Twist and Shout (EP)

"Twist and Shout", written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns and first recorded by R&B vocal group the Top Notes, typically closed the Beatles' set during their 1963 tour of Great Britain with Roy Orbison.^[1] The band based their version of the twist song on the US hit version by the Isley Brothers recording and its "pounding beat" and "bloodcurdling John Lennon screams" made it a popular show-stopper, according to Alan Smith of the New Musical Express.^[1] After the Beatles included "Twist and Shout" as the last track on their debut album Please Please Me, EMI received a deluge of requests for its issue as a single.^[2] British record shops were reported to be similarly "besieged" by customers asking for the song.^[3] The popularity of the Beatles version of the song boosted British sales of the earlier Isley Brothers recording that inspired it, first released in the UK in July 1962, and led to the release of a version by Brian Poole and the Tremeloes on Decca.^{[4][5][6][nb 1]} The Beatles and George Martin did not consider "Twist and Shout" single material; they were opposed to lifting songs off Please Please Me, Paul McCartney believed it "a bit too off-beat to be commercial" and Lennon was concerned about how often he would have to sing it.^[1] In a compromise to meet demand, EMI commissioned the Twist and Shout EP as a "special release".^{[2][7][nb 2]} Side one of the EP features the title track (sung by Lennon) and "A Taste of Honey" (sung by McCartney), a Broadway song written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow that was first recorded in a vocal version by Billy Dee Williams in 1961.^[9] Side two contains two Lennon-McCartney originals, "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (sung by George Harrison), then a recent UK chart hit in a version by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas, and "There's a Place" (sung by Lennon and McCartney).^[10][11] All four tracks were recorded on 11 February 1963 in sessions that resulted in the bulk of the Please Please Me album.^[12]

The sleeve photograph, described by The Telegraph as "one of the key images of the 1960s, seeming to promise a new era in which youthful energy and vitality would triumph over drab postwar austerity", shows the Beatles jumping in the air at a bombsite off Euston Road, London.^[13] It was taken by Fiona Adams, a young photographer keen to "break away from the conventional Hollywood-style of stage and studio shot", on a twin-lens Rolleiflex camera on 18 April 1963.^{[14][15][16][nb 3]} The shot was featured in Boyfriend magazine before it was chosen for the EP.^[13][16] Adams went uncredited on the packaging.^[13] In 2009, the photograph was included in the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition Beatles to Bowie: The 60s Exposed; curator Terence Pepper described it as "one of the defining images of 20th-century culture".^{[13][15][18][nb 4]} Liner notes were provided by Tony Barrow, who wrote that the EP presents "four contrasting facets of the quartet's vocal and instrumental ingenuity".^[19]

Advance orders of the Twist and Shout EP were reported to total at over 100,000 by its day of release on 12 July 1963.^[20] It topped the national EP chart compiled by Record Retailer for 21 non-consecutive weeks beginning 27 July 1963 and ultimately spent 64 weeks on the chart.^[21][22] It was certified silver, for more than 250,000 sales, on 13 August 1963, having become the biggest-selling EP of all time to that point in the UK.^[23][24] It later sold over 650,000 copies.^[25] Despite being more expensive than a single, the EP was so successful that it became the first EP to enter the top ten of the NME Singles Chart, peaking at number four.^{[26][27][28][29]} Two more EPs, The Beatles' Hits and The Beatles (No. 1), were commissioned by August.^[30]

A competing Beatles EP on Polydor, produced in Germany for export, was issued to the band's displeasure on 21 June 1963.^[31] Entitled My Bonnie, it contains four 1961 Hamburg recordings of the Beatles with Pete Best, three of which feature the English rock and roll musician Tony Sheridan on lead vocals.^{[31][nb 5]}

The Twist and Shout EP was reissued as part of The Beatles EP Collection vinyl box set in 1981.^[32] The box set received a CD release in 1992.^[33]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]

Tony Barrow, writing under his pseudonym Disker in the Liverpool Echo, considered "A Taste of Honey" the EP's highspot.^[10] An anonymous writer in the Coventry Standard called it "a worthwhile mini-album",^[34] while Gerry G. of the Pontypridd and Llantrisant Observer believed that had the Beatles released a single of "Twist and Shout" two months earlier instead, it "would have been better policy and a certain chart topper".^[35] In a retrospective review, Bruce Eder of AllMusic described the record as "pretty daring as a summary of highlights from their debut album", citing the "uncommonly raw rock & roll" title track.^[11] Eder considered the Beatles' EPs "more substantial as artifacts of their British output than most EPs were for most other bands" and highlighted the "excellent cover art, with superb photos of the group and actual notes on the back, like an LP".^[11]

The EP was the first record Elvis Costello bought with his own money,^[36] while John Robb of post-punk band The Membranes has described it as "the first time any kind of pop music got into my consciousness".^[37] The packaging of the 1982 Genesis EP 3X3 pastiches the Twist and Shout EP and features liner notes by Tony Barrow.^[38]

• Twist and Shout album
• Outline of the Beatles
• The Beatles timeline