The Beatles had to apologise after 'refusing' to go into studio for songs they 'didn't need' to do
After taking the UK by storm in 1963, The Beatles became famous around the world in 1964. They were on a 19-date concert residency in Paris on January 25, 1964 of that year when manager Brian Epstein told them they had achieved their first number one in America when 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' topped the US's Cashbox charts.
The song was number one on the USA's main chart - the Billboard Hot 100 - by February 1 and stayed there for seven weeks. Brian had decided they needed to target international markets from that point on.
As The Beatles had been big hits in Hamburg in their early days, Berlin-based Odeon Records told Brian and producer George Martin that singing in German would allow the band to sell more records in West Germany. So The Beatles were sent into the Pathé Marconi studio in Paris on January 29.
Translations of 'She Loves You' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' were given to them. However, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison were not too keen on the idea and wanted to stay in their hotel.
Mr Martin recalled: "I fixed the session for late-morning. Norman Smith, myself, and the translator, a chap named Nicolas, all got to the studio on time, but there was no sign of The Beatles. We waited an hour before I telephoned their suite at the George V hotel.
Source: uk.news.yahoo.com/Dan Haygarth
