Misery (song)

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"Misery"

Song by The Beatles
from the album Please Please Me
Released	March 22, 1963 (mono) April 26, 1963 (stereo)
Recorded	February 11, 1963
Genre	Rock and roll
Length	1:47
Label	Parlophone
Writer(s)	McCartney/Lennon
Producer(s)	George Martin
Please Please Me track listing
Side one "I Saw Her Standing There" "Misery" "Anna (Go To Him)" "Chains" "Boys" "Ask Me Why" "Please Please Me" Side two "Love Me Do" "P.S. I Love You" "Baby It's You" "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" "A Taste Of Honey" "There's A Place" "Twist and Shout"

"Misery" is a song performed by The Beatles on their album Please Please Me. It was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

In February 1963, The Beatles were fifth on the bill for the Helen Shapiro tour. Shapiro had first achieved chart success in 1961 at the age of 14, and Lennon and McCartney saw an opportunity to have her record one of their songs. "Misery" was written especially for her and was started backstage before their performance at the King's Hall, Stoke-on-Trent on 26 January and later completed at McCartney's Forthlin Road home.^[1] However, when Shapiro's A&R Manager, Norrie Paramor heard it, he turned it down. But Kenny Lynch, who was on the same tour, did record it, and became the first artist to cover a Lennon and McCartney composition (though he failed to chart with it). When The Beatles urgently needed original material for their “Please Please Me” LP they recorded it themselves, giving it a droll-deadpan treatment. With its mournful opening lyric it is a self-pitying lament^[2], that has an unusually gloomy subject matter compared to other original Beatles compositions of the period. Its mood only briefly lightens during the fade out when Lennon mimics Pat Boone’s “Speedy Gonzales”, which had been a big hit in the UK the previous summer (July 1962).

It was credited to Paul McCartney and John Lennon in that order, as were all other Lennon-McCartney originals on the Please Please Me album. The songwriting credit was changed to the more familiar "Lennon-McCartney" for their second album, With the Beatles.