During the band’s 18 night residency at the Olympia Theatre in Paris in January 1964, EMI’s German counterpart, Electrola Gesellschaft, wanted the band to re-record the vocals on ‘She Loves You’ and ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, in German.
The session was scheduled to take place on January 27. George Martin arrived at the studio but the Beatles were a no show.
After waiting an hour he called their hotel, but none of them would speak to him.
“It was the first time in my experience that they had let me down, so I rang the George V Hotel where they were staying, and Neil Aspinall answered,” said George Martin.
“He said, ‘I’m sorry, they’re not coming, they asked me to tell you.’ I said, ‘You mean to tell me they’re telling you to tell me? They’re not telling me themselves?’ – ‘That’s right.’ – ‘I’m coming right over,’ I said.
“So I went to see them and I had Otto with me. I was really angry and stormed in to find they were all having tea in the centre of the room. They were, after all, very charming people. It was rather like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party with Alice in Wonderland in the form of Jane Asher, with long hair, in the middle pouring tea.
“As soon as I entered they exploded in all directions; they ran behind couches and chairs and one put a lampshade over his head. Then from behind the sofa and chairs came a chorus of: ‘Sorry George, sorry George, sorry George…’ I had to laugh. I said, ‘You are bastards, aren’t you? Are you going to apologise to Otto?’ And they said, ‘Sorry Otto, sorry Otto…’”
Two days later, the Beatles recorded the vocals to German language songs, ‘Sie Liebt Dich’ and ‘Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand’.
Below are photos of the Beatles and Martin at the George V hotel and at the Olympia Theatre with actress and singer, Sylvie Varton.
Photos taken by Harry Benson.
Thank you Boris for these photos.
