Check out this letter George wrote to a fan the day that The Beatles’ released their She Loves You EP, 57 years ago today! George Harrison – A man of letters and the day She Loves You was released. Towards the end of summer 1963 (August 19 to 24) the Beatles played a week’s, twice-nightly residency at the Gaumont Theatre, Bournemouth. Seven days staying at the Palace Court Hotel (adjacent to the venue) meant no travelling, so the boys had time on their hands – a luxury that was soon to become a rarity in Beatleworld.

George Harrison penned his first full song that week – Don’t Bother Me – and continued to put his inky nib and spare time to good use, writing several long letters to fans and friends. One letter, to devotee Lynn Whyman, dated 23rd August, was recently sold at auction for a cool £11,500. That same August Friday was also the release date of She Loves You – the fourth Beatles 45rpm and the disc that would change their fortunes forever. By the following weekend the record was at No.1 and stayed on the chart for 31 consecutive weeks. In the letter George talks about his vocals on She Loves You (‘I sing in the chorus and every other line in She Loves You…) and more revealingly he admits to a vocal mistake in the middle 8 of the flip side I’ll Get You, (‘singing the wrong words if you listen closely’). If you ‘listen closely’ to the record at precisely 1’14”, George’s little vocal blunder makes the lyrics ‘Well there’s going to be a time, when I’m going to MANGE your mind’ – probably not what John and Paul had in mind when they wrote it! And George also reveals that jelly babies are right off the menu, referring to the sugar-dusted confectionary as ‘the stuff’ and offering straight-up advice to fans: ‘Why couldn’t you eat them yourself!’

Apart from gigs, song-writing and correspondence, a key photo session took place that week. At midday, that Thursday (22 Aug), the Beatles assembled in the hotel dining room sporting their black roll-necks and with the heavy velvet curtain pulled halfway across, the group posed in the half-light for what would become the stunning black and white cover photo of With the Beatles LP. And just to prove that everything the Fab Four got up to was never wasted, earlier in the week they went on to the hotel roof and complete with plastic, toy instruments mugged it up for a long forgotten colour photo session (for ATV’s Thank Your Lucky Stars) which recently resurfaced on the cover of Craig Brown’s 2020 Beatle book One, Two, Three, Four.

Written by André Barreau