Do You Want to Know a Secret?

"Do You Want to Know a Secret?"
1964 sheet music cover, Metric Music, New York
Song by The Beatles from the album Please Please Me
Released	22 March 1963
Recorded	11 February 1963, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Merseybeat
Length	1:56
Label	Parlophone
Writer	McCartney–Lennon
Producer	George Martin
Music sample "Do You Want to Know a Secret?"

"Do You Want to Know a Secret?"
Sleeve of Vee-Jay 7" single, released a year after the album in March 1964
Single by The Beatles
from the album Introducing... the Beatles
B-side	"Thank You Girl"
Released	23 March 1964
Recorded	11 February 1963, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Merseybeat
Length	1:56
Label	Vee-Jay, VJ 587
Writer(s)	Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)	George Martin
The Beatles US singles chronology
"Can't Buy Me Love" (1964) "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (1964) "Love Me Do" (1964)

"Do You Want to Know a Secret?" is a song by English rock group the Beatles from the 1963 album Please Please Me, sung by George Harrison. In the United States, it was the first top ten song to feature Harrison as a lead singer, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard chart in 1964 as a single released by Vee-Jay, VJ 587.

Composition

"Do You Want to Know a Secret?", written in autumn 1962, was primarily composed by John Lennon but credited to Lennon–McCartney.^[1]The song was inspired by "I'm Wishing",^[2] a tune from Walt Disney’s 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which Lennon's mother, Julia Lennon, would sing to him as a child. The first two lines of the song in Disney's movie ("Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell?") come right after the opening lyrics ("You'll never know how much I really love you... You'll never know how much I really care...").^[3][4] McCartney has said it was a "50–50 collaboration written to order", i.e., for Harrison to sing,^[5] but Lennon, who always claimed the song as his own, explained in a 1980 interview that he had realized as soon as he had finished writing the song that it best suited Harrison.^[6]

Recording

In 1980, Lennon said that he gave "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" to Harrison to sing because "it only had three notes and he wasn't the best singer in the world", but added "he has improved a lot since then."^[4] The song was recorded as part of their marathon ten-hour recording session on 11 February 1963 along with nine other songs for Please Please Me.^[7] Harrison sang two songs on Please Please Me — this song by Lennon–McCartney and "Chains" by Goffin/King. "Don't Bother Me" would be Harrison's debut composition and appeared on the Beatles' next UK album With The Beatles.^[8]

Single release

"Do You Want to Know a Secret?" was released a year later as a single by Vee-Jay in the United States on 23 March 1964, reaching the number two spot behind another Beatles song, "Can't Buy Me Love" in Billboard, reaching number three on the Cash Box chart, but reaching number one for two weeks in the chart published by the Teletheatre Research Institute. In the U.S., it was the most successful Beatles song on which Harrison sang lead vocal until "Something" peaked at #1 as part of a double-sided number one hit with "Come Together" in 1969.

Personnel

• George Harrison – lead vocals, lead guitar
• John Lennon – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• Paul McCartney – bass, backing vocals
• Ringo Starr – drums, percussion

Engineered by Norman Smith^[9]

The Billy J. Kramer version

"Do You Want to Know a Secret?"
Single by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas
from the album Little Children
B-side	"I'll Be on My Way" (Lennon–McCartney)
Released	26 April 1963
Format	45 RPM
Recorded	1963
Genre	Pop, beat
Length	2:01
Label	Parlophone (UK) Imperial (US)
Writer(s)	Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)	George Martin
Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas singles chronology
"Do You Want to Know a Secret?" (1963) "Bad to Me" (1963)

The Beatles' version was never released as a single in the UK, where a cover version by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas (released b/w "I'll Be on My Way", Parlophone R5023, 26 April 1963)^[10] reached number two in the Record Retailer chart, and hit number one in the NME chart (used by Radio Luxembourg) and the BBC's Pick of the Pops chart, which were more widely recognised at the time. It appeared on his album, Little Children. It reached number eight in the Irish Singles Chart.

Chart performance

Chart (1963)	Peak position
United Kingdom (Record Retailer)	2[11]
United Kingdom (NME)	1[12]

Other covers

Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1964 album The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits.^[13]

The song reached the No. 1 position on Billboard in 1981 and No. 2 in the United Kingdom in a cover version by Stars on 45 as part of a medley.

Notes

1. Lewisohn, Mark. The Beatles: All These Years, Volume One – Tune In. Crown Archetype, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-8305-3, pp. 733-734
2. Distant Melody 2007.
3. Harry, p. 209.
4. Sheff 2000, p. 165.
5. Miles 1997, p. 95.
6. Lewisohn, Mark. The Beatles: All These Years, Volume One – Tune In. Crown Archetype, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-8305-3, p. 873
7. Lewisohn 1988, p. 24.
8. Lewisohn 1988, p. 53.
9. Do You Want to Know a Secret? | The Beatles Bible
10. Calkin 2009.
11. "Artist Chart History Details: Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
12. Rees, Lazell & Osborne 1995, p. 127.
13. http://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000194444

References

• Calkin, Graham (2009). "Do You Want to Know a Secret?". Graham Calkin's Beatles Pages. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
• Rees, Dafydd; Lazell, Barry; Osborne, Roger (1995). 40 Years of "NME" Charts (2nd ed.). Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-7522-0829-2.
• "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)". Distant Melody. 2007. Retrieved 3 January 2007.
• Harry, Bill. The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia.
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
• Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
• Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.

External links

• Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Do You Want to Know a Secret?"