| "In Spite of All the Danger" | ||||
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Original 78 rpm acetate |
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| Song by The Quarrymen from the album Anthology 1 | ||||
| Released | 20 November 1995 (UK) 21 November 1995 (US) |
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| Recorded | Phillips Sound Recording Service, Liverpool, 12 July 1958 | |||
| Genre | Skiffle, Blues | |||
| Length | 2:44 (Anthology 1) 3:25 (Original acetate) |
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| Label | Apple Records | |||
| Writer | Paul McCartney and George Harrison | |||
| Producer | Percy Phillips | |||
| Anthology 1 track listing | ||||
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"In Spite of All the Danger" is one of the first songs recorded by The Quarrymen, then composed of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, pianist John Lowe and drummer Colin Hanton.
The song was written by McCartney and Harrison, and is the only song to credit the two alone. It is believed to have been recorded on Saturday 12 July 1958[1] (three days before Lennon's mother's death). However, that recording date is disputed by the group. The recording was made at Percy Phillips' home studio in Liverpool (see 1958 in music). It cost 17 shillings and six pence.
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Along with their cover of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day" recorded at the same session, these songs were the first recordings made by what would become The Beatles. The only other previous recording of the Quarrymen in performance was a reel-to-reel tape-recording made by an audience member on 6 July 1957, during the Quarrymen's last set for the 1957 Rose Queen garden fête at St. Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool.[2][3] This was made on the very day on which McCartney first met Lennon, but before he was a member of the group. So, while it is true that an audience member made a recording that night — the recording was not under the band's control, and it was made before McCartney or Harrison joined the band.
The Song is in the key of E and follows a standard I (E chord)-I7-IV (A chord)-V7 (B7 chord)-I-IV-I progression.[4] Here the harmonic development initially arises with the move (in bar 5 on "I'll do anything for you") to a subdominant or IV (A chord built on the 4th degree of the E major scale), but without the intervening range of chords prolonging harmonic tension that so characterised later Beatles songwriting.[5] The resolution back to the tonic comes as the V chord (B7 in bar 8 on "you want me to") shifts to the I (E chord on "true to me").[6]
Only one copy of the "That'll Be the Day" and "In Spite of All the Danger" recordings was made, and each band member kept the acetate disc for a week. Lowe was the last to have it, keeping it for nearly 25 years. In 1981, Lowe attempted to sell it at auction, but McCartney intervened and purchased it from him. McCartney had engineers restore as much of the record's sound quality as possible and then made approximately 50 copies of the single that he gave as personal gifts to family and friends. In 2004, Record Collector magazine named the original pressing as the most valuable record in existence, estimating its worth at £100,000, with the 1981 copies made by McCartney coming in second on the list at £10,000 each.
"In Spite of All the Danger" was not released to the public until it appeared on 1995's Anthology 1 collection (see 1995 in music) along with "That'll Be the Day". The Anthology version (2:44) runs a little shorter than the unedited original (3:25).
McCartney played the song throughout his 2005 world tour (see 2005 in music).
The song's recording was depicted in the 2010 biopic "Nowhere Boy" which was accurate even to the 17/6d charge for the recording session.