Please Please Me [Enhanced, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered]

 

 

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I have reviewed the entire UK original Beatle catalog with the purpose of providing readers with a practical review of each recording. Please, Please Me the group's 1st official L.P. has a raw, fresh, and spontaneous sound, but most important it was very unique and a very challenging sound to all listeners. From the famous count of 1,2,3,4...which introduces I Saw Her Standing There to Twist & Shouts, the strength, the rhythm, the beat, the vocals and the delivery of the Beatles was very different from what was being heard at the time. This album has more to do with a collection item and pop classic album than with the contemporary music. Its value is found in that it was composed and recorded before many of the 60's landmark music: "Satisfaction", "You Really Got Me", "Mr. Tambourine Man", "My Generation", or "Good Vibrations". Recorded all in one day, Lennon and Mc Cartney presented producer George Martin with their best songs so far, and took a test on each take to have then in or out of the album. I remember that original version of Please, Please Me ("a la Roy Orbison") almost was excluded from the album as Mr. Martin preferred the "fab four" to do a cover version of "How Do You Do It". Fortunately, after speeding up the tempo of Please, Please Me they went for the John and Paul composition. In conclusion, the album witnesses the Beatles strength and effort to record their material with George Martin who gave them their first opportunity. For the young generation interested in finding out where the 60's music comes from and how did it begin, this album is a great place to start. To compare play early Beach Boys stuff, Dylan's first LP, or any of the pioneers of Rock & Roll (C. Berry, C.Perkins, B. Holy, F.Domino, Elvis, etc.) and then play Please, Please Me and hopefully you will feel the new sound which the Liverpool quartet brought to Pop music. To justify the 5 stars I would summarize the album as follows. Cover: Standard for 1963 which normally was the faces of the group in a public place (not artistic). Recording: as good as any LP of the same year. Group's playing: superb for the time. Originality: The Lennon-Mac tunes and the cover versions are outstanding. The final message: music started changing in early 60's and the Beatles were one of the main responsible groups. It's a Pop Classic.

Please Please Me was the magnificent beginning to the recording career of possibly the greatest, and certainly the most culturally important, rock n' roll band of all time. Released in 1963, just as Lennon and McCartney were hitting their strides as songwriters, the album includes several early classic Beatles compositions, as well as a few covers that seemed to be the idea of a not quite convinced George Martin. The album rarely falters, from the thrilling opening (1-2-3-4) sung by Paul on I Saw Her Standing There through to John's equally exciting rendering of Twist & Shout, the best Beatles cover ever. In between are the band's first two singles - Love Me Do and the much better Please Please Me - and great performances on Misery, Ask Me Why, P.S. I Love You, There's a Place, and especially Do You Want to Know A Secret? The weakest tracks are the other covers - Anna, Chains, Boys, A Taste of Honey, and Baby It's You - though most are redeemed by stellar vocals by Lennon and McCartney. The Beatles were about to become huge, and not necessarily for all the right reasons, but Please Please Me offered enough evidence that the band's popularity would not be based on hype alone. John and Paul were already great vocalists and would soon develop into two of the greatest writers in the history of rock n' roll. Those who listened to this album back in 1963 heard something fresh that had been missing from music for a long while. In particular they heard a band that was fronted by two singers as good as Elvis, two writers as good as Chuck Berry, and that played as if it was having a great time playing.

The Beatles are a group like no other. They matured as a group from teen pop to progressive and they took a large part of a generation with them on the ride. Nor is their influence limited just to that generation, as the echoes of their greatness still resound today. "Please Please Me" is the album that took them from obscurity to a UK sensation, and paved the way for their global success. Originally released on March 22nd, 1963, in Mono (April 26, 1963 for the stereo version), the album featured 14 tracks, 10 of which were recorded on February 11th, and the remaining four were recorded at other times. The version I am reviewing is the digitally remastered version of the stereo release of the album

The album opens with "I Saw Her Standing There", one of eight McCartney-Lennon pieces on the album. Paul is the lead vocalist, and the song is from take 1 of the session on February 11th, while the count-in from take 9. George Martin wanted to capture a life feeling, and it sets the tone for the entire album. Next is "Misery" (McCartney-Lennon) with Paul and John sharing the vocals. This song was written for Helen Shapiro, but she turned it down, it was the first song to be covered by another artist as Kenny Lynch recorded it just days after The Beatles recorded it, and released it as a single before "Please Please Me" was released. This song is the first to have George Martin play on it as he added the piano. "Anna (Go To Him)" (Arthur Alexander) is next and features John on vocals, it is the first of the non McCartney-Lennon compositions on the album.

