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Letter from George to Astrid reveals new fact about the second single
16 August 2013
11.35am
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guitarman
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It’s in this month’s edition of ‘Record Collector’, a UK magazine. He wrote to her in late ’62, saying they’d been given TWO songs to learn, neither of which they liked. 

So if How Do You Do It ? was one of them, what was the other one and what happened to it?

Hopefully, Mark Lewisohn’s book will solve the mystery!

Somebody spoke and I went into a dream

16 August 2013
2.30pm
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Joe
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That’s interesting. I wonder if there was another Mitch Murray song that George Martin thought they should try out.

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16 August 2013
4.22pm
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Linde
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Interesting! Wonder if Lewisohn will talk more about this. 

16 August 2013
4.39pm
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It certainly is interesting. It seems that the other song didn’t make it to the recording stage – or if it did, it wasn’t listed on the session log or else Mark would have included it in the Sessions book.

One thing that popped into my mind before was an interview I once read with Mitch Murray (I think it was in Spencer Leigh’s book Twist And Shout ) where he mentioned that there was another song around at that time called Better Luck Next Time which ended up being recorded by a guy called Johnny Angel on Parlophone. Mitch claims he wrote it – although this demo disc of it credits Barry Mason:

http://www.45cat.com/record/r4948

Anyway, I think there’s a recording of Johnny singing it on YouTube. I can’t access it at the moment as I’m at work but it’ll be interesting to hear it. Wonder if that was the song…?

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16 August 2013
5.16pm
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Joe
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I’m glad The Beatles didn’t do this.

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20 August 2013
5.46pm
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DrBeatle
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Been seeing the latest news about a letter George Harrison wrote to someone in August 1962 right after they sacked Pete and got Ringo in the band. Can’t find it online yet (since it’s in the newest issue of Record Collector), but some FASCINATING tidbits! This is from someone on another forum who read the article:

“Nothing to do with the biography per se, but I saw an article in this month’s Record Collector magazine yesterday about a previously unseen August 1962 letter from George Harrison (can’t remember who it was to, a fan I think).

Only the second page of the letter has survived, but using forensic techniques to bring out the inprint of the first page which was embedded in the surviving second page, the complete letter can now be read. I didn’t buy the mag, but this is what I remember about it:

George says that their new drummer Ringo is much better than Pete Best.

He says it was hard to get rid of Pete as he had a lot of fans, and that some silly girls are now complaining.

He mentions that cameras are coming to the Cavern that week to film the band (that would be Some Other Guy).

He also says that Parlophone had given the band two songs to learn for their September recording session. George says that the band have rehearsed them and made them sound better, but they are still terrible. He mentions that John has also written a new song that they hope to record (Please Please Me ?)

We know that George Martin had them learn How Do You Do It . I wonder what the second (unrecorded) song was? “

I NEVER knew about the 2nd song, only How Do You Do It ? I wonder if there ended up being 2 songs or if George Martin just gave up after they mailed in their performance of How Do You Do It ? and relented to let them try Please Please Me ? INTRIGUING! These are the kind of things that make their story never ending and endlessly fascinating!

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20 August 2013
5.58pm
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Ron Nasty
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The letter was written to Astrid. You give much more detail though.

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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966

20 August 2013
6.05pm
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DrBeatle
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mja6758 said
The letter was written to Astrid. You give much more detail though.

I can’t claim credit for that…I copied and pasted this from another forum I lurk on (that person has actually read the bit about it in Record Collector). And sorry for the duplicate thread, I hadn’t seen that other one! Any way that what I wrote above can be merged into that thread?

 

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20 August 2013
6.12pm
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HeyTrud
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a-hard-days-night-ringo-8 VERY cool, indeed!  I will have to take a look for the mag!

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20 August 2013
6.20pm
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Ron Nasty
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All done DrBeatle, with slight edit as well. My first time doing that!

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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966

20 August 2013
6.27pm
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Linde
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You did a good job, Mja!

Anyway, that’s cool. I hope someone will post that letter in it’s entirety, would love to see it.

I’m so glad the Beatles didn’t record ”Better luck next time”. It certainly does sound like something George Martin would pick for them.

20 August 2013
6.58pm
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I think I know the forum that Dr Beatle is on – I go there too and it’s excellent! 

I just listened to poor old Johnny Angel trying to sing Better Luck Next Time and I agree with Joe – if this was the other song up for consideration, I am very glad they stood their ground. As Linde says, it does sound like the kind of thing that George Martin would have chosen at that point. It also made me think of something Mark Lewisohn said in the interview with Ken Michaels about the forthcoming book. He says that to understand the Beatles’ impact, you have to know what it was they changed (a scene which he says he has described at some length in the book). I think this record sums it up. Everything that was wrong about pre-Beatles pop in the UK is contained in this song. Thank God for the lads!

 

Somebody spoke and I went into a dream

20 August 2013
7.20pm
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I dont think its a bad song, not any worse than How Do You Do It which is lame squared. The music scene was incredibly bland and safe before the Beatles Please Please Me , Rock and Roll was dead, Elvis had been thru the army and tamed, what else was there. Love Me Do suffers a lot for that, its a very innocent song.

Personally I don’t think there is much excitement in the current commercial music scene with all the talent shows, dullness, and mass produced bands – in a way we are back to where we were in the early 60’s.

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20 August 2013
7.25pm
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Ron Nasty
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One point that has occurred to me in reading this thread is that George is not referring to the sessions for their second single, but for their first. While part of the legend was that How Do You Do It was recorded for their second single, it was recorded during the same session as Love Me Do , with George Martin letting them run with that, possibly with the idea that if they didn’t come up with something better for the second single, he had something in the vault and ready to go.

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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966

20 August 2013
10.54pm
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Linde
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meanmistermustard said

Personally I don’t think there is much excitement in the current commercial music scene with all the talent shows, dullness, and mass produced bands – in a way we are back to where we were in the early 60’s.

 

That’s actually quite true. It’s so sad isn’t it? Instead of moving forward we’ve..gone backwards in a way.

Not saying that all music nowadays sucks. Of course there are some great bands with a lot of talent. Unfortunately they’re not always that original and you can name at least 3 other bands sounding just like that band.

 

9 June 2015
6.08pm
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Is the song mentioned on this thread, “How Do You Do It ” the same song as the one extemporaneously recorded when Paul and Donovan were fooling around in India? —

The YouTube title just says “How Do You Do”…

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9 June 2015
6.22pm
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Necko
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No, @Pineapple Records , the above-mentioned is referring to this song:

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9 June 2015
6.28pm
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@DrBeatle said
<big trim>
George says that their new drummer Ringo is much better than Pete Best.
He says it was hard to get rid of Pete as he had a lot of fans, and that some silly girls are now complaining.
<large snip>

Hey!!!!! I resent that.  a-hard-days-night-george-10

@Pineapple Records As for the above, here is Gerry and the Pacemakers’ version of the song for comparison: 

It doesn’t seem to be the same song at all. Perhaps Paul and Donovan were fooling about with what Paul could remember of the original song. 

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9 June 2015
6.40pm
Wigwam
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It isn’t anything to do with anything….Just a musical doodling. 

 

I take that back I just remember there was and intro or some connection where paul was talking about that ‘Court of King Caracticos (sp) is just passing by’ song

So maybe Paul had some idea of that type of a song…..

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9 June 2015
6.42pm
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Atlas said
It isn’t anything to do with anything….Just a musical doodling. 

Probably true. Hey, congrats on getting to Shea Stadium! 

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