Chart success
At the end of the 26 November 1962 recording session, George Martin addressed The Beatles over the studio’s talkback system. “Congratulations, gentlemen,” he told them, “You’ve just made your first number one.”He was correct, to a degree. At the time of the single’s release, 11 January 1963, there was no standard singles chart. In some – Melody Maker, New Musical Express, and Disc – ‘Please Please Me’ did indeed reach number one, after six weeks on sale.
In the Record Retailer chart, also used by New Record Mirror, it only reached number two. The Beatles had to wait until ‘From Me To You’ to score their first bona fide chart topper.
‘Please Please Me’, again with ‘Ask Me Why’ on the b-side, was The Beatles’ debut single in the US. It was released on 25 February 1963 by the small Vee-Jay label. The first pressing of the single, corrected on subsequent copies, was credited to “The Beattles”. Regardless, the single failed to make much impression, selling little over 7,000 copies.
The song was re-released by Vee-Jay on 3 January 1964, in the wake of the success of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. ‘From Me To You’ was on the flipside of the single, which reached number three in the Billboard Hot 100.
BBC recordings
The Beatles recorded ‘Please Please Me’ a total of 12 times for BBC radio.
The first was for Here We Go. It was recorded on 16 January 1963 and broadcast on 25 January. The Beatles performed four songs: ‘Chains’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘Ask Me Why’, and ‘Three Cool Cats’.
The second BBC version was for Saturday Club, recorded on 22 January 1963 and broadcast four days later. The Beatles performed ‘Some Other Guy’, ‘Keep Your Hands Off My Baby’, ‘Beautiful Dreamer’, ‘Love Me Do’, and ‘Please Please Me’.
The Beatles’ third BBC recording of ‘Please Please Me’ was made on 22 January 1963, for the 29 January edition of The Talent Spot. They also played versions of ‘Ask Me Why’ and ‘Some Other Guy’.
On 20 February 1963 The Beatles made their only appearance on Parade Of The Pops. They recorded just two songs – ‘Love Me Do’ and ‘Please Please Me’ – and the show was broadcast on 20 February.
The fifth BBC version was for Here We Go. It was taped on 6 March 1963 and broadcast on 12 March. The songs performed were ‘Misery’, ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’, ‘Please Please Me’, and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. This version of ‘Please Please Me’ was included on the 2013 digital album Bootleg Recordings 1963.
The Beatles returned to Saturday Club on 16 March 1963 for a live broadcast. They performed six songs: ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Misery’, ‘Too Much Monkey Business’, ‘I’m Talking About You’, ‘Please Please Me’, and
‘The Hippy Hippy Shake’.
The seventh BBC recording of ‘Please Please Me’ was made on 21 March 1963 for On The Scene, and was broadcast on 28 March. It was the third of three performances, and followed versions of ‘Misery’ and ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’.
On 1 April 1963 The Beatles made their first of three appearances on Side By Side. The episode was broadcast on 22 April 1963. The band performed ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’, ‘Baby It’s You’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘From Me To You’, and ‘Misery’.
The Beatles’ ninth BBC recording of ‘Please Please Me’ was for the 7 April 1963 edition of Easy Beat. It was recorded four days previously, and also featured renditions of ‘Misery’ and ‘From Me To You’.
The tenth recording was for Steppin’ Out. It was recorded on 21 May 1963 and broadcast on 3 June. ‘Please Please Me’ was the day’s first song, and was followed by ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Thank You Girl’, ‘From Me To You’, and ‘Twist And Shout’.
Fifteen editions of Pop Go The Beatles ran between June and September 1963. The ninth edition was recorded on 16 July 1963 and broadcast on 13 August.
The Beatles performed six songs during the episode: ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’, ‘I’ll Get You’, and ‘I Got A Woman’. This version of ‘Please Please Me’ was released in 2013 on On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2.
