Original subtitles

[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]

I mean, we don't know, it may be next week,

it may be two or three years,

but I think we'll be in the business,

either up there or down there, for at least another four years.

You can be big-headed and say, "Yeah, we're gonna last ten years."

But as soon as you've said that, you think,

you know, "We're lucky if we last three months," you know.

Probably, the thing that John and I will do, uh,

will be write songs, as we have been doing,

as a sort of sideline now.

We'll probably develop that a bit more.

But before they showed evidence of that,

I still had to have an album out.

And so what I did was, I mean, I'd been up to the Cavern

and I'd seen what they could do,

I knew their repertoire,

I knew what they were able to perform,

and I said, "Let's record every song you've got.

Come down to the studios,

and we'll just whistle through them in a day."

-[bass guitar noodling] -[George Martin] Here we go.

[John] You 'right?

Get this bloody little mic out the way. [clears throat]

-[Paul] Don't be nervous, John. -[John] I'm not.

[Paul] Don't be nervous. Don't be nervous.

[engineer] Take 7.

[Paul] One, two, three, four!

[♪ "I Saw Her Standing There" playing]

♪ Well, she was just seventeen ♪

♪ You know what I mean ♪

-[♪ "Chains" playing] -♪ Chains ♪

♪ My baby's got me locked up in chains ♪

[Ringo] But we knew those songs, you see,

because that was the act we did all over the country.

-[♪ "Anna (Go to Him)" playing] -♪ You say he loves you more than me ♪

♪ So I will set you free ♪

♪ Go with him ♪

-[♪ "Baby It’s You" playing] -'♪ Cause, baby, it's you ♪

♪ Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la ♪

♪ Baby, it's you ♪

♪ Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la ♪

♪ Sha-la-la-la... ♪

[John] Rock and roll was brand new

when it came out, and excited everybody.

It had roots in blues and jazz.

But you can't say that rock and roll

is like the Twenties music, although if you look for it,

you can find out where it came from.

And you can find out where Beatles music came from,

or any music came from.

It's just like it has its history.

♪ Oh, it doesn't matter what they say... ♪

[George Martin] They were always very influenced

by American rhythm and blues.

I think this is probably what the so-called "Beatle sound" was

because maybe they heard the records before we did.

But they knew much more about Motown

-and all the Black music... -[♪ music concludes]

...much more about it than anybody else did,

and that was a tremendous influence on them.

And the Beatles just carried it

a bit further, made it a little more White

even than Elvis did, because we were English, you know?

-[guitar noodling] -[John] I can... I can 'ardly strum

with all these microphones about here. [chuckles]

-[♪ "Boys" playing] -♪ My girl says when I kiss her lips ♪

♪ Gets a thrill through her fingertips ♪

♪ Hey, hey ♪

♪ Bop shuop, m'bop bop shuop ♪

♪ Hey, hey ♪

♪ Bop shuop, m'bop bop shuop... ♪

[George] We'd all say, "Well, what about this?"

"What about this?" 'Cause basically this album

was just what we did live in the clubs.

[engineer] "Do You Want To Know A Secret" Track 2, Take 8.

[John] Shall we just do it on the second verse,

-like we said? -[George] Second and last.

-[George Martin] Just the second verse. -[John] Okay. So we wait.

[♪ "Do You Want To Know A Secret" playing]

♪ Listen ♪

♪ Do you want to know a secret? ♪

♪ Do you promise not to tell? ♪

♪ Whoa, oh, oh ♪

♪ Closer... ♪

[John] The first album was recorded in a--

one long 12-hour session,

which the... the last song to be done was a song called

"Twist And Shout", which nearly killed me.

-[♪ music concludes] -You can hear that...

I'm just some frantic guy,

you know, doin' his best,

but it's about the nearest it could get

to knowing what we sounded like before we became

the clever Beatles.

-[♪ "Twist And Shout" playing] -♪ Well, shake it up, baby, now ♪

♪ Shake it up, baby ♪

♪ Twist and shout... ♪

[Paul] John had to save "Twist And Shout"

till the last, and he was sucking Zubes all day,

those little throat tablets.

And he finally had to do "Twist And Shout",

knowing he had to do it last 'cause it would just rip

his throat apart to do it. It was great.

You can still hear that on the record.

♪ Look so good ♪

♪ You know you got me going, now ♪

♪ Got me going ♪

♪ Just like I knew you would ♪

♪ Like I knew you would, ooh ♪

♪ Well, shake it up, 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, ooh ♪

♪ You know you twist, you little girl ♪

♪ Twist, little girl ♪

♪ You know you twist so fine ♪

♪ Twist so fine ♪

♪ Come on and twist a little closer, now ♪

♪ Twist a little closer ♪

♪ And let me know that you're mine ♪

♪ Let me know you're mine, ooh ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ 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, ooh ♪

♪ You know you twist, you little girl ♪

♪ Twist, little girl ♪

♪ You know you twist so fine ♪

♪ Twist so fine ♪

♪ Come on and twist a little closer, now ♪

♪ Twist a little closer ♪

♪ And let me know that you're mine ♪

♪ Let me know you're mine, ooh! ♪

♪ Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now ♪

♪ Shake it up, baby ♪

♪ Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now ♪

♪ Shake it up, baby ♪

♪ Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now ♪

♪ Shake it up, baby ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

[George Martin] We started at 10 o'clock in the morning,

finished 11 at night. And that was the record made.

[Paul] That's it. It's a master.

