The first building block of the Beatles discography - Please Please Me – was released on 22 March, 1963. Singles from the album released a few months earlier had already launched the beginning of Beatlemania, but nobody could have predicted what was to come... In this introduction, the duo of Lennon/McCartney sign off eight original songs supplemented by six cover tracks, most of it the R&B and Soul music they loved so much. A repertoire performed by Fab Four in the small clubs of Hamburg and Liverpool, and as such one which they have already mastered from a to z. With tracks like I Saw Her Standing There, Please Please Me, P.S. I Love You, and especially Love Me Do, the Fab Four gave birth here to a totally unique and innovative pop. Music that is rooted in R&B, the girl groups and the rock'n'roll of the Atlantic. And then we have a startling reinterpretation of Twist & Shout by Phil Medley and Bert Berns, a track made famous a year previous by the Isley Brothers. Fresh, authentic, intense and above all, a precursor - this first album of the anthology would remain at top stop in the UK charts for over seven months! In the following video, a live version of Twist & Shout recorded on 4 November 1963 for the Royal Variety Show at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, has entered into legend for the introduction of John Lennon, who addressed the public thusly: "Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And for the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry...", a particularly daring gesture, considering the presence of the Queen herself in the audience...
The Beatles - Twist and Shout [live]
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