The twelfth and final BBC recording of ‘Please Please Me’ was for Easy Beat. Recorded on 16 October 1963 and broadcast four days later, it also featured versions of ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Love Me Do’, ‘From Me To You’, and ‘She Loves You’.
this song thoroughly kickz ass!!!! . . . . what mics were used for the vocalz, guitars/bass, and drums?
I agree, this song is great, but this is not Beatlezbible.com.
I would distinguish the vocals: John is on lead, Paul on harmony (and backing), George on backing
i just realized that this song is about masterbation…. totally changed the way i think of this song!!! lol still love it, ill just laugh every time i hear it now! lol
Sorry, I think you need to think a little more about what he is pleading for. She Bop, Turning Japanese and I Touch Myself are about masturbation…….
As is ‘Pictures Of Lily’ by The Who.
According to Ringo’s quote, Ringo’s first session was the Andy White session. Perhaps it’s just a memory slip but George Martin seemed to say the same on Anthology. Since the documentation for the 4 September session was destroyed, maybe it wasn’t the 4th, it was after the 11th, or maybe the 4th and 11th should be the other way around.
That’s an interesting point. Perhaps they did a run-through at the 4 September session, then recorded the song on the 11th. That would explain why the Anthology (11 September) version isn’t the slow Roy Orbison arrangement.
How did different record charts end up with different results?
Because they used different sources – radio play, numbers ordered, actual sales, even sheet music. The earliest UK charts involved a pool of around 20 record shops, although this increased quickly. The BBC initially created an average chart based on all the others, which meant it was prone to having tied positions.
There wasn’t a standardised chart until February 1969, when the BBC and Record Retailer commissioned a professional polling company to carry out a proper weekly audit from a pool of 500 shops (twice the previous sample).
In Geoff Emerick’s book he said he worked both sessions & that they hammered it out after “Love Me Do” & that Ringo went down after they finished the single edition of “Love Me Do” & Andy White left. That’s when the weird usage of Ringo on the bass drum happened. Then they came back with the final edition the next time.
At any rate, it was the first song with the great, fast paced Lennon/McCartney dual voice & the Lennon call, McCartney/Harrison response is amazing. For as good of a vocal track as it is, McCartney is the star of this track for me, as he really gives a great, fast paced bass sound that drives this track.
McCartney…..is never…..the star……of a John Lennon song. A thousand curses upon you!
Don’t be silly. Whether as performers, arrangers and/or co-writers, they each regularly enhanced the other’s song for the collective good.
“McCarthey is never the star of a John Lennon song”…
Two words: Come together. Paul’s bass riff MAKES this song – PLUS drums, vocals etc., the sum of their talents was obviously what made them the greatest. But the bass is the real thing in that song. He played the keyboard solo as well.
Paul added so many fantastic features to so many Lennon songs: The keyboard intros to Strawberry fields and Lucy in the sky, most of the music to In my life, the idea with the loops in Tomorrow never knows…
So he’s kind of the secret star behind many of their most memorable parts – and many people STILL won’t accept the fact that he was more than the cute one, OR they accuse of him bossing everybody around…
Just stop with the comparing and putting up a “fight” between Paul and John and trying to take away anything from either of them.
Everyone who’s paying serioius attention knows by now that Paul was 45 percent of the Beatles, John was 45 percent, and then you’ve got 10 percent from the support troops.
Geoff did not work in any capacity on that session, either as balance engineer or tape op, and Mal Evans did not even meet The Beatles until January 1963, so this story was obviously fabricated by his ghostwriter Howard Massey. As I have stated many times, Geoff admitted in his 1979 interview that he could not remember much about his sessions with The Beatles.
Andy White is on drums, not Ringo. They have been lying about that since they recorded it.
