The Beatles are nicknamed “The Fab Four”, but they were in fact once a 5-piece band. This line up consisted of guitarists John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, and drummer Pete Best. Sutcliffe was a Beatle from January 1960, until he left the group in June 1961. With his departure, McCartney switched from guitar to bass to fill that vacancy. Best was a Beatle from August 12, 1960, until he was dismissed from the band on August 16, 1962, when he was replaced by drummer Ringo Starr.
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“Cry for a Shadow” is the only Beatles song to be credited to John Lennon and George Harrison alone. It’s an instrumental that was written by John and George as a parody of The Shadows style. The Shadows were Cliff Richard’s backing band and the biggest British instrumental rock & roll group at the time. “Cry for a Shadow” was recorded on June 22, 1961 in Hamburg, Germany, while The Beatles were backing up Tony Sheridan in the recording studio.
According to Mersey Beat newspaper editor Bill Harry, the original title of the track was “Beatle Bop”.
“Don’t Bother Me” was the first song written by George Harrison alone. He had received co-writing credit for two earlier Beatles songs, “In Spite of All the Danger” (Paul McCartney/George Harrison) and “Cry for a Shadow” (George Harrison/John Lennon).
George wrote “Don’t Bother Me” while he was sick in bed at a hotel room in Bournemouth, England. The Beatles were playing some shows in the town during the summer of 1963. Harrison wasn’t too fond of the song, as he had stated, “‘It was a fairly crappy song. I forgot all about it completely once it was on the album.” He would later say, in effect, that John and Paul had started honing their writing skills years before him and that they had already gone through their “bad” songs period earlier. George was essentially saying he would have to write a few “clunkers” first to catch up as a skilled songwriter.
“Don’t Bother Me” originally appeared on the albums ‘With the Beatles’ (UK, 1963), and ‘Meet the Beatles!’ (U.S., 1964). The song also plays during a scene in ‘A Hard’s Day’s Night’, where The Beatles dance at a nightclub.
When the Beatles landed on US soil in February 1964, it was George Harrison‘s second trip to the states. While on vacation in September 1963, he visited his sister, Louise, at 113 McCann Street in Benton, Illinois. The home where he stayed in is now the Hard Day’s Nite Bed and Breakfast. While in Illinois, Harrison also performed with a band at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Eldorado.
In an interview, Louise recalled “his real first visit to America was when he came to the midwest in September of 1963 and he met these wonderful, warm, friendly, real warm Midwesterners… school teachers, retired miners and all kinds of just wonderful people… and a little band. He had a fantastic time. He thought they were just wonderful people.”
In birth order (as seen in the photo, L-R); Ringo Starr was born on July 7, 1940, John Lennon on October 9, 1940, Paul McCartney on June 18, 1942, and George Harrison on February 25, 1943. All four were born in Liverpool, England.
Incidentally, former Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe was born on June 23, 1940, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Pete Best on November 24, 1941, in Madras, British India.
