60 years Ago: BEATLES RECORD FOR EMI AND BBC
After spending a week at the seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare, the Beatles were back in the studio on July 30, 1963. It was a busy and productive day in London, with the group recording at Abbey Road for EMI and at the Playhouse Theatre for BBC radio. The morning was spent at Abbey Road’s Studio Two, where the Beatles completed Please Mister Postman in nine takes and began work on It Won’t Be Long. Then it was off to the BBC. After being interviewed by Phil Tate for the show Non Stop Pop, the Beatles recorded six songs for the August 24 edition of Saturday Club. In addition to performing both sides of their soon-to-be-released single, She Loves You and I’ll Get You, they knocked out four cover tunes, Long Tall Sally, Glad All Over, Twist And Shout and You Really Got A Hold On Me. By 5:00 pm, they were back at Abbey Road. The Beatles recorded a remake of Till There Was You and a cover of Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven, before coming back to It Won’t Be Long. And as if that wasn’t enough, they recorded what many consider to be one of Paul’s finest songs, All My Loving.
On Wednesday, the group closed out the month of July with an appearance at the Imperial Ballroom in Nelson. The month of August began with the group recording two more shows for their BBC radio show, Pop Go The Beatles, this time at the Playhouse Theatre in Manchester. For the August 27 edition, they performed She Loves You plus five covers, Ooh! My Soul, Don’t Ever Change, Twist And Shout, Anna and A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues. For the September 3 show, they recorded eight songs, though only six were used in the show. The broadcasted songs were From Me To You, I’ll Get You, Money, There’s A Place, Honey Don’t and Roll Over Beethoven. The songs Lucille and Baby It’s You were not used.
The weekend started with the Beatles back in Liverpool for a Friday night concert at Grafton Rooms and a Saturday night show at the Cavern on August 3. On Sunday, the group traveled to Blackpool for a show at Queen’s Theatre.
Today’s trivia questions cover the songs recorded by the Beatles for EMI and the BBC during the week discussed above.
- What were the two Motown songs recorded by the Beatles on July 30 and who were the artists that originally recorded the songs?
- What song recorded on July 30 would be the biggest selling record of the year (1963) in the U.K. in its EMI-recorded version?
- What song recorded on July 30 would be the fourth biggest selling record of the year (1963) in the U.K. in its EMI-recorded version?
- What song recorded on July 30 had the same title as the third biggest selling record of the year (1963) in the U.K., but was an entirely different song? Who were the two recording artists linked to the two different songs with the same title?
- Of the songs recorded for the August 27, 1963 edition of Pop Go The Beatles, which two songs were previously recorded by the same artist (not counting the Beatles) and who was that artist?
- Who sang lead on the version of Honey Don’t recorded for the September 3, 1963 edition of Pop Go The Beatles?
- What was the significance of the Beatles performance at the Cavern on August 3, 1963?
- The two Motown songs were Please Mister Postman by the Marvelettes and You Really Got A Hold On Me by the Miracles. Both were actually on Motown’s Tamla subsidiary label and both would end up on the Beatles second LP, With The Beatles.
- She Loves You would be the biggest selling record in the U.K. for 1963. I Want To Hold Your Hand was second.
- Twist And Shout, although released on the Twist And Shout EP rather than as a single, was the fourth biggest selling record in the U.K. for 1963, selling over 650,000 copies.
- Glad All Over as recorded by the Dave Clark Five was the third biggest selling record in the U.K. for 1963. The Glad All Over recorded by the Beatles was an entirely different song that was previously recorded by Carl Perkins.
- Anna and A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues were previously recorded by one of John’s favorite singers, Arthur Alexander.
- John was the lead singer on this version of Honey Don’t. The lead vocal was handed over to Ringo for the EMI-recorded version of the song.
- The August 3, 1963, show at the Cavern was the Beatles last performance at the club.