A Taste of Honey

The one undeniable fact about The Beatles is they had a love of music. Not just rock & roll, but all varieties of music. Paul in particular had a fondness for ballads (it shows in the songs that he is the primary composer), even those from his father's time. As Paul relates, The Beatles were not ashamed of these and would include ballads into their stage act so they have a variety of songs and a touch of class or sophistication.

A Taste of Honey is one such song, which vocal version was first recorded by Lenny Welch in 1962. It was originally an instrumental track written for a Broadway play with the same name in 1960. A cover was also done by Herb Alpert in 1965. Both the original and cover in 1965 earned the song Grammy Awards in 63' and 65'. The vocal version only became popular after The Beatles covered the song.

An interesting fact about this song is that Paul's voice is double tracked during the bridge. This will be the first of many songs in which The Beatles used this technique in their songs. Paul's vocal was perfect for this song and conveys the meaning of the song in the most convincing way he could muster. If you turn up the bass while playing this song, you could clearly hear Paul's tasteful bass playing, especially during the bridges.

Love it or loathe it, you must admit that The Beatles successfully took a classic piece of ballad and transformed it into a song of their own, sang in their own style. I never did like this song when I first heard it, but the tune and the opening line that only a Paul McCartney voice can deliver ..."A taste of honey... tasting much sweeter than wine...do do do dooo", keeps on playing in my mind. Hope it sticks to your mind as it did to mine.

Do You Want to Know a Secret

John and his mum, Julia

Written by John Lennon, the inspiration for this song came from a deeply rooted childhood memory of John. Julia, John's mum, used to sing I'm Wishing from Snow White and The Seven Dwarves to him when he was a young boy. The lines "Wanna know a secret? Promise not to tell?" was sung by Snow White to the doves while standing at the castle well. John later said that he had this sort of thing in his head, and together with Paul, they worked out a complete arrangement.

George Harrison

George Harrison is the lead vocal in this song despite the song being written by John Lennon. In 1980, Lennon said that he gave this song to George because it only had three notes and George was not the best singer in the world. George himself confirms this sentiment, saying that he did not like his vocal work on the song because he did not know how to sing yet. John did say in his 1980 interview that George has improved a lot since then.

In the Studio

An interesting fact about this song is that it was not considered a favourite among the band members. It had a short performance life as a Beatles song. Even though the song became a major US hit , The Beatles never saw fit to perform the song in the states. Even Paul who co-wrote this song with John, considered it to be  a hack song written to order as a filler for the first album.


Regardless of what The Beatles think of this song (no disrespect intended), to me this song is one that I will always hum to. I remember singing this song throughout my teenage years, dedicating it to my then puppy love. It stands on par with Can't Buy Me Love and  Love Me Do as The Beatles ultimate love songs. Enjoy the song below.

Baby It's You

George, Paul and Lennon

This would be the second Shirelles song covered by The Beatles in their debut album, Please Please Me. Written by Burt Bacharach and Luther Dixon with lyrics by Mack David, Baby It's You was a hit for both The Shirelles and The Beatles. However another cover of this song by the band Smith, peaked the highest in the US Charts at #5 in 1969.

John(lying) and Paul

Baby It's You is part of The Beatles stage act from 1961 to 1963. The Beatles completely mimic the structure of the original Shirelles recording, not wanting to tamper with the 'girl group' classic that they so deeply admired. Lennon delivers a very confident lead vocal, which is accentuated in the fourth measure by the recurrence of the distinctive "sha la la" harmonies by Paul and George.


An interesting fact about this song, or rather what others thought of this song is that the title of the song is "Sha-la-la-la-la", because of its' repeated occurrence in the song.


I must add that credits should be given to the composers of this song. it is a great song, no matter who performs it, be it The Beatles, The Shirelles, Smith, The Carpenters, which ever way you like it, a great song will always be a great song. Hope you enjoy listening to it.

P.S. I Love You

Beatles Fan

P.S. I Love You was written with their female audience in mind and The Beatles included this as part of their Cavern Club song set where it was a favourite of the fans. A typical McCartney's song, it is believed that the song was written in 1961. However, there are some quarters who believe that the song was written in April 1962. Regardless when the song was written, it is evident of McCartney's natural ability, even at this early stage, to write a well crafted song and impressively structured song. The song's melody, simple lyrics and effective   major-to-minor chord structure, is an indication of the potential for better things to come.