[♪ music concludes]

[Neil Aspinall] When we used to... to tour,

do those, um, Arthur Howe touring shows

where you'd have quite a number of people on the bill,

you know, Roy Orbison, Tommy Roe,

Gerry and the Pacemakers...

um, Helen Shapiro, whoever.

But there'd be a number of people on the bill,

and everybody got like 12 minutes, 15 minutes,

-20 minutes, whatever. -[♪ "Look Who It Is" playing]

And it was really just in that length of time,

you know, all anybody could do was, uh, plug their hit records,

the ones that the... the audience, uh,

the audience knew.

With Helen Shapiro it was really embarrassing,

'cause we were quite happy

just to be on a first nationwide tour

of the proper theatres.

She was kind of established.

She'd been around and had a bunch of hits

and we were quite happy just to be on that tour.

But it was embarrassing 'cause I think

"Please Please Me" got to No. 1,

right, while we were on the road.

And all the people coming to the show, um,

and in the concert, were just waiting

for the Beatles and, uh, it was kind of embarrassing,

'cause she was very nice, nice person.

-[♪ music concludes] -I think it was the tour after that...

-when it was Tommy Roe... -[♪ "Thank You Girl" playing]

...and Chris Montez and the Beatles,

they moved us to being, you know,

actually closing the first half of the show.

[John] We were performers in Liverpool, Hamburg

and other dance halls, you know, and what we generated

-was fantastic. -[♪ music concludes]

And there was nobody to touch us in Britain.

-[♪ "There's A Place" playing] -♪ There's a place ♪

♪ Where I can go... ♪

[Ringo] We never stopped anywhere.

You know, if we were in Elgin

on a Thursday

and, uh, we needed to be in, like, Portsmouth

on Friday, you would just drive.

You know, we didn't know how to stop this van.

♪ I think of you... ♪

[Ringo] Neil'd drive and there'd be the passenger seat,

and then the three of us'd sit on the bench seat,

whichever three, you know.

But the rest of us... [chuckles] ...would sit on this bench seat,

which was pretty miserable.

And we would just go everywhere in this van,

and the kit would, you know, and the amps,

everything would fit in it. Some nights it was so foggy

that you would be doing at one mile an hour,

and you'd still just keep going.

It was like, you know, we were like homing pigeons.

We just had to keep getting home.

[George] We knew this guy, Mal, 'cause he used to come,

he worked for the GPO, and he used to come

and be a part-time bouncer on the Cavern.

We got to know him and, uh, it was somebody suggested

he drive for us,

so he drove us a couple of times when Neil couldn't make it.

And then there was so much happening

we needed another person,

so we just employed him full time.

[Paul] I do remember, however, one... one moment,

uh, we were going up the motorway,

and the... the windscreen got knocked out by a pebble.

So Mal just put his hat on backwards... vzzz!

...punched the windscreen out completely

and, like, drove, you know. But, of course, this was winter

in Britain, and it was freezing. And because it was foggy,

he was having to look for the curb all the time,

all the way up to Liverpool, you know, it's like 200 mile.

[clears throat] So we were very, very cold.

And I remember what we did was we, we lay on each other...

...with a bottle of whisky.

And then when the one on the top got so cold

it was, like, hypothermia was setting in...

[laughs] ...it was his turn to get on the bottom,

and then, you know, we'd warm each other up

that way, and keep swigging the whisky.

But it was quite an image, you know,

if-- You know, you'd think, you know,

people think "stardom" and "it's glamorous", you know.

And there's us, freezing,

lying literally on top of each other. [chuckles]

Oh yeah, we were tight.

That was one thing to be said about us.

We were really tight, you know, as friends.

We could argue a lot amongst ourselves,

but we were very, very close to each other.

-[♪ "It Won't Be Long" playing] -♪ It won't be long, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah ♪

♪ Till I belong to you ♪

♪ Every night when everybody has fun ♪

♪ Here am I, sitting all on my own ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah ♪

♪ Till I belong to you ♪

♪ Since you left me, I'm so alone ♪

♪ Now you're coming, you're coming on home ♪

♪ I'll be good like I know I should ♪

♪ You're coming home, you're coming home ♪

♪ Every night the tears come down from my eyes ♪

♪ Every day I've done nothing but cry ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah ♪

♪ Till I belong to you ♪

♪ Well, since you left me, I'm so alone ♪

♪ Now you're coming, you're coming on home ♪

♪ I'll be good like I know I should ♪

♪ You're coming home, you're coming home ♪

♪ So every day we'll be happy, I know ♪

♪ Now I know that you won't leave me no more ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah ♪

♪ Till I belong to you ♪

[♪ music concludes]

One of the things I was grateful for was that

-we had a kind of staircase... -[♪ "I'll Be On My Way" playing]

...to climb, through clubs like the Cavern,

through, uh, up to ballrooms, which were now instead of...

-[crowd cheering] -...400, 500 people,

it was now a couple of thousand people.

Then it was like, "Well, what's left?" Well, uh, radio.

We wanted to be on the Saturday Morning Club

Brian Matthews did, which was a huge show.

And the great thing I loved about the show

was you'd wake up after your week of school,

or whatever it was, and you'd lie in.

And I had a radio by my bed,

and I'd lie in until about 11:00.

Great! The most delicious lie-in ever of your life,

you know, those teenage lie-ins, Saturday.

Lie in, and feeling great. Turn the radio on, and this...

this program would be on there still for another hour,

Saturday Club.

So then we really wanted to be on that.

That was-- We knew that there were--

people listened to that. It was a huge, um, audience.

[John] We did a lot of tracks

that were never recorded on record

-for Saturday Club... -[♪ "Lonesome Tears In My Eyes" playing]

...a lot of stuff we'd been doing

at the Cavern or Hamburg, you know.

