Who recorded it first
Twist and Shout
Not a Beatles original — a 1961 Top Notes single
Almost everyone takes ‘Twist and Shout’ for a Beatles original, but the Beatles’ 1963 version is a cover — and not even the first cover. The song was written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns and first recorded in 1961 by The Top Notes on Atlantic Records, produced by a young Phil Spector. That version flopped. The Isley Brothers turned it into a hit in 1962, and the Beatles arrived third, in 1963.
The record
Who recorded it first
How we traced it
The song was written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns and first recorded on 23 February 1961 by The Top Notes for Atlantic Records, in a session produced by Phil Spector. The single failed to chart Wikipedia ↗.
The Isley Brothers re-recorded it in 1962 for Wand Records, adding the now-iconic bridge — the ascending build and the whooping call-and-response — and took it to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, their first Top 20 hit. This is the version that made the song famous.
The Beatles recorded their cover on 11 February 1963 for Please Please Me, modelled closely on the Isley Brothers’ arrangement. It became so beloved that most listeners now assume the song began with them — two recordings and two years too late the history ↗.
Wikipedia — the full song historyKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
The attribution problem
This is a double misattribution: not only is the Beatles’ record a cover, it is a cover of a cover. The song passed through two other acts before the band the public credits ever touched it.
‘It’s a Beatles song’
The Beatles’ 1963 version is a cover. The song was written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns and recorded twice by others first the history ↗.
The Top Notes, 1961
Cut for Atlantic and produced by Phil Spector, the first version never charted — which is exactly why later covers could eclipse it so completely. There was no famous original standing in the way.
The Isley Brothers, 1962
The Isleys added the bridge and the whoops and took the song to No. 17 — the arrangement the Beatles then borrowed. The middle version, and the most influential, is the one most often skipped over.
Written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns, first recorded by The Top Notes in 1961, made a hit by the Isley Brothers in 1962, and made famous — but not originated — by the Beatles in 1963 the record ↗.
Context
Why the cover ate the original
A cover eclipses its original most completely when the original never had its moment. The Top Notes’ 1961 recording sank on release, so there was no hit occupying the public’s memory of the song. That left the field open — first for the Isley Brothers, and then for the Beatles, whose version simply became the version.
The twist is that the recording everyone imitates is not the original at all. The Isley Brothers built the bridge and the call-and-response in 1962, and the Beatles followed their arrangement in 1963. So the ‘Beatles song’ is a cover of the Isleys’ cover of a flop — three acts deep before it reached the band that gets the credit.
The three records, in order
- Phil Medley and Bert Berns write the song (early 1960s).
- The Top Notes record it first, February 1961, for Atlantic; Phil Spector produces; it does not chart.
- The Isley Brothers re-record it in 1962 for Wand, add the bridge, and reach US No. 17.
- The Beatles record their cover, 11 February 1963, for Please Please Me, following the Isleys’ arrangement.
- The Beatles’ version becomes definitive, and both earlier records fade from public memory.
The ‘Beatles song’ is a cover of a cover of a flop — three acts deep before the credit lands.