‘Boys’ was Ringo Starr’s vocal spotlight on The Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me.
The song was written for the US girl group The Shirelles, and was originally the b-side of their November 1960 single ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’. The Beatles also recorded The Shirelles’ ‘Baby It’s You’ for Please Please Me.
The Beatles apparently didn’t consider the song’s lyrical connotations until after its release.
Ringo always used to do a song in the show. Back then he had ‘Boys’. It was a little embarrassing because it went, ‘I’m talking about boys – yeah, yeah – boys’. It was a Shirelles hit and they were girls singing it, but we never thought we should call it ‘Girls’, just because Ringo was a boy. We just sang it the way they’d sung it and never considered any implications.
Anthology
In the studio
‘Boys’ was recorded in a single take on 11 February 1963, and marked Ringo Starr’s first recorded lead vocal.
That the song was knocked off so quickly in the studio is testament to The Beatles’ tightness as a live act – little preparation was needed, since Starr had performed ‘Boys’ during his time with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
A version of ‘Boys’, recorded for the April 1964 TV special Around The Beatles, appeared on the Anthology 1 album.
BBC recordings
The Beatles also recorded ‘Boys’ seven times for BBC radio. The first was on 1 April 1963, for the Side By Side show.
The band recorded seven songs, plus the Side By Side theme, for the show, which was first broadcast on 13 May 1963: ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘A Taste Of Honey’, ‘Chains’, ‘Thank You Girl’, ‘Boys’, and ‘From Me To You’. ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘A Taste Of Honey’, ‘Chains’, and ‘Boys’ were included on the 2013 digital collection Bootleg Recordings 1963.
The second BBC recording was made on 4 April 1963. It was again for Side By Side, and was broadcast on 24 June. The other songs recorded were ‘Too Much Monkey Business’, ‘Love Me Do’, ‘I’ll Be On My Way’, and ‘From Me To You’.
The Beatles third BBC recording of ‘Boys’ was made on 21 May 1963, for Saturday Club. The episode, broadcast on 25 May, also included new versions of ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’, ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘From Me To You’, and ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’.
On 17 June 1963 The Beatles recorded an edition of their Pop Go The Beatles show. It was broadcast on 25 June, and included recordings of ‘Anna (Go To Him)’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Boys’, ‘Chains’, ‘PS I Love You’, ‘Twist And Shout’, and ‘A Taste Of Honey’.
This fourth BBC version of ‘Boys’ was included on the 1995 single ‘Baby It’s You’, and also on the 2013 collection On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2.
The Beatles recorded another three episodes of Pop Go The Beatles on 3 September 1963, one of which included their fifth BBC version of ‘Boys’, along with ‘Chains’, ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’, ‘Misery’, ‘Lucille’, and ‘From Me To You’. This day’s recording of ‘Boys’ was released in 2013 on Bootleg Recordings 1963.
Another version of ‘Boys’ – the sixth BBC rendition – was made on 18 December 1963 for an episode of From Us To You. Also recorded on that date were the From Us To You theme, ‘She Loves You’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Till There Was You’, ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’, and ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’.
The Beatles’ seventh and final BBC recording of ‘Boys’ was the only one dating from 1964. It was for another edition of From Us To You, recorded on 17 July and first broadcast on 3 August. They also recorded two versions of the From Us To You theme, plus ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘If I Fell’, ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’, ‘I Should Have Know Better’, ‘Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!’, and ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.
Lyrics
I been told when a boy kiss a girl
Take a trip around the world
Hey, hey (Bop shuop, m’bop bop shuop)
Hey, hey (Bop shuop, m’bop bop shuop)
Hey, hey (Bop shuop, m’bop bop shuop)
Yeah, she say ya do (Bop shuop)
My girl says when I kiss her lips
Gets a thrill through her fingertips
Hey hey, hey hey
Hey hey, yeah, she say you do
Well, I talk about boys (yeah, yeah, boys)
Don’t you know I mean boys (yeah, yeah, boys)
Well, I talk about boys, now (yeah, yeah, boys)
Aaahhh, boys (yeah, yeah, boys)
Well, I talk about boys, now (yeah, yeah, boys)
What a bundle of joy! (yeah, yeah, boys)
Alright, George!
My girl says when I kiss her lips
Gets a thrill through her fingertips
Hey hey, hey hey
Hey hey, yeah, she say you do
Well, I talk about boys
Don’t ya know I mean boys
Well, I talk about boys, now
Aaahhh, boys
Well, I talk about boys, now
What a bundle of joy!
Oh, oh, ah yeah boys
Don’t you know I mean boys?
Ooh, boys
Ah ha
Well I talk about boys now
Ah, boys
Good energy track, which strangely, it seems only Ringo could do (no disrespect to Ring, lol). Not sure why this obvious lyrical flub wasn’t changed, but man, he was really confident delivering this one. I wonder what guys in the crowd were thinking, or if this was some early Beatle hazing too.
Ringo was a fine lead singer when given the spotlight.
Not a writer, but definitely underrated as a singer.
Yeah.
I can’t tell which part John and George sing. Can anyone tell me?
John, George, and Paul all do the backup vocals (the yeah yeah boys stuff, et cetera. Paul does all the screams.
John, on “Bop shoo wop” sings the middle part – E-D-E. On the chorus, he’s doing E-D-E on “Yeah, yeah, boys.”
George is on the bottom, singing C#-B-C# on “Bop shoo wop” and C#-B-C#. Both singers adjust during the B7 chord.
On certain performances I only hear two backing vocals. Paul singing the high one A-G#-A while John and George sing the same one in Unison E-D#-E
Hope Ringo doesn’t still do this song with his All-Star Band. Sorry, but there’s something really creepy about a 72-year old man with an earring, flashing a peace sign (seriously!) & talkin’ ’bout “Boys”…
i always think the same about paul mccartney and “i saw her standing there”… “she was just seventeen, you know what i mean” !?!?!? he maybe should change it into “seventy” 😉
Man Bill. . . you are too funny. I know, Huh? I always thought the words were just a little
“uneasy” . . . I think Of Herbert from Family Guy as he looks at Chris. Lol.
Ringo does play this with his All- Star Band, and it’s still fantastic!!
Haha, he actually did this song when I went to see him and his All-Starr Band in Nashvile in June 2016. He lowered the pitch a bit, like with Yellow Submarine. Otherwise, no changes were made. ^_^
Yes, Ringo, wisely, lowers the keys in some songs. Paul should have started doing that decades ago. Instead he usually strains his voice as if to prove he’s the same young tenor he was 40 years ago.
Ringo’s first lead on a Beatles album, definitely better than George’s Chains cover song,
very upbeat and energetic song. Ringo does a good job here.
I always used to go crazy at the “Alright, George” — it just sounded so spontaneous! And of course it let you, the teenage listener, know it was George doing the awesome guitar solo.
here here. and love Ringos drumming on this as well
And it helps that George plays one of his more competent solos.
For this to be recorded in one take is quite awesome. It’s just so well done, with the screams and the solo etc…Such a great performance.
This cover just fits so well in the context of the album and I especially love the harmonies.
When I was a kid listening to this song, I always thought Ringo was shouting “Alright, Girls!” before George’s solo…I figured it was a clever comment on the gender reversal in the lyrics!
Too much worrying about the boy / girl thing. The song includes the lines:
My girl says when I kiss her lips
Gets a thrill through her fingertips
Surely this opens the song up to either sex, or maybe someone thinks this is a comment about The Shirelles preferences…
Enough, already. Let it be
I don’t hear any gay connotations at all. The Shirelles version is “man, I love those boys” while the Beatles version is “isn’t it great being a boy?”
There’s a huge similarity between “Boys” and “What’d I say” by Ray Charles! Listen to the piano, it plays the “Bop shuop, m’bop bop shuop” and the sung “Hey Hey” is exactly like in “Boys”.
That’s exactly what I thought!
And, of course, Ringo used the exact What’d I Say drum pattern on I Feel Fine. The lads certainly loved Ray Charles.
I’ve always liked this song and how it fits in with the album and so forth, but OMG the version on Live at the Hollywood Bowl is amazing! The whole band just *crushes* it. Ringo is drumming and singing super forcefully, and the Bop-Shu-Ops are so powerful! Even the intro… the screaming for Ringo is intense! Paul’s intro is quick and to the point, almost like he is expecting the screams to flatten him as he rushes away from the mic. Wow wow wow!
The televised performance on Shindig, recorded in London, Oct 3, 1964, was probably the last time it was played live by The Beatles.
They should have done Ray Charles’ “what’d I say”. More original and less girly.
Pete Best never sang this song. Before Ringo joined the band, John sang the lead vocals.
There was a Final Jeopardy question some years back and it was; What was the shortest title The Beatles ever made….. They were looking for HELP….but my mind went right to BOYS… Both would’ve been correct!
Add Chains to the mix
For raw energy and spontaneity for my money the best track on the first album. An RnB sound the way it should sound.
For me this is probably Ringo’s best vocal performance ever, which sounds a bit unfortunate because it means in a whole lifetime he’s never bettered it, but there it is. His next spotlight, I Wanna Be Your Man, IMO is a fantastic bluesy beat tune, but his vocal is nowhere near as good, maybe because the song was pitched a bit lower so it misses that raw edge. They even got John to sing lead on the choruses, presumably because Ringo’s performance wasn’t strong enough.
But back to Boys: very good performance from Ringo, but that falsetto “wooooooooo” near the end: was that really him or was it Paul sneakily filling in with that?