The Beatles recorded the song during their marathon ‘Please Please Me’ session in London
John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote together to compose the vast majority of The Beatles’ back catalogue but they didn’t always agree on who had written what. Every song the two wrote together while in The Beatles was credited to Lennon-McCartney, irrespective of whether a song was a joint effort or predominately written by one of them.
That was the result of a pact made before they rose to fame but it very occasionally led to disagreements. The ECHO has previously looked at how they couldn’t agree on who wrote the majority of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ or ‘In My Life’.
They were not the only songs where this was the case either. The track ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’ featured on the band’s 1963 debut album ‘Please Please Me’ and was released as a single in the USA the following year.
The song, which was sung by George Harrison, had been written in 1962 but John and Paul had differing accounts on how it was written.
About it, John said in a 1980 interview: “My mother was always… she was a comedienne and a singer. Not professional, but, you know, she used to get up in pubs and things like that. She had a good voice. She could do Kay Starr.
“She used to do this little tune when I was just a one- or two-year-old… yeah, she was still living with me then… The tune was from the Disney movie – ‘Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell. You are standing by a wishing well.’
“So, I had this sort of thing in my head and I wrote it and just gave it to George to sing. I thought it would be a good vehicle for him because it only had three notes and he wasn’t the best singer in the world.
“He has improved a lot since then, but in those days his singing ability was very poor because (a) he hadn’t had the opportunity, and (b) he concentrated more on the guitar.
“So I wrote that – not for him as I was writing it, but when I had written it, I thought he could do it. It was just written.”
Paul remembers the song’s composition differently, however. He said it was a “50–50 collaboration written to order” for George to sing.
The Beatles recorded the song during their marathon ‘Please Please Me’ session in London on February 11, 1963, which saw them record their debut album in a day.
George sang the lead vocal and played lead guitar, with Paul and John providing backing vocals and guitar, as Ringo Starr played drums.
About his work on the song, George said: “‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’ was ‘my song’ on the album. I didn’t like my vocal on it. I didn’t know how to sing; nobody told me how to.”
The song was covered by another Merseyside band managed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein – Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. The act, led by the Bootle-born singer, recorded it at Abbey Road in 1963 and it topped the singles charts later that year.
