A Philadelphia R&B group called The Top Notes originally recorded "Twist and Shout" in 1961. It was a hit for The Isley Brothers in 1962, which is the version The Beatles emulated. Engineer Norman Smith explained how The Beatles version came about: "Someone suggested they do 'Twist and Shout' with John taking the lead vocal. But by this time all their throats were sore; it was 12 hours since we had started working. John's, in particular, was almost completely gone so we really had to get it right the first time. The Beatles on the studio floor and us in the control room. John sucked a couple more Zubes (a brand of throat lozenges), had a bit of a gargle with milk and away we went." This session took place on February 11, 1963 at EMI Studios in London, which was later re-named Abbey Road Studios. The Beatles did 10 songs that day, nine of which ended up on Please Please Me, their first UK album.
The Beatles used this to end many of their early live performances. It was always a huge hit when they played it in concert, and was chosen as their opening song at their Shea Stadium performance on August 15, 1965 - the first rock concert held in a stadium.
John Lennon admitted that he screamed the lyrics. The Beatles had to sing loud when they did countless live shows in their early years.
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.