 'I'll Get You'.

They were especially proud of the final chord, which was previously undiscovered territory for them.

George Martin : "I was siting in my usual place on a high stool in studio two when John and Paul first ran through the songs, George joining in on the choruses. I thought it was great but was intrigued by the final chord, an odd sort of major sixth, with George doing the sixth and John and Paul the third and fifths, like a Glenn Miller arrangement. They were saying, 'It's a great chord! Nobody's ever heard it before!' Of course I knew that wasn't quite true."

Paul : "We took it to George Martin and sang 'She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeeeeeaah ...' and that tight little sixth cluster we had at the end. George [Martin] said: 'It's very corny, I would never end on a sixth'. But we said 'It's such a great sound, it doesn't matter'."

There was tremendous anticipation ahead of the release on 23 August 1963. Thousands of fans had ordered the group's next single as early as June, well before a title had been known. By the day before it went on sale, some 500,000 advanced orders had been placed for it. The single set several British sales records. It entered the charts on 31 August and remained in the charts for 31 consecutive weeks, 18 of those weeks in the top three. It passed sales of a half million copies by early June and a million by late November. The song's run on the charts coincided with the 13 October 1963 performance of the group on Sunday Night at the London Palladium and the emergence of full-blown Beatlemania in the United Kingdom.

Paul : "Brian Matthew, the radio presenter, reviewed She Loves You in Melody Maker, and called it 'banal rubbish'. None of us had heard the word 'banal' and we thought, '"Banal"? What's that? Soppy? Too rebellious? What does "banal" mean?' But when the record zoomed to number one in the Melody Maker chart the next week, he was on the front page disclaiming his comments: 'No, no – at first I thought maybe it was a little banal... but it grows on you.'"

"She Loves You" was the best-selling single of 1960s, the Beatles' all-time best-selling single in the UK, and the ninth best-selling single of all time in the UK, with sales of 1.92 million copies. More than any other song, "She Loves You" was the breakthrough that led The Beatles to international success.

Other Versions include :   The Typhoons (1963)  /  "Elle t'aime" by Les Chats Sauvages (1963)  /  Jimmy Frey (1963)  /  "Ella te quiere" by Los Pekenikes (1963)  /  Santo & Johnny (1964)  /  "Sie liebt dich" by Die Beatles (1964)  /  Sonny Curtis (1964)  /  The Ravers (1964)  /  The Liverpools (1964)  /  The Manchesters (1964)  /  The Hollyridge Strings (1964)  /    The Crickets (1964)  /  Homer and Jethro (1964)  /  Freddie Cannon (1964)  /  Billy Lee Riley (1964)  /  Bobby Vee (1964)  /  The Chipmunks (1964)  /  Buddy Morrow (1964)  /  The Johnny Mann Singers (1964)  /  Los Xochimilcas (1964)  /  Jack Nitzsche and His Orchestra (1964)   /  The Buggs (1964)  /  Keely Smith (1964)  /  The Kop (1964)  /  Peter Sellers (1964)  /  George Martin and His Orchestra (1964)  /  Tommy Scott and The Boys (1964)  /  "Ja ljubim je, je" by 4M i Bijele strijele (1964)  /  "Hän sinun on" by The Hounds (1964)  /  "Elle t'aime" by Nancy Holloway (1964)  /  Roland Montreuil (1964)  /  "Lei ti ama" by Fausto Leali (1964)  /  I Meteors (1964)  /  "Ella te quiere" by Los Gatos Negros (1964)  /  Emi Bonilla y su Cuadro Flamenco (1964)  /  Brenda Lee (1965)  /  Winifred Atwell (1965)  /  The Band of Irish Guards (1966)  /  Chet Atkins (1966)  /  Count Basie (1966)  /  101 Strings (1968)  /  The Torero Band (1969)  /  "Si 'e llave tu" by Shampoo (1980)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  Jaz James and MJ (2013)  /  Adam Rafferty (2015)  /  a gear robot (2017)  /  Mia & Alisa (2017)  /  Paul Moody & Krisha Kaye (2018)  /  Claire Ashton (2018)  /  The Surfrajettes (2018)  /  Emily Green (2019)  /  Trinity Salcedo & Ian Blain (2019)  /  Sangah Noona (2019)

