Every Sound There Is: Exploring The Beatles’ Songs
Oct 5, 2026 · 58 min · 10 segments
In The Beatles' early history, “P.S. I Love You” is much more important than it’s usually given credit for. It is not one of The Beatles’ best songs, but it has a number of notable distinctions…
David PannellHost
At the end of 1960, after they returned from their first trip to Hamburg, they leapt to the top of the music scene in Liverpool, and they got very busy with playing gigs, sometimes two or three per day.
They had no confidence that their original songs were up to the standard of the great American music that dominated their sets, so they hardly played any original songs.
Given all that, you can understand why they might have thought it wasn't worth writing new songs.
Plus, they were too busy playing gigs to have time for writing, so perhaps it's not so surprising after all that they stopped writing songs.
The only new song that we know for sure that they wrote in 1961 was the instrumental Cry for a Shadow, written by George and John, and released on various Tony Sheridan albums.
Brian first saw them as a covers band, but he soon learned that they'd written some original songs.
He was excited by this as it gave them a point of distinction, and he thought it would help him in his efforts to get a record company interested.
At his prompting, they started to include a few of their old originals in their set.
They did Hello Little Girl from 1957, Like Dreamers Do from 1959, and Love of the Loved from 1959.
has been deep in your heart, and in your heart I see love for love.
Brian's excitement about their original songs didn't immediately trigger them to write new ones.
For a while they just played these three oldies, including at the failed audition for Decca on the 1st of January 1962.
It wasn't until the 22nd of March 1962 that Paul wrote his first new song in over a year, Pinwheel Twist.
There's a strong consensus amongst those who heard it that this song was a stinker.
Shortly after that, though, John followed up by writing Ask Me Why with some help from Paul.
This is a much better song, one of the stronger tracks on the Please Please Me album, and it went into their live set.
Then, in May 1962, while they were in Hamburg, Brian telegrammed them to tell them that he had secured a recording session with EMI.
Pete Best later remembered Brian's telegram asking them to rehearse new material, but they seemed to have taken it as a prompt to write new material.
They started by reworking and updating Paul's song Love Me Do from 1958, and about a week after that, Paul came up with P.S.
At the end of 1960, after they returned from their first trip to Hamburg, they leapt to the top of the music scene in Liverpool, and they got very busy with playing gigs, sometimes two or three per day.
They had no confidence that their original songs were up to the standard of the great American music that dominated their sets, so they hardly played any original songs.
Given all that, you can understand why they might have thought it wasn't worth writing new songs.
Plus, they were too busy playing gigs to have time for writing, so perhaps it's not so surprising after all that they stopped writing songs.
The only new song that we know for sure that they wrote in 1961 was the instrumental Cry for a Shadow, written by George and John, and released on various Tony Sheridan albums.
Brian first saw them as a covers band, but he soon learned that they'd written some original songs.
He was excited by this as it gave them a point of distinction, and he thought it would help him in his efforts to get a record company interested.
At his prompting, they started to include a few of their old originals in their set.
They did Hello Little Girl from 1957, Like Dreamers Do from 1959, and Love of the Loved from 1959.
has been deep in your heart, and in your heart I see love for love.
Brian's excitement about their original songs didn't immediately trigger them to write new ones.
For a while they just played these three oldies, including at the failed audition for Decca on the 1st of January 1962.
It wasn't until the 22nd of March 1962 that Paul wrote his first new song in over a year, Pinwheel Twist.
There's a strong consensus amongst those who heard it that this song was a stinker.
Shortly after that, though, John followed up by writing Ask Me Why with some help from Paul.
This is a much better song, one of the stronger tracks on the Please Please Me album, and it went into their live set.
Then, in May 1962, while they were in Hamburg, Brian telegrammed them to tell them that he had secured a recording session with EMI.
Pete Best later remembered Brian's telegram asking them to rehearse new material, but they seemed to have taken it as a prompt to write new material.
They started by reworking and updating Paul's song Love Me Do from 1958, and about a week after that, Paul came up with P.S.
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