The Beatles Anthology (1995) s01e01 Episode Script

1
[crowd cheering]
-["Help!" playing]
-not so self-assured ♪
Now I find I've changed my mind ♪
I've opened up the doors ♪
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down ♪
And I do appreciate you being 'round ♪
[music concludes]
[ship horn blaring]
[seagulls squawking]
["In My Life" playing]
There are places I remember
all my life ♪
Though some have changed ♪
Some forever, not for better ♪
Some have gone and some remain ♪
All these places had their moments ♪
With lovers and friends
I still can recall ♪
Some are dead and some are living ♪
In my life I've loved them all ♪
But of all these friends and lovers ♪
There is no one compares with you ♪
And these memories lose their meaning ♪
When I think of love as something new ♪
Though I know
I'll never lose affection ♪
For people and things that went before ♪
I know I'll often stop
and think about them ♪
In my life I love you more ♪
Though I know
I'll never lose affection ♪
For people and things that went before ♪
I know I'll often stop
and think about them ♪
In my life I love you more ♪
In my life I love you more ♪
[music concludes]
["Help!" playing]
-Help! ♪
-I need somebody ♪
-Help! ♪
-Not just anybody ♪
-Help! ♪
-You know I need someone ♪
-Help!
-[music concludes]
[John] Let's go back and get 'em, eh?
-I'm game.
-Yeah, let's smash 'em.
-Let's find that temple, eh?
-[Paul] Right! To the temple.
A man's got to do what he's got to do.
[George] I don't reckon
all this running away.
[John] Let's go back
back, back, back
["In The Mood" playing]
back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back
[music concludes]
["We'll Meet Again" playing]
We'll meet again ♪
Don't know where, don't know when ♪
[Ringo] My mother used to say that, uh,
because I was born,
the Second World War started.
Some sunny day ♪
[John] I spent some time
with Mother up till about four,
then me father split.
He was a merchant seaman,
you know, you can imagine, and--
and it was 1940s in the War, and all that.
always do ♪
'Til the blue skies drive
the dark clouds ♪
Far away ♪
[Paul] My mum was a Catholic.
Dad was a Protestant.
They got married quite late.
I think they had me
when they were, like, 40,
or something. It was quite sort of late.
be long ♪
They'll be happy to know ♪
That as you saw me go ♪
I was singing ♪
[George] My father was driving
a bus at the time I was born,
and I lived in a two-up
and two-down, 12 Arnold Grove.
Don't know where, don't know when ♪
But I know we'll meet again ♪
-[machine gun fire]
-[explosions]
-Some sunny day ♪
-[music concludes]
[Ringo] We were all roughly the same age,
and we were like the first
["I'm Beginning
To See The Light" playing]
group of, uh, people
who didn't go in the Army.
[Major] Halt!
[Paul] Me mum was a nurse.
She was a midwife as well.
And my dad was a cotton salesman.
[John] I was raised by my auntie.
Me father and me mother split
when I was about four.
But I spent some time
with Mother up till about four.
Then I was brought up by an auntie.
[Ringo] Dad, uh, was a, uh
he made cakes,
so we always had sugar through the War.
Mum? She ended up doing a lot of jobs
'cause he left when I was three.
He decided that was enough of that,
and, uh, so she did any
down-home job she could get
to feed and clothe me.
[George] My mother was, um,
from an Irish family
called French,
and, uh, she had lots
of brothers and sisters,
uncles who had bald heads,
who used to say they got their bald heads
by knocking pub doors open! [chuckles]
[Ringo] I was terrible at school
because I didn't spend much time there
because I was also very sick as a kid.
I had, uh, peritonitis
when I was six and a half,
which just means burst appendix
and you're gonna die.
And they said to my mother,
"He'll be dead" three times.
But here we are. We're still here.
[Paul] My dad was a musician,
amateur musician,
and, uh, he would play piano
around the house.
We always had a piano.
And I've got some lovely
childhood memories
of sort of lying on the floor
and hearing him play.
[George] In those days,
they had those radios,
like crystal sets.
You used to have to take the battery
down to some shop on the corner,
and then leave it with them
for about three days
to charge it up.
[Ringo] Everybody has
their party piece in Liverpool.
You have to sing a song.
And, uh, my mother's was, uh
"Little Drummer Boy",
she would sing to me,
and I would sing "Nobody's Child" to her,
and she'd always cry. [laughs]
[sings "Nobody's Child"]
I'm nobody's child Mum.
[Paul] John really loved his mother,
'cause she was great. I loved her, too.
And she played a little ukulele.
And then, unfortunately,
she was, uh, run over
by an off-duty policeman
who was drunk at the time.
[Paul] My mum had died,
actually, at this point.
My mum died when I was, uh, 14,
which is, you know,
the big shock in my teenage years.
-She died of cancer.
-[music concludes]
And John's mum having died,
this was always a very big bond
between John and I.
["C'mon Everybody" playing]
[John] Rock and roll was real.
Everything else was unreal.
To me, it got through.
It was the only thing to get through to me
out of all the things that were happening
-when I was 15, you know.
-[music concludes]
-["Rocket 88" playing]
-You women have heard of jalopies ♪
You've heard the noise they make ♪
Well, let me introduce
my new Rocket 88 ♪
[John] There was no such thing
as an English record, you know.
I think the first English record
that was anywhere near anything
was "Move It" by Cliff Richard,
and before that, there'd been nothing.
But the fact was
that there hadn't been a history
of making that kind of music,
whereas there had in America.
-[music concludes]
-["Ain't That A Shame" playing]
You made me cry when you said goodbye ♪
Ain't that a shame ♪
[Paul] You can't imagine a time
when rock and roll
was only one of the musics.
-[music concludes]
-["No Other Love" playing]
No other love have I ♪
[George] Whatever record was being played,
you'd try and listen to it.
You know, you couldn't even get
a cup of sugar,
-let alone a rock and roll record.
-[music concludes]
So I went to art school.
I was at art school for five years.
When I went-- this is a sort
of college, you know.
I went in there,
they would only allow jazz
to be played, you know.
They wouldn't allow rock and roll in.
It was frowned upon those days.
So we had to con them
into letting us play rock and roll
there on the record player,
by calling it "blues", you know.
-["That's All Right" playing]
-Well, that's all right, mama ♪
That's all right with you ♪
That's all right, mama ♪
Just any way you do ♪
That's all right ♪
I remember being in school
when I was a kid
and, uh, somebody had a picture
in one of the musical papers,
uh, of Elvis.
And I just looked at it
and I just thought,
-"He's just so good looking!"
