Twist and Shout
Almost everyone identifies this song with the Beatles: aaaaah, aaaaaah, aaaaaaaaaah, head shaaaaking, shake it up, baby!!! It is a fantastic song bursting with endless energy. It drove girls wild in the 1960s, and I do not think there is anyone today who cannot enjoy the song written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns in 1961 and made world-famous by the Beatles, although earlier recordings had already reached respectable chart positions.
The studio recording is also famous because the released performance was take one - the very first attempt - and it came at the end of an exhausting day of recording on 11 February 1963, when Lennon had almost no voice left. They launched into it and brilliantly nailed it . (They did record a second take, but by then Lennon's voice was gone, so the first became the one and only usable studio recording.) The Beatles began performing Twist and Shout live from 1964, and the track was released on record in both the United States and Britain early that year.
Before performing it live they came up with the head-shaking section at the end of the building A7 chord, but management tried to talk them out of it, warning that the band would only make itself look ridiculous. Well, ridicule was not exactly what happened... quite the opposite.
Watch and listen to this little section!!! It sends shivers down your spine. What these guys did was incredible - imagine what it must have been like to experience it live. Lennon reproduces perfectly the hoarse tone heard on the studio recording, while Harrison and McCartney's backing vocals are fantastic. (The head-shaking became something of a trademark too; they used it in other songs, including She Loves You.)
While writing this post I have watched the video above about five times, and I am still completely under its spell. I almost hesitate to insert my modest little tutorial video after it, but I hope you will confidently pick up your ukulele and learn the accompaniment, which is not complicated at all. You need D major, G major and A major (A7):
