Behka’s Breakfast with The Beatles Recap: Week of December 30

You might be familiar with the fact that I’ve been a big Beatles fan since small times, and when I was about 13 they became my favorite band of all time. So I’ve been doing a segment at the beginning of the morning show to play some Beatles every day.
However, I know some of you out there aren’t exactly early birds – 6:00 a.m. is pretty dang early, after all. And some of you might have caught the end of a song or just missed it, and so I thought I’d post some audio and videos of the songs I used each day, and I’ll tell you what I know about em here, too.

On Monday, I played "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)".

This is a novelty/comedy song that had been in the works since the mid sixties.  It was something they'd come back to from time to time, finally finishing it toward the end of their run.  It's something that's definitely goofy, yet enjoyable.  I wonder, though, if the humor always translates to American tastes of today.

On Tuesday, I played "I Saw Her Standing There".

"I Saw Her Standing There" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and is the opening track on the Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me, the United Kingdom by Parlophone on 22 March 1963. In December 1963, Capitol Records released the song in the United States as the B-side on the label's first single by the Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand". While the A-side topped the US Billboard charts for seven weeks starting 18 January 1964, "I Saw Her Standing There" entered the Billboard Hot 100 on 8 February 1964, remaining there for 11 weeks, peaking at #14. The song placed on the Cashbox charts for only one week at #100 on the same day of its Billboard debut. In 2004, "I Saw Her Standing There" was ranked #139 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
On Wednesday, I didn't play anything because I wasn't at work.

Don't judge me.

On Thursday, I played "Getting Better".

This song is off the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. The song's title and music suggest optimism, but some of the song's lyrics have a more negative tone. In this sense, it reflects the contrasting personas of the two songwriters. In response to McCartney's line, "It's getting better all the time", Lennon replies, "Can't get no worse!"  Referring to the lyric "I used to be cruel to my woman/I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved/Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene/And I'm doing the best that I can", John Lennon admitted that he had done things in relationships in the past that he was not proud of.  I suppose it's always important to acknowledge your mistakes and try to atone or move on from them.

On Friday, I chose "What's the New Mary Jane".

"What's the New Mary Jane" is a song written by John Lennon (but credited to Lennon–McCartney). It was recorded in 1968 for the album The Beatles aka "The White Album", but was not used.  An early acoustic demo of "What's the New Mary Jane" was recorded in late May 1968, at George Harrison's Esher home.It was one of those  lost songs that was going to be put out time and time again.......but just wasn't.  The song was not released until over 10 years later, on Anthology 3, during which time period it gained a certain aura of mystery.   It's always one of those things where if you CAN'T hear it, you really really want to.

Let me know if there's a Beatle track you wanna hear!

Fangirlingly yours,
Behka