-[music concludes]
He just looked perfect.
[John] When I was 16,
Elvis was what was happening.
A guy with long, greasy hair,
wiggling his ass,
and singing "Hound Dog" and, uh,
"That's All Right, Mama"
on those early Sun Records,
which I think are his great period.
[Paul] That's him!
That is the guru we have been waiting for.
The Messiah has arrived.
["Hound Dog" playing]
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ♪
[crowd cheering]
Cryin' all the time ♪
[crowd cheering]
You ain't nothin'
but a hound dog, hound dog ♪
Cryin' all the time ♪
Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit ♪
You ain't no friend of mine ♪
-[crowd cheering]
-[music concludes]
-[crowd cheering]
-["I'm In Love Again" playing]
Yes, it's me and I'm in love again ♪
Had no lovin' since you know when ♪
[George] I was about 12 or 13
when I first heard Fats Domino,
"I'm In Love Again".
That was what I would call
the first "rock and roll" record
I ever heard.
-[music concludes]
-And then later on, you know,
Elvis, Little Richard and Buddy Holly.
-["Peggy Sue" playing]
-I love you, Peggy Sue ♪
With a love so rare and true ♪
Oh Peggy, my Peggy Sue ♪
[Paul] There were lots of people
coming up then,
and one of them was Buddy Holly.
We loved his vocal sound
and we loved his guitar playing.
But most of all, I think, was the fact
that he actually wrote the stuff himself.
-[music concludes]
-That's what turned us on.
-["When Did You Leave Heaven" playing]
-Why ♪
[George] We got to hear people
like Big Bill Broonzy.
I think he might have even done
a tour of England.
just for these earthly things? ♪
Why did you lose your little halo? ♪
Baby, why'd you drop your wings? ♪
I was a big fan of his
-[music concludes]
-and, actually, Frankie Laine.
["Jezebel" playing]
If ever a pair of eyes
promised paradise ♪
Deceiving me, grieving me,
leaving me blue ♪
[Ringo] I was listening to a lot
of Country and Western then.
-Skiffle was coming through.
-[music concludes]
[John] You know, all those "train" songs
and, uh, you know, "Rock Island Line",
-and all that stuff.
-["Rock Island Line" playing]
Well, the Rock Island Line
is a mighty good road ♪
Well, the Rock Island Line
is the road to ride ♪
Yeah, the Rock Island Line
is a mighty good road ♪
And if you want to ride it,
gotta ride it like you find it ♪
Get your ticket at the station
on the Rock Island Line ♪
[George] I think the first music
I can remember hearing
as guitar-oriented music
-[music concludes]
-was this record my dad brought
from New York.
-["T For Texas" playing]
-Uh, it was a guy called Jimmie Rodgers,
The Singing Brakeman.
T for Texas, T for Tennessee ♪
T for Thelma ♪
That gal that made
a wreck out of me ♪
I went to see, um,
Rock Around The Clock in the Isle of Man.
My grandparents took me there
after I came out of hospital.
-[music concludes]
-And it was just sensational
because, um, they ripped up the cinema,
and this was good for me to see.
["(We're Gonna) Rock
Around The Clock" playing]
When the chimes ring
five, six, and seven ♪
[George] In those days, you know,
they say "beggars can't be choosers",
and we were just desperate.
You'd just get anything.
Whatever film came,
you'd just try and see it.
gonna rock around
the clock tonight ♪
-["Ready Teddy" playing]
-Goin' to the corner ♪
Pick up my sweetie pie ♪
She's my rock and roll baby,
she's the apple of my eye ♪
I'm ready ♪
[Paul] So when
Girl Can't Help It came along,
instead of us looking at these
old black-and-white movies,
suddenly this was in color,
and this was in widescreen.
-[music concludes]
-And there's a famous bit at the mi--
at the beginning of Girl Can't Help It,
where Tom Ewell comes on
and he sort of says, "Okay, now"
"Widescreen!"
[orchestral instruments imitate
fingers clicking and screen rolling back]
[orchestral instruments imitate
fingers clicking and screen rolling back]
"Color!"
[strings play pizzicato notes]
Gorgeous lifelike color by DeLuxe.
["The Girl Can't Help It"
orchestral music playing]
[music concludes]
Sometimes you wonder
who's minding the store.
[chuckles]
And you cut to Jayne Mansfield.
And that's it. The game's over.
["The Girl Can't Help It" playing]
If she walks by,
the menfolks get engrossed ♪
She can't help it,
the girl can't help it ♪
If she winks an eye,
the bread slice turn to toast ♪
She can't help it,
the girl can't help it ♪
You know, you went to see those movies
with Elvis or somebody in it
-when we were still in Liverpool
-[music concludes]
and you'd see everybody
waiting to see him, right?
And I'd be waiting there too.
And they'd all scream
when he came on the screen.
So we thought, "That's a good job!"
-["Ready Teddy" playing]
-Ready, ready, ready to rock and roll ♪
[John] When I was a kid,
I was a fan of Elvis Presley,
and Little Richard, and Chuck Berry.
I was just interested in the music
and how to do it. How can I do that?
And I studied the records.
What did they sing? How are they doing it?
How do they make this music?
What is it that they're doing
that excites me,
that I wanna do it?
When I was 16, I re-established
a relationship with me mother
for about four years. She taught me music.
She first of all taught me the banjo.
And from that
I progressed to guitar. She--
The first song I learnt
was "Ain't That A Shame",
an old rock hit, Fats Domino.
It was a joke in the family,
a guitar's all right for a hobby,
but it won't earn you any money.
Me dad used to be a trumpet
player himself,
and for my birthday
he once bought me a trumpet
from Rushworth and Dreaper's.
It was one of the music stores
in, uh, Liverpool.
But I suddenly figured out
that I wouldn't be able to sing
with this thing stuck in me mouth.
So I went back to the shop
and traded it in for a guitar.
So that was a Zenith.
First guitar I ever had.
I think hearing a little bit
of guitar music,
um, made me want a guitar.
I used to be at the back
of the class, drawing,
trying to draw guitars,
big cello cutaway guitars with f-holes,
and little solid ones
with pointy cutaways,
and rounded cutaways.
And, you know, I was totally into guitars.
And I heard about this kid
who had a guitar
and it was three pound ten.
It was just a little acoustic,
round-hole type guitar.
And I got the three pound ten
off my mother.
That was a lot of money in those days.
I used to look in shops and see drums.
That's all I looked at.
I never looked at guitars, or anything.
I bought a 30-bob bass drum, 30 shillings.
Huge mother!
Just a huge one-sided bass drum.
