Under The Influence: Graham Nash (The Hollies, CSN, CSNY)

I first heard the Beatles first single*, Please Please Me, on an acetate in the offices of Dick James, a publisher of their music. It was an obvious smash hit record. Everyone knew it. Everyone. 

 The Beatles' album Please Please Me was incredible to listen to – new, fantastically energetic … up to this point long-playing records were basically a bunch of singles put out to capitalize on the success of the singles. But John realized that they could actually be a collection of music that made a statement, and after Please Please Me that's what they did. Of course it affected every band; the Beatles opened up the door and we all ran through it. 

 How could you not be affected by their energy and song writing abilities. They, and Bob Dylan, showed us the way to create music that meant something other than "moon, june" lyrics 

Graham Nash: 101 Essential Rock Records: The Golden Age Of Vinyl, From The Beatles To The Sex Pistols

*It was actually the second, after Love Me Do.

From Me To You Too - Best Beatles Reference Sites

I thought I would wrap up the first chapter of my studies with a few recommendations. I'm still learning how to eat this particular elephant (playing and deconstructing 211 songs) and am planning to tweak the shape of this blog to make it more effective (for me) and useful (for you).

One of the things that's pressing me to rethink is the vast amount of great stuff in blog land already. Here are quotes on From Me To You from three sites that are so great I'd be insane to try to copy them or better them.

Alan Pollack was the daddy of Beatles analysis

This second augmented chord, spelled from bottom up, A-flat / C / E, could move in one of two directions. Either the A-flat can resolve downward, making for a move to C-Major, or else, the A-flat can behave as though it were a G#, resolving upward, making for a move to a-minor.

What we get is quite enigmatically ingenious: the very next chord following the augmented one turns out, indeed, to be C-Major, the I chord of our home key, yet the music immediately proceeds with one final statement of the hook phrase before terminating abruptly on the a-minor chord. The musical logic of bringing down the curtain on the hook phrase is so subtly persuasive, that you barely note the ironic fact that the song has ended off-center from the home key; actually on the chord of the home key's relative minor.

Next up Beatlesbook.com has all the background detail you could ever want (though disappointingly only goes up to 1965 - with Beatles VI).

With "Please Please Me" enjoying an impressive ride up the charts, pressure was on from George Martin and Brian Epstein for them to write a follow-up hit, since none of their earlier material appeared suitable. Therefore, on the bus ride from York (where they played on February 27) to Shrewsury (where they were appearing on February 28) they took the time to put ideas together for their next single.

While on the bus, they happened to be reading the February 22 issue of the weekly pop newspaper New Musical Express. The "letters" column in the paper was called "From You To Us," which featured a fan letter talking about how Cliff Richard was currently outshining Elvis Presley in the charts. Lennon stated in May of 1963 that Paul and he started to "talk about one of the letters in the column," which led to them putting ideas together for a song inspired from the title of the newspaper column.

Finally A Year In The Life also has lots of good background and videos, but the posts are in a random order and the best way to find a song is by year.

Paul has cited this one as an early favorite because of its interesting harmonic structure, which he's called a turning point in their songwriting. And it is interesting, because it actually goes into a different key for the bridge-- which, though it would be more common in Lennon-McCartney songs later, was still pretty far out this early on. The modulation from C major into F major happens so seamlessly you almost don't notice it-- in fact, it's a modulation on a common chord, handled exactly like a zillion classical composers before them would have also handled it, which is why it feels so pleasant and neat, even if it is a little unusual in a pop song. Of course, since they play the bridge twice, they're doing this modulation thing back and forth pretty frequently in a song that's barely two minutes, so I'd go so far as to call it kind of daring. But it works, doesn't it? I'm also a huge fan of the chord they end the song on-- I love the unfinished sound of it. It's just cool as hell.

1:13 Please Please Me Post Index and Conclusions

Here's all a complete list of all the posts on Please Please Me (singles/b-sides are in italics)

1 Please Please Me (album introduction)
2 P.S. I Love You
3 Love Me Do
4 Please Please Me
5 Ask Me Why
6 There's A Place
7 A Taste Of Honey

8 I Saw Her Standing There

9 Thank You Girl and Misery
10 Do You Want To Know A Secret?
11 Anna (Go To Him), Chains, Boys, Baby It's You and Twist And Shout
12 From Me To You

Other related posts

From Me To You Too - Best Beatles Songwriting Sites
Conclusions

The Beatles of mid-1963 are obviously a fantastic live band with two classic singles and some nice songwriting ideas but show only a few signs of greatness musically and none at all lyrically. They especially seem to struggle with writing decent bridges.

