Behka’s Breakfast with The Beatles Recap: Week of November 17

This week on Breakfast with Behka and The Beatles, I'm continuing on the exploration of their first album, Please Please Me.On Monday, I played "PS I Love You".

Written in spring 1962, while Paul McCartney was in Hamburg, this song is sometimes considered to be a dedication to his then-girlfriend Dot Rhone. Lyrically constructed with their female audience in mind, the Beatles included it as part of their Cavern Club song set, where it was a favorite of the fans. The Beatles admired Buddy Holly and the Crickets (best demonstrated by their cover of "Words of Love" on the Beatles for Sale album). It's been suggested that the "P.S." part of the song was a subtle reference to "Peggy Sue", from the lyric "I love you, Peggy Sue".

On Tuesday, I played "Baby, It's You".

The Beatles performed "Baby It's You" as part of their stage act from 1961 until 1963, and recorded it on February 11, along with "Boys", another song by the Shirelles. American label Vee-Jay Records included it on Introducing... The Beatles and Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles. Capitol included it on The Early Beatles. The Beatles' version differs to the Shirelles' by repeating the second verse instead of the first. So, where the Shirelles conclude with a line about sitting home and crying, the Beatles's conclusion is more upbeat, John Lennon singing that he will carry on loving, no matter what.

On Wednesday, I played "Do You Want to Know A Secret".

"Do You Want to Know a Secret?", written in autumn 1962, was primarily composed by John Lennon but credited to McCartney–Lennon. The song was inspired by "I'm Wishing", a tune from Walt Disney’s 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which Lennon's mother, Julia Lennon, would sing to him as a child. The first two lines of the song in Disney's movie ("Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell?") come right after the opening lyrics ("You'll never know how much I really love you... You'll never know how much I really care...").

On Thursday, I played "A Taste of Honey".

This song was originally an instrumental track (or recurring theme) written for the 1960 Broadway version of the 1958 British play A Taste of Honey. Lenny Welch recorded the first vocal version. It was released as a single in September 1962 on the Cadence Records label and included on his 1963 album Since I Fell for You. This version also credits Lee Morris as a writer but it is not known if it was he who provided the lyrics. This credit does not appear on any covers of the song, with only Marlow/Scott credited.  Performed during their live repertoire from 1962, the Beatles used Lenny Welch's adaptation, slightly changing the lyrics in the chorus. A version from this time was released in 1977 on the album Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962. As the instrumental version by Acker Bilk was popular in the United Kingdom at the time, the song was chosen to be recorded for their 1963 debut album, with Paul McCartney singing lead - this version is notable in that, during the middle eight, McCartney's vocal is double-tracked, the first of many songs in which the Beatles did so.

On Friday, I played "There's A Place".

The title was inspired by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's "Somewhere" from West Side Story, which contained the line: "There's a place for us." McCartney owned the album of the soundtrack at the time of writing "There's a Place" and acknowledges its influence. The "place" in question was "the mind", making its subject matter slightly more cerebral than Britain's kissing and cuddling songs and America's surf music from that period. Lennon is quoted as saying: "'There's a Place' was my attempt at a sort of Motown, black thing. It says: 'In my mind there's no sorrow...' It's all in your mind."

That's been your look back at what I played this week to start the show. I'm taking a couple of weeks off for vacation, but when I come back on December 8, we'll start up again where we left off with "Twist and Shout" and then move on to With The Beatles. Tune in then!

Pleasingly yours,
Behka