And in our area
there used to be lots and lots of parties.
You know, your uncle,
who would play banjo,
or the harmonica.
My grandparents played mandolin
and banjo
um There was always
someone playing something.
And so I would play my big drum
and drive 'em mad.
But because I was a kid,
uh, they'd let me do it.
George and I lived very near
each other in Liverpool
so, in fact, we were just
a bus stop away from each other.
I'd get on the bus,
and then the stop afterwards,
George'd get on.
So, being quite close in age,
we'd sit together
and we'd talk about stuff, and that.
So, I suppose I used
to talk down to him a little bit.
It might have been a failing of mine
to tend to sort of talk down to him,
'cause I'd known him as a younger kid.
[George] He was always
nine months older than I.
Even now, he's still
nine months older than me.
Paul and I used to just kind
of get together,
played a bit, but it was--
we were just schoolboys then.
There was no groups involved
-till a little bit later.
-["Twist And Shout" playing]
-Whaah! ♪
-Yeah ♪
Baby, now ♪
Shake it up, baby ♪
Twist and shout ♪
Twist and shout ♪
Come on, come on, come on,
come on, baby, now ♪
Come on, baby ♪
Come on and work it on out ♪
Work it on out ♪
-[music concludes]
-[John] Paul met me
the first day I did
"Be-Bop-A-Lula" live on stage,
and a f-- a mutual friend brought him
to see my group called The Quarry Men.
I had a mate at school
who was called Ivan.
Ivan Vaughan.
And we were born on exactly
the same day, in Liverpool,
so we we were great mates.
And, uh, one day he said,
"Do you want to come
to the Woolton Village Fete?"
So I said, "Yeah, all right."
So we went along one Saturday afternoon.
I remember coming into, uh, the field
where they had the fete,
and just a bit over there,
there was a wagon, uh,
and on the back of this--
or a little stage or something, on--
up on this stage there was
a few lads around.
And there was one particular guy
I noticed at the front
-had a sort of checked shirt
-["Come Go With Me" playing]
sort of blondish
kinda hair, a little bit curly,
sideboards, looking pretty cool,
and he was playing,
sort of, one of these guitars
guaranteed not to crack,
you know, not a very good one. But, um--
But he was making a very good job of it,
you know, and I remember
being quite impressed.
And he was doing a song by The Del-Vikings
called "Come Go With Me".
And the thing about it was,
he obviously didn't know the words,
but he was pulling in lyrics
from blues songs.
So instead of going, uh
Come little darlin',
come and go with me ♪
which is right, he'd then go
Down, down, down to the penitentiary ♪
And he'd be doing sort of stuff
he'd heard on
Big Bill Broonzy records, and stuff.
So I thought, "That's clever. That's
He's He's pretty good." That was John.
[John] And we met,
and we talked after the show.
And And I saw he had talent.
And he was playing guitar backstage,
and doing "Twenty Flight Rock"
by Eddie Cochran.
-[crowd cheering]
-["Twenty Flight Rock" playing]
Ooh, well, I've got a girl
with a record machine ♪
When it comes to rockin'
she's the queen ♪
We love to dance on a Saturday night ♪
All alone
where I can hold her tight ♪
But the thing I think impressed
him the most was, um,
I knew all the words.
So I walked one, two flight,
three flight, four ♪
Five, six, seven flight ♪
Eight flight more ♪
Up on the 12th I'm startin' to drag ♪
15 before I'm ready to sag ♪
Get to the top, I'm too tired to rock ♪
Well, called me up on the telephone ♪
Said, "Come on over, baby,
'cause I'm all alone" ♪
I said "Baby, you're mighty sweet" ♪
"But I'm in bed with achin' feet" ♪
This went on for a couple of days ♪
But I couldn't stay away ♪
So I walked one,
two flight, three flight, four ♪
Five, six, seven flight,
eight flight more ♪
Up on the 12th I'm startin' to sag ♪
15 before I'm ready to drag ♪
I get to the top,
I'm too tired to rock ♪
[goes into guitar break]
[John] I was the singer and the leader.
Well, I made the decision
whether to have him
in the group or not.
Was it better to have a
a guy who was better
than the people I had in?
Obviously. Or not?
And that decision was to let Paul in,
to make the group stronger.
-[music concludes]
-[John] And I turned around
to him right then
on first meeting and said,
"Do you wanna join the group?"
And I think he said yes the next day.
["A Day In The Life"
final chord playing]
[John] Now, George came through Paul.
[Paul] I said,
"Well, I've got I've got
I've got this friend who's
who's really good, you know."
And they said, "Well, yeah,
like, what?" you know.
And I said, "Well, he can play
'Raunchy' perfectly."
[singing "Raunchy" riff]
"Dow, dow, dow, daga-da, dahn."
-["Raunchy" (Instrumental) playing]
-And we all loved that song.
So we said, "Well,
gotta gotta try him out."
I remember we ended up
on the top deck of a bus, empty,
late-night-bus kind of thing,
and just us there,
and I just, "Go on, George,
get your guitar out. Go on.
You show 'em, man." I thought, you know
And he got it out.
[singing "Raunchy" riff] "Dow, dow"
Sure enough, note perfect.
"Raunchy". "You're in!"
["Something" (Instrumental) playing]
[music concludes]
We were together much longer
than the public knew us.
You know, it wasn't just from '64.
I was 24 in '64,
and I'd been playing with Paul
since I was 15,
and he's very nice
-[host laughs]
-and [chuckles]
and George about
a year later, or something.
So it's a long time
we spent together in
in all the most
extraordinary circumstances.
["That'll Be The Day" playing]
Well, that'll be the day,
when you say goodbye ♪
Yeah, that'll be the day,
when you make me cry ♪
You say you're gonna leave,
you know it's a lie ♪
'Cause that'll be the day
when I die ♪
[John] The first thing we ever recorded
was "That'll Be The Day",
a Buddy Holly song,
and one of Paul's, called, uh,
"In Spite Of All The Danger".
And somewhere, it might be around,
it's in Liverpool somewhere, that record,
that's the actual
first recording we ever made.
[Paul] I think it was starting
to dawn on us
that it would be a good idea, if we could,
to write our own stuff,
'cause there were so many people
doing cover versions.
And then I sang
"In Spite Of All The Danger",
which is a little self-penned thing
which was very influenced by Elvis.
["In Spite Of All The Danger" playing]
In spite of all the danger ♪
In spite of all that may be ♪
Ah, ah, ah, ah ♪
I'll do anything for you ♪
Anything you want me to ♪
-If you'll be true to me ♪
-Ah, ah, ah, ah ♪
[John] Everybody hung 'round in this
in this club in Liverpool
called the Jacaranda,
which was near the art school,
near Paul and George's school,
in the center of Liverpool.