As only one of the classic singles appears on the album I’d rate Please Please Me = 4/10 from a songwriters point of view.

1:12 From Me To You

From Me To You was the band’s third single. It’s a classic song, notable for at least three things.

Fast Workers

They could work incredibly fast.

Written on 28th Feb, recorded 5 Mar, mixed 14 Mar, released 11 April.

That’s 5 days from writing to recording.

Written, edited & mixed in 2 weeks

and only 42 days from creation to being in the charts.

Un-Believable.

The bridge.

It has a wonderfully smooth transition to and from the verse and really feels a part of the song (something they didn’t always pull off at this stage in their career). They use some key changes and progressions that are pretty stock in jazz but sound fresh transplanted into ‘beat’ music.

Using a C7 to transpose out of the key of C we go to

Key of F major - playing Gm7 (ii7), C7 (V7), F (I) then shift to

Key of G major – playing D7 (V7), G (I) then use G+ to as an unorthodox way to get back to the

Key of C major for the verse.

Lyrics

The song is also notable for being the first set of lyrics they managed to write that were any good. Though, to use a painting illustration, I mean good, not in a Mona Lisa sense but good as in “the boys made a really good job of painting the spare room.” Simple lyrics, consistent and reasonably cliché free (at least for the Beatles), a nice example of that early Beatles directness. They are singing the song to ‘YOU’.

Both verses end “with love from me to you” and start with “if there’s anything that you want/I’ve got everything that you want”. There’s also some lyrical development in the bridge “I’ve got arms…/I’ve got lips…”

The biggest aid to memorability though is the fact you hear almost the entire lyrics twice in only 1:58.

Lennon’s Blues

Rather than telling us he’s blue as he does in so many songs Lennon shows us by using the b3 of C major (Eb) in the melody. The note appears on

call on me (sounding as a b7 against the F chord) and

send it along (b5 against the Am chord)

Intro/Outro

Once again the Intro is an adaption of another part of the song (this time the first line of the verse melody) and is brief (only 2 bars long).

The end is a vocal & harmonica call and response built from the last two notes of the verse followed by a quick recap of the harmonica intro creating a really nice bookend effect.

The chord progression too is interesting C (I), Am (vi), Ab+ (bvi+), C (I) then ending not on the C but the Am (William Mann’s famous ‘Aeolian cadence’).

Some interesting non-diatonic chords here and there – a couple of augmented chords and the F7 (iv7) that’s implied by Lennon’s bluesy melody.

Lastly, though it’s an accident, I like the weird phasing on the drum fill (at 0:06 on the mono mix) - a result of editing two different takes together apparently.

Tickets To Write

T21 try working faster!

T22 Lennon’s blues melody formula. Add the b3, b5 or b7 into major key melodies. Be bold dahling!

T23  write less lyrics. Repeat the first verse rather than writing a 3rd or 4th.

T24  use repetition even when you're not repeating –

If there’s anything/I’ve got everything

I’ve got arms/I’ve got Lips

Ticket 25 Try transplanting stock chord progression/musical patterns from other genres (eg The Police's use of 60's R&B progressions in Every Breath You Take)

T4 & T9 Create new sections and melodies out of old

T10 End on the vi

and the ever present Brevity (T2)

and single ringing last chord (T18).

The Please Please Me Cover Versions

What stands out from the collection of covers on Please Please Me is how little motivation the Beatles got from their cotemporaries to be great writers. In 1962 Bacharach and the other tin Pan Alley/Brill Building composers were writing little more than standard doo-wop numbers like Baby, It’s You, Motown’s ‘golden period’(’64-’69) was still a few years off, Dylan was knocking out folk covers and Brian Wilson was just a three chord surf bum. Songs like Anna (Go To Him) and Chains give no inspiration to rise above the most basic level.

The other thing apparent is what a hard rocking live band they must have been. Boys and Twist And Shout have an energy and drive that is remarkable.

Ronald still hadn't plucked up the courage to tell Clay he wasn't a natural born Isley Brother...