There was some good stuff, and they were well-recorded too.

♪ Oh baby, baby, baby, blues and sorrow ♪

♪ And I love you tomorrow ♪

♪ Just suit you just fine ♪

♪ Oh baby, baby, baby, blues and sorrow ♪

♪ I love you tomorrow ♪

♪ Just suit you just fine ♪

♪ I can't forget that you told me ♪

♪ So many promising lies ♪

♪ I'm a-tryin' to forget these ♪

♪ Lonesome tears in my eyes ♪

[♪ "So How Come (No One Loves Me)" playing]

♪ They say that everyone ♪

♪ wants someone ♪

♪ So how come no one wants me? ♪

♪ And they say that everyone ♪

♪ needs someone ♪

♪ So how come no one ♪

♪ needs me? ♪

♪ Well, if you wonder who the loneliest creatures ♪

♪ in the world can be ♪

♪ Well, they're the ugly duckling ♪

♪ the little black sheep and me, uh-huh ♪

-[♪ music concludes] -[John] ♪ We come along ♪

♪ on Saturday morning ♪

♪ Greeting everybody with a smile ♪ [laughs]

[Brian Matthew] Isn't that nice? Thank you, dear Beatles.

I heard they were coming to Manchester Odeon

and I'd-- uh, the Odeon Cinema.

And we didn't cover-- we "theatre critics" so called,

didn't cover one-night stands of pop stars

because there was no... there was no continuity.

But, anyway, I bought tickets at a pound each, I think,

and Gerry and the Pacemakers had been on before,

and Roy Orbison

-preceded the Beatles. -[♪ "Oh, Pretty Woman" playing]

♪ 'Cause I need you ♪

♪ I'll treat you right ♪

♪ Come with me, baby ♪

♪ Be mine tonight ♪

♪ Pretty woman... ♪

[John] It was pretty hard to keep up with that man.

He really put on a show, you know?

Well, they all did, but Orbison had that fantastic voice.

[Paul] I remember we'd be on the tour bus,

and Roy would be at the back of the bus.

He'd be writing something like "Pretty Woman", or something.

I remember him playing that to us.

We said... [inhales sharply] ..."Great song."

From this, a little bit of competitiveness

would come in, a little bit of competition,

'cause we'd think, "We've got to write one

-as good as that." -[♪ music concludes]

So we were just trying to improve all the time.

And we'd listen to something that somebody else had done

and we'd just try and beat it a bit.

We'd try and beat what we were doing.

And, I mean, by the time we got to something

like "From Me To You", it was nice,

'cause the... the... I remember being very pleased

with the chord in the middle,

which was different from what we'd been using.

♪ If there's anything that you want ♪

And then it went...

♪ ...arms that long to hold you and keep you, da da da ♪

Just that... ♪ Arms that long... ♪

Going to that minor chord there, was like, "Ooh!"

You know, this is something we hadn't done before.

-[♪ "From Me To You" playing] -♪ I got arms that long to hold you ♪

♪ And keep you by my side ♪

♪ I got lips that long to kiss you ♪

♪ And keep you satisfied, ooh! ♪

♪ If there's anything that you want ♪

♪ If there's anything I can do ♪

♪ Just call on me and I'll send it along ♪

♪ With love from me to you ♪

♪ To you ♪

♪ To you ♪

♪ To you ♪

You'd always know when they were gonna be on the radio.

[♪ music concludes]

And so, you know, Brian is, "Oh, it's gonna be on at..."

"Hello, boys. It's going to be on at twenty past seven."

[laughs] And we'd all be in the car,

and we'd stop! Wherever we were we would hope,

so we could listen to this.

-[♪ "From Me To You" playing] -♪ Just call on me ♪

♪ And I'll send it along ♪

♪ With love from me to you... ♪

[Brian Matthew] The Beatles and "From Me To You".

Their third single release which, incidentally,

is this week sitting at the top of the Hit Parade.

-[♪ music concludes] -And the other great deal was every time

it moved in the charts,

we'd have a celebratory dinner, you know, so...

You notice, uh, if you look at the Beatles

from when they started, in the first 18 months

they went... [imitates inflating]

They just went blumph right up,

because we were eating all this food.

That's when I discovered smoked salmon.

Never had any salmon that didn't come out of a tin

until I was 22! [laughs]

[John] In the early days, we'd make a record in 12 hours,

-or something. -[♪ "Thank You Girl" playing]

[John] And they'd want a single every three months.

And we'd have to be writing it literally in the hotel

or on-- in a van. The demand on us was tremendous.

♪ ...been good to me... ♪

[Paul] I remember sitting on a pair of twin beds

in a hotel bedroom.

Had a day off, so we were going to write a song.

All our early songs had always had--

"Please Please Me", "From Me To You",

"P.S. I Love You",

they'd always had this very personal thing,

"Thank You Girl".

And we hit on the idea of doing a kind of reported conversation.

"I saw her yesterday.

She told me what to say. She said she loves you!"

So it just gave us another little dimension, really.

It just meant that the song then was something different

from what we, and other people,

-had written before. -[♪ music concludes]

-[crowd cheering] -[Brian Matthew] I have it

from a reliable source that a half million

advance orders have been made

for the Beatles' latest single release,

-"She Loves You". -[crowd screaming, cheering]

It looks as though it could well be

three No. 1s in a row for the Liverpool boys.

