Wishing Well

The next song on the debut LP was a ditty written mainly by John Lennon. The song was inspired by "Wishing Well" from the Disney movie: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

I really don't know what John thought of the song, but it must have seemed a lower priority and the only reason I'm saying this is because it was "given" to George Harrison to sing. George's vocal is perfect for this song yet again I sense a sort of nervousness in his voice similar to the earlier "Chains" performance. Both songs were recorded on the same day (as was most of the LP) so maybe this is just a natural thing.

The song was also "given" to another of Brian Epstein's artists who went by the name Billy J. Kramer. Billy J. Kramer's cover actually made it to number one on the British hit parade.

The song is entitled "Do you Want to Know a Secret?" The song was recorded on February 11 1963 (along with all of the non-single tracks) during the afternoon. A great song and nice structure with the semi-tone downfalls of the guitars. The song took eight takes to perfect and the overdubs included the back up vocals and the tapping of drum sticks. Take six was the keeper.

There are outtakes of "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" available ( 2 of them actually) and the main difference is in the vocal arrangement. They show that originally the back up vocals were added from the very first verse whereby the actual commercial version eliminated these back up vocals until the second verse. Already, the Beatles were experimenting in the studio.

Interestingly, to put things in perspective, George Harrison was only 19 years old when this debut LP was recorded.

"Do You Want to Know A Secret?" was performed six times live on BBC radio. The first time on "Here We Go" , the second time on "On the Scene", the third time on "Side by Side", the fourth time on "Saturday Club", the fifth and sixth time on "Pop Go the Beatles" editions 1 and 7.

Apart from appearing on the debut LP/CD "Please Please Me", the song also appeared on the Canadian 6000 series LP "Twist and Shout", the US Vee Jay LP "Introducing the Beatles" and the Capitol LP/CD "The Early Beatles".