On This Day :
Quote8 September : Jim Clark wins the Italian Grand Prix at Monza to clinch his first F1 World Drivers Championship
16 September : Richard Marx, rock singer, born in Chicago, Illinois
19 September : Jarvis Cocker, (Pulp), born in Sheffield, Yorkshire
20 September : JFK proposes a joint US-Soviet voyage to the moon
29 September : Les Claypool, (Primus), born in Richmond, California
30 September : "Student Gypsy" opens at 84th St Theater NYC for 16 performances
3 October : "Here's Love" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 338 performances
- - - - - - - - - - - - 
24 November : Lee Harvey Oswald shot dead two days after he killed president John F Kennedy by nightclub owner Jack Ruby live on TV
25 November : JFK laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery
26 November : Explorer 18 spacecraft launched by NASA
29 November : "I Want to Hold Your Hand" single released by The Beatles
28 November : Armando Iannucci, radio producer, born in Glasgow, Scotland
2 December : Sabu Dastagir, Indian actor, dies of a heart attack at 39
5 December : Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards, Olympic ski jumper, born Michael Edwards in Cheltenham, England
6 December : The Beatles begin a tradition of releasing a Christmas record for fans - 1963

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
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daf

SCHEDULE UPDATE :

The new service will be 5 times a week monday to friday - with saturday & sunday off.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It's now taking me so long to prepare some of these posts, that I've fallen WAY behind, and some drastic measures are required to keep this thread from hitting the buffers.

So, to give me some time to catch up, I'm basically going to have to take the weekends off (starting from tomorrow) - Hope that's OK with everyone.


daf


sevendaughters

I do hope you're publishing your work elsewhere btw, this stuff is gold

daf

Aw, cheers.

No, this is the only place I publish my (hem, hem) "work" - I'm actually an illustrator/cartoonist in real job life - this is just my exhausting hobby.

Artie Fufkin


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on September 06, 2019, 03:16:41 PM
Love this stuff, Daf. Thanks ever so for doing this.

Likewise. This is one of the toppermost threads on CaB.

Crabwalk

Unbelievable work, daf. Take whatever breaks you need to keep this baby sustainable!

daf

Ah, bless you playmates - if you could see the soppy grin on my face right now!

I'm even OK with you going back to your August schedule one post per 48 hours if that helps.

daf

I think I should be OK with 5 a week - see how it goes.

I may take it at 'half-speed' over Christmas / New Year, though - as I don't really want to be spending my Christmas Eve trawling the net for photos of Brian frigging Poole!

purlieu

Bad to Me's alright.
She Loves You, that's a step up though. What a tune.

We've had some long stays at the top recently, I can't believe 1963's almost over.

Obviously I'm furious about this going down to five days a week, but I suppose I'll let you off as long as you promise to publish all this in a book at the end of your endeavour.

Quote from: daf on September 06, 2019, 05:26:09 PM
I think I should be OK with 5 a week - see how it goes.

I may take it at 'half-speed' over Christmas / New Year, though - as I don't really want to be spending my Christmas Eve trawling the net for photos of Brian frigging Poole!

No worries.

kalowski

Whatever works for you, daf. This stuff is amazing but must be like a second job!

Has anyone heard that second take of Twist and Shout with Lennon's utterly fucked voice?

kalowski

Although Prince Buster claims to have written it, I think of this as my favourite cover of She Loves You.

Prince Buster also did 'All My Loving'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkFG5SoXsVk&list=PL2B6B9D9FF7AF6FAA&index=8&t=0s

But the most sophisticated Jamaican Beatles cover has to be Ernest Ranglin doing 'You Won't See Me' like a Hawaiian guitar piece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCouVQ3BQpA

non capisco

Quote from: daf on September 06, 2019, 03:25:15 PM
Ah, bless you playmates - if you could see the soppy grin on my face right now!

