Paul indicated in later interviews that this might be his favorite Beatles song, just because of the amount of fun and laughing that was involved. I love it when they’re in a silly mood so this is always hits me in a great way!
My favorite Beatles song!! I was 16 when the single was released, and I used to stick a speaker out my bedroom window whenever I played this. My friends thought I was crazy. I just love the lunacy throughout the recording!!!
I heard a lot of people don't care for this song but I adore it. I mostly listen to It on anthology 2. I'm an old lady but I still run around the house singing this song, and my cat running after me and wondering if I am okay. I'm always partying now that I'm retired.
The Beatles single b sides were often as good as the a sides, some were astonishingly good and this was extraordinary. Makes me smile every time I hear it.
I used to play this on the jukebox in the Student Union Building... both because I like it, and of course to annoy the other students. The final grunts and grumbles from what I hear to be an upper-crusty old Englishman sounded just great, echoing thoughout the large room. Good on you getting the humour in this. Hope all is well with you.
Rubber Soul, released in 1965, is a revelation. If you weren't sure about how amazingly talented the Beatles were before then, Rubber Soul sealed the deal.
When the Beatles appeared on the scene in the U.S. they brought a breath of fresh air to us teens. Even when they were goofing around, we loved them. They made corniness cool. 😎
It just blows my mind that this whole thing was a massive spoof, but the music was still BEYOND good. You have to be great to do a parody like this and still be capable of jamming out a solid quality piece.
I've never head a YT reactor do this one! Loved it when I discovered this -- back when it wasn't on any album and you actually had to buy the single to hear it.
You had to find it for sure, it was originally released as a record exclusively for their fan club, every year they were together they released a recording as a Christmas present to their fans, and I believe this was the last one. It only got wide release when the Past Masters CDs were released in the late 80s. You might find it on a bootleg cassette back then, but nothing official.
Such a great tune, for a bunch of guys fooling around the song is so tight & on point. Love it as its not so well known or received as most other tracks but has a real appeal.
You can hear the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band influence in this song. The Bonzo's were a wacky humorous British band, sort of a British Mothers of Invention. They can be seen in the Beatles film, Magical Mystery Tour. They performed "Death Cab For Cutie".
John Lennon had intended to release this as a Plastic Ono Band single with What's The New Mary Jane even though both were recorded by The Beatles. When that plan fell through they put this on the Let It Be single. John and Paul recorded all of the voices in one session in 1969 and the Abbey Road staff said it was nice to see them having so much fun as their relationship was pretty strained by that point.
This reminds me that before the Beatles, George Martin used to record comedy records by Peter Sellers, back then known for The Goon Show. For example, he did "She Loves You" in the voice of Dr. Strangelove.
@@L33Reacts The Goon Show was a crazy British radio programme, where Sellers and others played various weird characters with voices like this Beatles song. Sellers is probably best known as Inspector Clouseau, the main character in the series of Pink Panther movies, and for playing 3 characters in the movie Dr.Strangelove.
initial recording in summer 1967 at end of Pepper, Brian Jones did sax parts. John and Paul did vocals in summer 1969 when the sections from 1967 were assembled. The b-side of their last single. What a way to go out.
The voice Lennon does in the later half of the song reminds me of the characater Brutus (aka, Bluto) from the original Popeye cartoons from the 1930s. He makes me laugh everytime I listen to him.
The real influence is from the 1950's BBC surreal comedy radio series 'The Goon Show', and one of the many Goon characters voiced by team member Peter Sellers was 'Bluebottle', a boy scout who spoke in a high-pitched voice. His regular catch phrase was "You rotten swine, you!", as his character was regularly killed off and he would exclaim, "You've deaded me!" With their shared sense of humour, and love of wordplay and the surreal, John and Paul in particular were huge fans of The Goon Show.
I needed this today. Thank you Lee for doing this. I can see them tokening away on killer weed. Too funny, only the Beatles. Thank you John Paul Geroge and Ringo. 50 plus years ago. I was 19 when i first heard this and now I'm 71 listening with my grand kids who loved this fort of song :)
I didn't even know this song existed until I stumbled across it on a jukebox, about a year after they broke up. I would have sworn that I had heard everything they'd ever released, so it kind of blew my mind to discover it. Then, while I was listening to it, the only possible explanation for what I was hearing finally occurred to me: acid flashback.
When this was released, I used to play it for friends and see if they could guess who the band was. Only one friend guessed correctly. Later I was at a party and they had played the single Let It Be, so I went flipped the record over. The guy giving the party streaked across the room knocking people over to stop it from being played. I fell on the floor laughing.
This song still puts a smile on my face. There's a longer version on Anthology 2 which adds a ska section and a bit more, but Harrison made some edits that cut out bits of the original.
After the Sgt.Pepper recordings John was inspired by an ad slogan for the Post Office phone directory book, it read "You know their name? Look up their number!" It's definitely an oddity in The Beatles canon, very much like the add-libed Christmas recordings they used to make exclusively for their early fan club. One of the influences on this track's silly voices is the 1950's radio comedy show 'The Goon Show', another is the wacky comedy band 'Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band', (for whom Paul McCartney produced their main hit 'The urban spaceman', under the alias of 'Apollo C. Vermouth'.) 'You know my name's final section's style reminds me of the jazzy songs in Disney's original 'Jungle Book', or 'The Aristocats' cartoon movies, particularly when the trumpet comes in. The namecheck of Dennis O'Bell is a nod to Dennis O'Dell, who was Associate Producer on their film 'A hard day's night'. O'Dell knew nothing of the song until fans followed The Beatles advice and looked up his number, the constant calls to his home then started driving his wife crazy. O'Dell was home one day and finally got to the bottom of it when a drug addled fan from America called to say, "We know your name, and now we've got your number!" Ringo played Dennis a copy of the single, and the mystery was solved. The O'Dell's quickly went ex-directory after that.