Young McCartney

An interesting fact for this song is that it is widely believed that McCartney wrote this song as a dedication to his then girlfriend, Dot Rhone. McCartney denies this and described "P.S. I Love You" as 

"a theme song based on a letter... It was pretty much mine. I don't think John had much of a hand in it. There are certain themes that are easier than the others to hang a song on, and a letter is one of them... It's not based in reality, nor did I write it to my girlfriend from Hamburg, which some people think"

Lennon before a concert

John Lennon has this to say about the song

"That's Paul's song. He was trying to write a "Soldier Boy" like The Shirelles. He wrote that in Germany, or when we were going to and from Hamburg. I might have contributed something. I can't remember anything in particular. It was mainly his song."

P.S I Love You peaked at #17 in the UK Singles Chart in 1962 and at #10 in the US Billboard Hot 100. When it was re-released in 1982 in UK, it peaked at #4 in the UK Singles Chart. Hope you enjoy the listening to the song!!!

Love Me Do

Young McCartney

Love Me Do is The Beatles first single in the UK. Written by Paul McCartney in his younger days, Love Me Do is a simple song with a simple melody based around 2 simple chords: G7 and C, before moving to D for its middle eight. If you listen/read the lyrics, you will find that most of them are of one syllable i.e. love, me, do, you, know. The only word that is not one syllable is someone, which of course a word that consist of two one syllable word. That is how simple the song is. 


Originally, the song was sung as a Everly Brothers-style duet, with Lennon singing "love me do" at the end of each verse. When Lennon decided to add the harmonica to the song, Paul had to sing Lennon's part at the end since Lennon could not play the harmonica riff and sing at the same time.

Lennon playing the harmonica

There were many songs at that time with the same simple message of "I Love You and You Love Me". However Love Me Do by The Beatles stands out as it was set to a gospel blues style of play. To add to the uniqueness of the song is the Lennon's harmonica introduction at the start of the song greatly adds to the blues effect that the song was meant to be. These two combined enabled the song to stand out and become The Beatles first hit.

Lennon and McCartney

An interesting fact is that the word Love is repeated 21 times in the song itself. Of course, many a die-hard Beatles fanatics would make something out of this, but Paul McCartney has this to say about Love Me Do: 

 "Love Me Do was one of our greatest philosophical songs... for it is simple and true, making it incredibly simple"


Love Me Do was the first Beatles song that I have learned to play with on guitar, and the first Beatles song that I remembered the lyrics to. It's so simple and easy and enjoyable. I hope you find the joy that I experienced listening to this song.

Please Please Me

Lennon, Harrison, McCartney and St

The second single released by the Beatles in the UK, Please Please Me is also the title track of The Beatles début album. The Beatles début album was recorded to capitalise on the success of the single.

Young Lennon with mother, Julia

Please Please Me is a John Lennon original, though like most of their songs, credited to Lennon/McCartney. The original Please Please Me was envisioned as a bluesy, slow tempo song. It was inspired by two main sources - Roy Orbisons' Only The Lonely and Bing Crosby's Please. John used to listen to his mother, Julia, sing Please around the house during his childhood and Lennon liked the wordplay in the song so much that he decided to write a song that did the same thing. The wordplay that I am referring to is "Please, lend your little ear to my pleas". 

Martin, left, with The Beatles in the studio

When their producer, George Martin, heard the original Please Please Me, he immediately requested for them to make major changes to the song, including increasing its tempo. The Beatles did as requested, and also decided at some point to repeat the "lead harmonica" effect they had used on Love Me Do.  After 18 takes of the song, the final result would be The Beatles' first major hit. George Martin, upon hearing the completed track, turned on the intercom and told the group "Gentlemen, you have just recorded your first Number One record. 

Martin with The Beatles receiving a silver disc in1963

Some would argue that George Martin was partially correct as it is a common belief that Please Please Me was never a #1 single in Britain. But on 22 February 1963, the song reached #1 on all charts but that of Record Retailer, and is used by the Guinness Book of Records. They only have it at #2, and it is the most widely quoted today.

Whether it was in #1 or not, Please Please Me is still a great song, and with both Lennon and McCartney on lead vocals, this song shows how compatible those two voices are and they should never have parted. Enjoy the song!!!