| "Do You Want to Know a Secret" | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles from the album Please Please Me | ||||||||
| Released | 22 March 1963 | |||||||
| Recorded | 11 February 1963, EMI Studios, London |
|||||||
| Genre | Rock and roll | |||||||
| Length | 1:56 | |||||||
| Label | Parlophone | |||||||
| Writer | McCartney–Lennon | |||||||
| Producer | George Martin | |||||||
| Please Please Me track listing | ||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
| "Do You Want to Know a Secret" | |
|---|---|
Sleeve of Vee-Jay 7" single, released a year after the album in March 1964 |
|
| Single by The Beatles | |
| B-side | "Thank You Girl" |
| Released | 23 March 1964 |
| Recorded | 11 February 1963, EMI Studios, London |
| Genre | Rock and roll |
| Length | 1:56 |
| Label | Vee-Jay, VJ 587 |
| Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney |
| Producer | George Martin |
| "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas | ||||
| from the album Little Children (album) | ||||
| B-side | "I'll Be on My Way" Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Released | 26 April 1963 | |||
| Genre | Pop music, Beat music | |||
| Length | 2:01 | |||
| Label | Parlophone (UK) Imperial (US) |
|||
| Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"Do You Want to Know a Secret" is a song by The Beatles from the 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 #2 on the Billboard chart in 1964 as a single released by Vee-Jay, VJ 587. The song reached the #1 position on Billboard in 1981 and #2 in the United Kingdom in a cover version by Stars on 45 as part of a medley.
Contents |
"Do You Want to Know a Secret" was primarily written by John Lennon, but credited to McCartney–Lennon. The song was inspired by "I'm Wishing",[1] a tune from Walt Disney’s 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which Lennon's mother, Julia Lennon, 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...").[2][3] McCartney said it was a "50-50 collaboration written to order", i.e., for Harrison to sing.[4]
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."[3] Harrison sang two songs on Please Please Me, this song by Lennon–McCartney and "Chains" by Goffin/King. The Beatles did not record a song composed solely by Harrison until "Don't Bother Me" on With The Beatles.[5]
The song was recorded during a ten-hour session on 11 February 1963 along with nine other songs for Please Please Me.[6]
"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 another Beatles song, "Can't Buy Me Love" 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.
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)[7] 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 (album)
| Chart (1963) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom (Record Retailer) | 2[8] |
| United Kingdom (NME) | 1[9] |
|
|||||||||||