21 January 1963 – The Beatles on The Friday Spectacular, EMI House, Manchester Square

The Beatles go to EMI House, London, for their third radio appearance on the Radio Luxembourg program “The Friday Spectacular”. As before, they chat with the host and their songs are played for a live audience. The show is taped for broadcast on January 25; the featured songs are from The Beatles’ second single, “Please Please Me” and “Ask Me Why”.

They chatted to hosts Shaw Taylor and Muriel Young, and studio recordings of Please Please Me and Ask Me Whywere played. The show was recorded before an audience of around 100 teenagers, and was broadcast live on Radio Luxembourg.

It was during the recording of a Radio Luxembourg programme in the EMI Friday Spectacular series that I was finally convinced that The Beatles were about to enjoy the type of top-flight national fame which I had always believed that they deserved. The teen-audience didn’t know the evening’s line-up of artists and groups in advance, and before Muriel Young brought on The Beatles she began to read out their Christian names. She got as far as John… Paul… and the rest of her introduction was buried in a mighty barrage of very genuine applause.