[crowd screaming, cheering]

-It's called "She Loves You". Ha-ha! -[♪ "She Loves You" playing]

♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ You think you've lost your love ♪

♪ Well, I saw her yesterday ♪

-[screams] -♪ It's you she's thinking of ♪

♪ And she told me what to say ♪

♪ She said she loves you ♪

♪ And you know that can't be bad ♪

♪ She loves you ♪

♪ And you know you should be glad ♪

♪ She said you hurt her so ♪

♪ She almost lost her mind ♪

♪ Now she says she knows ♪

♪ You're not the hurting kind ♪

♪ She said she loves you ♪

♪ And you know that can't be bad ♪

♪ She loves you ♪

♪ And you know you should be glad ♪

♪ Ooh! ♪

♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ With a love like that, you know you should be glad ♪

♪ You know, it's up to you ♪

♪ I think it's only fair ♪

♪ Pride can hurt you too ♪

♪ Apologize to her ♪

♪ Because she loves you ♪

♪ And you know that can't be bad ♪

♪ She loves you ♪

♪ And you know you should be glad ♪

♪ Ooh! ♪

♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ With a love like that, you know you should be glad ♪

♪ With a love like that, you know you should be glad ♪

♪ With a love like that, you know you should be glad ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

-[crowd screaming, cheering] -[♪ music concludes]

When we go home, you know,

we go in early in the morning when we've finished the job,

and the kids, you know, they don't know you're at home.

But if they find out, well, where I live,

they get the drums out, you know, and beat it out.

-[crowd cheering] -[♪ "I'll Get You" playing]

♪ Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah ♪

[Ringo] It was getting really big.

I think we noticed as we tried to move around town

we started, you know, started being noticed in the street.

It was impossible to go home.

And also, it's very true, if you're in our business,

you go to London.

And that's where it happens. The recordings are there.

The places to be seen are there.

Where it's happening is there.

It's just a natural move, you know.

You know, and George and I shared an apartment

in Green Street, Park Lane, wow, 45 quid a week.

A fortune!

And we'd go to The Saddle Rooms,

used to be a club.

And, uh, they used to have this horse

and, uh, coach outside,

and there'd be two little drunken Beatles

in the back of this coach being taken home

to Green Street, up Park Lane, clip-clop.

And this is two shit-kickers from Liverpool.

I mean, this is far-out news here. [laughs]

"Oh, let's take the carriage!"

[chuckles] "Okay." [clicks tongue]

[John] And it was great, you know. We were kings.

And we all, you know, just at the prime.

And we all used to just...

-go round London in our cars... -[♪ music concludes]

...and meet each other and talk about music

with the Animals and Eric, and all that.

And we were very close to the Stones.

They needed a record.

They'd put out "Come On" by Chuck Berry,

and they needed a quick follow-up,

"I Wanna Be Your Man",

which we virtually finished off in front of them.

[♪ "I Wanna Be Your Man" playing]

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ Tell me that you love me, baby ♪

♪ Tell me you understand ♪

♪ Tell me that you love me, baby

♪ Tell me you understand ♪

♪ Yes, I wanna be your lover, baby ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ Yes, I wanna be, I wanna be your baby... ♪

[John] They did it first. We did it with Ringo after.

[♪ "I Wanna Be Your Man" playing]

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ Tell me that you love me, baby ♪

♪ Let me understand ♪

♪ Tell me that you love me, baby ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your lover, baby ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your lover, baby ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man, wah! ♪

We were always kinda, you know, a little nervous

before each step we went up the ladder.

We were a little nervous. But we always had that confidence.

[Eric Morecambe] Eyaahh!

-[audience laughing] -[laughs]

It's the Kay Sisters. They've got on wigs.

-[audience laughing] -Fabulous.

The Kay Sisters? This is The--

-Have you dyed your hair? -This is The Beatles!

Hello, Beatle.

-[audience laughing] -All right?

-Where is he? -Where is he?

There he is! Hello, Bongo!

[all laugh]

That's Ringo!

[Eric Morecambe] Oh, is he there as well? Oh, good.

[audience laughing]

-By golly! -Boys, as you can gather,

this is Eric. Say hello to Eric.

-Yeah. -Hello, Eric.

-Hello, mate. -I remember you.

You're the one with the short fat hairy legs.

No, no, no. He's... He's the one with the short fat hairy legs.

-Oh, I thought it was-- -No, him.

-Yeah. -We're the ones with the big,

fat hairy heads.

-[audience laughing] -[laughs]

-Get out of that! -Hey!

[laughs] What's it like being famous?

Well, it's not like in your day, you know.

-[laughs] -[audience laughing]

What?

No, no, that's an insult, that is.

-[laughs] -[audience laughing]

What do you mean, "Not like in my day?"

Well, me dad used to tell me about you, you know?

-In the old days. -You've only got a little dad,

-have you? -[all laugh]

Your dad used to tell you...

-That's a bit strong, innit? -No, he's right.

-[Eric Morecambe] All right, Bonzo? -[audience laughing]

-It's Ringo! -Yeah, him as well.

Get 'em off, Ern, they've done enough now.

What do you mean, "done enough"?

No, well, they're getting insulting now. Get 'em off.

And that was the good thing about being four together,

not like Elvis, you know,

I always felt sorry later for Elvis

'cause he was on his own. He had his guys with him,

but there was only one Elvis.

Nobody else knew what he felt like.

But for us, we all shared the experience.

[Paul] One, two, three, four.

[♪ "What You're Doing" intro playing]

-[♪ music concludes] -[Paul] George? What did it sound like

with the bass doing a funny thing?

Did it sound any good, or did it sound just like utterly crap?