The Isley Brothers' song Twist And Shout is probably the best known Beatle cover and rightly so. Tight as an Emo’s jeans, raw, raucous and recorded live in one take (as was Ringo's feature Boys). The song is notable also for the iconic ending, the ascending chromatic triplets finishing with a ringing D9 chord on the 3rd beat of the bar.

Tickets To Write

Ticket 18 - We've already noted the Beatles habit of finishing on a single ringing chord. The preceeding ascending (chromatic) triplets also appear elsewhere so I'm calling them Ticket 20. A cool end but taken all together such a well known Beatlesism that it might be hard for anyone else to get away with using it.

(And the ending IS a Beatles creation - the Isley Brothers' single fades out).

1:10 Do You Want To Know A Secret?

yes.

Do You Want To Know A Secret?

This song hides a gorgeous verse underneath it's frenetic tempo.

The simple yet intimate lyrics match the tune perfectly. Just try the song slowly and softly with a light jazzy swing…can’t you visualise the sultry chanteuse sprawling on top of the piano breathing, “closer...let me whisper in your ear”? That Lennon & McCartney considered it a throwaway song is evidenced by the fact that they threw it in Harrison’s direction as his token vocal solo. Perhaps they gave up on the song after penning the bone-jarring, gear-crunching bridge.

As well as soaking in repeated plays of the magnificent verse melody we can take away the unexpected and seductive Am (the iv chord - Ticket 8 again) that occurs just before the word “closer” and draws you down into the repeat of the verse so deliciously.

no.

Buy Please Please Me (Amazon UK / Amazon US)

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Thank You Girl (for the) Misery

Two Lennon & McCartney songs that don’t really hold any interest for songwriters:

Misery was written on a tour bus with the intention of getting Helen Shapiro to record it. Unlikely fare for a singer know for the jaunty “walking back to happiness.”

It’s hard to believe that a ‘paint by numbers’ effort like Thank You, Girl was ever in the running to be a single. The only notable thing is the bridge’s recycling of the Please Please Me verse melody.

I Saw Her Standing There

Now we enter the realm of the totally subjective. I would agree with McDonald’s assessment of it being “a rock and roll standard” (RITH p.69) but for me that doesn’t quite translate into ‘classic song’. Sure, it the main sequence is 16 bar verse (with a 10 bar bridge) rather than the traditional 12, and the melody contains intervals untypical in the blues (like the 2nd and major 7th) but it seems a little too stuck in it’s own genre to have much to teach unless you’re writing straight blues songs (which I'm not).

(...and describing someone’s heart as going ‘boom’ just seems to destroy any credibility you might have built up too...)

Tickets To Write

T1 - the bVI (C maj) reappears at the end of the “So how could I dance with another? oohhh!” line. Here it’s not replacing the I (E major chord) but it still adds the same surprise.

T18 Finish the song on a single ringing chord (here it’s an E7).

This is an arrangement thing, but it’s worth noting that the vast majority of Beatles songs do not fade out, whereas a large percentage of modern songs (if not the majority) do. There are two aspects to this that are worthy of consideration.

First it’s another expression of the Beatles economy – a song with an ending will always be shorter than a fade.

Secondly, fading a song is often a sign of laziness. It’s not the result of a musical decision to fade but rather the sign that a decision on how to end the song has not yet been made (we’ll worry about that when we play live).

T19 If you’re writing a blues song consider subverting it by subtly changing the chord sequence or number of bars.

1:7 A Taste Of Honey

First, a word of explanation. If this is a supposed to be a blog about the Beatles as songwriters, why am I including cover versions? Our first cover version is a good example of why. Though A Taste Of Honey is the worst cover on Please Please Me, oddly enough it’s very significant in the development of Beatles songwriting. This cover of a Lenny Welch disc, originally a film title song, is an embarrassingly earnest folk-dirge. But it has three things that the Beatles later ‘borrowed’ for their songs.

It’s the first ‘officially released’ Beatles song with a time signature change (from 3/4 to 4/4).

It ends on the F# major chord (the ‘picardy’ third) even though the song is in F# minor (Dorian mode actually). This switch from minor to major crops up again in several Lennon/McCartney songs including I’ll Be Back.

Lastly the verse’s opening chord sequence which is spelled (taking the dorian tonality into account)

iim(F#m), iimM7(F#mM7), iim7(F#m7), V(B).

is exactly the same chord sequence found in Harrison’s ‘Something’ in the section starting

“I don’t want to lose her now.”

