Remembering When John Lennon Gave an Indelible Studio Vocal Performance With His Voice in Tatters in 1963

When they emerged on the scene, The Beatles quickly gained a reputation as the rare rock band that wrote their own material. But they also proved that they could interpret the songs of others. And they usually made those cover songs their own.

One of the earliest examples of this came with their legendary cover of “Twist And Shout”. They used it as the closing song of their debut album, Please Please Me, in 1963. John Lennon delivered an incredible lead vocal performance, one made all the more amazing by the fact that his voice was running on fumes when he laid it down.

Save the “Twist” for Last

Bert Berns and Phil Medley wrote “Twist And Shout”. The Top Notes did the first recording of the song in 1961. A year later, The Isley Brothers put their distinctive stamp on it. Their version hit the US Top 20 in 1962.

The Beatles had been performing the song in their live performances for a while when they headed into EMI Studios in February 1963 to record the bulk of their first album. By that time, the group had scored the hit singles “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me”. That success earned them the opportunity to lay down their first full-length LP.

Producer George Martin had been checking out the band’s live performances in anticipation of the first album to see what material might work. As such, he knew that “Twist And Shout” was a showstopper. He earmarked it for the final song on the LP, which would be called Please Please Me. The band agreed with the choice. They then had to strategize on how best to record the song, knowing what it required of the lead vocalist.

One-Night Stand

At the time that The Beatles recorded Please Please Me, albums were considered secondary in the pop music pecking order to singles. Artists needed hit songs on the radio to be considered successful. Albums were afterthoughts for the most part, just ways to milk more money out of some hits.

The Beatles would change that hierarchy in the years to come. But not yet. As such, they were given just a single night of studio time to record Please Please Me. Knowing that John Lennon, who sang lead on “Twist And Shout”, would be pushed to the limit by the song, they decided to wait and record it last in the session.

If they recorded it any earlier, the fear was that Lennon might not be able to sing the other songs for which he was needed. Still, it was a risk to save it for last. What if the long night of singing to that point rendered him unable to hit the mighty notes that “Twist And Shout” required?

The Magic Take

After sucking on some throat lozenges and gargling with milk, Lennon stepped up to the mic as the band tore into the opening bars of “Twist And Shout”. On the first take, he yelped his way through the track in a frenzy. When they tried a second take, his voice was pretty much shot.

But it didn’t matter, because they got what they needed on the first try. Still, Lennon paid the price for it, as he admitted in a quote from The Beatles Anthology: “The last song nearly killed me. My voice wasn’t the same for a long time after; every time I swallowed, it was like sandpaper.”

From that point, The Beatles used “Twist And Shout” as a concert closer. John Lennon learned how to modulate his performance so that his voice wouldn’t take such a brutal hit as when he delivered that studio vocal for the ages.

(Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)