AboutMelissa Davis Expertise I feel extremely comfortable with my ability to answer questions regarding The Beatles personally - backgrounds, family, education, and the genesis of the group from inception to the end. I do not feel that I have the expertise to answer extremely technical questions regarding equipment, other than to refer the questioner to other sources.
Experience Besides having been the right age at the right time to live through and enjoy The Beatles, I have continued my interest in them, in their music, and their influence on 20th century - in everything from the obvious, music, to fashion, humor, film, politics, and the music industry. As a dedicated Anglophile, I have studied at the University of London as an undergraduate and traveled in the UK extensively - yes, walked across Abbey Road, visited Savile Row - all of it. Beyond that, I am a teacher and a writer with excellent writing, editing, and research skills.
Publications The Copy Workshop advertising series
Colorado Law Journal
Various magazines
Education/Credentials B.A. History & Political Science, M.A. English History, J.D.
Awards and Honors Teacher of the Year, Archdiocese of Dallas (2000)
Expert: Melissa Davis Date: 6/10/2008 Subject: Rare Beatle songs
Question Can you tell me any names of Beatle songs that never mad eit onto an album or never recorded? I know 'High Ho Silver' was one of them.
And how come George's songs like 'Its All Too Much', 'You Like Me Too Much', 'If I Needed Someone', etc...were never on a Beatles album?
And The Beatles Live At the BBC has songs like Young Blood and Nothin' Shakin'. How come those songs were never on a Beatles album?
Answer
First, here’s some information about specific songs you asked about, which were in fact recorded and released by the Beatles, both in the United States and the United Kingdom.
You Like Me Too Much – released in the US on June 14, 1965 on BEATLES VI; in the UK on Help! August 6, 1965.
If I Needed Someone – released in the UK on Rubber Soul December 3, 1965 and in the US on "YESTERDAY"... AND TODAY on June 20, 1966.
It’s All Too Much – on the soundtrack to Yellow Submarine, released in the United States on January 13 and in the UK on January 17, 1969.
Secondly, about the choices they made and the way they made them as to what to include for release on albums.
The Beatles started playing together in the 50s – John and Paul in the fall of 1957 with George joining them in March of 1958. Ringo was coming up through another group at the same time and then worked with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes for 2-3 years before joining the Beatles officially in 1962. He had jammed with them, recorded a song in Hamburg with them in place of Pete Best, and played at the same club for months before ‘sitting in’ with them at Liverpool gigs when Best didn’t show.
None of the Beatles studied music or could read notation. They learned to play by ear – that is, they listened to something on the radio. There was limited air time for rock and rock in Britain at that time, usually an hour and a half a week on Saturday morning, but teenagers tried to listen to Radio Luxembourg, which did allow rock. They would try to play what they had heard or if someone was going to be on television, they might try to watch and ‘see’ how the chords were formed as the song was played. They literally played ‘at’ each other.
They would share these chords with each other and sometimes, if they heard someone else knew a chord, they’d track that person down and ask to be shown how to play it.
They had one more option to learn songs – go to one of the few record stores (Brian Epstein had a shop that had a record department) and try to learn it in the listening booth. Since it didn’t involve actually buying the record, shop owners didn’t like them hanging around all afternoon listening to a song for free, so their time in listening booths was limited!
When they went to Hamburg the first time in August 1960, they found that they were expected to draw in an audience by playing loud music and then keep the audience there for the rest of the night by putting on a good show. They played for up to 8 hours at a time, night after night and had to have an enormous repertoire of songs to perform under these circumstances, and by the time they went into the studio to actually record with EMI two years later, they had an enormous play list of between 300-400 songs. These ranged from standards to obscure blues with everything in between. They heavily favored Chuck Berry and Little Richard as their own favorites, but had fun with silly, corny songs, too and knew the appeal of songs that the audience liked.
When they recorded their first album in 1963, George Martin asked them to just run through the songs they knew – and to his amazement, they did – one right after another. Martin was floored by the sheer number of songs.
So, you can see that there were some songs they might have played in a club in Hamburg that the audience liked that they might have recorded, but they didn’t think was up to the rest of the material. They might choose a song, play it and decide that Roll Over Beethoven was a stronger song for the album, for instance, and go with that.
It’s important to note that EMI was not convinced they would sell, so it didn’t invest a lot of time or money in their recording sessions. Their first album was recorded – start to finish – in ten hours. Period. So, there wasn’t a lot of time to think about the song list, play it, work with different arrangements, try some new harmonies maybe, and do multiple takes. Twist and Shout is a good example. John’s voice was giving way that morning from a cold and from being on the road for months without stop. They knew if he did T & S, his voice would be gone so they saved it for the last song; he knew he had one shot at it – which is all it took. Take a listen– it’s a great performance – you can hear the strain in his voice, which actually adds to the power of the song, and at the end you can hear Paul yell, “Yeah!” when he knew John had gotten it in that one take. Afterward, John was spitting up blood and said that after that recording session, his voice was ‘different’ and felt he’d strained his vocal chords and damaged them permanently. George Martin agreed.
As for the BBC recordings - they wanted to play songs on the BBC show that didn't get a lot of play, so they sometimes chose songs that were 'B' sides. There was only so much room on an album, so choices had to made.
It is also important to remember that they had been writing their own songs for awhile by the time they finally got a recording contract and they wanted to record their own songs more than just do covers of other composer's songs. So, if something was a favorite and they played it a lot in concert, like for instance Twist and Shout or Long Tall Sally or Roll Over Beethoven, they'd record it. Otherwise, they were anxious to get on to record their own songs.
After a certain point, the Beatles really only recorded their own compositions, so something like High Ho Silver wouldn’t have been thought of as anything but a very brief, “Hey! Remember this?” kind of moment.
Point being, not every song was ever intended for release. Later, as in the Let It Be sessions, they had time to play around with songs and what we hear of High Ho Silver is just that – they were playing around, remembering songs they had played years before in clubs and reminiscing. It was never in the running for inclusion.
A few songs that are rare and interesting are the ones that later appeared on solo albums, but which were originally worked through as Beatle songs together. These include songs that were just ‘demo-ed’ for each other, but never really went anywhere, some that were rehearsed and then abandoned in favor of another one that seemed – at least at the time – to be a better or stronger song, and some that just didn’t gel.
If you take a look at the incredible output from the group, it’s hard to say that they weren’t releasing their best work in singles, albums, EPs in the UK, and soundtracks. Frequently, they would write to a goal, as when they were told that they needed a song for the title, A Hard Day’s Night. They wrote it that night. Other times, their motivation was personal – when they returned home from weeks in India studying with the Maharishi, they had over 30 songs they were anxious to record ‘immediately.’
Jealous Guy, originally called Child of Nature, was written in India and intended for the White Album, but appeared on John’s Imagine album released in 1971; John also tried out Gimme Some Truth with the Beatles, which was also released on Imagine.
George’s All Things Must Pass, was rehearsed by the Beatles in January 1969, and became the title track to his album released at the end of 1970, which also contained: Let It Down, Hear Me Lord, and Isn’t It A Pity. Not Guilty holds the distinction of having the most ‘takes’ – over 100 – of any Beatle song, but they were never quite satisfied with it, and it was released on his eponymous album, George Harrison on February 8, 1979.
Teddy Boy and Hot As Sun were rehearsed on January 24, 1969 for the Get Back (Let It Be) album, abandoned, and then released on Paul’s first solo album, McCartney in 1970. Another Day, Every Night, Back Seat of My Car were all Paul songs, rehearsed by the Beatles as a group and then recorded and released by Paul later.
I hope this information helps; please write if you have any follow-up questions.
