Celebrating its diamond jubilee today, at a whopping 60 years old, is the debut LP from The Beatles, Please Please Me, which was originally released in the UK on March 22nd, 1963. It was an LP which launched the era of the so-called “self contained” band, artists who were both songwriters and performers, and revived the spirit of rock ’n’ roll, which had waned since Elvis was drafted into the army.
The Beatles had been working together in various iterations since they began as a Liverpool skiffle band in the late 1950s. After several years of paying their dues in clubs in the UK and Germany, they finally caught the attention of EMI, who consigned them to their Parlophone imprint, a division run by producer George Martin. Initially, the band had focused mostly on cover songs, but Lennon & McCartney had gradually been building up a cache of original compositions, though Martin originally felt that they were lacking as songwriters. At the time the group signed their deal, Pete Best was still on the drums, but after an initial trial recording session, which failed to produce any usable results (even with a session drummer subbed in), the group gave Pete his marching papers and brought in Ringo Star to finalize their lineup.
After their misfired initial studio session, Martin’s first idea for the band was to make their debut LP a live album. He went down to the Cavern Club to check them out, but binned the live album concept after hearing the sound quality in the club and deeming it unsuitable for recording. Switching to the idea of a regular studio album, he got the band back in to record and they captured their first single, Please Please Me. Though Martin was still doubtful of their songwriting abilities, he agreed to release the song and was surprised by the success they achieved, with it hitting #17 on the charts. After that point, he put his doubts aside and embraced the duo as competent pop music composers, allowing them to contribute half of the material for the album.
At the time The Beatles were emerging in the studio, the idea of a band writing their own songs was not the norm. Song writers and performers were two separate entities and did not generally cross paths. The Beatles also did not use session musicians for this LP, which was another exception to the usual process for bands. Throughout the 1950s & 1960s, session musicians were behind the vast majority of music created for the pop charts. However, with Ringo now on drums, they had the capacity to nail performances in the studio without the necessity of bringing in more adept musicians. They’d been hammering out their music in the clubs for years, so delivering flawless performances in the studio was well within their wheelhouse.
When it came time to record the album, Martin asked the band what they could whip through quickly and they said their stage act was the easiest for them to get down without much hassle. The group were recorded primarily live in the studio with limited overdubs. Back then, studios didn’t have the luxury of massive amounts of tracks. Two tracks was generally the standard of the day, so layering was extremely limited. In this case, most of the instruments were on one track with the vocals on another. The sessions took place over the course of a mere few days with the band doing a quick run-through of each song to get a level and then banging out the finished version, often in a single take. Given the legacy and importance of what came out of those sessions, it might just be the most efficient 585 minutes of studio time ever booked.
During the sessions, John Lennon was suffering from a bad head cold and spent the whole time downing throat lozenges to battle the congestion. This caused Martin to have to be strategic when recording John’s vocals, leaving the most demanding song, Twist and Shout, to the very end of the sessions. Martin remarked: "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 said of his one-take performance: “The last song nearly killed me. My voice wasn't the same for a long time after; every time I swallowed, it was like sandpaper."
The 14 song version of Please Please Me was released in the UK only in mono initially, which was standard practice for the times. The stereo mix was issued on April 26th. Outside the UK, The Beatles debuted with variations of the UK version, re-titled and with different cover art and altered track listings. This was also a common occurrence, particularly within the first half of the decade. This created a rather confusing catalogue for fans to collect for many years as variations of their albums could be found in different markets. It wasn’t until decades later when the albums were remastered for CD that their catalogue was standardized to the UK editions, internationally.
Please Please Me hit the top of the UK album charts by May and stayed there for a stunning 30 weeks. It was the beginning of Beatlemania in earnest. Only their sophomore LP, With The Beatles, pushed it out of the top spot. This chart success was another revolutionary aspect to The Beatles’ career as the album charts were typically dominated by soundtracks and easy listening pop vocal releases. The Beatles blasted open the charts to be dominated by rock ’n’ roll artists, with acts like The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks soon to take up residence in this new commercial terrain.
Cracking the US market would prove to be somewhat more difficult. Initial single releases in the US didn’t strike up a lot of interest at first and Capitol Records passed on releasing their debut. Ultimately Vee-Jay Records took up the album and trimmed off a couple of tracks to fit the US track count standard, re-titling the album to “Introducing the Beatles”. This version was not issued until January of 1964. By that time, the group had managed to score a US hit single with I Want to Hold Your Hand in December of 1963. This success lead Capital Records to finally be convinced of the commercial viability of the band, buying back the rights to their catalogue and releasing Meet the Beatles, a further modified version of their debut, shortly after the Vee-Jay album’s release. Following the February 9th, 1964, debut US TV appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the spark was ignited for the group to take over the US market and kick off what would become known as “the British Invasion” period of rock music.
Since its release, Please Please Me has become codified as a cornerstone for a new approach to pop music where the artist became responsible for nearly all of what became documented on their albums. It reinvigorated the rock ’n’ roll genre as a commercially dominant musical form and set millions of teenagers around the globe on the path of starting their own bands. You can’t talk to any pop music artist who came from the 1960s and find one who wasn’t inspired by seeing The Beatles on TV for the first time. They caused a cultural epiphany which triggered a paradigm shift in the way music was perceived and created. The very concept of a rock band still resides in the shadow of The Beatles and what they put to vinyl on that first album.
