The Beatles: Twist And Shout EP - 1963
EPs. What a sixties phenomenon they were. This was The Beatles' first one.
It was released in the UK in July 1963 and contains four tracks that were previously released on the band's debut album Please Please Me. It was rush-released to meet the public's burgeoning appetite for "The Fab Four", no doubt attracting cash-strapped teenagers who couldn't afford the more expensive album. It duly topped the UK EP chart for twenty-one weeks, making it the biggest-selling EP of all time in the UK up to that point, and it became so successful that it registered on the regular NME Singles Chart, peaking at number four.
As the sleeve notes explain, the EP was designed to showcase each Beatle track by track - firstly Lennon, then McCartney, followed by Harrison and finally Lennon and McCartney in unison but with a prominent drum contribution from Ringo.
The EP's cover photograph, featuring the Beatles jumping in a London bombsite, has been described by The Telegraph as "one of the key images of the 1960s". They weren't wrong. Jumping around gleefully on a bombsite, how that summed up the new spirit of the sixties, didn't it? That used to be somebody's house. Did that matter now? Did it hell. There was fun to be had. Hmmm.
It couldn't begin in more upbeat style, with Lennon's throaty (apparently suffering from a heavy cold) vocal on this infectious rocker - when The Beatles make The Top Notes/The Isley Brothers' Twist And Shout their own and get the girls screaming....this was them rocking at their absolute best. It positively bristles with youthful energy, doesn't it? I never, and I mean never, fail to get excited by this. I can just imagine being young in 1963 and hearing this for the first time.
In complete contrast is up next. I have to say that the cover of the theme to a popular Northern "kitchen sink" drama, A Taste Of Honey, sounds extremely dated now. It has an atmosphere to it though. Very early sixties, as indeed was the doe-eyed expression of lead actress Rita Tushingham, whose unique face I always envisage whenever I hear the song. The work of dramatist Shelagh Delaney would seem to fit The Beatles perfectly - Northern, new, down to earth and innovative. The inclusion of the song here did show, I guess, that The Beatles weren't all about rock 'n' roll, appealing to the older generation in the process, something they did with regularity. Well, at least until the walrus came along.
Sung by George Harrison (his first Beatles vocal) the melodically attractive Do You Want To Know A Secret was a subsequent huge chart hit for Billy J. Kramer & Dakotas. It has a sublime, deep, warm bass line. Lennon thought the comparatively easy to sing number would be ideal for Harrison who he said was "not the best singer in the world". Always hurtfully honest, that Lennon. Actually, George does ok, sounding a lot like McCartney.
The harmonica that introduces There's A Place, an energetic, enthusiastic offering, is great but, as appealing as it is, it all sounds so very long ago now. It was another track that Lennon wrote very much with contemporary Motown sounds in mind. Lyrically it expresses a young man's craving for independence, a sentiment McCartney never expressed lyrically. This was Lennon's territory. Already, it was clear just how polarised their personalities were. For a pop singer like Lennon to be singing of such things was quite adventurous for the time, a young man wanting a place to go off and be oneself, far from the madding crowd as opposed to being with all his mates at the milk bar - or maybe in Lennon's case, his wife and domestic responsibility. Some fifteen to twenty years later, a young Paul Weller would explore similar themes - on The Place I Love on 1978's All Mod Cons album - also unexpectedly, given that he was expected to be a rebellious punk.
A nice bit of trivia about this EP was that it was the first record bought by Elvis Costello with his own money - always an important thing. Mine was Alice Cooper's Elected.
Relevant album - Please Please Me
