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Early Beatles Recording Sessions
During the Beatles earliest recording session they were able to convince George to release a Beatles composition "Love Me Do" instead of the Mitch Murray song "How Do You Do It."
They were both right as the Beatles scored their first hit with "Love Me Do", it went to #21 on Britains's Melody Maker chart, while "How Do You Do It" was a Number 1 hit for Gerry & the Pacemakers. During these early Beatles recording sessions they recorded their songs live, as if in concert, and it was "get it right or do it again". We'll start this section with the recording of the Beatles first UK album Please Please Me.
The Beatles would have just one day off and would be playing live every night. With just a 2-track tape recorder to work with, most of recording was done as a live in-studio performance. Get it right the first time or start the song again. The only songs that included studio tricks were:
The boys started work that day at 10:00 AM and didn’t finish until 10:45 PM. The last number recorded for the album was "Twist & Shout", with John on lead vocal (like you didn’t know that). What you might not know was he had a bad cold that day and his voice was almost shot so they knew that he would only be able to do it once. John, who was completely exhausted, took off his shirt and belted one of the hottest vocal performances I’ve ever heard. He really knocked it out of the park.
This 1st album would contain 8 McCartney/Lennon original compositions (sorry Yoko but that is how they are listed on this historic album).
Plus, it had 6 cover versions that are now more famous than their original recordings. See our Beatles Covered page for more details on these songs.
*While in its infancy, “I Saw Her Standing There” was called “Seventeen” and went “She was just 17…never been a beauty queen” which John suggested they change to “You know what I mean”. Paul claims that the new line meant nothing but sounded much better. But it sure meant something to me and millions of other kids around the world. It simply meant she was hot. This one one of the first songs that I got to hear all the studio sessions on and it was a real eye opener. Paul flubs a line in take 4 and tries to cover his ass by saying “But the tempo’s too fast.” It was the second song they recorded that day and Paul was still a little hyper. But a great rock song, I’d put it on my Top 15. **“Misery”, according to Paul “Was written for Helen Shapiro because "we were going on tour with her and, being young lads with an eye for opportunity, we thought well, even if she does it on a B-side, this’ll be very good for our songwriting.” It was rejected by her record company but Kenny Lynch, who was also on the tour, liked it and recorded it. He became the first person to record a Lennon- McCartney song. July 1st, 1963: Recording of “She Loves You”, the song was written by John and Paul together in a hotel room in Newcastle- upon- Tyne on June 26, 1963. According to George Martin: “I was sitting in my usual place on a high stool when Paul and John ran through it on their acoustic guitars, George joined 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." Engineer Norman “Hurricane” Smith remembers this about the session: “I was setting up the microphone when I saw the lyrics on the music stand. I thought I’ll just have a quick look. ‘She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah She Loves You 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 singing it- bang, wow, terrific, I was up at the mixer dancing around." Second Engineer Geoff Emerick remembers this about that day: “I met Neil Aspinall that day, as he stuck out his hand to shake mine, I asked him where the Beatles were & he gave me a funny look and said “The boys are out in the alley having their pictures taken…that is if the fans haven’t torn them to bits yet.” A few minutes later the boys burst in and everyone seemed especially exuberant and excited about the fans outside. John made a joke about the “barbarians storming the walls.” "In those early days of BEATLEMANIA, there always seemed to be at least a hundred girls camped outside the studio in hopes of seeing one or more of the group dash to and from their cars. On this particular day, the Beatles had, unusually, shown up hours before the session to pose for pictures in an alleyway behind the studio, giving the girls plenty of time to call their friends, and now the crowd had swelled even larger than usual." "By climbing on the top of the walls around the studio perimeter, the girls could see them, and the four Beatles had been had been waving and smiling to them throughout the afternoon, adding fuel to the fire." "As John, Paul and George tuned up in the studio and I