Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound (UPDATE! 1-18-2023)

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Dave1971
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Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound (UPDATE! 1-18-2023)

Post by Dave1971 »

When The Beatles released Love Me Do in 1962 Music Publishers for EMI, Ardmore and Beechwood, also released sheet music for it as well. The sheet music for Love Me Do was simple, and in a different key (A flat), the song being in G. I have used Musescore to hear what what I was seeing. I plan on doing as many as I can find the original vintage sheet music for and see how they were done.

So here is the first one -- Love Me Do, the original 1962 Ardmore and Beechwood sheet music.

hxxps://mega.nz/folder/pKky2bqR#yaIYdxUKieJ6qAMzcCQliQ

Finally added Please Please Me!

Added From Me To You/Thank You Girl

Added She Loves you/I'll Get You
Last edited by Dave1971 on Thu Jan 19, 2023 4:49 am, edited 7 times in total.
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Lord Reith
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Re: Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound

Post by Lord Reith »

Yes, this is the best thing you can do if you want to know what John and Paul's demo discs for each song might have sounded like. I think they made a demo of every single song they wrote well up until Revolver.

Sometimes they have different words. I Want To Hold Your Hand not only has different lyrics but a different opening. As a boy I used to follow the sheet music and wonder "Why does it all sound wrong?"
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mojofilter
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Re: Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound

Post by mojofilter »

I'm just seeing this thread for the first time. Do you think there's any possibility that someone transcribed the sheet music from listening to a record player whose motor ran a semitone fast? Because it certainly wasn't written or performed in A flat.

Back in the '70s I learned how to play the piano part in "Games People Play" by The Spinners. Our record player played it in B flat, so I learned it in B flat. Many years later, I discovered that it was actually in A. Some time later, I learned to play guitar on "Cheap Sunglasses" by ZZ Top in A, because that record player played it in A. But it's actually in G. That was around the time I started to become obsessed with hearing records and tapes at the right speed, so I could play along with them.
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Re: Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound

Post by BDJ »

And interesting that the Sheet Music actually says it is written by "MCARTNEY-LENNON", not Lennon-McCartney. Hadn't they agreed on the order yet at the time of Love Me Do? Does it mean Love Me Do was mainly written by Paul?
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Re: Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound

Post by zaval80 »

There is a lyric book published by Omnibus Press on The Doors - the lyrics for "Not To Touch The Earth" from the third album actually have quite a lot of words not from the finished song. It's because somebody in the Doors' office somehow used what seems to be a rough draft by Jim Morrison, for sending to this publisher years later. And nobody had noticed! This version is an interesting one. Some other songs have the years wrong. So yes, these things can be very revealing about the mechanics of a band.
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Re: Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound

Post by robbmacc »

Hadn't seen this thread. Very cool. Hope more are up'd here. Thanks!
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Re: Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound

Post by robbmacc »

Oh, and please keep telling the difference between the sheet music and the released version.

Thanks.
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Albert Grove
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Re: Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound

Post by Albert Grove »

Thanks Dave1971. Very original subject matter, and new territory here, variations in sheet music notation vs. the actual released versions.
Hopefully you will also get at the different 'I want to hold your hand' Lord Reith mentioned.
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Re: Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound

Post by Dave1971 »

I do have I Want To Hold Your Hand. so that will be done as well. Next up will be Please Please Me though I have to make time time to do them because I put in the notes manually put there is a lot of cut and paste. Just a teaser PPM is in the key of G in the original sheet music not E. I am looking forward to hearing it to! Thank you all for the interest. I will definitely have more coming. I also thought about doing a comparison with modern interpretations as well and see how they compare.
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Re: Original Issue Sheet Music and How They Sound (UPDATE!)

Post by Dave1971 »

I finally added Please Please To The Folder.
This one is in the Key of G instead of E. It sounds like they left out the harmony and backing parts, hoping the parlor room accompaniment would carry it through! It is longer than the released song and repeats the first verse twice.
This was the song that got them involved with Dick James:

"The song did reach number 1 in the NME on February 22 and the Melody Maker giving the song its
number 1 status. This rise was helped in part by music publisher Dick James who had heard Please Please Me
on November 27. He was blown away and was certain this song could be a number one. He phoned Phillip
Jones who was the producer of Thank Your Lucky Stars and played him the song. Dick James was going to give
the Beatles the exposure Ardmore and Beechwood didn’t do by getting them a booking for January 13th. The
Beatles only played Please Please Me and were billed at the bottom. Luck would be on their side because due
to the harsh winter weather most people were staying home. This gave The Beatles the exposure they needed."

Except from :T h e B e at l e s :Studio Works June 6, 1962 to May 8, 1970
(My own unpublished work)

Next up: From Me To You/Thank You Girl.
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