Behka’s Breakfast with The Beatles Recap: Week of February 17

I play something from The Beatles every day to kick off the morning show at 6:00 a.m.  They’re my favorite band, it’s my show, and I get to indulge a little.  Here’s a look at all the songs I’ve played this week if you missed em. 

On Monday, I played "Boys".

"Boys" is a song by Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell, originally performed by The Shirelles and released as the B-side of their "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" single in November 1960. It was covered by The Beatles and it included on their first album released in the United Kingdom, Please Please Me. The Beatles did not concern themselves about possible homosexual undertones that go with singing a song about boys, although they altered the gender pronouns employed on the Shirelles' version (i.e. "My girl says when I kiss her lips..."). It was also Ringo Starr's first recorded lead vocals with the Beatles; and, as the fifth track on the Beatles first album, Please Please Me, represents the first time many fans heard Starr singing on a lead vocal.

On Tuesday, I played "Rocky Raccoon".

"Rocky Raccoon" is a song by the Beatles from the double-disc album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). The song was primarily written by Paul McCartney, who was inspired while playing acoustic guitar with John Lennon and Donovan in India (where the Beatles had gone on a retreat). The song is titled from the character's name, which was originally "Rocky Sassoon", but McCartney changed it to "Rocky Raccoon" because he thought "it sounded more like a cowboy." McCartney acknowledged that the style of the song is a pastiche.

On Wednesday, I played "I Call Your Name".

John Lennon wrote the song prior to the Beatles getting together. In 1963, he gave the song to Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas, another Liverpool band who was in the Brian Epstein "Merseyside Stable" and signed to Parlophone by George Martin. Kramer released it as the B-side of the single "Bad to Me", another Lennon–McCartney composition. Lennon was reportedly dissatisfied with the Dakotas' arrangement of his song as well as its position as the single's B-side, so the Beatles recorded their own version. It was up for inclusion in the movie A Hard Day's Night, but the director Richard Lester turned it down. It wasn't put on an LP until after the group broke up; it was included on the EP for Long Tall Sally.

On Thursday, I played "She's A Woman".

The song was released as the B-side to "I Feel Fine" in 1964, their last single release that year. It was written by Paul McCartney and was his attempt at imitating the vocal style of Little Richard. This is why the song is in such a high register, even for McCartney's tenor range. Some takes of the song (especially recordings of live concerts) feature an extended outro. The structure of the song is fairly simple, with the melody carried mostly by McCartney's voice. His bass and a backing piano produce a countermelody, with Lennon's guitar playing chords on the backbeat. "She´s a Woman" is the first Beatles song longer than 3 minutes.

On Friday, I played "Why Don't We Do It In The Road".

"Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" is a song by the Beatles released on The White Album. It was writtenand sung by Paul McCartney. "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" is short and simple; 1:42 of twelve-bar blues that begins with three different percussion elements (a hand banging on the back of an acoustic guitar, handclaps, and drums) and features McCartney's increasingly raucous vocal repeating a simple lyric with only two different lines. McCartney wrote the song after seeing two monkeys copulating in the street while on retreat in Rishikesh, India, with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He marvelled in the simplicity of this natural scenario when compared to the emotional turmoil of human relationships.

Let me know if there's something you'd like to hear next week!

Beat-lessly yours,
Behka