[George Martin] It sounded rather magnificent.

[Paul] Did it? Well, there! See! Told you! Nerrhh!

Hello to you, and see how you like it!

[George Martin] We had a great time in the studio.

They were enormously happy times.

And, uh, they would fool around a lot, you know,

and have... have a bit of a laugh,

particularly when overdubbing voices.

Um, but my memory of those times

were very happy ones.

-[♪ "This Boy" playing] -♪ ...would be happy just to love you ♪

♪ But, oh my ♪

♪ This boy ♪

[John sings] ♪ That boy ♪ [chuckles] Stop!

[Paul sings] ♪ This boy, that boy, that boy... ♪

[John] I've got "This boy, that boy."

[Paul sings] ♪ That little boy ♪

[engineer] Take 2, "This Boy", Take 2.

[guitar strumming]

[John clears throat] Try it now and say, "This boy."

[Paul] And if I don't, well, it's just too bad, i'nt it?

Yer daft get!

[John] You don't have to say it, you just have to sort of look

and I'll think, "What is it?" and I'll think--

[engineer] Take 13.

[Paul laughs] I was just thinking of that...

[sings] ♪ That boy ♪

I just went dead loud on one bit.

[John] Oh, come on! A-one, two, three, fower!

[♪ "This Boy" playing]

♪ That boy ♪

♪ Took my love away ♪

♪ Though he'll regret it some day ♪

♪ But this boy wants you back again ♪

♪ That boy ♪

♪ Isn't good for you ♪

♪ Though he may want you too ♪

♪ This boy wants you back again ♪

♪ Oh, and this boy ♪

♪ Would be happy just to love you ♪

♪ But, oh my ♪

♪ That boy won't be happy ♪

♪ Till he's seen you cry ♪

♪ This boy ♪

♪ Wouldn't mind the pain ♪

♪ Would always feel the same ♪

♪ If this boy gets you back again ♪

♪ This boy ♪

We do like the fans and enjoy reading the publicity about us.

But, from time to time, you don't realize

that it's actually about yourself.

-[♪ music concludes] -You see your pictures

and read articles about,

you know, George Harrison and Ringo Starr,

Paul and John, uh, but you don't actually think,

"Oh, that's me. There I am in the paper."

It's... It's funny.

It's just as though it's a different person.

It all sounds complaining, and that, but you know, we're not.

We're just putting the point is that,

you know, it affects your home more than it does yourself,

you know, because you know what to expect.

But your parents and your family, you know,

they don't know what's happening.

[Ringo] You were treated differently,

and you had to get used to that then.

Then you, you know, you find yourself in...

-in a weird land... -[crowd cheering]

...because of all these people you've grown up and lived with.

Suddenly, you--

It was the one place you didn't want it to change.

Because it all changed out there.

And you were never secure, really, who your friends were,

unless you had 'em before.

[George] You know, people are so in awe of fame.

I mean, all you have to do is go on the radio

-or the television once... -[crowd cheering]

...and if somebody sees you on there

and then they see you down the street,

they act different, don't they?

But the Beatles was being on the papers

every day for a year or so.

Everybody changes, you know.

They're so impressed by it. People forget how to act normal.

The one absolute clear vision, was I was at my auntie's...

which I'd been a thousand times before,

and, uh, anyway, we were having a cup of tea one night...

may have even been after an Empire show,

or a Southport show... [chuckles]

...or one of those shows, and, uh,

somebody knocked the little coffee table

and my tea went in my saucer, and suddenly it was,

"He can't have that. We have to tidy it up,"

where that would never have happened before,

uh, just-- And I thought, "Oh, things are changing."

I mean, it was an absolute arrow in the brain, you know.

-[♪ "Long Tall Sally" playing] -♪ I'm gonna tell Aunt Mary ♪

♪ 'bout Uncle John ♪

♪ Said he had been busy but he got a lot of fun ♪

♪ Oh, baby, yeah, now, baby ♪

♪ Woo-ooh-ooh, baby ♪

♪ Some fun tonight ♪

♪ Saw Uncle John, bald-headed Sally ♪

♪ Saw Aunt Mary coming and he ducked back in the alley ♪

♪ Oh, baby, yeah, now, baby ♪

♪ Woo-ooh-ooh, baby ♪

♪ Some fun tonight Aaah! ♪

♪ Yeah, we're gonna have some fun tonight ♪

♪ Have some fun tonight, wooh! ♪

♪ Everything's all right ♪

♪ Have some fun tonight ♪

♪ Oh, have some fun, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, I'm gonna have some fun tonight ♪

♪ Have some fun to-aaah! ♪

♪ Everything's all right ♪

♪ Have some fun tonight ♪

♪ Have some fun, some fun tonight, yeah ♪

-[crowd cheering] -[♪ music concludes]

[Brian Matthew] Today, the Beatles returned from Sweden

to be greeted by what the British press are calling

"Beatlemania".

We'll see what the Queen Mother thinks of Beatlemania

when the Beatles perform at The Royal Variety Show

-on the 4th of November. -[crowd cheering]

[Derek Taylor] I was sent to, uh, pursue them,

to harass them in, uh, September '63

by the News Editor of the Daily Express,

who said they'd had it.

They were about to betray their young fans

by agreeing to appear on The Royal Variety Show.

"Go and get them. Get a quote.

Get them to condemn themselves...

[chuckles] ...out of their own mouths and say,

'We shouldn’t be doing it. We know that.

We're betraying our fans' and so on, and so on."

Well, the long and short of it was,

uh, we all turned up,

the Daily Mail, the Express, the Mirror.

