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This article is about the album. For the single by the same title, see Please Please Me (song).

Please Please Me is the first album recorded by the Beatles, rush-released on 22 March 1963 in the United Kingdom to capitalise on the success of singles "Please Please Me" (#1) and "Love Me Do" (#17). Of the album's fourteen songs, eight were written by Lennon/McCartney, early evidence of what Rolling Stone later called " the self-contained rock band, writing their own hits and playing their own instruments." In 2003, the magazine ranked the album number 39 on its list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was ranked first among the Beatles' early albums, and sixth of all of the Beatles' albums, with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, Rubber Soul, The Beatles (The White Album) and Abbey Road ranked higher.

Rolling Stone also placed two songs from the album on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: #139, "I Saw Her Standing There", and #184, "Please Please Me".

According to the All Music Guide, "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh," the covers are "impressive" and the originals "astonishing."

Recording and release

In order to include fourteen songs on the album, ten more tracks were needed to add to the four sides of their first two singles recorded and released previously. At 10.00 a.m. on Monday, 11 February, at Abbey Road Studios, the Beatles and George Martin started recording what was essentially their live act in 1963, and finished 585 minutes later. In three sessions that day (each lasting three hours) they produced an authentic representation of the band's Cavern Club-era sound, as there were very few overdubs and edits. Martin said, "It was a straightforward performance of their stage repertoire - a broadcast, more or less." The day ended with a cover of "Twist and Shout", which had to be recorded last because John Lennon had a particularly bad cold and Martin feared the throat-shredding vocal would ruin Lennon's voice for the day. This performance, generally regarded as a classic, prompted Martin to say: "I don’t know how they do it. We've been recording all day but the longer we go on the better they get."

The song "Hold Me Tight" was recorded during the session, but was "surplus to requirements" and was not included on the album. "Hold Me Tight" was recorded again on 12 September 1963 for With the Beatles.

The whole day’s session cost around £400. Individually, under a contract with the Musicians' Union, each Beatle was entitled to collect seven pounds and ten shillings (£7.50) as a session fee, which they duly did. Martin considered calling the album Off the Beatle Track before Please Please Me was released on Parlophone PCS 3042.

Please Please Me was recorded on a two-track tape recording machine, with all of the instrumentation on one track and the vocals on the other, allowing for a better balance between the two on the final half-inch tape mix-down in mono. (A pseudo stereo mix was made later.)

Please Please Me was officially released on CD on 26 February 1987, along with three other Beatles' albums (With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, and Beatles for Sale), all in mono only.

Album cover and label

George Martin, a Fellow of London Zoo, thought that it might be good publicity for the zoo to have the Beatles pose outside the insect house for the cover photography of the album. However, the Zoological Society of London turned down Martin's offer, and instead Angus McBean was asked to take the distinctive colour photograph of the group looking down over the stairwell inside EMI's London headquarters.

The first editions of the LP are the only Beatles LPs that have the gold and black Parlophone label (gold writing on a black background). The mono version is highly sought after by collectors and the stereo version is even more so. The next Please Please Me LP label had a yellow and black Parlophone LP label (black with yellow writing). Later labels are usually black with silver writing. Some of the newest versions (primarily from the 1970s and on) have the Apple Records label.

Track listing

All songs credited to McCartney/Lennon, except where noted. The songwriting credit was changed to the more familiar "Lennon/McCartney" for their second album, With the Beatles.

Side one

1. "I Saw Her Standing There" – 2:55
2. "Misery" – 1:50
3. "Anna (Go to Him)" (Arthur Alexander) – 2:57
4. "Chains" (Gerry Goffin/Carole King) – 2:26
5. "Boys" (Luther Dixon/Wes Farrell) – 2:27
6. "Ask Me Why" – 2:27
7. "Please Please Me" – 2:03

Side two

1. "Love Me Do" – 2:22
2. "P.S. I Love You" – 2:05
3. "Baby It's You" (Mack David/Barney Williams/Burt Bacharach) – 2:38
4. "Do You Want to Know a Secret" – 1:59
5. "A Taste of Honey" (Bobby Scott/Ric Marlow) – 2:05
6. "There's a Place" – 1:52
7. "Twist and Shout" (Phil Medley/Bert Russell) – 2:33

Credits

• John Lennon - rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar (on "P.S. I Love You"), harmonica, vocals
• Paul McCartney - bass guitar, vocals
• George Harrison - lead guitar, vocals
• Ringo Starr - drums, vocals, maracas (on "P.S. I Love You")
• George Martin - producer, piano overdubs (on "Misery" and "Baby It's You")
• Andy White - drums (on "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You")

Singles

Album charting

It stayed on top for 30 weeks (from 11th May 1963). Weeks in chart: 74 (seventy weeks from 6th April 1963, and four weeks from 7th March 1987)

Notes

1. Ian MacDonald (1994). Revolution in the Head: the Beatles' Records and the Sixties. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 46. ISBN 0-8050-2780-7. (#1 on 4 charts: Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Disc, and BBC's Pick of the Pops)
2. "Rolling Stone's The Beatles Biography". Retrieved 2007-02-24.
3. "AMG Please Please Me Review". Retrieved 2007-02-24.
4. ^ Mark Lewisohn (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. pp. 24, 26. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
5. George Martin with William Pearson (1994). With a Little Help From My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 77. ISBN 0-316-54783-2.
6. Mark Lewisohn (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. p. 36.
7. ^ Mark Lewisohn (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. p. 32.
8. Mark Lewisohn (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. p. 28.

External links

• Beatles comments on each song
• Recording data and notes on mono/stereo mixes and remixes
• Album cover in Lego art by Digger Digger Dogstar

• Pages with empty short description
• The Beatles albums
• 1963 albums
• Debut albums
• Parlophone albums
• Albums produced by George Martin