Up next is "Chains" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) is the first of two songs to feature George Harrison on vocals. "Boys" (Luther Dixon, Wes Farrell) is the only song to feature Ringo on lead vocals. It is an odd choice since the lyric is intended for a female to sing, but Ringo pulls it off. "Ask Me Why" is a return to the McCartney-Lennon compositions, with John on lead vocals. The song had been recorded as early as June 6th of 1962, but this take is from November 26th of the same year. It was the B-Side of their second single, "Please Please Me" which is the last song on the first half of this album and was recorded on the same day.

The second half of the album opens with two mono tracks, even on the stereo version of the album. "Love Me Do" starts it off, their first single. This version is the one with Andy White on drums and Ringo playing tambourine. John and Paul share the lead vocals on this one. The second track is the B-Side, "P.S. I Love You", which once again has Andy White on drums and Ringo on maracas this time. Paul has the lead vocals on this track. These two tracks were recorded on September 11th of 1962. "Baby It's You" with John on vocals is next. It is a cover of a song written by Burt Bacharach (music), and Barney Williams (a.k.a. Luther Dixon) and Hal David (lyrics). This is the second song that The Beatles included which was done previously by The Shirelles. George Martin plays Celesta on this track. Next up is "Do You Want to Know a Secret", the second song that George handles the vocals.

"A Taste of Honey" (Bobby Scott, Ric Marlow) was originally an instrumental piece, but had vocals added when Lenny Welch recorded it a few months before The Beatles did. Paul handles the lead vocals on the track. "There's A Place" is the final McCartney-Lennon piece on the album with John and Paul sharing the vocals. The album closes with "Twist and Shout" (Phil Medley, Bert Russell), a song on which John excels and pushes his vocals to the extreme. This CD also includes a short documentary about the making of the album. It is a nice add-on, but I would rather have had the stereo and mono tracks on a single CD.

There is no doubt that this album is historic, and important to the legacy of the group for all the firsts which are included on it. But when it comes to rating the album I think one has to look at it on its own. The songs are a bit dated, though not nearly as bad as other songs from the era, so I would say that the album has aged gracefully. Still, overall it is a fairly standard pop album. There is no experimentation in the studio on this one, and the songs are all less than three minutes in length. Nor is this even the best pop album from The Beatles, and if this album were the only one from the group, it would not have been remembered the way it has been. Taking everything into account, I would say that this is an above average pop album, but not enough above average to justify four stars, and when rating albums by The Beatles, this one is closer to the bottom than the top.

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4.0 out of 5 stars The Beatle - Please please me
07/12/09

Le premier album de la formation en format vinyl pour les amateurs pure et dur comme je suis... Read more

Published on Dec 7 2009 by S. Lacroix

3.0 out of 5 stars A promising start
PLEASE PLEASE ME was a formulaic release in 1963. Band scores a hit single, record company orders a quick album built around that song. Read more

Published on May 12 2005 by Allan Tong

5.0 out of 5 stars Seeds of greatness
I was a young teenager when this was released. It's good to have a digitally enhanced version of this classic available; as much of a period piece (actually way beyond the times)... Read more

Published on July 13 2004 by Chris

4.0 out of 5 stars yes, please
not quite as good as i thought it would be, but i figured it was something i needed. if nothing else, it's fun. just nowhere near the quality of, say, rubber soul. Read more

Published on July 11 2004 by Davy

5.0 out of 5 stars Under-rated classic
"Please Please Me" may be eclipsed by the Beatles later efforts, but their debut is a fine one. They had been gigging for a good few years with material, so it's no surprise they... Read more

Published on July 4 2004 by John Ballantyne

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this album!
I bought this album and whoa! The early Beatles had this amazing vibrance that really impresses me. The original tracks are all excellent and what really impressed me were how... Read more

Published on July 1 2004 by Tnahpellee

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome? You better believe it.
When I first considered buying this album, I was a bit skeptical. I had heard that the album was recorded in a day, and to me that just screamed bad production. Read more

Published on Jun 26 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the Cavern
"1, 2, 3, 4..." Minus the cheering fans, this is the closest we can come (not including some Anthology tracks) to the Beatles' stage show in their early days. Read more

Published on Jun 15 2004 by Charles Foster Kane

5.0 out of 5 stars Their first full-length LP... Still a masterpiece
Please Please Me (1963.) Beatles' first album.

Heavily influenced by artists like Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley, John Lennon formed his first band, known in its earliest... Read more

Published on May 23 2004 by Taylor X

5.0 out of 5 stars An Early Blast!
The recording that changed popular music for all time, this was the first Beatles release and according to producer George Martin, was just their regular Cavern Club set recorded... Read more

Published on April 15 2004 by M. R. Sheffield

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