They were very defiant. And Ringo did the perfect quote,

"I want to play me drums for the Queen Mum."

All that sort of stuff.

We were the first working-class singers

that stayed working class and pronounced it,

didn't try and change our accents,

which in England are looked--

were looked down upon, probably still are.

[interviewer] John, in... in this Royal Variety Show,

when you're appearing before royalty,

uh, your language has gotta be

-pretty good, obviously. -[chuckles softly]

[interviewer] This thing about Ted Heath saying

that he couldn't distinguish, uh, you from,

-say, the Queen's English. -[in RP accent] I can't understand Teddy.

I can't understand Teddy saying that at all, really.

[all chuckling]

-I'm not gonna vote for Ted! -[chuckles]

[interviewer] Paul, uh, have you thought about your act for the show yet?

Uh, any changes in the act, or is it going to be, you know,

the usual routine?

No, we'll have to change it, I'm sure. We can't--

-Hey, stop hitting me. -[John laughs]

We... We'll have to change it, but we can't, uh,

do the same thing all the time.

We haven't thought about what we're gonna do yet.

[interviewer] Suits with collars on?

-Brushed, parted hair... -You never know.

-...something like that? -We may not wear suits.

You never know. [chuckles] We've no idea.

[crowd applauding]

Thank you.

For our last number, I'd like to ask your help.

The people in the cheaper seats,

-clap your hands. -[crowd laughing]

And the rest of you, if you'd just rattle your jewelry.

[crowd laughing, applauding]

Thank you. We'd like to sing a song called "Twist And Shout".

-[Paul] One, two, three! -[♪ "Twist And Shout" playing]

-Yeah! -[Paul] Everybody! Hey!

♪ Well, shake it up, 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, ooh ♪

♪ Well, work it on out, now ♪

♪ Work it on out ♪

♪ You know you look so good ♪

♪ Look so good ♪

♪ You know you got me goin', now ♪

♪ Got me goin' ♪

♪ Just like I knew you would ♪

♪ Like I knew you would, ooh ♪

♪ Well, shake it up, 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, ooh ♪

♪ Well, you twist, you little girl ♪

♪ Twist, little girl ♪

♪ You know you twist so fine ♪

♪ Twist so fine ♪

♪ Come on and twist a little closer, now ♪

♪ Twist a little closer ♪

♪ And let me know that you're mine ♪

♪ Let me know you're mine, ooh ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

-♪ Aaah! ♪ -♪ Ow! Ow! ♪

♪ Yeah! Shake it up, 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, ooh ♪

♪ Well, you twist, you little girl ♪

♪ Twist, little girl ♪

♪ You know you twist so fine ♪

♪ Twist so fine ♪

♪ Come on and twist a little closer, now ♪

♪ Twist a little closer ♪

♪ And let me know that you're mine ♪

♪ Let me know you're mine ♪

♪ Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now ♪

♪ Shake it up, baby ♪

♪ Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now ♪

♪ Shake it up, baby ♪

♪ Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now ♪

♪ Shake it up, baby ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

-[crowd applauding] -[♪ music concludes]

[♪ "Twist And Shout" orchestral instrumental playing]

[♪ music concludes]

-[♪ "It Won't Be Long" playing] -♪ It won't be long, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ It won't be long, yeah ♪

♪ Till I belong to you ♪

-[♪ music concludes] -[George Martin] With The Beatles was

the first, kind of put-together album of... of...

first songbook, so to speak.

And they gave me a list of their songs and...

and they were all thinking in terms of singles, still.

-[♪ "I Wanna Be Your Man" playing] -♪ I wanna be your man ♪

♪ I wanna be your man ♪

[George Martin] We weren't thinking in terms

of an album being an entity by itself.

It was a collection of their songs,

and I think one or two other people's songs as well.

[George] There was a bunch of cover versions on this,

"Mister Postman".

-[♪ "Mister Postman" playing] -♪ Wait! Oh yes ♪

♪ Wait a minute, Mister Postman ♪

-♪ Wait ♪ -♪ Wait, Mister Postman ♪

♪ Mister Postman, look and see... ♪

[Ringo] It was interesting when I joined the Beatles,

and we didn't really know each other.

But if we looked at each other's record collection,

the four of us virtually had the same records.

♪ From that girl of mine ♪

♪ There must be some word today ♪

♪ From my girlfriend so far away ♪

♪ Please, Mister Postman, look and see ♪

♪ If there's a letter, a letter for me ♪

♪ I've been... ♪

[George Martin] And all we did was to record singles.

And the ones that weren't too good,

we wouldn't issue as singles, we'd put them on an album.

-[♪ "All My Loving" playing] -♪ Close your eyes ♪

♪ And I'll kiss you ♪

♪ Tomorrow I'll miss you ♪

[John] In the early days, we were really set

on giving people their money's worth

off the record.

And that was our policy first, just to put 14 tracks a side,

it was brand new,

and never put singles on the albums,

which everybody did, was have a hit single

and make an album round it.

♪ ...all my loving to you ♪

[♪ "Roll Over Beethoven" playing]

♪ Well, if you feel it and like it ♪

♪ Get your lover and reel and rock it ♪

♪ Roll it over and move on up just a trifle further ♪

♪ And reel and rock it, roll it over ♪

♪ Roll over Beethoven ♪

♪ Dig these rhythm and blues ♪

[George] Robert Freeman, who took this picture,

copied... our request, actually,

he copied Astrid Kirchherr’s photographs.

We showed him the pictures

that we took in Hamburg with Astrid, and said,

"Why can't you do it like this?"

