Recorded for the British television special Around The Beatles, this version of the Isley Brothers’ 1959 hit ‘Shout’ was unusual for featuring lead vocals from all four members of The Beatles.
The group pre-recorded seven songs for the show on 19 April 1964, at IBC Studios in London. The special was filmed on 28 April and first broadcast on 6 May, by which time the screams from the studio audience had been added to the group’s performance.
The performance of ‘Shout’ is among The Beatles’ most dynamic. Although the group hadn’t performed it live since signing to EMI, they assuredly romped through the song, allowing each Beatle to have a moment under the vocal spotlight.
For reasons unknown, the Anthology 1 version edited around 30 seconds from the recording. Since the Anthology version was mixed from the original three-track tapes, rather than the programme soundtrack, the audience’s screams were also omitted. The full version can be heard on bootleg recordings, or seen on unofficial videos of the TV special.
Lyrics
You know you make me want to shout
Click my finger – shout!
Throw my hands back – shout!
Kick my heels up – shout!
Come on now – shout!
Take it easy – shout!
Take it easy – shout!
Take it easy – shout!
A little bit softer now – shout!
A little bit softer now – shout!
A little bit softer now – shout!
A little bit softer now – shout!
A little bit softer now – shout!
A little bit softer now – shout!
A little bit softer now – shout!
A little bit softer now – shout!
A little bit louder now – shout!
A little bit louder now – shout!
A little bit louder now – shout!
A little bit louder now – shout!
A little bit louder now – shout!
A little bit louder now – shout!
A little bit louder now – shout!
A little bit louder now – shout!
Hey hey hey hey! (Hey hey hey hey!)
Hey hey hey hey! (Hey hey hey hey!)
Hey hey hey hey! (Hey hey hey hey!)
Hey hey hey hey! (Hey hey hey hey!)
Shout!
Jump up and shout now – shout!
Jump up and shout now – shout!
Jump up and shout now – shout!
Somebody shout now – shout!
Somebody shout now – shout!
Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout!
This is the only one with the four on lead vocals?
no, hay otras, others
John Lennon: Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar
Paul McCartney: Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar
George Harrison: Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar
Ringo Starr: Lead Vocals, Drums
It’s the only one where each of the four alternate solo lead vocals.
Joe, you say the audiences screams were edited out on the Anthology version, but I seem to remember that the Anthology album notes said the song was taken from the pre-recorded tapes meaning there would be no audience noises. Am I correct?
Yes, you’re absolutely correct. I’ve amended the text to make this clearer.
Coming back to this (almost seven years later – wow), according to your notes on 19 April 1964, the screams were possibly added on the same day the song was recorded.
Yes, and they were lip syncing too! Check John out when his turn to sing comes up. I guess they recorded this track just for the t.v. show…..
Yes, VERY clearly lip-synched in the show itself. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RdnuYwE21w
Watch John missed his first line, the backing voice was on but John’s lips were not moving when he was supposed to be taking over from Paul with the lead.
Watch his eyebrow rises when he realized he missed his line.
Another kind of weird way of showing how goddamn awesome John is. He only gets about 10 seconds in the song and they’re the best part.
Does anyone know how “Shout” (live recording with audience screams) got on the back of Capitol’s 45 “The Beatles introduce new songs”, which featured Cilla Black and Peter + Gordon? A bootleg of the original 45 perhaps?
Must be a bootleg. I have a copy of “The Beatles Introduce New Songs” & it’s not on mine. Side 1 has John & Paul’s introductions plus the 2 songs, Side 2 has just the 2 songs themselves.
Years ago, “Shout” was part of my own home-made version of “Sessions” that I made up of then-unreleased songs in chronological order. My version went as follows:
1. Besame Mucho (EMI Version)
2. How Do You Do It
3. One After 909 (’63 Version)
4. I’ll Be On My Way
5. Shout
6. You Know What To Do
7. Leave My Kitten Alone
8. If You Got Trouble
9. That Means A Lot
10. 12-Bar Original
11. Not Guilty
12. What’s The New Mary Jane
13. All Things Must Pass
14. Come And Get It
To my way of thinking, this is how the Sessions album should’ve gone. I didn’t use any Get Back/Let It Be stuff because most of it is pretty ragged & not really a serious attempt at making a releasable recording.
I have a bootleg called “Upgraded Collection” and it’s the first song on the cd. It’s in stereo, no screams, and it isn’t cut in the end just fades out. It’s an awesome bootleg!
In my opinion a fuller, properly recorded studio version of Shout would have been an ideal way to end Help rather than Dizzy Miss Lizzy which I consider terrible. Shout is a solid rocker, it gets all four involved, and would still fit into the overall feel of the album.
Maybe it was too well know a song to be taken into consideration. They always did lesser known songs on the albums I think. The Isleys Brothers version is also very good and the comparison would have been tough (unlike Money or Twist and Shout that they made completely their own). I would have liked it though.
My “Beatles Not For Sale” has Shout running for 1:59 with more “little bit softer/louder now” iterations compared to the Anthology version and a raucous not to say chaotic coda.
I think the irony here was that, as we know of course, Lulu had a HUGE – we might amost say ETERNAL – hit with this in 1964 (when she was only 15), and – as we also know – she performed it myriaid and myriad and myriad times thereafter (even though she did have other hits certainly) … and she even re-recorded it for a whole new generation of fans in the 1980s.
But she said once in her own verbal intro to yet another live perfomance of the song – even intentionally laspsing into her origianl – stronger – Scottish accent of those ealrier days (this was on her own (1984) UK tv show ‘Some You Win’ – now twenty years later, of course); that she had been hoping then, in 1964, that Lennon and Mc.Carntey might have written a bright new song for her, as her first big hit – and when she was offered ‘Shout’ she was **very** disappointed. “It’s an old song. It’ll never be a hit!” But she was oh so wrong, of course!
However: I wonder if she was aware that The Beatles DID, in fact, perform (but never record) their own version of this ‘old’ Isley Brothers ‘standard’ and in that very year (1964), live on UK televsion… albeit that was a little after her hit single release version? Did she realise that it had long been part of their standard sets in the early days anyway? Hmmm,