And so we started
hanging 'round there
before we really formed a band, you know,
when there was just me,
Paul and George.
The early days, we used to show up at gigs
with just three of us, me,
George and John, with guitars.
And the fella who booked us'd say,
"Where's the drummer?"
We'd say, "The rhythm's in the guitars."
[George] We We once tried
to do this audition
for Carroll Levis There was this guy,
Carroll Levis Discoveries.
And the scam, what it was,
was that, you know,
everybody'd go on and audition
and then they'd pick out somebody for
to, you know,
out of the auditions, and say,
-"Okay, you, you and you."
-[music concludes]
And they'd pick out
about probably 20 different acts to go on.
And they'd have an audience,
and then they'd have the Clapometer,
and whoever won
would go on into the final,
or come back next week,
and it was just something
that kept on going.
We went in for one of those.
So we were going up on the train
from Liverpool to Manchester,
rehearsing what we were going to do,
and only me and George had our guitars.
I think John, he must have sold his,
or bust it, or something.
He didn't have his with him.
Okay, there's just the two of us
with guitars.
And, as it happened, it looked good,
'cause Paul was, like, left-handed,
and I was right-handed, and still am,
and John was in the middle.
And, like, John stood there
with a hand on each shoulder, you know.
[singing "Think It Over"]
Think it over what you just said ♪
Pa, pa, pah ♪
Me and George, John'd do the lead.
And we were also gonna do "Rave On".
So we went. We did it.
He put his arms around us,
and stuff, and it was okay.
We didn't win, as usual.
But I believe that day
some unfortunate person in that,
uh, theater was relieved of his guitar.
["I Feel Fine"
first feedback note playing]
[Paul] Stuart was
John's friend mainly, from art college.
-[music concludes]
-Stuart was a very good painter.
We were all slightly jealous
of John's friendship.
So when Stuart came in,
it was a little bit of a sort of
he was sort of taking
a little bit of that position
away from us.
We sort of had to take
a little bit of a, um,
back seat.
[George] The famous story
is where he sold his painting
to John Moore Exhibition,
or something like that.
[Paul] So the question was,
"What do you do with 75 quid?"
So we said, "Do you know,
that happens to be
the exact amount it takes
to buy a Höfner bass,
and that'd be a great thing
to spend the money on."
He said, "No, no, I'm a painter.
I've gotta spend it on paints,
and suchlike, you know."
We said, "No, Stuart, really."
And John and I kind of gave him
quite a sort of persuasive argument
that the best thing to do, obviously,
was to buy this Höfner bass. [chuckles]
Which he did. He went and did that.
And, um, only trouble was,
he couldn't play it.
[George] But it was better
to have a bass player who,
uh, couldn't play
than to not have a bass player at all.
["I'll Follow The Sun" playing]
Well, don't leave me alone out here ♪
Have courage
and follow me, my dear ♪
-["One After 909" playing]
-Well, she says she's travelling ♪
On the one after 909 ♪
I said move over, honey
I'm travelling on that line ♪
I said move over once, move over twice ♪
Come on, baby don't be cold as ice ♪
She said she's travelling
on the one after 909 ♪
[John] Instead of going
to school, I'd go down
to his place, he had a piano.
And if I'd started something,
or he'd started something,
we'd say, "Here, I've got this."
And he'd say, "I've got this."
And we'd start helping
each other write our own songs
like that. So any combination
of the two of us writing,
that's how we wrote.
[end of tape]
John and Stuart had this
this flat in a place
called Gambier Terrace,
right near the Liverpool Institute,
near College of Art.
And, uh, I remember one day they came up.
John was all excited, saying,
"Oh, I've thought of this name,
The Beatles."
[Ringo] John thought
of the name "Beatles",
and he'll tell you about it now.
[John] Well, I had a vision when I was 12,
and I saw a man
on a flaming pie, and he said,
"You are Beatles with an A." And we are.
[Neil Aspinall]
John put this thing in, um,
The Mersey Beat, right,
which was also started
by Bill Harry, who went
to art college with John,
just saying that, uh,
this little guy appeared
on a flaming pie,
you know, in the sky, and said,
"Let there be Beatles with an A."
[John] I was looking
for a name, like The Crickets,
that meant two things,
and from Crickets I got to Beatles.
When you said it,
people thought of crawly things.
And when you read it, it was beat music.
You know, I realized by watching
The Wild One,
that the band the the gang
was all called the Beetles.
And here it is now.
You know, I've missed you.
Ever since the club split up I missed you.
We all missed you! Do you miss him?
-[The Beetles] Yeah! Sure!
-Yeah. The Beetles missed you.
All the Beetles missed you!
["From Me To You" outro playing]
-[John's voice echoes] And we are.
-[music concludes]
When we started off, um, we had a manager
in Liverpool called Allan Williams,
who was a small bloke, uh,
a little sort of high voice,
little Welsh accent he had.
"All right, lads?"
He was a great bloke.
He was a real good motivator.
He was very good for us
at the time, you know.
And we did a tour of Scotland.
It was a pretty pathetic tour.
By the end of it we were broke.
We had no money.
We were all cold and freezing and,
you know, just miserable and
and that was it, you know.
We all came back to Liverpool
and nothing happened really.
We didn't really know--
I felt really sad
'cause we were like orphans,
or something. We didn't have--
Our shoes were all full of holes,
and our trousers were a mess.
[John] I would say to the others
when they were depressed,
or we were all depressed, you know,
thinking that the group was going nowhere
and this is a shitty deal
and we're in a shitty dressing room,
I'd say, "Where are we goin', fellas?"
And they'd go, "To the top, Johnny"
in pseudo-American voices.
And I'd say, “Where's that, fellas?"
And they'd say,
"To the toppermost of the poppermost."
And I'd say, "Right!”
Then we'd all sort of cheer up.
[George] And then later,
Allan came to us and said,
"Okay, lads, you can have
this job in Germany.
The only problem is
you've got to be five people.
He's asked for a five-piece band."
At that point, Paul was the drummer
because all the drummers didn't show up!
And so, oh, that's right,
I said, "Okay. I remember this guy
who went up to this club,
and that we're gonna
you know, Pete Best. And he had
this drum kit for Christmas."
[Paul] He was known on Merseyside
as "Mean, Moody
and Magnificent Pete Best".
[John] People who owned drum kits were far
and few between. It was an expensive item.
And they were usually idiots, you know.