The reason this is such a memorable hook is that the chords contain a descending chromatic line

F# (in the F#m)

F natural (in F#mM7)

E (in F#m7)

and

D# (in B major).

F# to F to E to D#. No wonder it sounds so sssshhhmoove…..

McCartney also used a similar chromatic motion in Michelle though the chord progression is slightly different.

Tickets To Write

T15 Use a time signature change between sections (e.g. verse in ¾, chorus in 4/4).

T16 In a minor key song try finishing on the major chord as a surprise ending.

T17 Spice up your chords by putting in a chromatic counter melody within them. You could even try nicking this exact chord sequence. George Harrison got away with it!

1:6 There's A Place

Ian MacDonald loves this one - “music of pride and poignancy … a minor milestone in the emergence of the new youth culture” (RITH 65). That’s as maybe but the song is average though the performance is great. Like Ask Me Why this is a bunch of good ideas, rather than a good song.

Once again the first thing to notice is the Beatles relentless economy (early Beatles at least). At the same place where any other band might have been tempted to give us a four bar harmonica solo we get one bar then - Kablam! Back into the verse! Hardly seems worth putting the thing in your mouth, but boy does it keep the song moving along.

Tickets To Write

We end the B section (and the bridge) on the vi (C#m) instead of the I (E). this is the legendary ‘Aeolian cadence’ written about in William Mann’s 1963 Times article and is featured in From Me To You.

The B section yields lots more good bits.

First the whole band joins the vocals on the lead in (“and it’s my mind”) emphasising the triplet rhythm.

The vocal harmony on “mi—nd” and “ti—me” are in contrary motion (that’s to say while Lennon’s lower part drops down from a D# to a C#, McCartney’s higher part goes up from G# to A). The majority of parts in pop music, whether vocal harmonies, bass parts or whatever, are in similar motion. "Wherever you go I’m goin’ too". Boor – ring!

On the same section Lennon’s “mind/time” D# C# D# C# is sung over a G#m A E A chord progression. In relation to the chords that comes out as 5th, 3rd, 7th, 3rd. Wow! That D# (7th) really, really wants to resolve to the E sooo badly, but he hangs on that sucker for a WHOLE BAR! The reason he gets away with it is partly because the melody is a straight repeat, only the chords have changed. But still it’s a gutsy move. Hanging out on non-chord tones was definitely a Lennon favourite. For example on Help he sings “Help me if you can” on an E over a Bm chord, (a 4th) and “do appreciate” is E on top of a G major chord (a 6th).

Finally the bridge.

The chord sequence is vi (C#m), II(F#), I (E), III (G#). We’ve shifted into the relative minor (C#m) but then the II (F#) strongly implies we’re now in the Dorian mode, the I (E) doesn’t contradict that but the III (G#), borrowed from the Harmonic minor scale says “No. We’re definitely minor, in fact we couldn’t get any more minor if we tried” and leads you doggedly back to the old “Aeolian cadence again”. At the same time the melody carries on as if nothing untoward is happening by staying in the original scale, avoiding any clashes and dropping the harmonies or reducing it to octaves on “Don’t you know that it’s so.” (Phew! Theory overload! Sorry). So what make this so cool? Well, for one thing, we’ve got a diatonic melody (it stays in the key of the song) over a progression with a few non-diatonic chords (the F# major and G# major) in it. The reason they get away with it is that they avoid using any notes that will clash with the chords.

Ticket 2 – is this section/repeat really necessary? Remember the song is finished when there's nothing more to  take away, not when there's nothing left to add.

Ticket 10 – End a phrase/section/song on the vi instead of the I. Don’t be so predictable.

Ticket 11 – Emphasise key lyrics by reflecting it somehow in the backing - copy the rhythm, drop out, change chords…

Ticket 12 – Use some contrary motion (especially in the vocals).

Ticket 13 – Try staying on non-chord tones for longer than you would normally do. Be brave!

Ticket 14 - Try to write an in-key melody over some out-of-key chords, avoiding any notes that clash.

Ask Me Why

Ask Me Why is a B - side and album track. There’s some interesting chord stuff going on in this song.

The verse starts after a (2 beat pick up) on the iii chord (G#m) and the song itself also finishes there rather than the root (E).

