Album This song officially appears on the Please Please Me (Mono) LP.
Timeline This song was officially released in 1963
This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:
"Please Please Me" album session #1
Feb 11, 1963
"Please Please Me" album session #2
Feb 20, 1963
"Please Please Me" album session #3
Feb 25, 1963
From Wikipedia:
“Misery” is a song performed by the Beatles on their album Please Please Me. It was co-written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. According to Lennon, “It was kind of a John song more than a Paul song, but it was written together.” McCartney was to say: “I don’t think either one of us dominated on that one, it was just a hacking job.“
A 1963 single by Kenny Lynch made “Misery” the first Beatles’ song to be covered by another artist.
Background
In February 1963, Helen Shapiro was Britain’s most successful female singer (having first achieved chart success two years earlier at the age of 14) and The Beatles were fifth on the bill as part of her nationwide tour of the United Kingdom. Her artist and repertoire manager, Norrie Paramor, was looking for new material for a country and western album she planned to record in Nashville, Tennessee and suggested that the Beatles compose a song especially for her. “Misery” was started backstage before The Beatles’ performance at the King’s Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, on 26 January 1963, and later completed at Paul McCartney’s Forthlin Road home. At the time, McCartney commented: “We’ve called it ‘Misery’, but it isn’t as slow as it sounds, it moves along at quite a pace, and we think Helen will make a pretty good job of it.” But Paramor considered it unsuitable, and so British singer and entertainer Kenny Lynch, who was on the same tour, recorded it instead (HMV Pop 1136), thus becoming the first artist to cover a Lennon–McCartney composition although he failed to enter the charts with it. In 1973, Lynch appeared in the cover photograph for McCartney’s album, Band on the Run.
When the Beatles needed original material for their Please Please Me LP they recorded it themselves, giving its treatment, according to writer Ian MacDonald, “a droll portrait of adolescent self-pity“. It was credited to McCartney and Lennon in that order, as were all other Lennon & McCartney originals on the Please Please Me album. The songwriting credit was changed to what would become the more familiar “Lennon–McCartney” for their second album, With the Beatles. McCartney: “It was our first stab at a ballad and had a little spoken preface. It was co-written. I don’t think either of us dominated on that one, it was just a job, you could have called us hacks, hacking out a song for someone.” (Barry Miles. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now).
The Beatles recorded “Misery” on 11 February 1963 (marathon session) in 11 takes. Norman Smith was the engineer.
Normal studio multi-track tape speed at the time was 15 ips (inches per second), but “Misery” was recorded at 30 ips, as George Martin intended to personally add piano at a later date, and preferred playing this at half-tempo an octave below. […]
From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:
[a] mono 25 Feb 1963. edited.
UK: Parlophone PMC 1202 Please Please Me 1963.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46435 2 Please Please Me 1987.[b] mono 25 Feb 1963.
US: Vee Jay VJLP 1062 Introducing 1963.[c] stereo 25 Feb 1963.
UK: Parlophone PCS 3042 Please Please Me 1963.
US: Vee Jay VJSR 1062 Introducing 1963.[c1] stereo remixed from [c] ?1980, by Capitol.
US: Capitol SHAL-12060 Rarities 1980.The instrumental intro is shorter in [a] than the others, edited.
Whether Vee Jay uses [b] or is just a mono reduction of [c] seems impossible to determine by listening, since an unedited mono mix would sound the same. It’s been suggested that the entire Vee Jay LP is a mono reduction of the stereo mixes (except that the real mono “Please please me” was used for the reissue version of the LP), and it is hard to rule this out, although it’s also hard to say why Vee Jay would not have been sent both mono and stereo masters.
In the remix [c1] the left instrumental channel is relatively louder, which isn’t bad, but reverb has been added too especially in the intro vocal.
We were asked by Norrie Paramour (of EMI’s Columbia label) to write a song for Helen Shapiro, for her to record in Nashville. We’ve called it ‘Misery,’ but it isn’t as slow as it sounds. It moves along at quite a pace and we think Helen will make a pretty good job of it. We’ve also done a number for Duffy Power which he isn’t going to record.
Paul McCartney, 1963 – From (190) Current Paul McCartney news thread (interviews, articles, miscellaneous) | Page 567 | Steve Hoffman Music Forums
I got on great with them and John was like a brother to me. Very protective. He and Paul certainly offered ‘Misery’ to me first, through Norrie, but I didn’t know anything about it until I met them on the first day of the tour. […] Apparently he’d turned it down even though I hadn’t heard it.
Helen Shapiro, A Hard Day’s Write by Steve Turner, p.20, 1994
The world is treating me bad
Misery
I'm the kind of guy
Who never used to cry
The world is treatin' me bad
Misery
I've lost her now for sure
I won't see her no more
It's gonna be a drag
Misery
I'll remember all the little things we've done
Can't she see she'll always be the only one, only one?
