It may be known as the Beatles hit that wasn’t, but “How Do You Do It” embodies an era in pop music.
When the Beatles first signed with Parlophone in 1962, few artists wrote their own material. Producers would usually select appropriate songs for them, written by professional composers Artists (particularly new ones) simply recorded material chosen for them; after all, songwriters and producers knew best what songs would perform well on the charts.
The Beatles broke that rule, however: Shocking producer George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Geoff Emerick, John Lennon decried the surefire hit “How Do You Do It” as “crap” and stated that he and Paul McCartney had written better material. The song they countered with: “Please Please Me,” the track that kicked off the Beatles’ career. Martin subsequently gave “How Do You Do It” to Gerry and the Pacemakers, who rode the track to No. 1 on the UK charts and cracked the Top 10 in the U.S.
Seeking a hit single for the Beatles, Martin dispatched assistant producer Ron Richards to find a suitable track. According to Ken Womack’s Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, the song found Richards. Mitch Murray, a well-known British songwriter, visited the EMI offices and brought Richards a new song: “How Do You Do It,” a track already rejected by teen idol Adam Faith as well as Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. Richards subsequently brought the demo (sung by fellow composer Barry Mason) to Martin, who sent it to the Beatles and Brian Epstein. Informing them it would be the first single, Martin instructed the boys to learn the song by September 8, 1962 — their first official recording session.
Although most new bands probably would have recorded the song without question, the Beatles bristled at what they viewed as a bubblegum pop sound that did not suit them. “We knew that the peer pressure back in Liverpool would not allow us to do ‘How Do You Do It,’” McCartney told Barry Miles in Many Years from Now. “We knew we couldn’t hold our heads up with that sort of rock-a-pop-a-ballad. We would be spurned and cast away into the wilderness.” Epstein pleaded with the Beatles to record the track, but Lennon stormed out of a meeting in response.
Ultimately, they reluctantly agreed to record “How Do You Do It,” but with substantial revisions. Lennon and McCartney changed the key and added a guitar solo to the bridge to make it more palatable. At the beginning of the September 8 session at Abbey Road, Richards ran the band through rehearsals of “P.S. I Love You,” “Tip of My Tongue,” “Love Me Do,” “Ask Me Why,” an early version of “Please Please Me,” and the aforementioned “How Do You Do It.” Later that evening, Martin oversaw the Beatles recording two takes of “How Do You Do It” with engineer Norman Smith, second engineer Richard Langham, and a young Emerick.
In Here, There, and Everywhere, Emerick recalled the tense scene. Upon hearing the playback, Lennon turned toward Martin and said “Look, George, I have to tell you, we really think that song is crap. I mean, it may be all right, but it’s just not the kind of thing we want to do. We want to record our own material, not some soft bit of fluff written by someone else.”
Surprised (and most likely annoyed), Martin responded: “I’ll tell you what, John. When you can write a song as good as that one, then I’ll record it.” As Emerick and Richards looked on in astonishment, Smith commented: “They’ve got some cheek, that lot. I reckon that’s what got them this far, though.”
Indeed, the Beatles had “cheek” in that they reworked “How Do You Do It” to lend it a rock edge, deemphasizing the overtly pop accents. A side-by-side comparison of the demo and Beatles version reveal significant lyrical differences.
In the demo, Mason sang the line “like an arrow just passed through it”; the Beatles edited the line to read “Like an arrow passing through it.” They also elected to remove the lyrics “If I only knew / then perhaps you’ll fall for me / like I fell for you,” replacing them with “I wish I knew / if I knew how you do it to me / I’d do it to you.” Harrison executed a guitar solo during the bridge not present in the original version. Finally, the concluding verse repeats an earlier one, once again eliminating the “fall for you” segment. “Wish I knew how you do it to me / but I haven’t a clue,” Lennon and McCartney harmonize.
While critics have deemed the Beatles’ performance uninspired, John Lennon delivers a solid lead vocal, some raspiness entering his voice on the line “but won’t you tell me how do you do it.” Wisely, George Harrison and Paul McCartney inserted extra backing vocals — namely “ooh la la” — after the lyric “You give me a feeling in my heart,” underscoring the romantic tenor of the track.
The rest is history: Lennon and McCartney reworked “Please Please Me” into an upbeat tune, proving they indeed had the talent to write a hit song. But don’t feel too sorry for Murray; in a 2017 interview, Murray stated that he disliked the Beatles’ version and was initially disappointed that “How Do You Do It” would not become a hit. Fortunately, Martin gave the track to Gerry and the Pacemakers, and they scored a No. 1 single (one of two Murray-penned songs, the other being “I Like It”).
Years later, “How Do You Do It” would finally see an official release on the Anthology 1 compilation. “I’m very grateful for the royalties,” Murray joked.
The Beatles may have never released “How Do You Do It” as a single, nor did they enjoy recording the song. However, the track demonstrates how the group possessed an innate ability to create “hooks,” rewriting and rearranging a song to appeal to audiences. Their rewrite vastly improved the track, better matching their sound and style.
This would be a skill the Beatles would repeatedly utilize during their entire careers.
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