- Do You Want to Know a Secret
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"Do You Want to Know a Secret" Song by The Beatles from the album Please Please Me Released 22 March 1963 Recorded 11 February 1963,
EMI Studios, LondonGenre Rock and roll Length 1:56 Label Parlophone Writer Lennon/McCartney Producer George Martin Please Please Me track listing 14 tracks - Side one
- "I Saw Her Standing There"
- "Misery"
- "Anna (Go to Him)"
- "Chains"
- "Boys"
- "Ask Me Why"
- "Please Please Me"
- Side two
- "Love Me Do"
- "P.S. I Love You"
- "Baby It's You"
- "Do You Want to Know a Secret"
- "A Taste of Honey"
- "There's a Place"
- "Twist and Shout"
Music sample "Do You Want to Know a Secret""Do You Want to Know a Secret" 
Sleeve of Vee-Jay 7" single, released a year after the album in March 1964Single by The Beatles B-side "Thank You Girl" Released 23 March 1964 Recorded 11 February 1963,
EMI Studios, LondonGenre Rock and roll Length 1:56 Label Vee-Jay, VJ 587 Writer(s) Lennon/McCartney Producer George Martin "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" Single by Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas from the album Little Children (album) B-side "I'll Be on My Way" Lennon/McCartney Released 26 April 1963 Genre Pop music, Beat music Length 2:01 Label Parlophone (UK)
Imperial (US)Writer(s) Lennon/McCartney Producer George Martin Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas singles chronology Bad to Me Do You Want to Know a Secret? I'll Keep You Satisfied "Do You Want to Know a Secret" is a song by The Beatles from the 1963 album Please Please Me, sung by George Harrison. In the United States, it was the first top ten song to feature Harrison as a lead singer, reaching #2 on the Billboard chart in 1964 as a single released by Vee-Jay, VJ 587. The song reached the #1 position on Billboard in 1981 and #2 in the United Kingdom in a cover version by Stars on 45 as part of a medley.
Contents
Composition
"Do You Want to Know a Secret" was primarily written by John Lennon, but credited to Lennon/McCartney.[citation needed] The song was inspired by "I'm Wishing",[1] 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...").[2][3] McCartney said it was a "50-50 collaboration written to order", i.e., for Harrison to sing.[4]
Recording
In 1980, Lennon said that he gave "Do You Want to Know a Secret" to Harrison to sing because "it only had three notes and he wasn't the best singer in the world", but added "he has improved a lot since then."[3] Harrison sang two songs on Please Please Me, this song by Lennon/McCartney and "Chains" by Goffin/King. The Beatles did not record a song composed solely by Harrison until "Don't Bother Me" on With The Beatles.[5]
The song was recorded during a ten-hour session on 11 February 1963 along with nine other songs for Please Please Me.[6]
Single release
"Do You Want to Know a Secret" was released a year later as a single by Vee-Jay in the United States on 23 March 1964, reaching the number two spot behind another Beatles song, "Can't Buy Me Love" in Billboard, reaching number three on the Cash Box chart, but reaching number one for two weeks in the chart published by the Teletheatre Research Institute.
Personnel
- George Harrison – lead guitar, lead vocals
- John Lennon – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Paul McCartney – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Ringo Starr – drums
The Billy J. Kramer version
The Beatles' version was never released as a single in the UK, where a cover version by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas (released b/w "I'll Be on My Way", Parlophone R5023, 26 April 1963)[7] reached number two in the Record Retailer chart, and hit number one in the NME chart (used by Radio Luxembourg) and the BBC's Pick of the Pops chart, which were more widely recognised at the time. It appeared on his album, Little Children (album)
Chart performance
Chart (1963) Peak
positionUnited Kingdom (Record Retailer) 2[8] United Kingdom (NME) 1[9] Notes
- ^ Distant Melody 2007.
- ^ Harry, p. 209.
- ^ a b Sheff 2000, p. 165.
- ^ Miles 1997, p. 95.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 53.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 24.
- ^ Calkin 2009.
- ^ "Artist Chart History Details: Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas". The Official Charts Company. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/artist/_/billy%20j.%20kramer%20%26%20the%20dakotas/. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
- ^ Rees, Lazell & Osborne 1995, p. 127.
References
- Calkin, Graham (2009). "Do You Want to Know a Secret". Graham Calkin's Beatles Pages. http://www.jpgr.co.uk/col_r5023.html. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
- Rees, Dafydd; Lazell, Barry; Osborne, Roger (1995). Forty Years of "NME" Charts (2nd ed.). Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-7522-0829-2.
- "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)". Distant Melody. 2007. http://aquamarine.nu/lyrics/disney/snowwhiteandthesevendwarfs.php. Retrieved 3 January 2007.
- Harry, Bill. The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia.
- Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
- Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
- Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.
External links
- Do You Want To Know A Secret - online audio. Source: Internet Archive. Song of The Beatles from the album Please Please Me, 1963.
Please Please Me Related articles Songs Side one: I Saw Her Standing There · Misery · Anna (Go to Him) · Chains · Boys · Ask Me Why · Please Please Me
Side two: Love Me Do · P.S. I Love You · Baby It's You · Do You Want to Know a Secret · A Taste of Honey · There's a Place · Twist and ShoutCategories:- 1963 singles
- 1964 singles
- The Beatles songs
- Alvin and the Chipmunks songs
- Songs produced by George Martin
- Songs written by Lennon–McCartney
- Parlophone singles
- Songs published by Northern Songs
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