Written by: Williams
Recorded: 10 May 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 6 August 1965 (UK), 14 June 1965 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, Hammond organ
Paul McCartney: bass, Hohner Pianet electric piano
George Harrison: double-tracked lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, cowbell
Available on:
Help!
Live At The BBC
The Beatles recorded Larry Williams' Dizzy Miss Lizzie for their US record company Capitol, who released it on the 1965 compilation Beatles VI.
Dizzy Miss Lizzie had been a part of The Beatles' live repertoire since their earliest days. It was originally released as a single by Williams in 1958, with Slow Down on the b-side.
Although it wasn't intended for the Help! LP, The Beatles evidently decided their version was good enough to be included. It appeared as the album's final song, slightly retitled as Dizzy Miss Lizzy, as a rock 'n' roll finale to follow Paul McCartney's Yesterday.
John Lennon also sang the song at the first Plastic Ono Band concert, at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival on 13 September 1969.
In the studio
The Beatles recorded Dizzy Miss Lizzy and Bad Boy on 10 May 1965; both were sung by John Lennon.
In an out-take I heard recently – recording Dizzy Miss Lizzy – John is saying, 'What's wrong with that?' and George Martin says, 'Erm... it wasn't exciting enough, John,' and John mumbles, 'Bloody hell,' – that kind of thing was creeping in a bit – 'It wasn't exciting enough, eh? Well, you come here and sing it, then!' I think that's just the pressure of work. When you've been working hard for a long time, you really start to need a break.
Anthology
The group recorded two takes of the song early in the session, which began at 8pm and ended at 11.30. They then turned their attention to Bad Boy, before recording a further five takes of Dizzy Miss Lizzy.
To the last of these Lennon overdubbed an organ part, and Harrison double-tracked his lead guitar. The songs were mixed in the same session and were released a month later in America.
Harrisons lead guitar is double-tracked and there’s no electric piano in this recording, it is actually a Hammond organ played by Lennon.
“The Beatles are increasingly drawn to the keyboard: in ‘Dizzy’, Lennon plays a Hammond organ, and in ‘Bad Boy’ McCartney overdubs the Pianet.” (Everett, S. 299)
Beware of hard-and-fast statements on who played what. The Everett books are great, but he wasn’t there in the studio. Kehew & Ryan, who also weren’t there but whose analysis of the Beatles’ recordings is extraordinary, plump for Paul playing the Pianet, as he did on Bad Boy recorded earlier in the session. I’d side with them. Either way, the keyboard is so low in the mix, no one can be sure.
Yeah, I discovered that to my cost. Everett is excellent on musicology, but his ideas of who played which instrument are often questionable.
Wasn’t the B-side to the Larry Williams release of “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” actually “Slow Down”? (And then “Bad Boy” was the B-side to “She Said Yeah”, I think.)
I don’t own either of these singles, sadly, but I think I’m remembering this correctly. Anyway, love your site– it’s one of the best ones out there!
Hi Megan. Yes, you’re right – the Larry Williams b-side was Slow Down, another great song. My mistake; I probably got confused as Bad Boy was recorded by The Beatles on the same day, and was included on Beatles VI in the US.
Love your site too – it’s always good to meet fellow Beatles obsessives, even if only virtually!
Bad boy, Wait, That means a lot & If you´ve got trouble weren´t included in the album (either Yes it is and I´m down though they were singles b-sides) and they prefered Dizzy Miss Lizzy and Act naturally. Exactly at this time they started to make real decissions.
There aren’t many stinkers in the canon of Beatles’ songs but this sure is one. A horrendous way to close the otherwise fairly pleasant Help! album. Yesterday should have closed the album, even if it meant us never hearing Dizzy Miss Lizzy.
One thing you can hardly ever accuse the Beatles of is of sounding bored but here they seem to be falling asleep. Even Ringo begins to wind down. almost coming to a halt.
The lead guitar is painful to the ears; it’s the Beatles ‘going through the motions’.
And they even performed it live.
Whatever were they thinking, on both occasions?!!
Don’t understand your concept of rock and roll I’m afraid. According to Paul’s comment I think John would have said the same about your response to this song. It is great rock and roll
I agree with you.
In retrospect “Yesterday” as the final track on the album would have been such an innovative and “Beatles” thing to have done. I just think the convention of ending albums on an up-beat track was so strong that not even the Beatles or Martin at this point in their careers could quite see the angle. Would have been epic.
They’d done it before. “I’ll Be Back” at the end of the Hard Day’s Night album the previous year.