We got Pete Best
just 'cause we needed a drummer
the next day to go to Hamburg.
He came down to the Jacaranda club.
We did a quick audition with him,
and jumped in the van
and went to Hamburg.
["Roll Over Beethoven" playing]
We're gonna write a little letter ♪
Gonna mail it to my local D.J. ♪
It's a rockin' little record
I want my jockey to play ♪
Roll over Beethoven,
gotta hear it again today ♪
You know my temperature's ♪
[Paul] We ended up in Hamburg
at-- um, very late one night.
We'd got the timing wrong.
There was no one there to meet us,
but we could find Hamburg off the map
but then trying to find St. Pauli,
the little district in the Reeperbahn.
But everyone knew.
[in German accent] "Oh,
Reeperbahn, ja, it's dis vay,
you von't miss it," you know,
"Keep right aus, and"
[naturally] Okay. So we went down,
and we found the street and the club,
but it was all closed.
But we were there
with no hotel or anything,
and it was now
[pretends to yawn] bedtime, you know.
So we managed to shake up someone
from a neighboring club, or something.
They They found the guy,
and he opened the club,
and we slept
the first night in the alcoves
on the little red leather seats.
[George] The second night
we moved in the Bambi Kino,
and then we were there for ages,
like, two months, three months.
Everything else was such a buzz,
you know, being right in the middle
of the naughtiest city
in the world at 17 years old.
It was kind of exciting.
And learning, you know, about,
well, there's all the gangsters,
and there's the transvestites,
and there's the
You know, it was like that,
and there's the hookers.
[Paul] At that time, we were just kids
let off the leash, really,
come straight from Liverpool to Hamburg,
and we were used
to these little Liverpool girls.
But by the time you got to Hamburg,
if you if you got a girlfriend there
-[music concludes]
-she was likely to be a stripper,
which was the only kind
of people who were around
at the time we were around
late at night there. So
I mean, you'd
And for someone
who'd not really had much sex
in their lives before,
which none of us really had,
to be suddenly involved
with a sort of hard-core
striptease artist,
who obviously knew a thing
or two about sex,
um, was quite an eye-opener.
["Money (That's What I Want)" playing]
The best things in life are free ♪
But you can keep 'em
for the birds and bees ♪
-Now give me money ♪
-That's what I want ♪
-That's what I want ♪
-That's what I want ♪
-That's what I want, yeah ♪
-That's what I want ♪
That's what I want ♪
[John] In Hamburg, 'cause we had to work
six or seven hours a night
on stage with no rest
the waiters always had
these pills called Preludin.
And so the waiters, when they'd see
the musicians falling over
with tiredness or with drink,
they'd give you the pill.
You'd take the pill, you'd be
talking, you'd sober up.
You know, you could work almost endlessly
until the pill wore off,
then you'd have to have another.
We used to just be up there
frothing, you know,
at the mouth, just foaming,
just stomping away,
doing this, so [laughing]
Those were the days.
[John] We had to play
all the tunes for hours
and hours on end, you know.
That's why every song lasted 20 minutes
and had 20 solos in it.
But we'd be playing, like,
eight or ten hours a night,
or something.
And that's what improved
the playing, you know.
We thought we were the best
in Hamburg and Liverpool
before anybody else had heard us.
We thought we were the best!
Just a matter of time
before everybody else caught on.
And believing that
is what made us what we were.
-[music concludes]
-[Ringo] By the time
we all met up in Germany,
they were playing one club,
we were playing another, um,
they were just great by then.
[John] Ringo was a professional drummer
who sang and performed,
and had "Ringo Starr Time!"
And he was in the one
of the top groups in Liverpool
before we even had a drummer!
Because we used to do long hours.
We used to do 12 hours
in a weekend between two bands,
uh, when we ended up
on the same club, and that.
So if they had the last set,
I'd sort of be semi-drunk
and demanding they play slow songs.
[George] We made friends
with a lot of people.
The ones who became our real friends
were Klaus Voormann, Jürgen Vollmer,
and Astrid, who took
all the famous photographs
of us at that period.
Well, she was the one
who made us look good.
You know, those early Beatle photographs,
they look fantastic.
The Beatles look great.
She was dressed like that,
the leather kecks,
you know, and the hair
like the Beatle haircuts,
and so they gave us confidence
to, like, leave it that way.
[Paul] They weren't really
Rockers or Mods,
they were something in the middle.
They called themselves
"Exis". Existentialists.
They were art students, really. [laughs]
["Red Hot" playing]
My girl is red hot ♪
-My girl is red hot ♪
-Ooh! ♪
My girl is red hot ♪
My girl is red hot ♪
She ain't got no money ♪
But, man, she's really got a lot ♪
-My girl is red hot ♪
-Hey! ♪
I've got a girl that's six foot four ♪
Sleeps in the kitchen
with her feet out the door ♪
My girl is red hot ♪
My girl is red hot ♪
[George] I was 17 when we first went out
and they had this
kind of situation in Germany
which I'd never come across before
-[music concludes]
-which was a curfew, um,
and after ten o'clock at night,
anybody who was under 18 had to get out.
And I was only 17,
I was sitting in the band
and I kept-- started getting worried.
And eventually somebody found out
we didn't have any work permits or visas,
so they started closing in on us.
And the police came one day,
and then they just booted me out.
So the second time
we went back when I was 18,
this fella came into the club
who was-- they said,
"Oh, he's this famous
record producer and musician,"
and he was called Bert Kaempfert.
He came in the club,
and I remember this buzz went around,
"We've gotta be good. Play really good.
We may get a chance to record,"
which we did, and we got
all pleased with ourselves.
And then we got to the studio
and he just wanted us to,
like, back up Tony Sheridan.
I remember feeling a little depressed.
But we did, nevertheless,
get to do that "My Bonnie".
["My Bonnie" playing]
My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪
My Bonnie lies over the sea ♪
Well, my Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪
Yeah, bring back my Bonnie to me ♪
[Paul] While we were out there,
we started to see other groups,
and stuff, and started to get
a little bit dissatisfied
with Pete. Not massively,
but just a little bit of dissatisfaction
-started to creep in.
-[music concludes]
[George] I seem to remember him, you know,
starting to not turn up for gigs,
and then we kept getting Ringo in.
Every time Ringo sat in with the band,
it just seemed like this was it.
[Ringo] And this happened
three or four times,
and then that was the end.
You know, we were just pals,
and we'd have a drink after it,
and then I'd be back with Rory.
[Paul] And round about this time,
Stuart and I got a little bit fraught too.
