PLEASE PLEASE ME

On 22 March 1963 The Beatles released their debut album Please Please Me and to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary we look back at the recording, release and reception of this classic album.

Photo (c) Unknown

The Beatles had audition for Decca Records in January 1962 but were turned down. Their loss was EMI Records gain as, in May, they signed a contract with EMI who offered them a contract with their Parlophone label. The label was run by George Martin who had previous success with comedy records by artists including Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Bernard Cribbins. Martin would become known as the 'fifth' Beatle due to his involvement in the groups recorded output. At his first session with them on 6 June 1962 he was, at first, unimpressed with their songs and playing. In the control room he asked them individually if there was anything they didn't like... George Harrison replied, "I don't like your tie." This broke the ice and set up a working relationship that would produce a series of classic albums and hit singles, the like of which had never been seen before.

The Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You (Parlophone 45R-4949), on 5 October 1962 and it reached a respectable #17 in the UK. Three versions of Love Me Do had been recorded during sessions on 6 June, 4 September and 11 September with three different drummers playing on the track. Pete Best played on the first recording but was dismissed from the group soon after. On the recordings made a few weeks later it was Ringo Starr who was behind the drum kit, although Paul McCartney wasn't happy with his drumming, feeling it could be better. For the third attempt session drummer Andy White played the drums while Ringo Starr had to settle for playing the tambourine.

Photo (c) Dezo Hoffman

P.S. I Love You had been attempted at the first session in June but it was the version recorded on 11 September that became the B-Side to their first single. Once again Ringo had to step aside and only played maracas.

Interestingly two versions of Love Me Do were issued. Early copies of the single featured Ringo Starr but from 1963 all future copies of the song featured Andy White, including the version that would appear on their debut album. To avoid any future issues the tape featuring Ringo was apparently destroyed. You can tell which version you are listening to as the one without the tambourine features Ringo on drums and is from the 4 September session while the one with the tambourine features Andy White and dates from 11 September.

The first recording, featuring Pete Best on drums, finally found a release on Anthology I, released in 1995 and one of three 2-CD sets released to coincide with the The Beatles Anthology TV series.

A second single was released on 11 January 1963, Please Please Me/Ask Me Why (Parlophone 45-R 4983). Chart success depends on which 'hit parade' you choose to follow as each pop newspaper had its own. Melody Maker, Disc and New Musical Express all placed Please Please Me at #1 while it only registered at #2 on Record Retailer's listing.

Ask Me Why had been attempted at the 6 June session while Please Please Me was first recorded on 11 September towards the end of the session. Written in a style more akin to Roy Orbison, it was considered 'dreary' by George Martin who suggested it would work better in a faster tempo with tighter harmonies and wanted them to go away, work on the song and bring it back for the next session. Unfortunately none of the earlier versions exist as the tapes were erased/destroyed... fortunately in future this would not be the case and most, if not all, of the The Beatles session tapes were kept.

They returned to Please Please Me and Ask Me Why at a session held on 26 November 1962. The session saw the return of Ringo Starr and the talk of using a session musician was never raised again. Satisfactory masters were taped with Martin telling them, "You've just made your first number one." He was proved right.

All four tracks from their first two singles were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and would be included on their debut album. A minor dispute between the two composers meant these early singles and their debut album saw all their songs credited to McCartney/Lennon, although this would change in late-1963 and the classic song-writing credit of Lennon/McCartney would appear on all future songs written by them.

Following on from the success of both singles, George Martin wanted them to record an album. His first idea was a live album to be recorded at The Cavern in Liverpool but having visited the venue and realising the acoustics were unsuitable the idea was dropped.

They already had four songs so plans were made to record a further ten tracks to complete the album. Martin recalled, "I asked them what they had which we could record quickly, and the answer was their stage act."

Morning and afternoon sessions were booked at the EMI Studios in St. John's Wood (later renamed Abbey Road Studios) where the previous sessions had taken place. The date was set for 11 February during a break in their first national tour.

George Martin produced the session with Norman Smith and Richard Langham sharing the role of engineer.

