BEATLES RUNDOWN: "How Do You Do It?" (1962)
BEATLES RUNDOWN: "How Do You Do It" (1962)
"How do you do what you do to me?/I wish I knew/If I knew how you do it to me/I'd do it to you" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kHml65dS3g
It was an odd surprise to first hear the Beatles doing this on the ANTHOLOGY album, since I hadn't known the Beatles had been pressed to record it for a potential single. I remembered it as a song by Gerry and the Pacemakers, a pleasant but slightly lightweight group also managed by Brian Epstein. "How Do You Do It" was the first hit for them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQD-m2AQoXc (it was produced by George Martin, whom Beatles fans might have heard of). They had a reasonable career and apparently Gerry Marsden is best known and loved today for singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" at soccer* matches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsnSWSrG1F8; this is an interesting phenomenon itself and to be honest it can be quite stirring to hear the huge crowd singing an inspirational number.
"You give me a feeling in my heart/Like an arrow passing through it/I suppose that you think you're very smart/But won't you tell me how do you it?"
As I understand it, the Beatles reluctantly recorded the song but did not care for it and resisted releasing their version. Listening to it now, they're doing a professional job but their hearts aren't into it. It doesn't SOUND like a Beatles song, it's much more pop than rock. The chorus "How do you do what you do to me" is so smooth and mellow it jars a bit. It's funny to hear John being so middle-of-the-road, I've come to expect a bit of snark from him. He seems almost to going over the top and making fun of the song. With all that, it's above average for a pop ditty of that year and, considering that the Beatles did do a good job on the number, it would have been a big hit if it had been released as their single. It just wasn't not what they wanted. It's a thought that the Beatles were talented enough to have had lucrative careers for years just cranking out safe predictable pop songs (and nothing really wrong with that) but from the start they wanted more. Listening to both versions just now, I'd have to say the Beatles do a better "How Do You Do It" than Gerry did, but maybe I'm biased.
I do suspect that our Liverpool boys (with their naughty attempts to sneak in risque references) enjoyed the ending line, "If I knew how you do it to me, I'd do it to you." If asked, they could blandly reply, "Well, it's about stealing someone's heart, innit? What else could it be?" and look innocent.
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*I know, it should be "Football! Crazy Americans with their 'soccer.'"