Released 22 March 1963 Length 1:56 Writer(s) McCartney–Lennon | Genre Pop Label Parlophone | |
Recorded 11 February 1963,
EMI Studios, London | ||
"Do You Want to Know a Secret?" is a song by English rock group 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 No. 2 on the Billboard chart in 1964 as a single released by Vee-Jay, VJ 587.
Contents
Composition
"Do You Want to Know a Secret?", written in autumn 1962, was primarily composed by John Lennon but credited to Lennon–McCartney. The 1963 seven single version by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas (a UK no. 2) credited the composition to "McCartney-Lennon". The song was inspired by "I'm Wishing", 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..."). McCartney has said it was a "50–50 collaboration written to order", i.e., for Harrison to sing, but Lennon, who always claimed the song as his own, explained in a 1980 interview that he had realized as soon as he had finished writing the song that it best suited Harrison.
Recording
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." The song was recorded as part of their marathon ten-hour recording session on 11 February 1963 along with nine other songs for Please Please Me. Harrison sang two songs on Please Please Me — this song by Lennon–McCartney and "Chains" by Goffin/King. "Don't Bother Me" would be Harrison's debut composition and appeared on the Beatles' next UK album With The Beatles.
Single release
"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. In the U.S., it was the most successful Beatles song on which Harrison sang lead vocal until "Something" peaked at #1 as part of a double-sided number one hit with "Come Together" in 1969.
Personnel
Engineered by Norman Smith
The Billy J. Kramer version
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) 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. It reached number eight in the Irish Singles Chart.
Other covers
Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1964 album The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits.
The song reached the No. 1 position on Billboard in 1981 and No. 2 in the United Kingdom in a cover version by Stars on 45 as part of a medley.