Send her back to me
'Cause everyone can see
Without her I will be
In misery
I'll remember all the little things we've done
She'll remember and she'll miss her only one, lonely one
Send her back to me
'Cause everyone can see
Without her I will be
In misery
Oh, ooo, ooo in misery
Ooo, my misery
La, la, la, la, la, la
Misery
LP • Released in 1963
1:49 • Studio version • A • Mono
Paul McCartney : Bass, Vocals Ringo Starr : Drums John Lennon : Rhythm guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Lead guitar George Martin : Piano, Producer Geoff Emerick : Second engineer Norman Smith : Recording engineer Stuart Eltham : Recording engineer A.B. Lincoln : Second engineer
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Session Overdubs: Feb 20, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Session Mixing: Feb 25, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
LP • Released in 1963
1:49 • Studio version • C • Stereo
Paul McCartney : Bass, Vocals Ringo Starr : Drums John Lennon : Rhythm guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Lead guitar George Martin : Piano, Producer Geoff Emerick : Second engineer Norman Smith : Recording engineer Stuart Eltham : Recording engineer A.B. Lincoln : Second engineer
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Session Recording: Feb 20, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Session Recording: Feb 25, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
EP • Released in 1963
1:47 • Studio version • A • Mono
Paul McCartney : Bass, Vocals Ringo Starr : Drums John Lennon : Rhythm guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Lead guitar George Martin : Piano, Producer Geoff Emerick : Second engineer Norman Smith : Recording engineer Stuart Eltham : Recording engineer A.B. Lincoln : Second engineer
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Session Recording: Feb 20, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Session Recording: Feb 25, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Official album • Released in 1980
1:49 • Studio version • C1 • Stereo • Previously issued on Vee-Jay LP Introducing... The Beatles; available on Please Please Me
Paul McCartney : Bass, Vocals Ringo Starr : Drums John Lennon : Rhythm guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Lead guitar George Martin : Piano, Producer Geoff Emerick : Second engineer Norman Smith : Recording engineer Stuart Eltham : Recording engineer A.B. Lincoln : Second engineer
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Session Recording: Feb 20, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Session Recording: Feb 25, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Please Please Me (Mono - 2009 remaster)
CD • Released in 2009
1:49 • Studio version • A2009 • Mono • 2009 mono remaster
Paul McCartney : Bass, Vocals Ringo Starr : Drums John Lennon : Rhythm guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Lead guitar George Martin : Piano, Producer Geoff Emerick : Second engineer Norman Smith : Recording engineer Stuart Eltham : Recording engineer A.B. Lincoln : Second engineer Paul Hicks : Remastering Guy Massey : Remastering Steve Rooke : Remastering Allan Rouse : Project co-ordinator
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Session Overdubs: Feb 20, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Session Mixing: Feb 25, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Please Please Me (Stereo - 2009 remaster)
Official album • Released in 2009
1:49 • Studio version • C2009 • Stereo • 2009 remaster
Paul McCartney : Bass, Vocals Ringo Starr : Drums John Lennon : Rhythm guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Lead guitar George Martin : Piano, Producer Geoff Emerick : Second engineer Norman Smith : Recording engineer Stuart Eltham : Recording engineer A.B. Lincoln : Second engineer Paul Hicks : Remastering Guy Massey : Remastering Steve Rooke : Remastering Allan Rouse : Project co-ordinator
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Session Recording: Feb 20, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Session Recording: Feb 25, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2
Official live • Released in 2013
1:50 • Live • L1 • The Beatles recorded this song from their debut album seven times at the BBC. All of the broadcast performances lack the descending piano runs overdubbed by George Martin onto the version made at EMI for Please Please Me.
Paul McCartney : Vocals John Lennon : Vocals Peter Pilbeam : Producer
Concert From "Here We Go" in Manchester, United Kingdom on Mar 12, 1963
Official album • Released in 2013
1:54 • Outtake • D • Take 1
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Official album • Released in 2013
1:56 • Outtake • E • Take 7
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
The Beatles' Second Album (Japan - 2014)
Official album • Released in 2014
1:49 • Studio version • A2009 • Mono
Paul McCartney : Bass, Vocals Ringo Starr : Drums John Lennon : Rhythm guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Lead guitar George Martin : Piano, Producer Geoff Emerick : Second engineer Norman Smith : Recording engineer Stuart Eltham : Recording engineer A.B. Lincoln : Second engineer Paul Hicks : Remastering Guy Massey : Remastering Steve Rooke : Remastering Allan Rouse : Project co-ordinator
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Session Overdubs: Feb 20, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Session Mixing: Feb 25, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Unsurpassed Masters Vol. 1 (1962-1963)
Unofficial album • Released in 1989
4:50 • Outtake • Take 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Unsurpassed Masters Vol. 7 (1962-1969)
Unofficial album • Released in 1991
1:51 • Outtake • Take 1
Session Recording: Feb 11, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
The Beatles At The Beeb - Volume 1
Unofficial live • Released in 2003
2:13 • Live • L1
Concert From "Here We Go" in Manchester, United Kingdom on Mar 12, 1963
“Misery” has been played in 29 concerts.
Sep 17, 1963 • Part of BBC Sessions
Jun 04, 1963 • Part of BBC Sessions
Apr 22, 1963 • Part of BBC Sessions
Apr 07, 1963 • Part of BBC Sessions
Buckingham • Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School • United Kingdom
Apr 04, 1963 • Part of Spring 1963 UK Tour
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Erick Byrd • 5 years ago
The Usenet Guide notation appears to be for "I Saw Her Standing There" as it references the count in and lyrics from that song.