The Single & Album versions (Stereo and mono) have the same Exact drum lines as the ones that Ringo does live. Confirm via any video on youtube. Secondly, the drum line from the anthology is different than the final drum part that Ringo ended up going with – the song was still being worked on at the time. The one from 1/11 is Ringo, as Geoff Emerick said – it was recorded after White left the session. Andy White is absolutely not the drummer on the master recording. If anything he was on the slow version that was erased. And now this guy is trying to take credit 50 years later because he has nothing else going on in is life at 80 year old, or has dementia and forgot that he played on an early take of the song.
Seems the only one lying is you. (to be charitable, we’ll just say you’re mistaken).
Thanks, Jemini! I,ve been waiting for someone else to say this. The Beatles themselves, while listening to the tapes for Anthology 1, heard “Please Please Me” and said, “that’s not Ringo”. Andy White’s drumming on the outtake is exactly the same as the single.
George Martin obviously liked White’s drumming on PPM better, but didn’t make his decision public. Perhaps he wanted to protect Ringo’s ego. How would it look if the Beatles’ first two singles featured another drummer?!
This is why we hear John messing up the lyrics. On a remake, they’d have corrected that. Whatever they did on November 26 wasn’t used. It’s also why that recording session has disappeared.
Thank you for that analysis. That was very clear.
As for the whole was it, wasn’t it Ringo debate. At least YouTube the live version of the song. Ringo “totally owns” that song over the other 3. Doesn’t matter who’s on the studio version once you see Ringo playing it live.
Don’t know what you think you’re listening to, but the drumming on the version on Anthology (with Andy White), is vastly different to the single and album release (Ringo).
I really wish certain know-it-alls (read: know-nothings) would just stop this nonsense.
I agree with you. I myself have listened to the version on “Anthology 1” and the drum fills clearly do not resemble Ringo’s playing, since they are done in a rolling way, so this may have been the session that Andy White was referring to.
I don’t see why Mr. White would dubiously say that he played on the single/album version of “Please Please Me” 50 years later if he wasn’t even present at the 26 November session and the staggered fills on the final release are clearly played by Ringo.
I’m reading mark lewisohns book in front of me right now while listening to every Beatles recording session bootlegs I have on my studio dr dre beats headphones! Andy White’s Abbey Road payment card does NOT have November 26th as a working paid date! However, he dies obviously have September 11th! Which leads me to believe White was on the first few takes of Please Please Me, which we now know he was on in the anthology version of the song because it’s clearly not Ringos drumming and the book itself days that Ringo did not drum AT ALL THAT DAY! It also says TAKES UNKNOWN! We can assume that Please Please Me was obviously already auditioned for George Martin and was the “dreary Roy Orbison” version. However the sound had ALREADY BEEN SPED UP FOR THIS September 11 date because Andy Whites version is FAST not DREARY! and the drumming on this anthology take and the finished single sound strikingly similar! I guarantee that Ringo gave it a shot at the future session on November 26th, BUT George Martin preferred the Andy White version from September 11! Much like he did with White’s version of Love Me Do, since he didn’t have much confidence in Ringo yet, having just only met him and heard a few takes of his! I guess what we should be doing is listening to LIVE RECORDINGS of this song where Ringo plays and compare it to the actual song ! And dont forget that the mono and stereo versions of this song are different too! I would put money on it that the stereo version with John’s word flub and half laugh on the first “Come on!” is the Andy White version and the mono version on the album is the Ringo version from November 26th! The drumming on the stereo word flub version just sounds too much like the abthology Andy White version!
Regarding the two dates you mentioned. There’s a video on youtube with an Andy White interview where he claims he played drums on a version of Please Please Me the same day they recorded Love Me Do & P.S. I Love You. He doesn’t mention any other recording dates but the one.
Does anyone know what the deal is with the weird, seemingly off-time drummming that starts at 1:45, quietly in the right channel of the LP version? I can’t find an explanation of it anywhere.