[Brian Matthew] The Beatles' second LP, With The Beatles,

has broken the record for advance sales of an LP.

With The Beatles has an advance of a quarter of a million.

The record was previously held by Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii.

Brian Epstein could well be right

in his prediction that the Beatles,

one day, will be bigger than Elvis Presley.

-[♪ music concludes] -[crowd cheering, applauding]

[John] You know, our goal was to be as big as Elvis,

but we didn't actually think we were gonna do it.

We... We couldn't think in terms of going to America.

I mean, that was like a dream. I mean, you think locally.

And first of all, it was making it big in Liverpool.

And then being the best group in the...

in the county, you know.

Then being the best group in England.

And then we go up to Scotland and break them in,

and things like that.

And your goal was always, you know, just a few yards ahead

rather than right up there.

I think one of the cheekiest things we ever did

was say to Brian Epstein,

"We're not going to America till we've got a No. 1."

And the reason we did that, we'd seen a lot of people like,

er, Adam Faith, Cliff Richard, British stars,

quite big stars over in Britain, go over to America and be like

third or fourth on the bill to people like Frankie Avalon.

George had been over there, uh, to America,

er, a little before we'd gone, and nobody knew about us.

And he came back and got us all worried

'cause he'd go into record shops saying,

"Have you got the Beatles, uh, records?"

[chuckles] And they'd say, "Who?"

And the EMI company wouldn't, which was Capitol,

wouldn't put out our records for some reason.

Somebody else may be able to fill us in on that.

I don't know why.

I would send them to my friends in America at Capitol Records,

and say, "This group is fantastic.

You've got to issue them and you've got to sell them

in the States."

And each time, the Head of Capitol Records,

like St Peter, would turn it down

and deny them, and say, um,

"Sorry. We know our market better than you do,

and we don't think they're any good."

So I would then take the record back from them

and try and get it out with another label.

And I did negotiations with Swan and with Vee-Jay,

each of whom,

just very tiny labels in the States,

took one or the other titles,

and they put those records out in America.

And, of course, being a small label,

they didn't make a great deal of, uh, of... of, um, success.

And that was the way it worked out.

We released, uh, "Please Please Me".

-[♪ "Please Please Me" playing] -♪ Please, please me, whoa, yeah ♪

-[♪ music concludes] -Flop! "From Me To You".

-[♪ "From Me To You" playing] -♪ With love from me to you ♪

-[♪ music concludes] -Flop! Changed record labels...

-[♪ "She Loves You" playing] -♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

[Paul] Released "She Loves You". They'd all been big hits in...

-in England. All been No. 1. -[♪ music concludes]

All of them flops. Nothing!

[engineer] Take 2.

[John] No. I think it should start loud,

you know, 'cause when you first hear it.

[George Martin] We're rolling. Here we go.

-[John] Thing I didn't like about-- -[Paul] Shh. Shh.

Clean beginning. One, two, three.

[♪ "I Want To Hold Your Hand" playing]

-[♪ track breaks down] -[engineer] Take 9.

[♪ guitar intro to "I Want To Hold Your Hand"]

-[George Martin] Here we go. -[Paul] Shh.

[John continues playing] I love that.

[Paul] Shh. Ready? Shh.

First one very... initial attack.

-One, two, three. -[♪ intro starts, stops]

-[Paul] No. The first one a loud... -[guitar being tuned]

-[John] Oh. -[Paul] ...attack!

The second one not quite so loud.

Just try it. Oh... Well, do it anyway.

We'll just blast that bit, that one bit.

-[George Martin] Here we go. -[engineer] This is 13.

[Paul] Hang on, George has...

-[John] What? -[Paul] Just do it! Do it!

One, two, three.

[♪ "I Want To Hold Your Hand" playing]

♪ Oh yeah, I... ♪

[♪ track breaks down]

-[John] Do it slower. -[Paul] No!

[John laughs] I couldn't hear what chords they were going to.

-[Paul] One, two, three! -[♪ intro starts, breaks down]

[John] Missed it again. It's me hand's going.

-[engineer] 17. -[Paul] One, two, three...

[♪ "I Want To Hold Your Hand" playing]

[George Martin] "I Want To Hold Your Hand"

wasn't designed specifically for the American market,

but like the ones before it, it was a great record.

♪ Oh yeah, I'll tell you something ♪

♪ I think you'll understand ♪

♪ When I say that something ♪

♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪

♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪

♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪

♪ Oh, please, say to me ♪

♪ You'll let me be your man ♪

♪ And, please, say to me ♪

♪ You'll let me hold your hand ♪

♪ Now let me hold your hand ♪

♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪

[George Martin] By this time, the news from England and Europe

was overwhelming, that they were a hit group.

And also, uh, the Swan and Vee-Jay labels

were making inroads, they were selling by this time.

So Capitol were forced to release

"I Want To Hold Your Hand".

[George] But at that time, I didn't realize

that Capitol Records had been told,

you know, "You can... Okay."

They wanted to have the Beatles, you see.

Then Brian Epstein said, "Okay. Well, you can have 'em then,

on condition you spend 70,000 dollars advertising them,"

which sounded enormous, but they did.

So that was part of the deal. They had to promote us.

♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪

♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪

[♪ music concludes]

[♪ "All You Need Is Love" intro playing]

-[♪ music concludes] -[Paul] The funny thing about France was,

it was boys screaming. It was boys. So we got...

[in French accent] ..."Le Beatle! Le Beatle!

Voilà!" [speaks indistinctly] "Paul! John!"

