The Beatles – Please Please Me

[Final Frontier]

This was the Beatles’ first album, released on Friday 22nd, March 1963 in the UK, and it stayed at the top of the British charts for 30 weeks. The sales are estimated at 500,000 albums in the UK and 2,000,000+ worldwide. The actual recording had to be done in a single day, which was forced upon the poor lads by George Martin, who wanted to have something reach the ‘Top 10’ chart. It was going to be called Off the Beatle Track and feature live performances from the Cavern, but the price and time it would cost seemed to not be worth it, so they stuck to using the recording studio. The picture used for the cover features the band inside EMI’s London headquarters, but George Martin seemed to want a picture of them inside an insect house because they were the ‘Beatles’. Rimshot.

The Track Listing:

Side A:

1. I Saw Her Standing There
2. Misery
3. Anna (Go To Him)
4. Chains
5. Boys
6. Ask Me Why
7. Please Please Me

Side B:

1. Love Me Do
2. P.S. I Love You
3. Baby It’s You
4. Do You Want To Know A Secret
5. A Taste Of Honey
6. There’s A Place
7. Twist And Shout

Facts

I Saw Her Standing There
Paul spent only 20 minutes writing this in his house while he skipped school with John one day. The bass line comes from Chuck Berry’s I’m Talking About You, and the actual song lasted for around 10 minutes with various guitar solos. The song may have been written about Iris Caldwell, who was the first woman Paul ever got with.

Misery
The song was written for Helen Shapiro.

Anna (Go To Him)
This song was written by Arthur Alexander, who also wrote songs for Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones.

Chains
This song was sung by George Harrison, and the harmonica intro was added in to the song.

Boys
This song was originally sung from The Shirelles, who John was a big fan of. Pete Best was the lead vocals until Ringo Starr came along, who gets the chance to sing in his place.

Ask Me Why
This was the B-side to the single Please Please Me, a release in the U.S.

Please Please Me
This was the first U.S. single, and John wrote it in the style of Roy Orbison. The song was even rumored to be about oral sex, but that was denied by the Beatles. It was originially a slow song, but George Martin (producer) had them speed it up.

Love Me Do
This song was written in 1958 during their time as the ‘Quarrymen’, and it was their first single. There are three different versions of the drumming, seeing as Pete Best was on the first and Ringo was not trusted enough to be in the actual release, so he got the maracas instead.

P.S. I Love You
This was written in Hamburg, Germany, and was released as the B-side to Love Me Do. This was going to be their first single, but Peggy Lee already had a song by the title and so they used Love Me Do.

Baby It’s You
This was another song by the Shirelles.

Do You Want To Know A Secret
This is another song sung by George, and it may have been based on a song in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves from the Disney animation.

A Taste Of Honey
The song was taken from the film A Taste Of Honey by Tony Richardson. John disliked it and often called it ‘A Waste Of Money’.

There’s A Place
This song was about ‘self-analysis’ and came out before the Beach Boys’ In My Room, or any of Bob Dylan’s songs, for that matter.

Twist And Shout
John screamed the lyrics for this song, and it was the last take of their hectic recording day. He successfully got it in one take, and he probably wouldn’t have been able to handle another.

Opinion

The album starts off with a song meant to do just that, and it ends with the perfect “show stopper.” It has its moments, such as in Please Please Me, P.S. I Love You, and Do You Want To Know A Secret, though the majority of the songs I find to be less “interesting.” (For lack of better words) Overall, it is a good symbol of their early pop career that got them onto the road of fame, and this album is well worth getting. The early styles of their songs are wonderful for those interested in that type of quick paced music, and it is definitely a strong start to their career, albeit its seemingly subpar performance when placed against other various albums.

Various videos of songs

The Beatles Cartoons - Chains

The Beatles Cartoons - Money

The Beatles Cartoons - Twist And Shout

I Saw Her Standing There - Live at Washington

I Saw Her Standing There Sing-a-long

[therussian]

Eh, I'm not too fond of the Beatles' early stuff, but the one song in Please Please me is.......ironically......Please Please me. (though I haven't heard all of the songs on there)

[Final Frontier]

Well, I'm actually more fond of With The Beatles than this one. (It's got many covers of songs from people like Chuck Berry and Smokey Robinson) I'm only fond of I Saw Her Standing There, Please Please Me, P.S. I Love You, Do You Want To Know A Secret, and Twist And Shout. That's quite a few songs to use 'only', but to the point, it's an all right album. I'd give it a B.

[therussian]

3/5 for me.

[Justinian]

By 1963 standards it's an incredible album...

[therussian]

It's not 1963, is it?

[HMMcKamikaze]

Good album. Though i prefer their later work, they did a great cover of Twist & Shout.