See, 'cause I I claim
that what I was trying to do
was make sure we were musically very good,
but this did create a couple of rifts,
and I can see now how I could
have been more sensitive to it.
But who's sensitive at that age?
Certainly not me.
[George] Well, when we first met him,
he couldn't play at all, uh,
and he learned a few tunes.
Occasionally, it was a bit embarrassing.
He didn't-- You know, if it had
a lot of changes to it he was
But he knew that, too.
That's why, you know,
he was never really that at ease
being in the band,
and that's why he decided
to go back to art college.
At that point,
Paul was still playing a guitar,
and I remember saying,
"Well, one of us
is going to be the bass player."
I remember saying, "And it's not me.
I'm not doing it." And John said,
"I'm not doing it either."
[Paul] I got lumbered with it, really.
I didn't wanna be the bass player,
but there was no one left.
So I went and got--
I went, uh Before we left Hamburg,
I went and got, um,
my Höfner bass down in the city center.
[George] He went for it.
["I'm Down" playing]
You tell lies thinking I can't see ♪
You can't cry
'cause your laughing at me ♪
-I'm down ♪
-I'm really down ♪
-I'm down ♪
-Down on the ground ♪
-I'm down ♪
-I'm really down ♪
How can you laugh
when you know I'm down? ♪
-How can you laugh ♪
-When you know I'm down? ♪
-[music concludes]
-And then we went back to Liverpool
and got quite a few bookings,
you know, they all thought
we were German.
You know, we were billed
as "from Hamburg",
and they were all saying,
"You speak good English"
[chuckles] you know, things like that.
So we went back to Germany,
and we had a bit more
money the second time,
so we bought leather pants
and we looked like four Gene Vincents,
only a bit younger, I think.
Anyway, we got back to Liverpool,
and all the groups there were doing
the sort of Shadows type of stuff.
["F.B.I." playing]
[George] That's why, you know,
we became popular
because they couldn't believe it.
There was all these
Dum, de-dum, de-dum, de-dum ♪
de-diddlee-dum [chuckles]
and then suddenly we come on,
wild men in leather suits.
[Neil Aspinall]
I think it was Pete Best
-[music concludes]
-said to them that, uh, you know,
I would, uh, drive them, uh,
to the gigs and stuff. And, uh, I got--
I think I got a pound a night,
or a pound a gig, you know.
Five bob off each of 'em.
You know, they needed transport
to get them to the Cavern
and wherever, 'cause they were
using cabs at the time.
[John] I mean, on the street in Liverpool,
and unless you were in the suburbs,
yeah, I mean, you had to walk
close to the wall, you know?
And to get to the Cavern, you know,
for those of you who remember all that,
it was no easy matter,
even at lunchtime sometimes.
I mean, it's a tense place.
[George] We played the Cavern
before we ever went to Hamburg,
I believe,
in the days when it was a jazz
and folk club.
I seem to remember playing there
and them handing us
these notes saying,
"Stop playing this music.
This is a jazz club."
[Paul] Had a couple of requests
to do a tune
called "Kansas City",
so we'd like to do "Kansas City".
One, two, three
["Kansas City" playing]
[Paul] So anyway,
we did well at the Cavern
and, uh, attracted some big audiences.
And the word got around.
What had happened was a kid had gone
into Brian Epstein's record store
and had asked for "My Bonnie".
[George] And then he found out
that the Beatles were supposed
to be a Liverpool band
and they were playing in the Cavern,
so he went down the street
and and checked us out.
Because I remember Bob Wooler,
the disc jockey, saying,
"And we have a Mr. Epstein,
who owns NEMS Enterprises, in here."
And everybody was going,
"Ooh! Wow!" you know.
Big, big deal.
one more time, whoa, whoa ♪
It's just a-one, two, three, four ♪
[Brian Epstein] This was quite
a new world really for me.
Uh, I was amazed by this sort of dark,
smoky, dank atmosphere
with this beat music playing away.
And, um, the Beatles
were then just four lads
-on that rather dimly-lit stage
-[music concludes]
uh, somewhat ill-clad,
and their presentation was,
well, left a little to be desired
as far as I was concerned,
'cause I'd been interested in the theatre
and acting for a long time.
But amongst all that,
something tremendous came over,
and, uh, I was immediately struck
by their their
their music, their beat
and, uh, their sense of humor,
actually, on stage.
And even afterwards, when I met them,
I was struck again
by their personal charm.
And, uh, it was there
that really it all started.
Brian had this shop and,
you know, it was good.
We used to get-- pick a couple of records,
and he had this big Zephyr Zodiac,
and he wanted to manage us,
and we weren't going anywhere anyway, so,
you know, we said,
"Yes, he might as well."
Straight away he got us some jobs,
got us a bit more money
and, um, then started
getting us radio shows,
and things like that. And then,
you know, as we go ahead,
we got into our suits.
You know, he talked
us out of the leather suits.
[Paul] It was a bit
sort of old hat anyway,
all wearing leather gear,
and we decided we didn't
wanna look sort of ridiculous
just going on, because y--
more often than not,
sort of people, too many people'd laugh.
It was just stupid. And we didn't wanna
sort of appear as a gang of idiots.
And Brian suggested that we just
sort of wore ordinary suits.
[John] I mean, we cleaned up a bit.
Brian cleaned us up a bit
when he discovered us
or we discovered him, as Paul says.
[Paul] It was later
put around that, uh,
I'd betrayed our heavy leather image
that we had at the time,
and I wanted us to get suits.
But I seem to recall that we,
uh, all went quite happily.
I didn't have to drag anyone
there, uh, to the tailors.
They all went quite happily.
[John] You know,
Brian put us into suits,
and all that,
and we made it very, very big.
But we sold out, you know.
[George] So, you know,
we gladly switched into suits,
you know, if it was
if we were gonna get
some more money,
get some more gigs.
[John] Brian was a
a beautiful guy, Brian Epstein,
and he was, uh,
an intuitive, theatrical guy,
and he knew we had something.
He presented us well.
So Brian contributed as much
as us in the early days,
although we were the talent
and he was the hustler.
["Three Cool Cats" playing]
[Neil Aspinall] Yeah, I remember
we had to drive down to London
on, uh, New Year's Eve,
because we did, uh, a session for Decca.
You know, an audition for Decca.
Well, up popped that first cool cat ♪
He said, "Man, look at that! ♪
Man, do you see what I see?" ♪
Well, now, I want that middle chick ♪
I want that little chick ♪
Hey, man, save one chick for me! ♪
-Yeah! ♪
-Three cool chicks ♪
Three cool chicks ♪
Ah-hah! ♪
-["Bésame Mucho" playing]
-Cha-cha boom! ♪
Bésame, bésame mucho ♪
[John] And when you hear
the tape, it's pretty good.
