Maps of Music

Please Please Me (1963)

Where the lyrics of Please Please Me take you, and where it was really made.

The Beatles' debut album was recorded in a single day in February 1963, after plans for a live album at the Cavern Club were dropped.

Key places

Recording day at EMI Studios (1963)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — The Beatles recorded the album in one day at EMI Studios on 11 February 1963. The morning, afternoon and evening sessions produced the whole album, except for the later overdubs. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Album story

Overview

• Please Please Me: debut studio album by the Beatles
• Released in the UK on 22 March 1963 on EMI's Parlophone label
• Produced by George Martin; 14 tracks
• Mixes cover songs with original songs by Lennon and McCartney

Background

• The Beatles signed with EMI in May 1962 and were assigned to the Parlophone label run by Martin
• Debut single "Love Me Do" reached number 17 on the UK chart
• Martin suggested a live album, but found the Cavern Club unsuitable for recording
• Single "Please Please Me" released 11 January 1963, number one on the NME, Melody Maker and Disc charts
• Four songs from the two earlier singles were added to the album
• McCartney suggested the album title Off the Beatle Track

Recording

• Recorded in one day at EMI Studios on 11 February 1963
• Norman Smith was first engineer and Richard Langham second engineer
• John Lennon had a bad cold during the session
• Martin added overdubs to "Misery" and "Baby It's You" nine days later
• The day of recording cost approximately £400
• Recorded on a two-track machine, with instruments on one track and vocals on the other

Cover

• Martin's request for a photo outside the London Zoo insect house was turned down by the Zoological Society
• Angus McBean took the colour photograph at EMI's London headquarters in Manchester Square

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960
• Grew out of Lennon's earlier band the Quarrymen
• Built its reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg
• Starr officially joined in 1962

Members

• John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr

Career

• Manager Brian Epstein shaped them into a professional act
• Producer George Martin developed their recordings after they signed with EMI
• First hit Love Me Do came in late 1962
• By early 1964 they were international stars
• Part of the British Invasion of the US pop market
• Retired from live performance in 1966
• Turned to more sophisticated studio albums: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album and Abbey Road
• Founded Apple Corps in 1968
• Broke up in 1970

Around this album

• Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together
• On 20 September 1969, six days before release, Lennon told McCartney, Starr and manager Allen Klein that he wanted a divorce from the group
• No public announcement of the split came until McCartney announced he was leaving in April 1970

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Record Mirror's Norman Jopling (30 March 1963) judged the album "surprisingly good and up to standard" for a debut
• Jopling said several tracks, such as "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Misery", could have been released as singles
• Jopling praised the cover image and sleeve notes as added value
• Rolling Stone's 1987 review, coinciding with the CD reissue, recommended the album for the Beatles' unfettered joy at making music
• Rolling Stone credited the Lennon–McCartney originals as early evidence of the self-contained rock band idea

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the album still sounds fresh decades after its release
• Pitchfork's Tom Ewing (2009 remaster) described it as a raw, high-energy run-through of the band's early live set
• BBC Music's Mike Diver (2010) called it a vital moment in the band's history
• Ultimate Classic Rock's Michael Gallucci praised it as a cohesive debut
• NME's Hamish MacBain (2016) found it imperfect but praised its excellent covers and originals

Records

• Reached the top of the UK album chart in May 1963 and stayed there for 30 weeks
• Spent 62 consecutive weeks in the UK top ten, the first non-soundtrack album to do so
• Ranked 39th on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2012)
• Listed at number 622 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000)
• Rolling Stone and Uncut both ranked it number 17 among the best debut albums

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album was made in one day, with the band's regular stage set list recorded almost as a broadcast
• Martin considered the title Off the Beatle Track before choosing Please Please Me; he later used that title for his own orchestral album of Beatles songs
• "Hold Me Tight" was recorded but judged surplus to requirements and left off the album
• The US label Vee-Jay Records released the album in abridged form as Introducing... The Beatles in January 1964
• A Japanese release in 1969 used a different cover and a significantly shuffled tracklist
• In 2013, the 50th anniversary was marked by modern artists re-recording the album in one day, with Stereophonics covering the opening track

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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