It is a great song to play for 3 and 4 year old kids. My daughter and I sang it to each other alot. To put this as the flip side to Let It Be was genius
dr. demento used to play this a lot in the 1970s, and said if the beatles ever got back together he hoped they would pick up their career right from where this song left off. sadly after dec. 8,1980 that dream was gone forever.
You are correct! John took the lyric from the cover of a phone book and TV adverts whose jingle was "You know the name, look up the number". John often took inspiration from newspapers (A Day In The Life). magazines (Happiness Is A Warm Gun) and TV commercials (Good Morning, Good Morning), just to name a few. It's funny how Beatles song titles and lyrics are now used/quoted all the time in the current mass media. They have become part of our everyday society. Lee said it best when upon hearing "I got blisters on me fingers", when he stated "I've heard that phrase for years, and that was the f___'in Beatles?" Now he knows...
When Paul asked John what the rest of the lyrics were, he said that's it. The whole song is essentially one line. So a year later Paul wrote Why Don't We Do It In On The Road? Again those are essentially all the lyrics to the song.
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) is like a sonic 'history' of a band's development, from rough garage sound, to lounge lizard smooth, to kitsch, to smooth oldies act. Great fun! (Also, I believe this might be the last recording to feature Brian Jones.)
Actually, Brian Jones' last recordings were in 1968 (Sympathy for the Devil sessions) and I think in 1969. His part for this song was recorded in mid 1967. Paul invited him to join the Beatles for this session and they expected him to show up with a guitar, but all he brought was his sax. But, as Paul stated, his small sax part turned out to be the icing on the cake, as he added only what was needed to flesh out the spirit of the song. It shows just how talented Brian Jones was and how well he worked with other talented musicians, as they all had respect for one another AND they were all multiple instrumentalists. He should be better remembered for all his varied and important contributions to the Stone's catalog, not just for his epic demise!
You You know You know my name! This one should have been saved for April 1st. That said, whenever I hear this track, it's usually stuck in my head for a day or two.
I think this was the B-side of the "Let It Be" 45. Can't really remember, except that once I found it, I kept playing it. B-sides were mostly left unplayed, until you were bored or trying to find a new song. If they were any good it was like a surprise present. I never heard this on the radio.
Yamo recommend you up 'n react to Hey Bulldog then. Another one where John 'n Paul improvise 'n play off each other around one microphone vocally. The video shows how thangs went down in all it's glory with all four Beatles in the studio. Definitely a career highlight disguised as a throwaway song from the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album.
Lee, as others may have said, watch the Let It Be documentary. You’ll see about 4 hours of HD footage of the Fab Four recording, rehearsing and generally arsing around as we say ❤❤❤
Sometimes people forget that The Beatles were as much funny as they were musical. If they weren't making music they were cracking jokes. Like all the time. Sometimes simultaneuously. Case in point. McCarntney calls this track his fondest memory of making a Beatles record.
Let it Be is a must listen if you haven't already. For another equally silly deep cut that I love, never released except on the Anthology I believe, is Paul's 'There You Go Eddie' (or is it 'Good Dog, Eddie'?). A sort of companion piece to Martha My Dear (from the White Album) which is about Paul's very large Old English Sheepdog - seen in numerous photos and the Strawberry Fields Forever video - There You Go Eddie is about his very small dog, Eddie, who despite his size likes to hang with the big dogs. Paul adored his dogs and all animals. There's a wonderful video to go with it on YT, made by a fan, I think, of Eddie, Martha and Paul hanging out... and then all the other Beatles and their pets. It's pretty cute, if you like animals, anyway... Maybe, since you haven't yet heard the White album, you could do a reaction to these two short and sweet dog songs together? Just a thought...
Thank Brian Jones for this stinking masterpiece. There’s actually been a lot of cooperation between the Beatles and Stones about timing record releases and other things. The guy from Decca Records who passed on the Beatles asked George Harrison who he should sign, and Harrison said “Sign the Rolling Stones”, so he did. The Beatles gave the Stones “I Wanna Be Your Man”, their first hit. Mick Jagger’s in the chorus on “Hey Jude”, when Jagger and Richards were released from prison Lennon and McCartney sang backup on the Stones single “We Love You”/ “Dandelion”, Keith Richards played bass for John Lennon at the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus, and last year McCartney played bass on “Bite My Head Off”, a track on the new Stones album ‘Hackney Diamonds’. Why not do “Day Tripper” and “Hey Bulldog”?
What I find most interesting, is how quickly they can develop pretty melodies. It doesn't matter what they are doing, it's just a way to zero-in on each other. It seems to me Paul creates the melody and ideas, then John edits and sharpens the song.
I suppose it's time for you to hear their WHAT'S THE NEW MARY JANE... but be forewarned: it was recorded over a long period of time and was changed quite a bit, so there are a number of versions out there... I suppose you'll find one or two of them on the ANTHOLOGY album, although there are lots of bootlegs since the 70s.
You should do "Let It Be". It might be an overplayed classic but there's a reason for that. Also. there is a new official video out, based on the restored footage from the Let It Be film but with the album track (the best version) dubbed over it.
Also has a bit of a Screaming Jay Hawkins vibe to it, with some drunk and sleazy lounge lizard Rat Pack wannabe thrown in, and some early Monty Python-like vocal effects. They sure knew how to have fun, which, if you're a rock band and you're not having, what's the point? Not a genre to be taken TOO seriously.
I hadn't made that connection, but I am a big fan of 'Absolutely Free' (1st Zappa album I ever had!), so thank you for making it. Think I'll dust off the old LP and savor again it for the rest of the afternoon.