From what I can tell from the information in “Tune In: The Beatles Vol. 1″and listening to the tracks themselves, I believe it’s because the instruments and vocals were recorded simultaneously live onto separate tracks and for some reason edited together from different takes. What sounds like out of time drumming is the bleed of the drums from a different take into the vocal microphones. That means there are two different takes playing on top of each other at that edit point and, without having played to a metronome, they’re slightly out of time with each other. It’s rather jarring and I don’t really understand the reason why the same take from the mono mix wasn’t used for the stereo mix.
For the stereo, they lost most of their tapes, or they were destroyed. So they made due with different takes, and they lost the harmonica take. Since the mono mix had the harmonica, they just faded it in during those parts on the stereo version. Though, they just layed it out over the right channel of the stereo, the tempos of the takes were different and they didnt cut up the mono tape to re-align it.
The drums were a different take so they sound different but they had faded in the harmonica at that time and not faded it out until after the drums, so your hearing on the left channel, the drum mic instruments channel, and on the right, the reverb from the please please me raw twin track AND the mono mix, since they were too lazy and didn’t fade out the vocal track before fading in the mono mix. At the end of the song, the mono mix was still laying over the stereo mix when they faded in the harmonica, so there was a slight delay, so your hearing on the right, reverb from the instruments on the left channel, vocals from the stereo take, the mono instruments and the mono vocals with a harmonica. to add to this confusion, a really similar sounding lead guitar to the harmonica on the left channel, along with louder vocal reverb on the left channel.
Regarding the slow Roy Orbison version that was never saved: Not sure if outside links are allowed here, and this is not a video of me. But I always wondered what it would have sounded like. So I found this guy on YouTube. Sounds just as Lennon describes it when writing it.
Can anyone explain the George Martin/Dick James (producers) problem? Martin was at the helm (?) in Jan’63 when ‘Please, Please Me’ was cut on the VJ label, at least I think so, but, Dick James took over (?) at some point—I see several VJ 45’s with the Dick James name, but I’m convinced that I need to be looking for the VJ label with George Martin on that label…isn’t that correct??
Dick james was the music publisher of Lennon/McCartney songs . Northern Songs was a spin off of Dick James Music . He was never a producer.
I´ve read so much about the Andy White/George Martin/Ringo´s affair that I`m really confused. Is there any difference between the UK ´s single and album versions of “Please please me”? I´ve never owned a copy of the single so please somebody clear it up to me.
Lennon started composing Please Please Me in a slow tempo. If you play it slowly it changes from being a pop song to a kind of anthem song! The beginning with falling notes resembles Mendelssohn´s Wedding March. I don´t think it resembles Roy Orbison´songs at all. When Lennon was a little boy, he loved going to church and listen to the music in the divine services. Afterwards he used to improvise anthems.
In parts of All You Need Is Love, Lennon has even more of anthem feelings.
https://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Utamia/ppm4_zps1pnayarz.png~original
i removed logos from Please Please me cover
The song is music history. It was The Beatles first number one in Britain February 1963. It was composed by Lennon 1961. It was something new. Love Me Do wasn´t a big success at all, sounded like the pop music before The Beatles, or worse.
Music writers don´t, or didn´t, write so much about Lennon´s musical genius for many many years, because McCartney had composed Yesterday… But: When Lennon was a little boy he loved going to church and listen to the music in the divine services. Afterwards he used to improvise anthem melodies! In later years I have realized that Lennon could have been unconsciously inspired by the melody West minster Quarters the chime is playing in churches. The first four notes are the same as those in the chime.
Albert Goldman was the first one who made musical analysis of Beatles or Lennon´s songs. He thinks the beginning of Please Please Me is “like sailors shouting back and forth as they haul up a sheet of canvas, the song is an irresistible shout of “ Bon voyage”.
Then the call and response! And the middle part is typical Lennon: with the octave run!: “…it´s so hard to reason with YOU…”. The song is fantastical. It is not typical pop music, it´s a kind of expressionism, which is typical for the early Beatles music. It has nothing to do with Roy Orbison. McCartney willingly speaks, or spoke, about plagiarism. I have always got the feeling that McCartney and George Martin want to reduce the song´s importance, because Lennon, and not McCartney was the dominant composer in those years, before Yesterday — and that embarrasses the competitive McCartney tremendously — and George Martin wasn´t so influential before Sgt Pepper.