I’ve always felt the same way, it’s a tired sounding track & there’s a screw up with the lead guitar coming after the guitar solo, even as a kid I noticed it. Bad Boy on the other hand sounded great & it still does to me anyway.
Absolutely agreed. Bad song, and even the Beatles recording is not on their level. Strange decision to include it as the last song on Help, it weakens the record. Bad Boy is at least more interesting, with better arrangement, but it was left aside in favour of this .
Their version of this song is a note-for-note copy of Larry Williams’ original. It doesn’t sound boring to me. Interesting, Paul did all of Little Richard’s songs & John did all of Larry Williams’, and both artists were on the same label, Specialty Records…
Larry Williams’ original of this really smokes, very bottom-heavy. Sounds as though the room is about to explode…
I think this is one of the better songs on Help!
Apart from Yellow Submarine, and Revolver, Help! is one of my least favorite albums.
That’s the first time I’ve ever heard such a comment about Revolver, almost universally lauded. To each his own. Its right up there with any of their last 5 for me.
I thought I misread his comment at first lol. I’ve never heard anyone put Revolver at the bottom
The comments are interesting about these cover versions. One thing you’ll notice is that of all the cover versions the group recorded (for EMI anyway), they’re very faithful to the original artists’ versions, so it really isn’t fair to analyze them too closely. Obviously, the group loved the originals as they were…
I agree with some of the views expressed here that this is a song that doesn’t stand up. It has energy and emotion – much like Twist and Shout – but this cover comes off as over the top and sloppy. It tries too hard. Heard this today for the first time in a long time…and I just realized listening to it today for the first time that the lead guitar is double tracked. It just wanders about..dreadful.
The Beatles surely didn’t need keyboards on this track.
Any insight as to why John overdubbed them on this?
It’s not a bad song, but it’s terribly placed on the Help! album.
Something like Yesterday, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away or I’ve Just seen a face would have been better album closers.
George’s worst lead playing, hands down.
They should of dropped the organ, and mixed Lennon’s rhythm guitar higher in the mix. Lennon’s rhythm playing is what makes this song rock on the Hollywood bowl live version – Harrison also cooks it up a bit more live. The studio version does fall flat to the rock sound they make on the live version. Like them both though – its the beatles doing rock and roll.
I tend to agree with a number of others that “Yesterday” would have been a better finishing song to the” Help!” album. But unlike others I do love the studio version of “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”. John Lennon doing Larry Williams songs is always great and I think George’s lead guitar work is brilliant. There may well be better live versions, Lennon’s own “Live Peace In Toronto” version is pretty damn good. But I have always enjoyed the “Help!” version, from the first time I obtained the album.
An obvious “filler”… doesn’t really belong on an album as chock full of great songs as “Help”.
On the positive side, it IS a little better than “Mister Moonlight”…
I love this song – it might have been recorded as filler but to me or sounds more raw and exciting than any of the Beatles For Sale covers. The guitar work reminds me of Keith Levene’s for PiL, weirdly. I think it closes the album really well, in the same way as Twist And Shout and Money (although admittedly this isn’t in the same league as those).
I love this song but mainly because my name is Lizzie 🙂 x
First time I heard that song, I thought “yes! that’s a killer’! now that the novelty has worn off, i still think it was a good closer for the “Help” LP, probably in reaction to the schmaltziness of the penultimate song!
Since the 1960s I’ve held the view that the best you can say about “Yesterday” is that it’s followed by “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” 🙂
In fairness, the energy is solid (as John would maintain). The vocal is probably the best part. But, as other have said, the lead guitar is a little hard on the ears. For an innovative record like Help, this was really weak closer.
I’ve always heard this listed as one of folks’ least favorite Beatles tracks. I love it personally, since I’m a sucker for John belting out an old-school rocker (see also Rock N Roll Music, Leave My Kitten Alone, Slow Down, etc…). I do, however, see how some can find the recording off-putting. I wonder if those people’s opinions would change if the lead guitar was lowered in the mix. I find that the guitar is just way too loud if I turn it up enough to really feel John’s voice. Maybe I’m just getting too old… 🙂
I think you’ll find that George’s guitar track in this song is actually wrong. The guitar drops in and out during the 2nd verse because he messes the timing up. The guitar riff is very inconsistent throughout.
I’m quite surprised it managed to sneak by George Martin and end up on the album.
John is at the Hammond on this one, telling by the glissandos and what not. Paul plays the Hohner on “Bad Boy”.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Music on Beatles For Sale is one of my favourite covers. For me, it IS exciting; more so than Dizzy Miss Lizzy…