"Misery" was written for Helen Shapiro on 26 January 1963, and later completed at Paul McCartney's Forthlin Road home.
This is the official version of things, but wouldn't it be problematic for Helen Shapiro to sing "I'm the kind of guy who never used to cry"?
For this reason or another, Shapiro didn't use it and British singer and entertainer Kenny Lynch recorded it instead, thus becoming the first artist to cover a Lennon–McCartney composition. He had only a minor hit with it, though. Kenny Lynch's version of the song put a soulful spin on the pop song, which caused a little dissension from Lennon, mostly because of his utilizing the skills of British session guitarist Bert Weedon. The original first line of the song, as sung by Kenny Lynch, was “You’ve been treating me bad”, whereas, during the Beatles’ recording of the song, the line was changed to “The world is treating me bad.”
The Beatles recorded "Misery" on 11 February 1963 in 11 takes, the last take being used for the commercial release. For this upgrade, we used take 1 and take 7.
“Take One” of the song was complete and performed with great vocal enthusiasm. Ringo even puts in a little drum fill after the second verse which he dropped later. Already in place was the ending with John and Paul’s alternating “ooohs” and “la-la-las,” although they sounded fresher and more vibrant this first time around. The only fault in this take was George Harrison’s rhythmic guitar run in the bridges of the song, which weren’t in time.
Takes 2-5 were incomplete. Take 6 was complete but not used; George added guitar fills at the end of the verses, that George Martin probably didn't like. These fills were omitted in Take 7. Interestingly, George Harrison managed to play all kinds of fills when thy played Misery on various BBC sessions! Note also, Kenny Lynch's version has these guitar fills! And he has a - piano - solo too.
It is remarkable that the lyrics still changed during the recording session, since there is a change in the last verse somewhere between takes 1 and 7, the takes we used for this upgrade: in the second bridge. “Can’t she see she’ll always be the only one, only one” is replaced with “She’ll remember and she’ll miss her only one, lonely one”. Usually in Beatles songs, as well as the established song structure of the day, the bridge is identical when repeated. And Kenny Lynch's version has "Please come back to me" instead of 'Send her back to me".
Slight change in the outro too, where John sings Ooom instead of Oooh.
George Martin added piano to take 11 on February 20th, ending up with take 16. Thi is how it featured on the LP Please Please Me, and on the EP "The Beatles (No 1)", first issued 1 November 1963.
Takes 1 and 7 are otherwise very similar, so perfect material for this true stereo upgrade. See if you (too) like it better than the official release!
