"Do You Want to Know a Secret?" | ||||||||
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1964 sheet music cover, Metric Music, New York
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Song by The Beatles from the album Please Please Me | ||||||||
Released | 22 March 1963 | |||||||
Recorded | 11 February 1963, EMI Studios, London |
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Genre | Pop | |||||||
Length | 1:56 | |||||||
Label | Parlophone | |||||||
Writer(s) | McCartney–Lennon | |||||||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||||||
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"Do You Want to Know a Secret?" | ||||
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Sleeve of Vee-Jay 7" single, released a year after the album in March 1964
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Single by The Beatles | ||||
from the album Introducing... the Beatles | ||||
B-side | "Thank You Girl" | |||
Released | 23 March 1964 | |||
Recorded | 11 February 1963, EMI Studios, London |
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Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 1:56 | |||
Label | Vee-Jay, VJ 587 | |||
Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
The Beatles US singles chronology | ||||
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"Do You Want to Know a Secret?" | ||||
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Single by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas | ||||
from the album Little Children | ||||
B-side | "I'll Be on My Way" (Lennon–McCartney) | |||
Released | 26 April 1963 | |||
Format | 45 RPM | |||
Recorded | 1963 | |||
Genre | Pop, beat | |||
Length | 2:01 | |||
Label | Parlophone (UK) Imperial (US) |
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Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas singles chronology | ||||
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"Do You Want to Know a Secret?" is a song by English rock group the Beatles from the 1963 album Please Please Me, sung by George Harrison. In the United States, it was the first top ten song to feature Harrison as a lead singer, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard chart in 1964 as a single released by Vee-Jay, VJ 587.
"Do You Want to Know a Secret?", written in autumn 1962, was primarily composed by John Lennon but credited to Lennon–McCartney. The 1963 seven single version by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas (a UK no. 2) credited the composition to "McCartney-Lennon". The song was inspired by "I'm Wishing", a tune from Walt Disney’s 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which Lennon's mother, Julia Lennon, would sing to him as a child. The first two lines of the song in Disney's movie ("Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell?") come right after the opening lyrics ("You'll never know how much I really love you... You'll never know how much I really care..."). McCartney has said it was a "50–50 collaboration written to order", i.e., for Harrison to sing, but Lennon, who always claimed the song as his own, explained in a 1980 interview that he had realized as soon as he had finished writing the song that it best suited Harrison.
In 1980, Lennon said that he gave "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" to Harrison to sing because "it only had three notes and he wasn't the best singer in the world", but added "he has improved a lot since then." The song was recorded as part of their marathon ten-hour recording session on 11 February 1963 along with nine other songs for Please Please Me. Harrison sang two songs on Please Please Me — this song by Lennon–McCartney and "Chains" by Goffin/King. "Don't Bother Me" would be Harrison's debut composition and appeared on the Beatles' next UK album With The Beatles.