It was, like... [chuckles] "Yeah. Oui. Okay,"

you know, like, "Dear me!"

[George] We had visions of all these French girls, you know,

"ooh la la" and all that,

and instead, the audience, at least on the opening night...

-[crowd chanting] Ringo! -...all seemed to be boys,

shouting, "Ringo! Ringo!"

We didn't see any of the Brigitte Bardot kind

that we were expecting to see.

[Ringo] It was very strange because, uh,

suddenly we had all these boys.

And the audience was like a... a roar instead of a scream,

where we'd been so used to the girls, you know.

-[♪ "Twist And Shout" playing] -[Paul] But I don't think

we went down that well, but I think we built it over the few days,

we kind of built it up. And, uh, eventually it was...

it was a bit of a success, you know.

But it wasn't quite what we were used to.

We were used to a little bit more

instant success than that.

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Yeah! ♪

-[♪ music concludes] -[crowd cheering, applauding]

[Paul] We got a telegram in the evening.

After one of the shows, we were having a drink at the hotel,

and it came... it came, uh,

"CAPITOL RECORDS... CONGRATULATIONS, LADS!

NO. 1 IN U.S. CHARTS!" or something.

So we all hit the roof.

I remember riding around on Mal Evans's back

for about 20 minutes, or so,

"Yeah-he-hey! Whew!"

And he was, you know, happy to bear me.

It was just very high, uh, hysterics, you know.

[George Martin] And Brian rang me

round about half past one in the morning.

He said, "I know you won't mind being woken up."

I said, "Well, I wasn't asleep anyway."

He said, "Well, I've just heard from America.

We're No. 1!"

[inhales deeply] "Fantastic!"

And he said, "Do you want to come round?" "Not half!"

So we all went round and had a great drink-up.

And it was lovely. Super. We never went to bed that night.

It was a great feeling

because we were booked to go there

directly after the Paris trip, so it was,

you know, it was handy to have a No. 1.

John, so far, all British pop stars

have not made a tremendous impact

on the States. How do you think you're going to fare?

Well, I can't really say, can I? I mean, is it up to me? No.

I mean, I just hope we go all right, you know.

[♪ "I Want To Hold Your Hand" playing]

♪ Oh yeah, I'll tell you something ♪

♪ I think you'll understand ♪

♪ When I say that something ♪

♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪

♪ I wanna hold your hand... ♪

[John] Yeah, I know on the plane over,

I was thinking, "Oh, we won't make it,"

or I said it on a film somewhere, you know.

But that's the side... [chuckles] ...that's that side of me.

We knew we would wipe it,

wipe 'em out, if we could just get a grip on you.

♪ And, please... ♪

[Neil Aspinall] It was like flying into the unknown.

You didn't know what to expect.

You know, we were going to... going to America, right?

And it was the first time for everybody,

except George, you know.

♪ I wanna hold your hand ♪

♪ And when I touch you I feel happy inside ♪

♪ It’s such a feeling that my love ♪

♪ I can’t hide ♪

♪ I can’t hide ♪

♪ I can’t hide ♪

♪ Yeah, you've... ♪

[Ringo] I remember before landing,

it was so exciting.

As the plane flew over New York,

I really felt like some, you know, sci-fi movie

had gone down and a big octopus grabbed the plane

and was dragging us down to New York,

and it was all just so exciting.

This was America, you know.

Things we'd dreamt about and heard about,

and all the music we loved had come out of.

[Paul] All the music we'd loved had come from there

so, I mean, just to... just to be there was exciting.

But because we'd made this strange condition

of being No. 1 before we went, it was like going as princes.

I mean, you were just, you know,

there were millions of kids at the airport,

which nobody expected.

And we heard about it mid-air, as I recall, you know,

'cause there were journalists on the plane

and, you know, the pilot can ring ahead.

And, um, he said, "Oh, you know, tell the boys

there's a big crowd waiting for 'em there."

[Brian Epstein] There was a turning point in their career,

a specific date on which the breadth and scope

of their future was to be altered

and it was the day their Pan Am jet touched down

at Kennedy International in New York

to a welcome which has seldom been equaled

anywhere in history.

♪ ...your hand ♪

[♪ music concludes]

[♪ "One After 909" playing]

♪ Well, my baby said she's travelling ♪

♪ On the one after 909 ♪

♪ I shaid move over, honey ♪

♪ I'm travelling on that line ♪

♪ I shaid 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 ♪

♪ Well, I begged her not to go ♪

♪ And I begged her on my bended knee ♪

♪ I shaid you're only fooling round ♪

♪ Only fooling round with me ♪

♪ I shaid 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 ♪

♪ Pick up my bag ♪

♪ Run to the station ♪

♪ Rail man says ♪

♪ You've got the wrong location ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Pick up my bag ♪

♪ Run right home ♪

♪ Then I find ♪

♪ You got the number wrong ♪

♪ Well ♪

♪ She said she's travelling ♪

♪ On the one after 909 ♪

♪ I shaid move over, honey ♪

♪ I'm travelling on that line ♪

♪ I shaid 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 ♪

♪ Oh yeah, ow! ♪

[♪ guitar solo]

♪ Well, my baby said she's travelling ♪

♪ On the one af... ♪

[John] Oh, fuckin' hell! I told you!

[Paul] It's you! It's you!

[John] You said we'd miss out

the middle eight. Oh.

[Paul] You've come in on the wrong--

halfway through the solo.

[John] What was it, 12-bar?

[George Martin] Yeah, yeah. 12-bar solo.

[Paul] It wasn't, it was... [strums guitar chord]