These threads are so insanely great, daf. Thank you, man.

machotrouts

The "yeah"s are very good. They wrote some quality "yeah"s there, and fair play, they absolutely nailed recording them too. Just excellent "yeah" action all round. I like the Beatles now. "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" < See. Good

daf

Set Whammy Bar to Splosh!, it's . . .

158.  Brian Poole and The Tremeloes - Do You Love Me



From : 6 – 26 October 1963
Weeks : 3
Flip side : Why Can't You Love Me
bonus : NME Awards Concert

QuoteBrian Poole was born on 2 November 1941 at the age of 0 and in the nude. He grew up in Barking, East London.

Brian met Alan Blakley and Alan Howard, at Park Modern Secondary School. In 1956, heavily influenced by their interest of rock and roll music, they decided to form a band. The original line-up consisted of Brian Poole (vocals, guitar), Alan Blakley (guitar), Alan Howard (bass) and Graham Scott (guitar).

While still in their teens the band members met and befriended Dave Munden, who shared a love and passion for rock 'n' roll. A strong bond was formed which saw Munden join the band on the drums in 1957. A swift change of tactics saw Brian Poole relinquish the guitar to take the title of lead vocalist and front the band.

In the early years The Tremeloes were inspired by Buddy Holly & the Crickets and mainly covered their songs. They quickly gained local fame by playing at small venues in the area; during that time their singing style developed and flourished. With Brian Poole's Buddy-style glasses and the band's unique style of harmony, the Tremeloes soon developed a wide fan base and following. This continued to grow until they became one of the top dance hall attractions across Great Britain.

On New Year's Day in 1962, the Tremeloes auditioned for a record contract with Decca Records along with another up-and-coming band called The Beatles. Their regular slot on BBC Radio, large following, and because they were local and would require lower travel expenses (!!) meant that the Tremeloes were an "obvious" choice, and they were signed by the record label.

Upon signing with Decca, the company bosses insisted that the band be billed as Brian Poole and the Tremeloes since this was the trend at the time. The band accepted this as one price of pursuing success, and Poole became the perceived star of the band. They cut a series of records backing other artists -- including the Vernons Girls "The Locomotion", and DJ Jimmy Savile's version of "Ahab the Arab".

 

Their first single, "Twist Little Sister" was released in April 1962, this was followed by "Blue" (Sep 1962)  /  "A Very Good Year For Girls" (Jan 1963)  /  and "Keep On Dancing" in March 1963.

Their fifth single, a 'La Bamba'-eque version of the Isley Brothers song, "Twist and Shout", was released in June 1963, and became their first chart entry - reaching number four in the UK singles chart in March 1963, selling over 1 million copies.

In September 1963, their next single, "Do You Love Me", reached number one in the UK charts, knocking the Beatles "She Loves You" from the top slot. "Do You Love Me" remained at the top of the charts for three weeks.



Despite this early promise, their subsequent chart performances proved to be somewhat erratic, with "I Can Dance" struggling to #31 in December, Bouncing back with the Top 6 "Candy Man" in February 1964, and a Top 2 placing with "Someone, Someone" in May 1964, which also became their highest chart placing in the US - peaking at #97 in August 1964.

"Twelve Steps To Love" followed in August 1964, reaching #32, and "Three Bells" came next - a #17 hit in January 1965.

After "After Awhile" failed to dent the hit parade in April, Brian Poole's last chart entry was a cover of The Strangeloves "I Want Candy" - which climbed to #25 in July 1965.

One last single with The Tremeloes, "Good Lovin'", was released in November 1965.

Poole's solo career got off to a bad start when "Hey Girl" (b/w "Please Be Mine") flopped in May 1966, while the Tremeloes continued as a four-piece band with a revised line-up  - with Len "Chip" Hawkes, father of 1990s one-hit wonder Chesney Hawkes, replacing Alan Howard.

The new 'Poole-less' version of The Tremeloes would go on to have even more chart success . . . while, in between performing, Poole worked in his brother's butchers shop in Romford Road, Manor Park (East London) . . . it's a shit business!

