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.
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.
[3] 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".
Paul McCartney 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.”[6] 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.