GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS – “How Do You Do It?”
The first Merseybeat number one and what’s changed? Not much – “How Do You Do It?” is a brisk slip of a song that could have been a hit for any of the beat boom stars since 1960 or so. The only real novelty is Gerry Marsden’s scouse accent, especially on the middle eight (“like an arrow…”) – I love hearing strong British voices singing pop songs, and the 60s is obviously a heyday for them. There’s some strong piano work towards the end of the record, but otherwise there’s not much to “How Do You Do It?”. It’s a witty enough take on frustration with all the impact (and all the repeat value, alas) of a DIY advert.
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Tom in Popular • 1,112 views • Share/Save
Piece of trivia -the piano work was Les McGuire who later joined the Royal Navy and was last heard of in the Falklands war
The Beatles were offered this first and forced to record it under duress. They deliberately fouled it up (which must have taken some guts in the august space of Abbey Road), so it got handed to grinnin’ Gerry.
Can you please resolve the issue as to whether in fact it was ‘Please Please me’ which was the first Mersey no 1 and not Gerry.
In Dusty Springfield’s late 80s hit ‘Nothing has been Proved’ from the film ‘Scandal’ one line reads ‘Please Please Me ’s Number One.’ and I recall that the NME had it at No 1, though not Melody Maker.
What’s the consensus?
Unsurprisingly, this question has cropped up many a time in the history of Popular, so for you and any other Times-inspired newbies (a warm welcome, btw) here’s an explanation posted by Marcello Carlin in the “School’s Out” thread of all places:
“Since Record Retailer was the principal industry magazine its Top 50 was, strictly speaking, the official industry chart but the chart was never widely circulated outside the industry and was not used for practical purposes in the media, or indeed most of the industry itself – George Martin and the Beatles, for instance, have always regarded “Please Please Me” as their legitimate first number one.”
[So pop fans who were there at the time will remember it as a number one, but most sources you’ll find, from Guinness to the Official Charts Company, don’t have it down as such since they, and indeed Popular, use the Record Retailer list.]
“In the sixties there were four main singles charts – the NME, Melody Maker, Record Retailer and the BBC. The BBC one tended to be a compilation or reckoning of the other three – based on points IIRC, so you might not want to trust them too much – but the NME one was generally regarded as the definitive list since it had the greatest number of chart return shops and a weekly Friday-Thursday compilation schedule which corresponded with record release dates of the time, since singles in those days were released on Fridays rather than Mondays. This for instance is why Beatles singles didn’t tend to enter at number one in the Record Retailer list since they based their chart on a Monday-to-Saturday schedule – i.e. only two days’ sales for new releases. Also, the NME chart allowed EPs, so several of their number ones (e.g. 1965’s Kinda Kinks, lead track “Well Respected Man” which reportedly outsold everything else that year bar “Tears”) do not register in Guinness at all.
“Intriguingly, “Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane” did make number one in NME but everywhere else stayed second to Engelbert and thus that has passed into historical lore.
“By 1968 there was pressure, largely from the BBC as well as certain quarters of the industry, for the chart to be standardised, and the contract was won by BMRB with effect from February 1969. Most of the 350 chart return shops in Britain registered with BMRB, with the consequence that, although NME and MM continued with their own charts, they suffered a steep decrease in sources and so became less authoritative.”
Oh, and I refreshed the page while about to post this and saw the new design turn up like magic! Like it :)
Please Please Me – the album – was a number one in the ‘official’ chart for 30 weeks, which covers Dusty’s ass. Oddly, Frank Ifield’s Wayward Wind, which kept Please Please Me off the top, wasn’t a no.1 at all in the NME chart, even though it was 3 weeks at the top in Record Retailer.
I’d be intrigued to know where Marcello got that stat about Well Respected Man.
#3 I wouldn’ have too starry-eyed a view of what Marcello says if I were you. I was there, before Marcello (or Tom or any of the others taking BRMB/Guinness as the last word on the subject) was born, and I definitely believe having been there trumps having heard it from some wannabe journalist who had to make do with hacking for the NME instead.
The definitive chart in 1963 was that announced at Sunday teatime by Alan Freeman on the BBC Light Programme, and I can reassure you that Please Please Me was indeed the first Beatles number one.
Marcello, of course, isn’t so rigorous about the BMRB chart as gospel when he’s obsessed with a perceived injustice done in 1976 to a well-known icon of the thick and untalented.
It’s just like old times!!
Are you trying to make a point, Tom?
Oh yeah – Rosie’s too thick and uncool to have anything worthwhile to say.
This qn is in the FAQ btw: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular-faq/
It was #1 but not on the official list, which we’re using, is the short answer. It would’ve got a 9, I think.
Rosie, please don’t go picking a fight now!! As I see it Marcello is carefully explaining WHY the Record Retailer chart, although it’s commonly used now as the authoritative list for UK number ones, doesn’t tally with the experience of those who were there at the time. It’s the clearest explanation I’ve seen and helped me understand the subject when I first asked him 2½ years ago – and now that one of our new readers picked up from that Times article has asked much the same question, it’s worth repeating.
In effect you’re vigorously agreeing with him – “Please Please Me” was number one in three out of the four charts in existence at the time, including the one you and millions of others saw as definitive, and it’s an accident of history that the odd chart out is the one whose archive subsequently became canonical.
You and I have both had our differences with MC before, but it’s in the past and deserves to stay there – please don’t let’s get personal again!
And my explanation that the BBC chart WAS the definitive when I was there and Marcello is just a bloated-egoed nobody who wasn’t even born till a year after PPM hit the top? How clear do I have to be? Why does everybody hang onto every bloated word of the tiresome old egotist?
I don’t think everyone hangs on Marcello’s every word! Sometimes the conversation picks up on his posts, sometimes it flows around them – same as everyone else’s contributions. As Erithian says, his explanation was a clear one and quoting it saves everyone else the work.
If not being there is a reason to ignore an opinion, would you prefer I delete every entry pre-March 1973? ;) Marcello is acting here as a historian – if he’s got a fact wrong, correct him, but I don’t think he has.
PS – while I’m always happy for a good argument on here, personal flaming isn’t on, so no more of the “tiresome old egotist” – especially as yr whole beef is he’s not old ENOUGH!!