Though the budding songwriters bragged of having penned over a hundred songs before they even became famous, most of those tunes never saw the light of day afterwards, most likely due to a lack of quality. However, manager Brian Epstein felt early on that there was as much potential revenue in song publishing as there was in the band's recordings, so he encouraged the boys to try to write new songs - not just for the Beatles, but for other artists, as well.
In January of 1963, the group was scheduled to begin a winter tour at the bottom of a bill headlined by British teenage pop sensation Helen Shapiro. Encouraged by their manager, Lennon and McCartney boldly decided to craft a song to present to the young star, even though the Beatles only had two singles to their name at the time. They started writing Misery on January 26th while backstage at one of the endless gigs Epstein had now lined up for them. On February 2nd, the tour began. The boys quickly befriended Helen Shapiro and Paul soon took the opportunity to offer the song to her, but her manager, Norrie Paramour, rejected it.
Mere days later, during a break in the tour, the Beatles reported to EMI Studios in London to spend the entire day of February 11th recording their first album. They figured that if a current star was not going to be allowed to record their latest composition, then they would record it themselves. Most of the songs they did on this day were cover versions from their stage act, which they knew well and which were quickly dispatched. This being a new song, however, it took 11 takes for them to work out the arrangement and arrive at a satisfactory performance singing and playing live in the studio. George Harrison in particular had a difficult time playing a descending figure on guitar, prompting producer George Martin to alter the tape speed for the last few takes to facilitate an easy fix.
The Beatles were not present on February 20th when Martin overdubbed the descending notes on piano - one of the only overdubs on the entire album. Engineer Geoff Emerick was on hand on this day, marveling at Martin's trick of recording the piano at a different speed, something he would repeat numerous times in the coming years.
As it turned out, another artist on the Helen Shapiro tour was interested in Misery. Kenny Lynch (note him on the poster pictured above) thus became the first act besides the Beatles to record a composition by McCartney-Lennon, as their names were listed at that time. Ten years later, Lynch would appear on the cover photo of the album Band on the Run, standing right behind Paul. A film of that photo shoot shows Kenny and Paul sharing a moment to sing the intro of Misery.
Despite its title, the song is sung almost as a lark by John and Paul, especially during the fadeout when they get downright goofy. It sits in the second slot on the album Please Please Me, as well as on the EP The Beatles (No.1). It is one of just a few songs that Capitol Records did not release during the group's career in the US. American fans could only find it on the various permutations of the Vee-Jay album Introducing...the Beatles and on the Vee-Jay EP Souvenir of Their Visit to America. Capitol finally released it on the compilation album Rarities in 1980.
On Air - Live at the BBC, Vol. 2 features a performance of the number before a studio audience on BBC radio's Here We Go, recorded on March 6th. The youngsters in the crowd were unfamiliar with the song on that date because the album had not yet been released. Given the time to properly learn his part, George Harrison had by now mastered the descending figure on guitar. Misery was featured in the band's repertoire for the first half of 1963, and they would play it six more times on various BBC programs before retiring the number.
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