"Twist and Shout", written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns and first recorded by R&B vocal group the Top Notes, typically closed the Beatles' set during their 1963 tour of Great Britain with Roy Orbison.

[4][5][6][nb 1] The Beatles and George Martin did not consider "Twist and Shout" single material; they were opposed to lifting songs off Please Please Me, Paul McCartney believed it "a bit too off-beat to be commercial" and Lennon was concerned about how often he would have to sing it.

[12] The sleeve photograph, described by The Telegraph as "one of the key images of the 1960s, seeming to promise a new era in which youthful energy and vitality would triumph over drab postwar austerity", shows the Beatles jumping in the air at a bombsite off Euston Road, London.

[31] Entitled My Bonnie, it contains four 1961 Hamburg recordings of the Beatles with Pete Best, three of which feature the English rock and roll musician Tony Sheridan on lead vocals.

[10] An anonymous writer in the Coventry Standard called it "a worthwhile mini-album",[34] while Gerry G. of the Pontypridd and Llantrisant Observer believed that had the Beatles released a single of "Twist and Shout" two months earlier instead, it "would have been better policy and a certain chart topper".

[35] In a retrospective review, Bruce Eder of AllMusic described the record as "pretty daring as a summary of highlights from their debut album", citing the "uncommonly raw rock & roll" title track.

[11] The EP was the first record Elvis Costello bought with his own money,[36] while John Robb of post-punk band The Membranes has described it as "the first time any kind of pop music got into my consciousness".