John and Paul met in July of 1957- both were teenagers who loved rock 'n roll. Paul was soon asked to join John's local band, which John had dubbed "the Quarreymen". There were hundreds of teenage rock 'n roll bands in Liverpool, England, during these years. Every musician dreamed of striking it big, like every teenage guy's idol, Elvis Presley.
The special added-in factor of the "self-written songs" was soon to set the Beatles above all the other local groups. Paul's first composition was called “I Lost My Little Girl" (written, interestingly, right after the tragic death of his beloved mother to cancer). Soon thereafter, John came up with his first solo composition- “Hello Little Girl".
These were individually written songs, but John and Paul soon realized they preferred, both for personal enjoyment and for quality, writing together as a team. Writing songs together soon became an almost-daily ritual with the two close friends. John and Paul would play hooky from school and hop over, usually, to Paul's house, which was unoccupied during the day.
The two truants would take out Paul's father's pipe, stuff it with some Twinnings tea leaves, and "smoke" the pipe together. Then they would sit a few feet apart, each with guitar in hand, and start composing songs ("eyeball to eyeball,” John was to call their method).
In this casual, friendly environment, John and Paul wrote some of their rudimentary tunes together. To each newly written song was proudly added the little phrase "another Lennon-McCartney original.” Over the years, of course, the two were to compose scores of songs which were to captivate and bring joy to the entire world.
The above is a very brief encapsulation of the early Lennon-McCartney songs and the composing team. So now let's jump ahead to late 1962 and address the title of this article.
It was during this early September recording session that Martin insisted the boys record a song called “How Do You Do It?" (written by Mitch Murray). John and Paul, pretty cocky for this early stage of their career, put their collective foot down.
“No,” they said adamantly, they only wanted to record original Lennon-McCartney songs. But at this early stage of the game, Martin's word was law. And thus, the Beatles laid down, much against their will, a fairly routine version of the pleasant, if unexciting, song.
Listening to this unreleased Beatles “How Do You Do It?" record, one can hear a very slight trace of sarcasm in Lennon's voice as he sings lead. Nonetheless, it is still quite a nice record for 1962- professionally done and neatly recorded.
Instead of putting out the Beatles version, the song was later given to another local Liverpool group called Gerry & the Pacemakers for them to try. Gerry & the Pacemakers were actually also managed by the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein. They happily (and gratefully) did a peppy, enthusiastic version of the song the Beatles had rejected.
In March of 1963, the Gerry & the Pacemakers version of “How Do You Do It?" hit number one on the record charts. Thus, “How Do You Do It?" actually became the only song the Beatles ever rejected, which went to number one without them.
One of the most interesting sidebars to this brief blip (and misjudgment) in the Beatles early career is their sheer and utter confidence in their own compositions- remember, they rejected “How Do You Do It?" in September of '62- this was actually a full month before they had even released a record themselves! But I guess to make it as big as the Beatles did, you must "know" how good you are.
Meanwhile, Gerry and the Pacemakers went on to release two records after “How Do You Do It?": “I Like It" and “You'll Never Walk Alone.” Both of these songs also went to number one. Thus, Gerry and his boys became the first group in music history to hit #1 with each of their first three releases.
“How Do You Do It?" was knocked out its number one spot by a song called “From Me To You,” by a fresh, new group called… The Beatles.
So, if the Beatles did have any regret or remorse (which the probably didn't) they got a bit of revenge anyway. The Beatles went on, as we all know, to become “The Beatles.” And after their incredible three-in-a-row string of initial hits, Gerry & the Pacemakers were never to have another number one record in the U.K.
Yeah...pretty ballsy move for a group of young guys. You would have thought they would have jumped at the chance to record it. Good article Eddie.
Never heard the song before and after I post this comment, it will be instantly forgotten. So it was number 1? So what? It's entirely forgettable. They were right to pass.
I think that's a great point, Eddie - If you really want to be a big star, you need to believe in yourself first.
"The #1 Song the Beatles Turned Down"