You know, it's not great, but it's good.
And it's certainly good for then.
[George] Dick Rowe,
the man who didn't sign us,
the head of Decca, he said,
"Guitar groups are on the way
out, Mr. Epstein."
Cha-cha boom! ♪
Bésame, bésame mucho ♪
Love me forever ♪
And say that you'll always be mine ♪
-Cha-cha boom! ♪
-[music concludes]
So Brian then had this tape
which he hawked around.
[John] If he hadn't gone
round London on foot
with the tapes under his arm
and gone from place
to place, to place to place,
and finally to George Martin
we would never have made it,
because we didn't have the push
to do it on our own.
And I think it was somebody
in the HMV shop on Oxford Street
knew George Martin, and told Brian to go
and play the tape to George Martin,
and then he gave us
the audition at, um, Abbey Road.
["Love Me Do" playing]
[George Martin] And, uh,
they came down here
and I spent some time with them,
went through all their stuff,
and tried to make up my mind
which was the Cliff Richard
of the group, you know.
Because one gets-- one was focused,
in those days, on a a lead
singer and a backing group.
And, uh, suddenly
realized at the end of it all
that it was nonsense.
It was a group
that I had to take as it was.
[John] George had done little of--
no rock and roll when we met him,
and we'd never been in the studio,
so we did a lot of learning together.
He had a very great
musical knowledge and background.
[George Martin] Even though they had, uh,
nothing really behind them,
they were still fairly
irreverent even in those days,
which I which I loved, you know.
I I I like a little bit
of rebel in people,
and I liked their sense of humor.
After all, that was my main
stock-in-trade, too.
And I guess they quite liked
what I'd been doing
with Peter Sellers and the Goons,
and that kind of thing.
Um, no, I I don't
They They had tremendous charisma.
I knew that that alone would sell them.
[Paul] And we did a reasonable
audition, not very good.
But the thing he didn't like
was our drummer.
We really started to think we, um,
needed the great drummer in Liverpool.
[Ringo] Uh, it was a Wednesday,
and Brian called.
-"Would you join the band?"
-[music concludes]
[Ringo] And I said,
"What do you mean?" He said,
"No, really join the band."
And I said,
"Sure. Yeah. When?" And he said,
"Now!" Well, I said, "No, I can't do that
'cause we've got
these other four guys here.
There's We've got a gig for months
and, you know, I can't just
pull out now and it all end."
So I said, "I'll join you Saturday,"
because we used to have Saturday off,
'cause that's when they used
to change the campers.
And so I gave Rory
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
to bring someone in, 'cause
to open again on Sunday,
which I thought was giving him
a hell of a lot of time. [laughs]
And uh, and that was it.
Historically, it may look like
we did something nasty to Pete,
and it may may have been
that we could have done it better.
But the thing was, as history also shows,
Ringo was the the member of the band.
It's just that he didn't enter
the s-- the film
until that particular scene, you know?
[John] I met Paul and said,
"Do you wanna join me band?" you know.
And then George joined.
And then Ringo joined.
We were just a band who made
it very, very big, that's all.
[announcer] At this midday
session at the Cavern,
we proudly present The Beatles.
[crowd cheering]
["Some Other Guy" playing]
Some other guy now ♪
Has taken my love
away from me, oh now ♪
Some other guy now ♪
Has taken away
my sweet desire, oh now ♪
Some other guy now ♪
I just don't wanna hold
my head, oh now ♪
I'm the lonely one ♪
As lonely as I can feel, all right ♪
Some other guy ♪
You're steppin' on my honey
like a yellow dog, oh now ♪
Some other guy now ♪
Has taken my love
just like a hog, oh now ♪
Some other guy now ♪
Has taken my love
away from me, oh now ♪
I'm the lonely one ♪
As lonely as I can feel, all right ♪
Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
Some other guy ♪
You're making me
very, very mad, oh now ♪
Some other guy now ♪
You've taken the padlock
off my pad, oh now ♪
Some other guy now ♪
You took the first girl
I've ever had, oh now ♪
I'm the lonely one ♪
As lonely as I can feel, all right now ♪
Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
I'm a-talkin' to you, right now ♪
[crowd cheering]
-[music concludes]
-[audience member] We want Pete!
We played the Cavern.
There was a lot of fighting and shouting.
Half of them hated me,
half of them loved me.
There was a few people there
who were shouting,
"Ringo never! Pete Best forever!"
And after about half an hour,
I said, "Oh, bugger off"
or something and,
uh, stepped out of this
you know, the Cavern had this
it was three tunnels,
and we stepped out
of what was the dressing room
into this dark tunnel,
and some guy just, like,
butted me right in the eye.
That was a bad day.
And then I walked under a bus.
Got hit by a double-deck bus.
[Ringo] George fought for me.
[John] What I think
about the Beatles is that
even if there'd been Paul
and John and two other people,
we'd never have been The Beatles.
It had to take that combination
of Paul, John,
George and Ringo to make The Beatles.
[George Martin] When Ringo
came to the session
for the first time,
nobody told me that he was coming.
Ringo turns up expecting to play,
and I said, "Well, you know,
I've been bitten once,
I'm not going to have that.
I don't even know who you are."
[Paul] He'd originally told us
he wanted another drummer
besides Pete Best.
We'd gone away. We'd changed.
We brought the new drummer,
the best in Liverpool,
and now he didn't like the new drummer!
I'd already booked Andy White,
and I told Brian Epstein
I was going to do this.
I said, "I just want the three others,
and that's fine.
We're going to have Andy White,
thank you very much."
And I then I had to find
a hit song for them.
The best I could find from them
was "Love Me Do".
[Ringo] No, I was devastated!
I came down, ready to roll, and,
"We've got Andy White,
the professional drummer."
But he's apologized several times since,
has old George Martin.
But it was it was devastating.
And then we did that, which
which Andy plays on,
and then we did the album,
which I play on.
You know, so Andy
wasn't doing anything so great.
Well, he wasn't doing anything
so great I couldn't copy
when we did the album.
Oh, Ringo, to this day,
bears those scars.
He says, you know, "You didn't
let me play, did you?"
["Love Me Do" playing]
[John] Well, "Love Me Do"
was one of the first ones
we wrote ourselves, you know,
and Paul started writing that
when he must have been about 15.
It was the first one we'd sort
of dared do of our own.