Whereas many songs are based around the I, IV, V chords here the V (B) isn’t heard till the end of the verse & the IV (A) doesn’t make an appearance till 0:50 - about a third of the way through (the song is 2:28). What you do get is lots of non-diatonic chords III (G#7), I+ (Eaug), iv (Am), II (F#).

The chord change from vi (C#m) to iv (Am) to I (E) is particularly nice (0:18).

Melody wise, the best part is that the lead-in melody to the tag


“Ask me why, I’ll say I love you” 


is the same as the lead into the verse


“I love you, ‘cause you tell me things…”
 
but the verse drops to a ii (F#m) chord and the tag rise to a IV (A).This is a nice little example of the Beatle ‘same but different’ approach.Once again this contributes to the overall sense of catchiness of a song.

Sadly the tag’s brilliant left turn doesn’t lead us anywhere interesting, the lyrics are poor & the overall structure is very odd – not an entirely bad thing, but they just don’t pull it off. A bunch of good ideas, rather than a great song.

Tickets To Write

T6 - try staying off the root for a change (especially as the first chord).

or

T7  - Try not to use all three major chords (I, IV, V) early in the song.

T8 - use the minor iv – either after a vi (as they do here) or after a IV (as they do in other songs – I’m sure I’ll find some!!!) then go back “to where you once belonged” – The root (I) chord.

T9  -  this is a close relation to T4 (creating new parts in a song out of existing parts) only a micro scale. Try creating new bits of melody out of the tune you've already got.

Please Please Me (Song)

The 3rd song recorded for Parlophone is the first that shows signs of true genius. The playing (especially Bass & Drums) is brilliantly tight. The song is a model of both economy and ‘hooky’ writing.

Intro. The first hook is the opening lead guitar/harmonica melody. This is essentially a slightly adapted version of the first half of the verse melody. What that means is that when you hear the verse for the first time you feel you’ve already heard it before. Genius!

Note also the economy of doing this with just the first half of the tune. Why take up 14 whole seconds when 7 will do?

Next the verse restates the melody and you might say develops it (4 bars now instead of 2 bar). But McCartney adds a static harmony (remaining on the high E) as Lennon descends the scale from E to G#. This use of oblique motion gives a memorable ‘chiming’ effect to the tune. Bars 4 and 8 of the verse have no vocals, but what could be a dead bar at the end of each phrase is filled with two very distinctive guitar fills. First off-beat chords G(bIII) A(IV) B(V) – doubled by Harrison for extra effect, and then a single note root, octave, fifth fill, this time emphasised by the drums dropping out.

The Pre Chorus again feels incredible hooky due to the call and response vocals “Come On”, the ascending B.V. harmony and the accented ‘pushes’ causes a build in tension which brilliantly reflects the lyrical theme of romantic (sexual) frustration and releases into the ‘chorus’ (if you can call something a little over two bars long a chorus). To my ears the third chord vi (C#m) is unexpected too.

More economy in the turnaround (a recap of the intro). Heading back into the verse they play it once. Going to bridge we only get half. This means that every single time you hear that intro hook it’s different. The outro is the same length as the intro but has vocals over the top.

The bridge is a perfect contrast to the verse. The busy eighth notes of the melody against the verse’s strident quarter notes, the repetitive semitone movement against the almost whole octave descent and the solo voice as opposed to the pealing harmony. The end of the bridge however bears more than a passing resemblance to both the beginning of the verse and the end of the chorus adding yet another layer of familiarity.

Finally the outro is a mash up of the intro and the end of the chorus, and just as you begin to expect a fade out there is a blistering set of non diatonic chords I(E) bIII(G) bVI(C) V(B) I(E), a hint of the first verse fill, and it’s all over in 2:03. The first sound after the final chord died away was producer George Martin saying, “You’ve just made your first number one.” He was right. It truly is a thing of beauty.

Tickets To Write

What can we take away from it? Well, just listening to a classic like this over and over again can’t do a songwriter any harm.

But main things are

T2 Brevity – try cutting away all the excess. Do you need to play that riff four times? How about twice? Or once? Or half?

T3 make everything a hook. Even a one bar guitar fill.

T4 Try to create intros/outros/solos from existing parts of the song. This will greatly increase the stickiness of your song. The Beatles were masters of this (See Help for example). Nirvana did it too - on the solo of Smells Like Teen Spirit.

