10 Famous Songs That Were Somehow Recorded In A Single Take

10. The Beatles - Twist And Shout

Of course The Beatles were going to be on this list. The band is so legendary and recorded such a massive amount of material that it was almost certain they'd record a song in a single take. Nevertheless it's still wildly impressive, especially when you hear the context.

Twist And Shout is a 1961 song that was originally written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns. It was recorded for The Beatles' 1963 debut record Please Please Me, and went on to become one of their most beloved hits.

On the day of recording, John Lennon was suffering from a terrible cold, drinking milk and sucking cough drops in an attempt to try and soothe his throat. Producer George Martin knew that Twist And Shout would be particularly harsh on Lennon's vocals, and so the song was the last song on the album to be recorded. In fact, by the time they got round to it, the band only had fifteen minutes left in the studio.

Recording the song was a do or die situation. Twist And Shout was recorded in a single take, after which Lennon's voice was absolutely wrecked. George Martin tried to get the band to record a second take for safety, but Lennon's voice just couldn't handle it. And if you think that's impressive, the whole album was eleven songs in total, recorded in just ten hours.