Music writers usually don´t know that Please Please Me is a Lennon composition, but they all know that McCartney did Yesterday! George Martin knew it is a Lennon song completely, but by some reason he always said that John and Paul wrote it “together”. That irritated Lennon. See the book “Lennon letters”.
“Love Me Do wasn’t a big success at all…” to quote Johan, but it did hit number one in Australia and the United States. I guess those two smaller markets don’t count?
Yawn….Johan, once again your JohnLove/PaulHate problem is causing you to look very foolish.
And now you’re GeorgeMartin bashing to try and support your untenable position. Smh……
I won’t even get into the rest of your meandering, pointless diatribe…..to be honest I couldn’t be bothered (I suspect I’m not alone in that).
Johan Cavalli, ” ‘Love Me Do” wasn’t a big success at all, sounded like the pop music before The Beatles, or worse.”
But, “Love Me Do” was a success;
“In Hamburg we clicked. At the Cavern we clicked. But if you want to know when we ‘knew’ we’d arrived, it was getting in the charts with ‘Love Me Do’. That was the one. It gave us somewhere to go.” Paul McCartney
In 1962, it was the first Song that got into the Charts at #17 in the UK. And in 1964, “Love Me Do” Hit #1 in the USA. Re-released in 1982 as part of EMI’s Beatles 20th anniversary, it re-entered the UK charts and peaked at #4.
So, “Love Me Do” was a Success!
You nailed it. Especially by re-writing history, using alternate UK charts, going out of his way to not have Please Please Me on “1.” It should have been the first track.
They recorded “Please Please Me” with Andy White on Sept. 11, 1962, the same session they did “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You.” That version is on Anthology 1. There was talk of putting it on the B side of “Love Me Do,” but Martin decided to keep it for later. It’s all Ringo on the stereo and mono versions recorded in November, and his drumming is fabulous! Things were happening very fast in the second half of 1962. Read Mark Lewisohn’s “Tune In.” It will give you a very clear picture of everything that was going on
This autumn Paul Du Noyer released a book “Conversations with McCartney”. There McCartney again declares that Please Please Me is “a Orbison-esque piece”.
But the melody has nothing to do with Roy Orbison! As usual McCartney wants to reduce Lennon´s importance. Please Please Me was their first number one hit, and their big break through. But McCartney´s Yesterday from 1964-1965 has more similarities with Lennon´s Do You Want to Know A Secret? from 1962, than Lennon has with Orbison. But nobody mention that. Nobody defended Lennon´s music.
“Yesterday, all my troubles seem so far away” = “Listen, do you want to know a secret”. The same start and the same up climbing melody.
You do realize they worked on PPM together, on at least one occasion, in Paul’s house on Forthlin Road in 1962, right? Sitting side by side at the piano, working on it. From this, it would appear that John wrote it and then he and Paul worked on the arrangement together. The Orbison reference is about the original version, which no one’s ever heard, because it was never recorded.
This ridiculous arguing about who was better or more important between the 2 of them gets old fast. No one with any real intelligence disparages John Lennon’s songwriting abilities, least of all Paul. It’s come to the point with some people that you can’t write a statement like “I love song X by either John or Paul” without someone saying that the best part is the contribution by the other of the 2.
And Yesterday has virtually nothing in common with DYWTKAS other than they may, at rare moments, follow similar chord patterns (which many songs do). Remember, Paul had that song around for ages, asking anyone and everyone if they recognized the melody. Don’t you think someone would have pointed out your similarity if it was true? Why not argue that the PPM progression from E to the G-A-B is copied by Paul at the start of “The Night Before” with the progression from D to F-G-A. It’s the same silly point, right?
Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll go back to listening to the MMT album. I am up to Strawberry Fields Forever, which, as we all know, is a masterpiece because of the way Paul plays the harmonium at the beginning. 😉
It’s a mellotron on flute setting at the beginning of SFF.
Johan, you obviously are incapable of staying on-topic as every post of yours is a John-is-great / Paul-is-nothing / Paul-and-GeorgeM-conspired-against-John menagerie of sad silliness.
JOHN said PPM was inspired by Orbison – said so in many, many interviews. It initially was slow-tempoed because he was trying to write an Orbisonesque tune. All involved have said it was GeorgeM who suggested the tempo and vocal changes which made the tune come alive.
But, those facts don’t fit your hopelessly sad agenda, do they?
Johan, “Please Please Me is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Toy Orbison Song, would you believe it! I wrote it in the bedroom in my house at Melove Avenue, which was my Auntie’s place. I remember the day and the pink covered in the bed and I heard Roy Orbison doing Only The Lonely or something. That’s where that came from and also I was always intrigued by the words of “Please, lend me your little ears to my pleas’ – a Bing Crosby song. I was always intrigued by the double use of the double use of the word ‘power’s so it was a combination of Bing Crosby and Roy Orbison.”
John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying
David Sheff
Do a little bit more research before you starts bashing Sir Paul. If John thinks “Please Please Me” is a combination of Bing Crosby and Roy Orvison who are you to say that it wasn’t!
First number one and what a great song, delicious melody and some great vocals,
about the John and Paul thing, they are both incredible and did make each other even better.
I for one love both. (actually all 4)
I wrote to you, but it dissapeared.
To DarrenS
Interesting, but you have many faults. I am keen on this matter. Beatles is music history, and history description went wrong. You are an example of how McCartney´s and George Martin´s PR activity has succeeded.
–Please Please Me. You are talking about arrangement. I am talking about the c o m p o s i t i o n. What do you think for example Irwing Berlin, from 1930s, would have said if somebody who had arranged his song, called himself a co-composer. Today McCartney admit Please Please Me is a completely Lennon composition, but formerly McCartney would conceal if it is a Lennon composition by saying “we wrote it together”, which could mean everything. The original version was exactly the same melody, but slower.
–Do You Want to Know A Secret. I am talking about the m e l o d y, despite it´s today is so hot to only talk about the chords. McCartney recorded Yesterday 1965, but composed it probably in the beginning of 1964, according to George Martin. Lennon composed Do You Want to Know A Secret already in 1962, it had some connection with his first marriage. Didn´t you know that? Of course McCartney, George Martin and the establishment don´t say anything about the similarity with Yesterday. But I have heard many people, outside the establishment, reminding it´s resemblance with Yesterday.
–Strawberry Fields Forever. You can´t be serious?? You say it´s “a masterpiece because of Paul´s playing the harmonium in the beginning”! The point with the song is the music behind “living is easy …” with the melody in one note, but the background music is instead changing. When the song was released a critic said it resembled Wagner, I think the intro to Lohengrin. By the way, McCartney is playing mellotron, not harmonium.
You are a splendid example of how McCartney and George Martin have succeeded in their PR activity. McCartney will always win PR fights in small, but cunning means. Even though the faults in history description would be corrected, the old faults in literature will never die. The written words have an enormous power.
“You have many faults”. Sheesh, sounds like my wife. 🙂
Seriously, let it go man. They wrote a lot of stuff together and a lot of stuff apart. They threw in lines here and there (and Paul gives John credit on a lot of “his” stuff, like Penny Lane, Michelle, Getting Better, Eleanor Rigby, I Saw Her Standing There, to name a few).
My main point was the constant bickering about this issue starts to take away from the enjoyment of the music. As for nicking little pieces here and there from other songs, everyone ripped little things off from everyone (“Here come old flat top” ring a bell?). That’s composition, man. In fact, go get a copy of the Everly Brothers’ “And She Kissed Me” and see if one of the lines doesn’t leap out at you.