T5 Have a bridge that contrasts with the other musical sections fast/slow, wide/narrow range etc.

Any shortcomings? Yes -the lyrics are clumsy and trite. Lennon is feeling blue yet again (there’s always rain in his life). But unoriginal as they are the music matches the mood so perfectly that it covers a multitude of lyrical sins.

Anthology 1 contains an early alternative version of Please Please Me

Love Me Do

The first Beatles song deemed fit for public consumption shines, like much of the debut album, because of the playing more than the writing. One of McCartney’s earliest efforts (written when he was 16) the fact that it manages to be such a good song is intriguing because of how much is missing.

For example

There are only 19 words in the whole song!

Always
Be
Do
I
I’ll
Know
Like
Love
Me
New
Please
So
Somebody
Someone
To
True
Whoa
Yeah
You

The melody almost completely avoids the 3rd, major or minor, giving it a stark sound, odd and original, almost autistic.

The verse melody has an AAABC structure and the bridge ABAB.

Every line in the song has a 3 beat pause after it

“Love, Love me do (234), You know I’ll love you (234)” etc

And

“Someone to love (234), Somebody New (234)” etc

The verse has only 2 chords - I (G) and IV (C) and the bridge 3 - I (G) IV (C) V (D).

The arrangement is pathologically simple, 1 verse (played 4 times) and 1 bridge (played twice).

Something so primitive should be as compelling to listen to as a caveman banging two rocks together. And yet somehow it works, and people are still buying it (and blogging about it) 47 years later!

Why? I haven’t a clue!

Sure it’s carried along by great performances - nice country style vocal harmonies, bluesy chromatic harmonica and solid drumming from session man Andy White* but this track is far more than the sum of it’s parts. That it’s not a great song is entirely understandable. That it’s a good song is utter bewildering, but there it is.

Can YOU figure it out?

*The original single version (featuring Ringo on drums) is available on Past Masters

1:2 P.S. I Love You

This song has a truly great verse, a very nice flowing melody, wistful in a ‘Danny Boy’ kind of way with good match of mood, music and lyrics.

Our first ever ‘Ticket to write’ (T1) is the verse ending. Rather than landing on the I or 'root' chord (D major) on P.S I Love You  they delay it by playing the bVI (Bb) rising to the bVII (C) before finally arriving at the I (D) a ballsy 2 bars later.

P.S. I love you (Bb)

you, you (C) you (D)

Though the song is in the key of D major both Bb and C are borrowed from the parallel minor scale (Dm).

The harmonising of the first word in each bar is also a nice touch.

So why isn’t this a great song?

The bridge.

They pull out all the stops totally re-harmonising it in the intro (nice touch) (Ticket 4) and adding gospel style vocal ad-libs in the second, but as far as the bridge goes, we’re polishing turds here. The tune is monotonous melodically and rhythmically, the chords progression a dull IV (G) I (D) and the lyrics…

In a song called PS I Love You,

he wants her to remember

(as he sends his love to her)

that he’ll always be in love with her.

When I say “Re” you say “Dundant.”

1:1 Please Please Me - Introduction

It's April 1963.

John Lennon & Ringo Starr are 22 years old, Paul McCartney & George Harrison are 20. Lennon is newly married to Cynthia Powell who gives birth to their son Julian Lennon just after the Beatles debut album is released, though both the marriage and birth are kept hidden from the press.

Harrison has been in the band for 5 years, Starr just 7 months. Lennon & McCartney have played together for 6 years, writing around 30 songs, though many have not been performed in public or seriously considered for their record label auditions.

They’ve honed their performance skills playing over 200 gigs in Liverpool and spending 800 hours on stage in Hamburg (between 4 1/2  and 6 hours a night) playing “to raucous audiences of sailors, criminals and prostitutes” (RITH 397).

The band has been turned down by Columbia, HMV, Decca, Pye, and Oriole before being signed by by George Martin to Parlophone Records, a subsidiary of EMI most notable for comedy records.



After two unsatisfactory recording sessions they finally cut their debut single Love Me Do in Oct 62. This is followed by Please Please Me (the single) and Please Please Me (the debut album) and From Me To You in early 1963. This entire set of songs is recorded, overdubbed and mixed in little over 30 hours.

The album spends 30 weeks in the UK no 1 spot and is only removed by the Beatles next album With The Beatles.