It was 50 years ago today, 11 February 1963 in case you can't do the math, that the Beatles entered the EMI Studios on Abbey Road in St. John's Wood to record their first LP. That's right, they recorded the LP in one day......sort of.
That day, 50 years ago, was a pivotal day in the career of the group. A major turning point. For some 3 years or so they had been performing nearly every day in clubs, halls and ballrooms in the Liverpool area and in Hamburg. They were rockers who provided dance music. On the first day of 1962 they recorded 15 songs for Decca at their studio in London, but the label chose to pass on them and didn't offer them a contract. Six months later, on June 6, EMI offered them a studio audition under the supervision of producers Ron Richards and George Martin. They recorded 4 songs: Besame Mucho and 3 originals they wrote themselves: Love Me Do, PS I Love You and Ask Me Why. Feeling they had nothing to lose, EMI offered them a contract and had them return on Sept. 4 for a proper recording session. Shortly before that session they replaced drummer Pete Best with Ringo Starr.
At the insistence of Martin, they recorded a song written by Mitch Murray called How Do You Do It? along with Love Me Do, which they had decided would be their first A-side. Unsatisfied with the results, they were asked to return for another session on Sept. 11. This time they got to record 3 of their own songs (Love Me Do, PS I Love You and an early version of Please Please Me) but the EMI staff insisted they use session drummer Andy White. On October 5, their first single, Love Me Do b/w PS I Love You, was released.
The group returned to London on 26 November to record their next single: Please Please Me b/w Ask Me Why. They also did several takes of another song they wrote called Tip Of My Tongue. Unhappy with the arrangement, it was decided to return to it at a future session but they never did. They gave it to singer Tommy Quickly and then headed off to Hamburg again. The single was released 11 January 1963 and it was a big hit.....and that is what led to the decision to have them record a LP. Returning from Germany, they had spent a week performing in Scotland and then continued the regular routine of clubs and halls around the north before heading down to London for the session.
In 1963 LP's were the secondary format to singles and would remain so until around 1968 when everything in the music business got turned upside down. The success of the Beatles was certainly one of the main reasons for the change. With 4 songs from their two singles available for the LP, they had to record the balance in one day as the next day they departed on a large package tour of ballrooms and halls with about 7 other acts that were headlined by Helen Shapiro who was about 16 at the time. This was a first for them. Instead of providing dance music for two hours for a club or dance hall, they only had to play 4 songs per show and did so as "performers" for an audience who purchased tickets to enter the venue to watch and listen. They now had a big hit record under their belts and their popularity was rapidly spreading.
Very briefly, that is what brings us up to this date 50 years ago. The rest of this post is going to look at what went on in EMI Studio 2 that day except to mention one last thing in regards to the day being a turning point. After what they accomplished on this day 50 years ago, EMI lost any doubts they had in them and fully realized they were onto something special and believed in them.
The 13 hours-or-so session began around 10 am. The Beatles had two songs they were anxious to get recorded and use for the LP and they went right to work on them. The first one was There's A Place. They did 10 takes.
Here's Take 1:
Take 2:
Take 3, a false start, into Take 4:
Take 5, a false start, into Take 6:
Take 7, a false start, into Take 8:
Take 9:
Take 10:
At this point they gave There's A Place a rest and moved on to the next song: I Saw Her Standing There. A great rocking song, they had been performing it live for at least several months. This is a performance from October 1962 at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
and this one is supposedly New Year's Eve 1962 at the Star Club in Hamburg
At EMI they did 9 takes before taking a break. Take 1:
Take 2:
Takes 3, 4 and 5 were all edit pieces.
Takes 6 (breakdown), 7 and 8 were false starts - into Take 9:
At this point it was early afternoon and the morning session was over. The EMI staff headed to a pub for lunch while the Beatles remained in Studio 2 to rehearse for the afternoon session. When things resumed they did 5 takes of another song they had been performing live but was not a song they wrote: A Taste Of Honey. A Taste Of Honey was a 1958 British play written by then 18 year old Shelagh Delaney. In 1960 it opened on Broadway and the music for this song was added as a recurring theme. In 1961 it was made into a film in the UK and is now a kitchen sink classic. Lyrics were added to the music in 1962 and it was recorded by Lenny Welch and that was the inspiration for the Beatles recording.