Photo (c) Unknown

At the morning session, 10am to 1pm, they recorded two tracks, There's A Place and Seventeen (working title of I Saw Her Standing There). Both tracks were written by McCartney/Lennon. The group worked through the break and at the second session, 2.30pm to 6pm, finished masters of A Taste Of Honey, Do You Want To Know A Secret and Misery were completed. Further attempts at There's A Place and Seventeen (I Saw Her Standing There) were also completed. With the exception of A Taste Of Honey, which was written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow and featured in the film of the same name in 1961, all the songs recorded during the second session were McCartney/Lennon compositions.

An evening session had been added during which the remaining five songs, all cover versions, needed for the album were recorded. First up was Anna (Go To Him) written by Arthur Alexander and a minor hit for him in 1962. Recorded in just one take and featuring a lead vocal by Ringo Starr was a cover of The Shirelles Boys followed by the Gerry Goffin and Carole King composition Chains, a hit for the girl group The Cookies. Another Shirelles hit, Baby It's You, written by Burt Bacharach, Mark David and Barney Williams was the penultimate song recorded on this day.

With time moving by fast and the studio gearing up to close down for the night they needed one more song. Discussing various options over a coffee in the canteen it was decided to wind up the days work with the old Isley Brothers hit Twist And Shout, written by Phil Medley and Bert Russell. John Lennon had been suffering from a cold and sore throat throughout the session but sang a blistering version of the song which must have almost shredded his vocal chords. Often wrongly credited as being recorded in one take there were actually two takes recorded. However, Lennon couldn't better his first attempt. After the session George Martin was quoted as saying, "I don't know how they do it. We've been recording all day but the longer we go on the better they get." Lennon later remarked, "The last song nearly killed me!."

They also recorded Hold Me Tight, the first number and only McCartney/Lennon song recorded during the third session, which was surplus to requirements, ended up unreleased and would suffer the same fate as the early takes from their first two singles... erased or destroyed. They would return to the song for their second album, With The Beatles, released in November 1963.

As Mark Lewisohn wrote, "There can scarcely have been 585 more productive minutes in the history of recorded music. For in that small space of time, The Beatles recorded all ten new songs for their first long-player."

On 11 January George Martin added piano to the song Misery and a few days later mono and stereo masters of the album were produced by Martin. The Beatles weren't present for either of these sessions.

Please Please Me was released in the UK on 22 March 1963 and, as was normal record company practice at the time, was issued in mono only. It would be a month before a stereo version was released. Back in the 1950s and early-1960s 45rpm singles were the most popular format for pop music and long playing albums were often reserved for other musical genres like classical and jazz. 

The albums title, despite being an obvious choice considering the success of the single, was not George Martin's first choice. He originally suggested giving the album the title Off The Beatle Track but good sense prevailed. However, his suggestion would find a use as it became the title of his own album of orchestral versions of Beatles songs. As an honorary fellow of the Zoological Society of London he also had the idea of photographing the group outside the insect house for the albums cover, the request was declined.

The image used on the cover was taken by theatrical photographer Angus McBean on the stairwell at the Manchester Square offices of EMI Records. The photograph was taken in December 1962 and was one of several taken that day. Wearing burgundy suits, pink shirts and black ties various poses were captured. Three of the shots were used on future releases, the most important being the cover of Please Please Me. Six years later he would create the same images for use on the ill-fated Get Back album. It was never used and a different photo appeared on Let It Be. However, the photo was eventually used along with the 1962 shot on the greatest hits packages, The Beatles 1962-66 and 1967-70.

Angus McBean's stairwell photo wasn't the first choice though. Dezo Hoffman was present at the 11 February session and captured several images of the group. As a cover image was required he captured the group posing 'chorus line' style on the steps of the studio. As Hoffman stated, the photo did not work although he would have many more published over the next few months.

Photo (c) Dezo Hoffman

Liner notes were written by publicist Tony Barrow. and in part read... 'The Beatles had been voted Merseyside's favourite outfit and it was inevitable that their first Parlophone record, Love Me Do, would go straight into the top of Liverpool's local hit parade. The group's chances of national chart entry seemed much more remote. No other team had joined the best-sellers via a debut disc. But The Beatles were history-makers from the start and Love Me Do sold enough copies during it's first 48 hours in the shops to send it soaring into the national charts. In all the busy years since pop singles first shrank from ten to seven inches I have never seen a British group leap to the forefront of the scene with such speed and energy.'