In 1988 Brian Poole hooked up with four other stars from the 1960s; Reg Presley from the Troggs, Mike Pender of the Searchers fame, Tony Crane from the Merseybeats and Clem Curtis from the Foundations. Together they formed The Corporation, also more affectionately known as the Travelling Wrinklies (chortle!). They released a version of the classic Showstoppers hit, "It Ain't Nothin' but a Houseparty" as a single.

In 1996 Poole also wrote his first book entitled Talkback, which is a guide to cockney rhyming slang and is brimming with his native cockney wit. In August, the same year, his daughters, Karen and Shelly, hit the charts as Alisha's Attic with the Top 14 hit "I Am, I Feel".

Quote"Do You Love Me" was written by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr. with the intention that The Temptations, who had no Top 40 hits to their name yet, would record it. However, when Gordy wanted to locate the group and record the song, they were nowhere to be found.

After spending some time looking for the Temptations, (they were at a local Detroit gospel music showcase at the time), Gordy ran into The Contours in the hallway. Wanting to record and release "Do You Love Me" as soon as possible, Gordy decided to let them record his "sure-fire hit" instead of the Temptations. The Contours, who were in danger of being dropped from the label after their first two singles ("Whole Lotta' Woman" and "The Stretch") failed to chart.

Selling over a million copies, The Contours recording of "Do You Love Me" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks starting on October 20, 1962. None of the Contours' future singles lived up to the success of "Do You Love Me", although its success won the group a headlining position on Motown's very first Motor Town Revue tour.

Gordy viewed the song as an example of the musical overlap between rhythm and blues, pop, and rock and roll, telling Billboard in 1963 : "It was recorded R&B, but by the time it reached the half-million mark, it was considered pop. And if we hadn't recorded it with a Negro artist, it would have been considered rock and roll."

Like many American R&B songs of the 1960s, "Do You Love Me?" was covered by a number of British Invasion groups. Three British groups who recorded their own versions of the song were Brian Poole and the Tremeloes (who hit number one with it in the UK Singles Chart after learning it from Liverpool's Faron's Flamingos), The Dave Clark Five, and The Hollies.

Other Versions include :   Chubby Checker & Dee Dee Sharp (1962)  /  Ray Pilgrim (1963)  /  "C'est comme ça, dis" by Jimmy Frey (1963)  /  The Miracles (1963)  /  The Kingsmen (1964)  /  The Supremes (1964)  /  Paul Revere and The Raiders (1965)  /  The Sonics (1965)  /  The Gentrys (1965)  /  Jackie Lee (1966)  /  Thee Midniters (1966)  /  Deep Feeling (1970)  /  Mud (1974)  /  Ronski & Exotic (1975)  /  Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers (1977)  /  Silicon Teens (1980)  /  The Boppers (1980)  /  The Juniors (1980)  /  Larry & The Movers (1983)  /  Andy Fraser (1984)  /  David Hasselhoff (1984)  /  Bryce Tingtong (1985)  /  The Chipmunks (1988)  /  Vinnie Jones (2002)  /  Castillo Kids (2010)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Two Blokes, Two Ukes (2011)  /  JayCee (2013)  /  Andy Lange (2015)  /  Lily Berry et Lorène Devienne (2016)  /  Acapella Soul (2018)  /  Naudo (2018)  /  a robot (2019)

On This Day :
Quote7 October : President John F Kennedy signs ratification for nuclear test ban treaty
9 October : British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan resigns and is replaced by Alec Douglas-Home
10 October : "From Russia With Love" 2nd James Bond film premieres in London
11 October : Édith Piaf, French singer, dies of liver cancer at 47
11 October : Jean Cocteau, French poet and writer, dies at 73
12 October : "Student Gypsy" closes at 84th St Theater NYC after 16 performances
13 October : "Beatlemania" is coined after Beatles appear at Palladium
17 October : "Jennie" opens at Majestic Theater NYC
17 October : The Beatles record "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at EMI Studios in London
20 October : France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria
20 October : South Africa begins trial of Nelson Mandela & 8 others on conspiracy
23 October : Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" premieres in NYC
24 October : "110 in the Shade" opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 330 performances
26 October : Natalie Merchant, (10,000 Maniacs), born in Jamestown, New York

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
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