Louis Armstrong Stopped The Beatles’ ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’ From Hitting No. 1
Only one of Louis Armstrong’s songs hit No. 1 in the United States. It stopped The Beatles‘ “Do You Want to Know a Secret” from becoming a No. 1 hit. Subsequently, Paul McCartney revealed he’s not a big fan of “Do You Want to Know a Secret.”
1 cover by Louis Armstrong outperformed The Beatles’ ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’
Many of Armstrong’s songs were covers. For example, “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “La Vie en rose,” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me” were all initially by other artists. His hit “Hello, Dolly!” was originally from the Broadway musical of the same name.
The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits said the latter song topped the Billboard Hot 100. Jazz wasn’t huge in the 1960s, so it’s incredible that Armstrong’s “Hello, Dolly!” performed that well. In addition, the tune blocked The Beatles’ “Do You Want to Know a Secret” from the top spot.
Paul McCartney said the song was an example of The Beatles pandering
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul compared “Do You Want to Know a Secret” to “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” which was also sung by George Harrison. “We wrote ‘I’m Happy Just to Dance with You’ for George,” he said. “It was a bit of a formula song. We knew that in if you went to an A-flat minor, you could always make a song with those chords; that change pretty much always excited you. This is one of these. Certainly, ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’ was.
“This one anyway was a straight co-written song for George,” Paul added. “We wouldn’t have actually wanted to sing it because it was a bit … The ones that pandered to the fans in truth were our least favorite songs but they were good. They were good for the time.
“The nice thing about it was to actually pull a song off on a slim little premise like that,” Paul continued. “A simple little idea. It was songwriting practice.”
How ‘Hello, Dolly!’ and ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’ performed on the charts
“Hello, Dolly!” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, lasting on the chart for 22 weeks in total. None of Armstrong’s other singles reached the Top 20. While Armstrong is a legendary musician and activist, he was not a major hitmaker during the Hot 100 era. His version of “Hello, Dolly!” appeared on the album of the same title. That record peaked at No. 1 for six of its 75 weeks on the chart.
“Do You Want to Know a Secret” was a big hit as well. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, lasting on the chart for 11 weeks. The Beatles included “Do You Want to Know a Secret” on their album Introducing… The Beatles. That album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 49 weeks.
While Introducing… The Beatles isn’t one of the band’s best-known albums today, it’s a good sampler of The Beatles’ early years. It includes Fab Four bubblegum classics such as “Love Me Do,” “Twist and Shout,” and “I Saw Her Standing There.”
Armstrong wasn’t a huge pop star in the 1960s, but for a brief moment, he outperformed a Beatles song.
