Post by petrolino on Sept 3, 2021 21:31:52 GMT
Spies Like Us
"In terms of British cultural exports, there may not be a more significant day than Oct. 5, 1962. That's when the Beatles' debut single, "Love Me Do," and the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, were released.
"Love Me Do" was one of four songs - along with "P.S. I Love You," "Ask Me Why" and "Besame Mucho" - the Beatles played for George Martin at their Parlophone Records audition at London's Abbey Road Studios in June. The producer thought enough to sign the band, which had been building steam over the previous few years thanks to success in Liverpool and Hamburg clubs. But they weren't happy with their drummer, Pete Best. So, they replaced him with Ringo Starr.
On Sept. 4, the Beatles returned to Abbey Road for their first proper session, recording "Love Me Do." But Martin wasn't sure about their new drummer. So, he brought them back a week later and had session drummer Andy White take over, with Starr playing tambourine. Still, the version with Starr on drums was tapped as their first single; the take featuring White ended up on the band's debut album, Please Please Me.
With John Lennon's bluesy harmonica inspired by Delbert McClinton's work on Bruce Channel's "Hey Baby," the song peaked at No. 17 on the U.K. chart. But the Beatles may have gotten some inside help. Rumors persist that manager Brian Epstein ordered somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 copies for the record department in the store his family owned to boost the song's chart placement.
Regardless, it performed well enough for Martin to authorize a second Beatles single. In late November, they came back with a faster arrangement of a song they had played for Martin in September, "Please Please Me." Released in January 1963, the song topped two of the three U.K. singles' charts, kicking off the phenomenon that, by the end of the year, would be known as Beatlemania."
"Love Me Do" was one of four songs - along with "P.S. I Love You," "Ask Me Why" and "Besame Mucho" - the Beatles played for George Martin at their Parlophone Records audition at London's Abbey Road Studios in June. The producer thought enough to sign the band, which had been building steam over the previous few years thanks to success in Liverpool and Hamburg clubs. But they weren't happy with their drummer, Pete Best. So, they replaced him with Ringo Starr.
On Sept. 4, the Beatles returned to Abbey Road for their first proper session, recording "Love Me Do." But Martin wasn't sure about their new drummer. So, he brought them back a week later and had session drummer Andy White take over, with Starr playing tambourine. Still, the version with Starr on drums was tapped as their first single; the take featuring White ended up on the band's debut album, Please Please Me.
With John Lennon's bluesy harmonica inspired by Delbert McClinton's work on Bruce Channel's "Hey Baby," the song peaked at No. 17 on the U.K. chart. But the Beatles may have gotten some inside help. Rumors persist that manager Brian Epstein ordered somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 copies for the record department in the store his family owned to boost the song's chart placement.
Regardless, it performed well enough for Martin to authorize a second Beatles single. In late November, they came back with a faster arrangement of a song they had played for Martin in September, "Please Please Me." Released in January 1963, the song topped two of the three U.K. singles' charts, kicking off the phenomenon that, by the end of the year, would be known as Beatlemania."
- Dave Lifton, Ultimate Classic Rock
"The Beatles were intellectually, educationally and temperamentally unsuited to espionage. Of the four of them, the only one who’d had anything resembling third-level education was Lennon, who’d been to art school, of all places, and was an instinctive rebel and cynic who would have been highly unlikely to want to spy for his country. McCartney and Harrison never went further than secondary school; Starkey (to use his real name for the moment) was barely educated at all, although as Lennon pointed out, he was surprisingly sharp for someone who’d missed years of school through illness."
- Alex Johnston, Quora
“My dear girl, there are some things that just aren't done, such as drinking Dom Perignon '53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius). That's just as bad as listening to The Beatles without earmuffs.”