Look, I get that you are trying to keep John’s genius alive and free from Paul’s greedy fingers. It’s admirable, but unnecessary. It is very apparent that neither would have ascended to their places in history without the other. The fact that you feel Paul is ripping off John’s legacy (with George Martin’s help, apparently) is unbecoming. Yes, John was all you said he was. Paul was pretty good too, no?
And Yesterday has virtually nothing in common with Do You Want to Know a Secret. I refuse to let you convince me of that. You seem to want to suggest Paul was a second class nothing who rode John’s coattails to fame and then, after he dies, stole all of his genius. That’s ridiculous.
Oh, and the Strawberry Fields thing was a joke. Read it in the context of my argument. I am not sure if English is your native language, but it was sarcasm.
As to PPM (staying on topic :)), I love it. It is fun to play, and it rocks (and it wouldn’t have rocked without George Martin)
“Interesting, but you have many faults…” Interesting, but so do you, Johan.
Your love-obsession with Lennon/hate-obsession with McCartney, your repeated, baseless , and non-factual misinformation that you’ve disseminated here so often (and present as “facts”), and your condescending, arrogant attitude toward those you DO bring facts, quotes, and the like to the discussion of which you choose to disagree… well, that’s just the start of the list of your many faults, Johan.
The FACT is you weren’t there, you don’t know, and your saying otherwise won’t change the first two.
Now I’ll move on the more rational, sensible posters here….
Paul had “dreamed” (his description) the melody of Yesterday sometime before 16 April 1964, as he can be heard singing it (in a Frank Sinatra sort of way) during takes of the song A Hard Day’s Night. He wrote the words while in Portugal in early June 1965.
Couldn’t have said it better. Spot on.
Written by John Lennon, this song was a huge step forward musically. I love the opening chord, it is so distinctive. Lennon originally sung it in a slower Roy Orbison style. George Martins idea to speed it up works a treat. Ideal as title song for their first album.
What opening chord?
Both John and George pick the open E string before it starts.
Someonew plucks a ‘B’ note before the beat, to lead up to the ‘E’
To DarrenS
Yes, I think Lennon was greater as composer.
I hope you are right when you say it´s unnecessary to keep John´s genius alive,
OK, let´s enjoy their music.
With George Martin’s passing last week, it is worth remembering his invaluable contribution to “Please Please Me”.
I don’t think it is exaggerating one bit to call this song a rock masterpiece, and a true collaboration between John Lennon, the other Beatles, and the ‘fifth Beatle’ George Martin.
If this song had not launched them into the “topper-most of the popper-most”, would hundreds of people like us be on the internet fifty years later talking about some long-forgotten band from Liverpool?
BTW,I find the discussions above about the drumming very interesting. I’m a longtime fan, but have to admit I can’t tell the difference between Andy White’s sound and Ringo’s. (Pete Best I can usually recognize by his dull, lifeless style which seems to get in the way of Paul’s bass feel.)
Anyway, RIP George Martin… and Andy White, too!
One poster has castigated Andy White , he happened to be one of the greatest session drummers this country has ever produced
He was indeed. Learned his trade as a pipe band drummer. The best and most technical drummers in the world.
After ‘Love me do’ George Martin wanted the next release to be ‘How do you do it’ a double entendre song written by British songsmith Mitch Murray. The band dug their heels in and said they wanted to do their own song . Martin relented and agreed they could do so if it was as good as the song he had in mind. It is no co incidence that Lennon brought ‘Please Please’ me to the table as this was also a double entendre song.
Is it true that George (Harrison) wasn’t supposed to play the lead line in the beginning? I heard somewhere that the producers kept yelling at him when he played it but he still ended up playing it anyway.
Actually, George Harrison was originally playing the opening line all through the song, until he was directed to just play it in the gaps.
