August 24th, 1964 (Bel Air, Los Angeles): John and Paul happily demonstrate a variety of regional British accents for the benefit of Capitol Records’ Jack Wagner. (Note: This is joy. Incidentally, Bob Bonis was also there at the time to take photos of the band; as the interview was taking place with John and Paul sitting together at the piano, George and Ringo were out by the pool hamming it up for the camera.)
WAGNER: Say, can you speak with an American accent, Paul?
PAUL: Can I… no. [laughs]
PAUL: Yeah, sure, yes yes sir, yessirree, sir!
WAGNER: How about you, John? Do you speak American at all?
JOHN: Here’s one. Yes, hello, how are you? Is that American?
PAUL: More Liverpool, that.
JOHN: More West Coast, I think.
WAGNER: Where is Liverpool? [John and Paul laugh]
PAUL: In the Northern part of England, ‘tis. In fact, London’s at the far South, you see. And Liverpool’s about halfway up, but it’s called the North.
WAGNER: Are you experts on accents?
JOHN: We can recognize them, though, can’t we?
PAUL: [sage-like] We can recognize them anywhere, yes.
WAGNER: How are some of the accents, could you show us?
PAUL: Um, you’ve got the Cockney one, which is all – [cacophony of John and Paul’s voices talking over each other] – yeah, I ‘ad him half an hour ago, John, it’s alright, yeah.
JOHN: Are you alright, Paul?
PAUL: Then the Liverpool accent is a little different, because like, you can’t—
JOHN: Like – [drawling] Paul!
