Paris • Second show

January 16

We got close—fast. I stayed in the same hotel, the George V. I stayed behind with them when the other journalists left. And you know the main reason these guys were good to me? Because I wanted it. I became not a fly on the wall, but a friend with a camera. I was going to get my pictures.

After their second night performing in France, they came back to the hotel at around a quarter to 11. They wanted to go somewhere, but there weren’t many places open at that hour. And when they did go out to a club, their table was immediately surrounded by women. They couldn’t move. They couldn’t dance. Always a swarm. So they usually just stayed in the hotel suite with their handlers and me. They’d smoke cigarettes and play guitar, surrounded by tea sets and coffeepots, vases of flowers, baskets of fruit, newspapers with their pictures in them.

I soon saw how the music came naturally. It wasn’t like they’d built in time to compose—they had to do it on the fly. There was a piano in Paul’s room. At one point, John pulled up a chair and started tinkering. Paul joined in. John started humming what I would later recognize as the tune to “Baby’s good to me, you know / She’s happy as can be, you know / She said so…” But they got stuck: Where should it go after the melody? George wandered over with his guitar and played a catchy rhythm-and-blues riff, plucking away. He seemed to be improvising. Although John was later credited with writing the riff—influenced by Bobby Parker’s song “Watch Your Step”—the way I heard it that day was George coming up with it.

They appeared to be writing a song right in front of me. And as John and Paul kept at it on the piano, Ringo, in a black turtleneck, came over and stood next to George. And I had my shot: the Beatles composing “I Feel Fine.”

Harry Benson – From The Beatles Stormed America in 1964. I Was With Them, Day and Night | Vanity Fair, January 17, 2024

Olympia Hall

This was the 2nd concert played at Olympia Hall.

A total of 39 concerts have been played there • 1964 • Jan 16 (Second show)• Jan 16 (First show) • Jan 17 (Second show) • Jan 17 (First show) • Jan 18 (First show) • Jan 18 (Second show) • Jan 19 (First show) • Jan 19 (Second show) • Jan 20 (First show) • Jan 20 (Second show) • Jan 22 (Second show) • Jan 22 (First show) • Jan 23 (First show) • Jan 23 (Second show) • Jan 24 (Second show) • Jan 24 (First show) • Jan 25 (Second show) • Jan 25 (First show) • Jan 26 (Second show) • Jan 26 (First show) • Jan 27 (First show) • Jan 27 (Second show) • Jan 29 (Second show) • Jan 29 (First show) • Jan 30 (Second show) • Jan 30 (First show) • Jan 31 (Second show) • Jan 31 (First show) • Feb 1 (First show) • Feb 1 (Second show) • Feb 2 (First show) • Feb 2 (Second show) • Feb 3 (Second show) • Feb 3 (First show) • Feb 4 (Second show) • Feb 4 (First show) • 1972 • Jul 16 (Afternoon show) • Jul 16 (Evening show) • 2007 • Oct 22

Setlist for the concert

1. From Me To You

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 03

2. Roll Over Beethoven

   Written by Chuck Berry

3. She Loves You

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 03

4. This Boy

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 03

5. Boys

   Written by Luther Dixon, Wes Farrell

6. I Want To Hold Your Hand

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 03

7. Twist And Shout

   Written by Phil Medley, Bert Russell

   Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 03

8. Long Tall Sally

   Written by Richard Penniman / Little Richard, Enotris Johnson, Robert Blackwell

   Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 03

See song statistics for “Winter 1964 France Shows”

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