Also, during the Nov. 26, 1962 session that produced the master recordings of both “Please Please Me” and “Ask Me Why”, the group attempted a recording of “Tip Of My Tongue” (a song later given to singer Tommy Quickly). I believe the tape of that song has not survived.
I always “quite liked” this song. Then one night I played it (very) loud in my headphones and was gob-smacked. The 2 note intro, the harmonies, the driving bass, drum fills, screaming/confronting harmonica and energy of the song held me spellbound. It’s rock and roll perfection by 4 lads barely out of their teens. And is it just me, or does John sing “I know I never even try, girl “ the second time round?
Wonder if John was influenced by the 1958 song “Nothin Shakin” but the leaves on the tree:
“…Why must she be such a dog gone tease
There’s nothin’ shakin’ but the leaves on the trees
…I’m beggin’ for her kisses on bended knees
Give me some lovin’- please please please ….”
FOR…His Song’s theme: please please me?
Though `officially` it was said to reach No 2, that is a bit of a Lie the original compilers of “Guinness Hit Singles” put out as they only used the `Record Retailer` charts for their data March 1960 to February 1969. The Record Retailer lagged a long way behind the `New Musical Express` and `Melody Maker` charts in Size of sampling or importance in the Industry in the 1960s. The Retailer charts were never published in any UK national or regional newspapers unlike NME & MM charts. It was most certainly NOT `official` in any way whatsoever back then.
In early 1963 it was still only sampling around 30 record shops, in comparison to NME at 150 plus and M.Maker at 200 plus! Please Please Me hit No 1 on NME, MM and DISC weekly charts for TWO weeks each, It made top of the BBC “Pick of the Pops” amalgamated charts for THREE weeks!
To reiterate what Alan Smith posted above, Please Please Me was #1 based on sampling over 300 record shops from NME, Melody Maker, and Disc; for 2 weeks each, and for 3 weeks on the BBC. It was #2 based on a sampling of 30 record shops from Record Retailer. Which is truth, over 300, or 30? When Guinness published their chart books beginning in 1977, they chose Record Retailer to represent the 60s, but they did not declare it as ‘official’. In 2001/2002, the ‘official’ charts co at that time declared Record Retailer as ‘official’ for the 60s. How about a lot of revisionist history, eh? Like 30+ years after the fact? Record Retailer was the least accurate chart of the 60s, it sampled the fewest shops for their data, because of that they had a lot of tied positions, which forced them to go to tie breakers by looking at the previous weeks chart. This is mathematical malpractice. Also, Record Retailer had 11 records hit #1 that did not hit #1 on any of the other charts. They had 6 records that did not hit #1 that hit #1 on ALL the other charts. Record Retailer disagreed with the other charts the most often, not only in record peaks, but in week to week chart analysis. They were the most outlier chart of them all. It is fake history to say they were the ‘official’ chart of the 60s, there was no ‘official’ chart in the UK until Feb 1969, as started then by BMRB, and carried by Record Retailer, Record Mirror, and broadcast on the BBC Pick/Top of the Pops. These are the facts, period. For the full truth of the history of the UK charts, go here: https://www.ukmix.org/forum/chart-discussion/chart-analysis/100512-updated-chart-history
Joined the debate (several years late!) and I’m baffled by the Ringo or Andy White who’s on drums debate. I think it’s being over complicated. Andy White was a far more experienced drummer than Ringo, he’d been playing top sessions for years and continued to for years after this (he’s on Chris Farlowe’s Out of Time to name one of many). His drumming on the 1st PPM session is fantastically imaginative considering he’d probably only just heard it. He switches the beat between the verse and bridge from on beat to four in the bar like a true pro, though his fill at the end of the lines doesn’t quite work. So George Martin played that version to Ringo to show him how it should sound (GM had a lot of regard for AW he was a session regular) and Ringo went with it, improving it in places with his better experience of the sound of the band. So, Andy White’s basic idea, played by and given the Ringo touch. Simple!