Do You Want to Know a Secret

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"Do You Want to Know a Secret" is a song by English rock band the Beatles from their 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. In the UK, Billy J. Kramer released a cover of the song as his debut single, reaching No. 1 on the NME singles chart and No. 2 on the Record Retailer chart.

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 1963 version by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas (a UK No. 2) credited the composition to "McCartney–Lennon". The song was inspired by "I'm Wishing",Template:Sfn a tune from Walt Disney's 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which Lennon's mother, Julia, 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...").Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn McCartney has said it was a "50–50 collaboration written to order", i.e., for Harrison to sing,Template:Sfn 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.[2]

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."Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Harrison and Lennon both played acoustic guitars on the recording in different channels – on the stereo mix, Harrison's guitar was panned to the right channel while Lennon's was panned to the left.Template:Sfn

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 "Hello, Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong 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 No. 1 as part of a double-sided number one hit with "Come Together" in 1969.

Personnel

Engineered by Norman Smith

Personnel per Walter EverettTemplate:Sfn and John WinnTemplate:Sfn

Charts and certifications

Charts

Chart (1964) Peak
position
German Media Control Singles Chart[3] 34
New Zealand (Lever Hit Parade)[4] 2
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US Cash Box Top 100[5] 3

Certifications

Template:Certification Table Top Template:Certification Table Entry Template:Certification Table Bottom

Script error: No such module "anchor". The Billy J. Kramer version

Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other 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)Template:Sfn 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)[6] 2
United Kingdom (NME)Template:Sfn 1

Other cover versions

Template:Cleanup section Santo and Johnny, Count Basie and His Orchestra, Mary Wells, Keely Smith, Sonny Curtis, Bobby Vee, The Johnny Mann Singers, The Ray Charles Singers, Sharon Clark, Fairground Attraction, and The Hollyridge Strings also recorded the song.

Swedish actress and recording artist Anita Lindblom recorded a Swedish-language version titled "Lyssna (vill du veta vad jag tänker?)" for her 1968 album Sån't är livet.

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

Notes

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References

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External links

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Template:Please Please Me Template:Navbox musical artist

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Lewisohn, The Beatles: All These Years, Volume One – Tune In, p. 873
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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