Love, love me do ♪
You know I love you ♪
I'll always be true ♪
So please ♪
Love me do ♪
Actually,
their first record did very well.
It sold 100,000 copies.
That was "Love Me Do".
The best thing was, it came
to the charts in two days.
And everybody thought it was a fiddle
because our manager's stores
send in these,
-what is it, record things?
-[George] Returns.
Returns.
And everybody down south
thought,
"Ah, he's buying them himself,
or he's just fiddling
the charts," you know.
But he wasn't.
[Ringo] It was bought by the kids.
I mean, we had a big following.
And who'd had a record? It was--
You know, Arthur Askey
was the last one, I think,
out of Liverpool.
Someone to love ♪
Someone like you ♪
Love, love me do ♪
You know I love you ♪
I'll always be true ♪
So please love me do ♪
Whoa, oh, love me do ♪
Love, love me do ♪
You know I love you ♪
I'll always be true ♪
So please ♪
Love me do ♪
Whoa, oh, love me do ♪
Yeah, love me do ♪
Oh, oh, love me do ♪
[George] We made the record
of "Love Me Do".
-[music concludes]
-It went to No. 17,
probably based upon the sales
in Liverpool.
EMI was kinda happy to have us back.
"Welcome back, lads!"
[Paul] We were starting to be this group
that had done its own material.
But normally you'd be offered
a number of songs
by a publisher, and they'd say,
"Get your boys to do this one.
This is a hit."
[John] When we first got in the studio,
they tried to give us
other people's songs.
They didn't like ours.
Well, it was quite normal
in those days to find material
for artists by going to Tin Pan Alley
and listening
to all the publishers' wares.
I mean, that was a regular part
of my life.
I'd spend a long time looking for songs.
And the songs that I was looking for
for the Beatles was really a hit song,
it didn't matter, so long
as it suited their-- the group.
And "Love Me Do", as I say,
was the best one
they were able to offer.
The kind of song I was looking for,
I did actually find.
And that was a song by Mitch Murray
called "How Do You Do It?"
And I was convinced this was a hit song.
[John] It forced us to do a version of
How do you do what you do to me? ♪
I wish I knew ♪
[chuckles] You know, like that.
And we did record it.
Um John took the lead.
-["How Do You Do It?" playing]
-How do you do what you do to me? ♪
I wish I knew ♪
If I knew how you do it to me,
I'd do it to you ♪
George said, "Well, it's a No. 1 song.
If you want a No. 1, this is it."
We said, "Yeah, but we cannot go
back up to Liverpool
singing that.
-We cannot be seen with that song."
-[music concludes]
So we didn't ever issue
"How Do You Do It?"
But I did later give it
to Gerry and the Pacemakers,
and it did become No. 1.
-["How Do You Do It?" playing]
-How do you do what you do to me? ♪
I wish I knew ♪
If I knew how you do it to me,
I'd do it to you ♪
So George Martin says,
"Well, have you got anything
you'd like to do?"
-We said
-[music concludes]
"We've got a song
called 'Please Please Me'."
This is one John had just written,
and it was kind of slow
Roy Orbison kind of thing.
[sings "Please Please Me"]
Come on, jum-jum ♪
Come on,
please, please me ♪
Big note at the end, just like Orbison.
[John] And I'd heard Roy Orbison doing
"Only The Lonely" or something,
and I was trying to
[sings falsetto]
Please me ♪
That's where that came from.
And also I was always intrigued
by the words of
[sings "Please"] Please,
lend your little ears to my pleas ♪
a Bing Crosby song.
I was always intrigued by the
the double use of the word "please".
And I said, "Okay. We'll give it a whirl.
Let's try your song.
Let's see if it works."
-And we did.
-["Please Please Me" playing]
And at the end of that session,
I was able to say to them,
"You've got your first No. 1. Great!"
[crowd cheering]
Last night I said these words
to my girl ♪
I know you never even try, girl ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
Please, please me, whoa, yeah,
like I please you ♪
You don't need me
to show the way, love ♪
Why do I always have to say, love ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
Please, please me, whoa, yeah,
like I please you ♪
I don't want to sound complaining ♪
But you know there's always
rain in my heart ♪
-In my heart ♪
-In my heart ♪
I do all the pleasing with you ♪
It's so hard to reason with you ♪
Oh yeah,
why do you make me blue? ♪
Last night I said these words
to my girl ♪
I know you never even try, girl ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
-Come on ♪
Please, please me, whoa, yeah,
like I please you ♪
Me, whoa, yeah, like I please you ♪
Me, whoa, yeah, like I please you ♪
[vocalizing]
-[music concludes]
-[crowd cheering, applauding]
And Bob Wooler got on the stage,
telegram in his hand.
"I've got news for you.
The Beatles' record, 'Please Please Me'
has reached No. 1 in the national charts."
And the lads themselves
just stopped and looked at him.
You know, they thought he was joking,
he must have been.
You know, that was Paul,
"He must be joking."
And there there were a lot of people
who didn't know the Beatles,
and they all started cheering
and clapping.
And there were about three rows
of girls at the front,
and every one of us started crying.
It was a terrible night.
You know, we knew then,
they'll get famous and they'll go away
and they'll belong to us no more.
["Leave My Kitten Alone" playing]
You better leave ♪
My kitten all alone ♪
You better leave ♪
My kitten all alone ♪
Well, I told you, big fat bulldog ♪
You better leave her alone ♪
You better leave ♪
My kitten all alone ♪
You better leave ♪
My kitten all alone ♪
This dog is gonna get you ♪
If you don't leave her alone ♪
Well, Mister Dog ♪
I'm gonna hit you ♪
On the top of your head ♪
That child is gonna miss you ♪
You're gonna wish ♪
That you was dead ♪
If you don't leave ♪
My kitten all alone ♪
Well, I told you ♪
Big fat bulldog ♪
You better leave her alone ♪
All right! ♪
Hey, hey, hey, come on! ♪
Yeah, yeah, yeah! ♪
Yeah, yeah! ♪
Well, Mister Dog ♪
I'm gonna hit you ♪
On the top of your head ♪
That child is gonna miss you ♪
You're gonna wish ♪
That you was dead ♪
If you don't leave ♪
My kitten all alone ♪
Oh, yeah ♪
Well, I told you ♪
Big fat bulldog ♪
You better leave her alone ♪
Hey, hey ♪
You better leave ♪
You better leave ♪
You better leave ♪
Yeah, you better leave ♪
You better leave ♪
Oh, you gotta leave ♪
Hey, hey ♪
Well, I told you ♪
Big, fat bulldog ♪
You better leave her alone ♪
[music concludes]