Pop Go the Beatles

Pop Go the Beatles was a weekly radio show that ran for fifteen episodes on the BBC Light Programme from June to September 1963. Hosted by Lee Peters for the first four episodes and Rodney Burke for the following eleven, the show would feature a guest band and then a conversation with and performance by the Beatles.

Background
The show was first pitched by studio manager Vernon Lawrence to his assistant Donald MacLean on 30 April 1963. At first only four episodes were booked, but eleven more were later added due to the show's success. The first four episodes of the show were hosted by disc jockey Lee Peters, whom the Beatles secretly referred to as "Pee Litres" behind his back, and the following eleven were hosted by Rodney Burke. It was produced by Terry Henebery for the first thirteen episodes and Ian Grant for the final two, with a budget of £100 per episode. The BBC estimated at the time that the show was heard by 5.3% of the British population, or 2.8 million people, though it only received 52 out of 100 on the Appreciation Index.

Content
Each episode of the show would begin with a guest act and then feature a conversation with and performance by the Beatles, usually comprising six songs. Guest acts on the show included the Hollies, the Searchers, Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, and Russ Sainty. Throughout the run of the show, the Beatles played many covers that they never recorded in the studio, including Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business", "Sweet Little Sixteen", "Memphis, Tennessee", and "Carol"; Carl Perkins' "Sure to Fall", "Glad All Over", and "Lend Me Your Comb"; Arthur Alexander's "Soldier of Love" and "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues"; Ann-Margret's "I Just Don't Understand"; Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman"; Elvis Presley's "That's All Right"; the Jodimars' "Clarabella"; and Chan Romero's "Hippy Hippy Shake". The theme song for the show was a rock arrangement of the song "Pop Goes the Weasel" performed by the Beatles.

Legacy
Many of the performances on the show were reissued on the compilation album Live at the BBC. Paul McCartney, bassist and singer for the Beatles, said about the recordings that "We are going for it, not holding back at all, trying to put in the best performance of our lifetimes.” Rolling Stone and Slate magazines both published retrospectives on the series, with the former saying the fifth episode was "...when the Beatles pulled even with their heroes, and then surpassed them" and the latter saying that the format of the show "compelled the band to dig deep into its repertoire" and show off their influences. Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn wrote that the band getting their own show at that point was "a remarkable coup", noting that the first episode was recorded less than a year after their first recording session for EMI.