Misery
From Beatles Wiki - Interviews, Music, Beatles Quotes
Revision as of 20:09, 12 January 2010 by BWadmin (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Infobox song | Name = Misery | Artist = The Beatles | Album = Please Please Me | Released = 22 March 1963] <small>(mono)...)
| "Misery" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles | ||||
| Album | Please Please Me | |||
| Released | 22 March 1963] (mono) 26 April 1963 (stereo) |
|||
| Recorded | 11 February 1963 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 1:47 | |||
| Label | Parlophone | |||
| Writer | McCartney/Lennon | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| Please Please Me track listing | ||||
|
||||
| “ | We were asked by Norrie Paramour 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 |
||
| “ | It was kind of a John song, more than a Paul song ... but it was written together. | „ |
|
—John Lennon, 1980 |
||
| “ | John and I were a songwriting team, and what songwriting teams did in those days was wrote for everyone. 'Misery' was for Helen Shapiro, and she turned it down. It may not have been that successful for her because it's rather a downbeat song... 'the world is treating me bad, misery.' It was quite pessimistic. And in the end Kenny Lynch did it. Kenny used to come out on tour with us, and he used to sing it. That was one of his minor hits. | „ |
|
—Paul McCartney, 1988 |
||
| “ | The slightly solemn plagal introduction turns out to be an irony: for it ushers in a G major tune, sung by John and Paul, which is regular in metre and closer to the music-hall than to folk song or blues. The tune — beginning with a falling sixth, then rising up the scale, with an upward pentatonic twist and melisma on bad — is guileless, tender yet at the same time perky. | „ |
|
—Wilfrid Mellers, Twilight of the Gods: The Music of the Beatles, p.36 , 1973 |
||
Have a listen:
