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[nimrod]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OKsR0dZQD0

Written in early 1962, "Ask Me Why" is principally a John Lennon composition, but was credited to Paul McCartney and John Lennon, as were all other Lennon–McCartney originals on the first pressings of Please Please Me album.
Paul McCartney: "It was John's original idea and we both sat down and wrote it together, just did a job on it. It was mostly John's." (Barry Miles. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now).
It was part of their live act prior to their recording contract, and was one of the songs performed at their Parlophone audition in EMI's Abbey Road studio three on 6 June 1962. The song emulates in style that of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, by whom Lennon was influenced, and draws its opening guitar phrase from the Miracles’ "What’s So Good About Goodbye" (1961).


The song is in the key of E major, with some leaning to its relative minor of C#, and is in 4/4 time. Structurally, the song is complex and, as Alan Pollack states, contains three different variants of the verse.[6] The song also contains "jazzy parallel sevenths" in most of the chords, and has a live ending.


Personnel
John Lennon – vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney – bass, backing vocals
George Harrison – lead guitar, backing vocals
Ringo Starr – drums

[Hello Goodbye]

Yeah, that's John and the rest of The Beatles doing a good Smokey Robinson & The Miracles impersonation, melismas and all...

SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES what's so good about goodbye

It's good early Beatles.  I love the backing vocals.

[Moogmodule]

I've always liked this tune. Quite sophisticated at such an early stage.

It's interesting that this was one they played for George Martin initially where he dismissed their material as not very impressive. I'm surprised he didn't hear the quality of this tune.

[Dcazz]

Nice tune. I think the fact that you can't hear John's stuffed up cold makes it stand out!

[oldbrownshoe]

'Ask Me Why' has crept up on me over the years to the point where it would probably get in my Fabs Top 10, just don't 'ask me why' that is, I don't know!

It's clearly the 'b' side, relatively forgettable and is buried deep on an LP.....I love it.

They also quite liked it in the 1983 'Beatles Monthly' Poll as it made position No. 93 with 110 votes, scoring more than gems like 'Martha My Dear', 'She's A Woman', 'Got To Get You Into My Life' and even 'Magical Mystery Tour'.

[tkitna]

The songs pretty mediocre to me.  It sounds old even for an early Beatles song (like it was done in the 50's).  The woo's always annoyed me.  I can take it or leave it.

[Moogmodule]

The songs pretty mediocre to me.  It sounds old even for an early Beatles song (like it was done in the 50's).  The woo's always annoyed me.  I can take it or leave it.

I like it but the 50s vocalising (mi-aye-aye-aye-aye-n) does date it. I find the song interesting because they used lots of variation of the basic theme in the verses. Jazzy sorts of chord changes and things.

[nimrod]

When you think about it, this song is way more interesting than the boring Love Me Do

A very interesting song

I will never tire of it

Its better than a whole host of later songs as well imo

[Moogmodule]

When you think about it, this song is way more interesting than the boring Love Me Do

A very interesting song

I will never tire of it

Its better than a whole host of later songs as well imo

I have to admit. I really don't care for Love Me Do. It never makes any playlist
of Beatle music. It seemed a very slight offering.

[nimrod]

There are certain early songs that I love, they seems so much more than some other/later offerings

PS I Love You
Ask Me Why
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Not A Second Time
Devil In Her Heart
All I Gotta Do

Great songs all of them, better imo than Love Me Do and a host of later songs when they were supposed to have matured, Blue Jay Way, Northern Song, WDWDIITR, EGSTHEFMAMM, Wild Honey Pie For You Blue etc

[tkitna]

There are certain early songs that I love, they seems so much more than some other/later offerings

PS I Love You
Ask Me Why
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Not A Second Time
Devil In Her Heart
All I Gotta Do

'PS I Love You' is the only one I like out of that group and if they didn't all share that little vocal part where they take turns, I probably wouldn't even like it.  Oh well, different strokes for different folks.

[oldbrownshoe]

I tend to like less those songs that have been analysed to death and, as such, I now prefer the likes of 'For You Blue', 'Every Little Thing' and 'Ask Me Why' over 'Lucy', 'A Day In The Life', 'Walrus' etc. (alas, John's stuff seems to suffer most from over-analysis).
It's probably the reason why my least favourite Beatles LP is 'Sgt. Pepper's'.

My mother's favourite Beatles song is 'Love Me Do'.
Thirty years ago I'd have found that a very strange choice, now it appears to me to be a very wise one.

[Moogmodule]

There are certain early songs that I love, they seems so much more than some other/later offerings

PS I Love You
Ask Me Why
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Not A Second Time
Devil In Her Heart
All I Gotta Do

Great songs all of them, better imo than Love Me Do and a host of later songs when they were supposed to have matured, Blue Jay Way, Northern Song, WDWDIITR, EGSTHEFMAMM, Wild Honey Pie For You Blue etc

Love not a second time and all I gotta do.

[Dcazz]

Georges guitar work is very clear. I like that very much!

[Mr Mustard]

I've always had a soft spot for "Ask Me Why", with it's warm, tender vocal from John and that quasi-samba rhythm it is surely one of their more charming early cuts and one of my favourite B Sides. The Smokey Robinson influence is very evident yet to me it's a slightly improved re-tread of the previous flipside, "P.S. I Love You" - both share that slightly Latin shuffle which Lennon & McCartney sensed around late '62/early '63 could well be due as the next big sound.

[Moogmodule]

I've always had a soft spot for "Ask Me Why", with it's warm, tender vocal from John and that quasi-samba rhythm it is surely one of their more charming early cuts and one of my favourite B Sides. The Smokey Robinson influence is very evident yet to me it's a slightly improved re-tread of the previous flipside, "P.S. I Love You" - both share that slightly Latin shuffle which Lennon & McCartney sensed around late '62/early '63 could well be due as the next big sound.

Ps I Love You came on my pandora station randomly tonight. It's a very cheesy tune. But jeez it had a lovely melody. And a great structure. It was really pretty bloody good. Not revolutionary at all. But pretty solid for a couple of young budding songwriters. 

[Kevin]

I agree it's very clever in a BBC light entertainment kind of way. Great vocal by John, very professionally put together.
But.... the big buts. I know their universal appeal was part of the deal. Yer mum loved them to. You could cha cha cha to this one with your auntie at your sisters wedding. And I know this was 1853, and things were different.
But sometimes it gets a bit too much. Songs don't have to be serious, nought wrong with singing about love. But this ain't rock and roll, and I'm not sure if I like it.

Here's something - before I owned Rubber Soul I, like most of my generation, abhored Michelle. But when I hear it as part of the album I really really like it. The vibe makes sense.
So maybe I'd like Ask Me Why more as part of an album, part of the show etc. Context and all. Mona Lisa looks better in a gallery than on a tee shirt.
Don't know really. Don't ask me.

[nimrod]

I've always liked this tune. Quite sophisticated at such an early stage.

It's interesting that this was one they played for George Martin initially where he dismissed their material as not very impressive. I'm surprised he didn't hear the quality of this tune.

For me this is an amazing song for a budding songwriter and shows an inherent talent for writing in a style other than rock, obviously J & P soaked in all kinds of influences, playing songs live like Kansas City, Some Other Guy etc gets a bit boring, mostly 12 bar based, it was great how they wanted to break out of that style and write more complicated/rhymically challenging songs

Each verse in this song is a bit different than the proceeding one and makes for a very interesting song imo
Alan Pollock covers it very well;
http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/amw.shtml

John showed great adventure and promise writing in this pseudo-Latin dance beat !

I guess The Beatles were adventurous even at this stage.

[oldbrownshoe]

Anyone who bought 'Please Please Me'/'Ask Me Why' when it first came out in Britain may remember the event for the weather as much as anything else.....January 1963 was the coldest month of the 20th Century in Britain.
The country came to a standstill for a few months and all the sports fixtures were postponed until March/April.

That winter, a bit like the Beatles in terms of pop music, is still the benchmark used when it starts to snow!