Radio: three episodes of Pop Go The Beatles

By July 1963 The Beatles were more than used to hard work. What was unusual about this day, however, was that they completed, in under eight hours, 18 songs for three editions of the radio show Pop Go The Beatles.

At the BBC Paris Studio, London, they rehearsed and recorded the songs along with between-song banter. The shows were broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 6, 13 and 20 August 1963.

Between 3pm and 5.30pm they recorded programme eight in the series. They performed ‘I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)’, ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’, ‘Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!’, ‘To Know Her Is To Love Her’, ‘The Honeymoon Song’, and ‘Twist And Shout’. The guests on the edition were the Swinging Blue Jeans.

The recordings of ‘I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)’, ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’, ‘Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!’, ‘To Know Her Is To Love Her’, and ‘The Honeymoon Song’ were released on the 1994 album Live At The BBC. ‘Twist And Shout’ was included on 2013’s On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2.

From 6-8.30pm The Beatles taped programme nine. Songs recorded were ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’, ‘I’ll Get You’, and ‘I Got A Woman’. Also appearing on the show were The Hollies.

‘Long Tall Sally’ and ‘I Got A Woman’ were released on Live At The BBC, while ‘Please Please Me’ was issued on Volume 2. The other songs were broadcast but subsequently unreleased.

Programme 10 was recorded between 8.45pm and 10.30pm. The Beatles performed ‘She Loves You’, ‘Words Of Love’, ‘Glad All Over’, ‘I Just Don’t Understand’, ‘Devil In Her Heart’, and ‘Slow Down’. They had as their guests Russ Sainty and the Nu-Notes.

‘Glad All Over’, ‘I Just Don’t Understand’, and ‘Slow Down’ were included on Live At The BBC, and ‘Words Of Love’ can be heard on Volume 2. ‘Devil In Her Heart’, meanwhile, was released on the ‘Baby It’s You’ single.

When the 10th edition of Pop Go The Beatles was broadcast on 20 August, the version of ‘She Loves You’ was repeated from the ninth edition.