A Review of the Beatles Debut Album, 1963's Please Please Me

When listening to The Beatles 1963 debut Please Please Me today it may be hard for some younger fans to understand why it was such a big deal when it came out 46 years ago. It sounds quite tame compared to much of the music that has come since (including compared to The Beatles later work.)

Context

It's important to listen to this album thinking about the context of when it was released. At that time many "guitar music" was thought to be a dying fad. In fact, that's why The Beatles had such a hard time getting signed. Most of the pop records on the radio at the time were extremely "soft" and almost all of them were written by someone other than the artist that sang them.

While the rock n roll on Please Please Me doesn't sound all that "rock" today, in 1963 it was a revelation. And it was a very big deal that The Beatles were a "self contained" group. They wrote their own songs, they played their own music. They inspired a generation of rockers with their DIY aesthetic.

The Originals

Eight of the 14 songs on the album were originals written by either John Lennon, Paul McCartney, or the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team. But regardless of who the songs were actually written by, they were all credited as a joint songwriting effort.

Of those 8 originals it's the album opener "I Saw Her Standing There" (written by McCartney) and the title track "Please Please Me" (written by Lennon) that really stand out. They were both included in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the greatest 500 songs of all time and they are both essential Beatles songs. To my ears they both rock in 2009, context or not.

Another one of the originals that's really notable is "There's a Place" which was written by John & Paul together. While I don't think it's a particularly great song, I do think it's remarkable for it's interesting harmony vocals and the fact that the lyrics were about something other than romantic love. Instead it's essentially a song about thinking.

The rest of the originals show some spark of The Beatles later greatness but I wouldn't single any of them out as being particularly good. "Love Me Do" & "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" were both hits but they were not great songs.

The Covers

Among the album's 6 covers is one in particular that stands out and that's the album closer "Twist & Shout" which was sung brilliantly by John Lennon. I think listening to the rather lame original version (released by The Isley Brothers in 1962) of this song and then listening to The Beatles version should give you a good idea of what was so exciting about The Beatles music in 1963 (in the UK) and 1964 (when they first hit the US.)

While none of the other covers were anywhere near as exciting as "Twist & Shout," I do think that "Baby It's You" and "Anna (Go To Him)" both worked very well. On the other hand "Chains" & "Boys" are both pretty awful. "Taste of Honey" has grown on me over the years and it has some cool moments but it's definitely not one of The Beatles better recordings.

The Energy

There's a certain "energy" to Please Please Me which makes it come together in a way that's somewhat better than the sum of it's parts. I think a large part of that is because 10 of the 14 songs were recorded in a single day (February 11, 1963.) The songs were essentially recorded "live." The Beatles would never again record so many songs in one day.

If you are curious, the four songs not recorded in that single day session were "Love Me Do," "P.S. I Love You," "Please Please Me," & "Ask Me Why." They had been previously recorded and released as singles.

The Remastered Beatles Box Sets

Please Please Me is a part of both The Beatles Mono Box Set and The Beatles Stereo Box Set. They are both being released on September 9, 2009. The mono box set will include the album in it's original mono mix and since the remastered mono mixes will not be released individually, the only way to get the original mix CD of this album (or any of the others) is by purchasing the mono box set.