was moving the microphone on the bass amplifier back, Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall burst in shouting “FANS!” John said “What the bloody hell are you on about?” "Before Mal could get out the answer, the studio door flew open and a determined teenage girl sprinted in, heading straight for a bewildered looking Ringo, hunched behind his drum kit. Instinctively, Neil launched himself at her making a perfect American football style tackle and brought her to the ground." "As Mal dragged the sobbing teenager out the door, Neil caught his breath and broke the news: somehow the huge crowd of girls had overpowered the police and broken through the front door. Dozens of rabid fans were racing around the EMI facility in desperate search of the Fab Four. “It’s a bloody madhouse out there. You’ve got to see it to believe it” shouted Neil." "The head of Security, John Skinner, poked in his head and said “Is everyone alright? We better barricade the door until we can round them all up.” Curious, I poked my head out the door and what I saw astounded, amazed and even frightened me…but it also made me burst out in laughter. Scores of hysterical screaming girls were racing down the corridors chased by a handful of out-of-breath, beleaguered London bobbies. Every time one would catch up with a fan another two or three would go racing past. They didn’t’ know whether to hang on to the one they had or go after the others. Doors were opening and slamming shut with alarming regularity, terrified staffers were having their hair pulled (just in case they happened to be a Beatles in disguise), and everyone in sight was running at top speed." "The fans were totally out of control. The grim determination on their faces, punctuated by their animal like screaming made the whole thing even more bizarre. I went back to the studio to find a grim faced Mal Evans (he was 6’6”) standing on guard with his arms crossed, and John , Paul and George running around the studio imitating the girls. Throughout the rest of the day Neil would periodically burst into the studio with updated reports on the state of the fan siege." "There’s no doubt in my mind that the excitement of the day helped spark a new level of energy in the group’s playing. “She Loves You” was a fantastic song, with a powerhouse beat and a relentless hook. Norman Smith and I agreed that it was destined to be a hit. There was a level of intensity in that performance that I had not heard before and have rarely heard since. I still judge that single to be one of the most exciting performances of the Beatles entire career." July 30th 1963-
January 29th 1964- April 16th 1964- Now, what the very interesting opening chord is, has been discussed and dissected many times. So we thought we would go to the source, George Harrison, who discussed that in an online chat on 2/15/2001 Q: Mr. Harrison, what is the opening chord you used for "A Hard Day's Night"? A: It is F with a G on top, it sounds better on a 12-string, but you'll have to ask Paul about the bass note to get the proper story. Paul is playing a D on the bass. The closing jangly guitar notes are the same as the opening chord but picked instead of strummed. The Beatles recorded “I Feel Fine” on Sunday October 18th, 1964. The song’s opening sound was reported in the press as being an ‘electronic accident’. Which could not be further from the truth, as it appears on all 9 Takes recorded that day. It was created by Paul plucking a single bass string and John getting amplifier feedback from his guitar. This song it still one my favorites, and as usual, the melody and harmonies get me. Beatles In The Studio:
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When the Beatles first went into EMI's Abbey Road recording studios to make those early Beatles records they were the artist and George Martin was the boss, the conductor, the arranger and the man who had the final say as to what the Beatles songs would sound like and whether or not they got recorded or released. I'll share some "thoughts" from 
On 2/11/63 The Beatles recorded 10 songs in 10 hours to complete their 1st UK album Please Please Me. (is that even possible for a band today?) The Beatles had very little time for recording as they were in the middle of touring with Helen Shapiro, during the month of February 1963. 
They then had a mid-afternoon BBC radio rehearsal and recording session at the Playhouse in London for the BBC radio show Saturday Club. Then it was back to EMI’s Abbey Road Studio #2 from 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM where they recorded Takes 8-14 of “Money, That’s What I Want”, Takes 4-8 of “Till There Was You”, Takes 1-8 of “Roll Over Beethoven”, Takes 11-23 of “It Won’t Be Long” and Takes 1-14 of “All My Loving.”
