Boys

After listening to "Boys", before I even began doing research, I knew there was something funny about this song. Wikipedia confirmed my suspicion: it's a cover of a song by The Shirelles (a girl band!), making the song therefore a "girl" song. A quote from Paul sort of clarifies the boys' mindset when singing it in spite of that fact. "Any one of us could hold the audience. Ringo would do 'Boys', which was a fan favourite with the crowd. And it was great — though if you think about it, here's us doing a song and it was really a girls' song. 'I talk about boys now!' Or it was a gay song. But we never even listened. It's just a great song. I think that's one of the things about youth — you just don't give a shit. I love the innocence of those days."[wiki] 

So, as I was listening, I realized you could spin it both ways. Either it was a song about guys kissing guys, or it was a song about guys kissing girls. Both interpretations allow for some serious appreciation of boy-smooches, and both versions are okay by me. :)

An interesting fact I learned was that The Beatles recorded this song during a die-hard power session in the studio... they recorded 10 of the 14 songs on Please Please Me all in one day. That's some pretty intense dedication right there, no doubt partially motivated by the expense of studio time. This song was also popular when they performed it as The Quarrymen. (During that time Pete Best--the fifth Beatle--was their drummer. He was replaced by Ringo after two years with John, Paul, and George.) 

I had actually never heard a Beatles song specifically knowing I was listening to Ringo's voice before, so it was an interesting experience for me (all I see by way of info about any song before I hear it is the title and which Beatle sang it). He has the kind of voice that's really fascinating, but somehow difficult to remember in your head afterwards. Maybe it's just because Paul and John sing more of their songs, but even now, right after listening to "Boys", I can't for the life of me "hear" Ringo's voice in my head. I'm sure that it'll happen after hearing more songs, though. At some point, likely towards the end of this adventure, I'll probably start thinking in their voices. :P I am, however, starting to understand why Ringo's my sister's favorite.