The Beatles recorded 5 takes of the song. Take 1 was complete, but unsatisfactory. Takes 2 and 3 broke down, Take 4 was complete as was Take 5 but at that point they moved on to the next song, another Lennon-McCartney song but with the lead vocal by George Harrison, Do You Want To Know A Secret? Take 1 was a false start, Takes 2, 3 and 4 complete, Take 5 a false start, then Take 6 complete. They then did Take 7:
Following Take 7 they deemed Take 6 the best but wanted to do an 8th Take to get some added vocals and percussion dubbed onto Take 6. Take 8:
On Feb. 25 mixing Take 8 was done to create the mono master of the song. Stereo was just an afterthought back then. All the effort went into the mono mix and I'm not even sure if those original mono masters are still available these days, so I'll post them here. Finally, they had one song done. About a month later it was recorded by, and became a hit for, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas.
Do You Want To Know A Secret? - original mono master
Then they returned to A Taste Of Honey. Take 6:
At this point it was decided Take 5 was best but they wanted to record a Take 7 to dub added vocals onto Take 5, double-tracking them to get a fuller sound and creating a Take 8:
Editing and mixing was done 25 Feb. and here's the original mono master of A Taste Of Honey:
Then they returned to There's A Place. Take 11 which was an overdub of harmonica onto Take 10:
Take 12, a false start, into Take 13:
Take 13 was mixed and mastered on Feb. 25:
Next, they finished off I Saw Her Standing There. Take 10:
At that point they decided Take 1 was "best" and Take 11 (false start) and 12 are overdubbed hand claps onto Take 1. They later took the opening "1-2-3-4" from Take 9 and edited it onto Take 1.
Mixing and editing was done Feb. 25 and here's the original mono master:
Next up was another song they wrote, in fact they wrote it for Helen Shapiro but she turned them down. Too bad as it is very well-suited for her voice and style. What was she thinking? The song was Misery. Take 1:
Takes 2, 3, 4 and 5 were all either false starts or break downs - into Take 6:
Misery - Take 7:
Misery - Take 8:
Takes 9 and 10 were false starts. Take 11 was deemed best and on Feb. 20 George Martin added 4 more takes to overdub piano onto Take 11. On Feb, 25 it was all mixed and mastered and here's the original mono master of Take 11 with George Martin's piano overdubs:
That brought the afternoon session to a close. Everyone took a tea break and when they returned the Beatles tackled another new composition of theirs, a song called Hold Me Tight. They would record 13 takes of which only 2 were complete. The rest were false starts, break downs or edits. They decided a master could be made from Takes 9 and 13 but it was never done as they felt the song was surplus to what was needed for the LP. The tapes were wiped and on Sept. 12, 1963 they recorded it again. At this point time was getting very tight. They needed 5 more songs so they decided to dig into their stage repertoire and record 5 songs as quickly as possible. All of them were cover versions of recent American hits. First up was Arthur Alexander's "Anna". Lennon seemed to really admire the country-soul songs of Alexander as the Beatles later recorded his Soldier Of Love and A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues for the BBC. (The Rolling Stones recorded his You Better Move On early in their career.)
Next up was the song Boys with Ringo Starr on vocals. It was a cover of the 1960 hit by The Shirelles.
Ringo and the boys nailed it in 1 take. Here's the original mono master:
Next they tackled Chains, the 1962 hit for the Cookies written by Gerry Goffin & Carole King.
The Beatles recorded a complete take on Take 1. Takes 2 and 3 broke down. The did a complete Take 4 but decided Take 1 was best. Here is the original mono master:
Up next was a cover of another song by The Shirelles: Baby It's You, a hit for them in 1961.
Now it was 10 pm. They had been at it for 12 hours and it was time for the studio to close but they need one more song. They had been doing everything they could to preserve their voices and they were going to have to give it another go. After some discussion it was decided to do Twist And Shout. The song was originally done by The Top Notes in 1961
but in 1962 it was recorded by, and became a hit for, The Isley Brothers and there is no doubt that this is the version that inspired The Beatles
There was still mixing and mastering to be done, but after the nearly 13 hour marathon session The Beatles had their first LP in the can. The LP, Please Please Me, was released March 22, and the rest is history. By the time the LP was on the shelves, they had returned to EMI and recorded their 3rd single, From Me To You b/w Thank You Girl, which was released April 11. They had also recorded a third song, a song they had been playing for many years, that would end up not being released until 1995: One After 909. Some years later as they were nearing the end of their road, they performed it during the famous "rooftop" performance of 30 January 1969, a snippet of which appeared on their final LP.
