Shake It Up, Baby!
By Ken McNab
Published by Polygon

The Beatles release their second single, Please Please Me, on January 11th 1963. It was their first number one single.

In February, The Beatles went on tour with headliner Helen Shapiro. While on that tour, they wrote the song, Misery, with her in mind as its singer. Her management declined the song, but another act on the bill, Kenny Lynch snapped it up – the first non-Beatle to release a Lennon-McCartney number.

Producer George Martin was keen to capture The Beatles’ live sound on an album. When it became clear that recording in The Cavern was untenable, they recorded the whole album in one day at Abbey Road.

The album Please Please Me was released on 22nd March 1963. And from McCartney’s excited countdown on the first track ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, to Lennon’s throat-shredding performance of ‘Twist and Shout’ rock n’ roll changed forever.

On the 4th April 1963, The Beatles played a concert at Stowe School, an all-boys boarding school. Their manager, Brian Epstein, had agreed to the performance before they were becoming household names. The recording of the tape was only rediscovered in 2023.

Keen to capitalize on their growing popularity, George Martin asked them to record a new single. From Me to You was released on 11th April 1963 and went to number one for seven weeks.

On August 23rd 1963, The Beatles released their next single, ‘She Loves You’. It went straight to number one and was the biggest selling single of the 1960s.

And it wasn’t just the girls who screamed. Here are the Liverpool football fans singing out She Loves You:

On the 13th October 1963, The Beatles headlined the UK’s most prestigious entertainment show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Host Bruce Forsyth teased the audience throughout the show until their finale spot. The show was watched by 15 million viewers.

Next month, The Beatles confirmed Beatlemania with their famous performance at the Royal Command Performance including Lennon’s ‘rattle your jewellery’ introduction to ‘Twist and Shout’.

On 22nd November 1963, The Beatles released their second album With The Beatles, with its iconic black and white cover, knocking their first album, Please Please Me, off the top spot, which had been there since its release in March. With The Beatles would stay at number one for 21 weeks.

Later that month, on the 29th November 1963, The Beatles released their next single, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, becoming the band’s first Christmas number one and the song that would break them in the US.

On the 2nd of December 1963, The Beatles cemented their place in the UK’s hearts with their appearance on The Morecambe and Wise Show:

Shake It Up, Baby! by Ken McNab is published by Polygon, priced £22.00.