Reviews were good with Norman Jopling, writing in the 30 March 1963 issue of Record Mirror, that for a debut LP the album is "surprisingly good and up to standard." He went on to say the album contained many tracks that could have been released as singles, such as I Saw Her Standing There and Misery. He also praised the packaging, writing that the cover image and sleeve notes provided extra value.

Author Jonathan Gould would echo Jopling's comments about the packaging stating that the albums packaging contributed to its success, promising fans 'glossy cover art' and a greater companion to the music than the plain paper packaging then offered by singles.

In a 5 April 1963 review headed 'Please Please Me - 14 Thrillers', Allen Evans wrote, "Fourteen exciting tracks, with the vocal-instrument drive that has put this Liverpool group way up on top in a very short time. The title tune and Love Me Do are well known, but there are twelve other thrillers, including John Lennon's singing of a torrid Twist And Shout, and The Shirelles Baby It's You, Boys, with drummer Ringo Starr shining; and a pippin of a duet of Misery by John and Paul ; and lead guitarist George Harrison is powerfully evident throughout."

The album reached the top of the UK album charts in May 1963 where it stayed for 30 weeks before being knocked off the summit by the groups second album With The Beatles. An incredible achievement when you consider the charts were dominated by soundtracks and easy-listening vocalists at the time.

In America, where EMI's subsidiary Capitol Records had been offered the chance to release Beatles material but turned it down, it was the small Vee-Jay Records who took up the opportunity to bring The Beatles to an American audience.

They released the single Please Please Me/Ask Me Why (Vee-Jay VJ 498) in February 1963 but it failed to chart. They originally planned to release the Please Please Me album as per the UK release with fourteen tracks but ended up trimming it down to the standard twelve track album, as popular in America at the time, and left off the two tracks that had been issued as a single. It was also given a new title, Introducing The Beatles (Vee-Jay VJLP 1062) and was released in July 1963.

Capitol soon realised they had missed out and with Vee-Jay losing interest future Beatles material would be issued on the Capitol Records label.

Some songs from the album also made it onto three extended play releases. A popular format in the 1950s and 1960s, these offered four or five tracks in a laminated sleeve looking a lot like miniature albums. They were often seen as a showcase for the best tracks from an album although some artists, not The Beatles, released all the tracks from their current album on three or four separate extended play releases. Priced midway between the cost of a single and an album they offered good value.

The first three Beatles extended play releases on Parlophone all featured material from the album.

Released on 12 July 1963 Twist And Shout (Parlophone GEP 8882) bought together four album tracks, Twist And Shout, A Taste Of Honey, Do You Want To Know A Secret and There's A Place. The cover photo, taken and designed by Dezo Hoffman, showed the four members of the group jumping off a wall.

The Beatle's Hits (Parlophone GEP 8880), released in September 1963, featured both Please Please Me and Love Me Do on side two and two other hits, From Me To You and Thank You Girl on side one, neither of which were taken from the album. The cover showed the group against a white background and was taken by Angus McBean in his studio.

The third expended play to feature material from the album was released in November 1963. The Beatles No. 1 (Parlophone GEP 8883) opened with I Saw Her Standing There and also included Misery, Anna (Go To Him) and Chains. The cover was an alternate shot from the Angus McBean album cover photo session at Manchester Square.

All three hit the top spot on the UK EP Chart and also managed to enter the UK Singles Chart with Twist And Shout reaching #4 and selling over 800,000 copies, The Beatles Hits peaked at #17 and The Beatles No. 1 stalled just outside the top twenty at #24.

In the UK Please Please Me was released in numerous incarnations giving collectors a wide choice, and headache, when collecting the various versions... mono, stereo, re-issues etc. To give details of all the various releases is way beyond the scope of this article and I would point anyone interested in finding out more to the many books and magazines that are available.

While the album may never be a candidate for the deluxe treatment given to other albums like Revolver, The White Album, Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band I do feel Please Please Me is worthy of a deluxe release. I hope one day that a release featuring both the mono and stereo versions of the album with outtakes, of which there are enough for a couple of discs, along with a booklet of comprehensive liner notes, photos and memorabilia can be considered.

Please Please Me is in my top three favourite Beatles albums and one I return to often. I think the sequencing of the tracks was perfect and whenever I play the album I realise those opening couple of lines are some of my favourite opening lyrics of any album in my collection -