Do You Want to Know a Secret (1:55)

“Do You Want to Know a Secret” is a song by The Beatles from the 1963 album Please Please Me, sung by George Harrison. In the United States, it was the first top ten song to feature Harrison as a lead singer, reaching #2 on the Billboard chart in 1964 as a single released by Vee-Jay, VJ 587. The song reached the #1 position on Billboard in 1981 and #2 in the UK in a cover version by Stars on 45 as part of a medley.
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Composition:

“Do You Want to Know a Secret” was primarily written by John Lennon, but credited to Lennon/McCartney.The song was inspired by “I’m Wishing”, a tune from Walt Disney’s 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which Lennon’s mother, Julia Lennon, would sing to him as a child. The first two lines of the song in Disney’s movie (“Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell?”) come right after the opening lyrics (“You’ll never know how much I really love you… You’ll never know how much I really care…”). McCartney said it was a “50-50 collaboration written to order,” i.e., for Harrison to sing.

Recording:

In 1980, Lennon said that he gave “Do You Want to Know a Secret” to Harrison to sing because “it only had three notes and he wasn’t the best singer in the world,” but added “he has improved a lot since then.” Harrison sang two songs on Please Please Me, this song by Lennon and McCartney and “Chains” by Goffin/King. The Beatles did not record a song composed solely by Harrison until “Don’t Bother Me” on With The Beatles.