For most rock stars, being perfectly in tune isn’t always the best policy. Some of the best anthems of rock and roll aren’t known to adhere to standard concert pitch, and sometimes speeding or slowing down the tape in the studio is what it takes to turn a track from merely good to something that no one else can describe. The Beatles may have benefited greatly from speeding themselves up occasionally, but no amount of studio trickery can get around how off ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’ sounds.

It’s not like the group had time to worry about whether everything was in tune on Please Please Me. Their entire debut album had to be blown through in a single day, so the act of getting a song down on tape without mistakes was probably the only thing they were looking for apart from hearing every instrument.

While that’s not exactly the perfect formula for a successful record, that kind of frenetic energy is what makes some of the tunes so immediate. Their cover of ‘Boys’ sounds effortlessly fun because it was only the first time the lads played it in the studio, and while they take things down for ‘Ask Me Why’, ending on that strange minor chord was Beatlesque before that phrase was even coined.

Then again, it’s not like there aren’t some blemishes to be found here. Although John Lennon said numerous times that he didn’t like his performance on ‘Twist and Shout’, you can actually hear his audible cold creep up earlier in the record on ‘Anna (Go To Him)’. He sings it beautifully, but by the bridge, it’s hard not to practically hear the phlegm in his throat as he’s trying to belt as hard as he can.

This brings us to George Harrison’s true vocal showcase, ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’. While ‘Chains’ is a fine enough cover tune for Harrison, this was supposed to be a romantic ballad that gave him some sort of equal footing with his bandmates. It’s a shame that every instrument seems to be out of tune.

If anyone has ever tried to play along with the track, it’s clear that something was really off with their instruments once they hit that first chord. Considering their incredibly long work day, though, there are a few reasons why this kind of thing happened.

The group had already recorded for over nine hours, and since they played through their lunch break, they had no time to worry about whether they were tuning their instruments. So there’s a good chance that this was probably recorded well into the sessions, and considering this was February of 1963, any cold climate is bound to throw the instruments out of tune if they stay idle for too long.

But does that mean that the song is any less great? Not in the slightest. If anything, the fact that it’s out of tune actually gives it a bit more character, even helping Harrison along by encouraging him to be within the ballpark of certain notes rather than trying to belt the same way that Lennon or Paul McCartney.

So let this be a lesson to anyone who has tried to deal with their instruments not being in tune. It’s unprofessional to carry on out of tune as if nothing happened, but the true pros can work around those kinds of problems and actually adapt to the discord.