Pinwheel Twist

From BeatlesWiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Pinwheel Twist is a 1962 song written by Paul McCartney and performed live by The Beatles in 1962. No recording of The Beatles playing it is known to exist.

Contents

Writing

McCartney wrote Pinwheel Twist in an attempt to follow the early 1960s fad of "Twist" songs. Liverpool musician Earl Preston recalls, "When the twist came out, there was an Italian/American from New York called Peppy who came to the Cavern to demonstrate how to do the dance. He was on for half an hour and he was very good as I’d never seen anyone demonstrate a dance before. The twist was unheard of in Liverpool as everybody was jiving. The Beatles wrote a song called ‘Pinwheel Twist’ and it was brilliant. It was a twist song with a great arrangement." The Beatles wrote the song on March 22, 1962, at The Cavern Club during a break between performances. Dave Dover remembers "Shortly after Peppy and the New York Twisters did their set, the Beatles came on and said that they had written a song in the band room called ‘The Pinwheel Twist’. It was a one four five, C-F-G song, not much more than ‘Come on, do the pinwheel twist’. It wasn’t a brilliant song but it showed that they had kept their ear to what was going on and I’d never heard anybody say before that they had written a song during the break. I liked the spontaneity of it all and it was another first for the Beatles."

Lead Singer

Mark Lewisohn's 1992 book The Complete Beatles Chronicle lists McCartney as lead singer of Pinwheel Twist. However, drummer Pete Best recalls that he sang the song. Best remembers, "Paul wrote the song and asked me to do it. He coupled it with Joey Dee's hit The Peppermint Twist. I used to get up and do the twist on stage and Paul played my drums. It was a little novelty act and it went down well with the fans." It is possible that McCartney sang the song once Best was kicked out the group in August 1962. The Complete Beatles Chronicle lists Peppermint Twist as being sung by Best.

EMI Audition

Hunter Davies, in his 1996 revised edition of his 1968 authorized biography on The Beatles, mentions a letter Brian Epstein sent to George Martin prior to their June 6, 1962 audition for EMI Records. Davies writes "Even more interesting is [Epstein's] note, monogrammed BE, which he sent to George Martin before their first recording session on June 6, 1962, suggesting likely songs they might do. Now I look at that list again, there are some compositions I have never heard of, such as "Pinwheel Twist." I wonder what happened to that one." Records state that the song was never played at the session, but the recording would likely have been destroyed if it was, as was common practice at the time.

Personnel

Known

Likely

Known Unavailable Versions

  • Live Performances, 1962

Sources

Retrieved from "http://www.beatleswiki.org/wiki/Pinwheel_Twist"
Personal tools