Please Please Me (song)
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| “Please Please Me” | |||||
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"Please Please Me" 45 ( 1983 UK issue)
In Original Type C Sleeve |
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| Single by The Beatles | |||||
| B-side | "Ask Me Why" "From Me to You" (Vee-Jay 581) |
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| Released | 11 January 1963 (UK) 7 February 1963 (US, VJ498) 3 January 1964 (US re-release) |
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| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | 26 November 1962 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 2:04 | ||||
| Label | Parlophone R4983 (UK) Vee-Jay VJ498 (US) |
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| Writer(s) | Lennon/McCartney | ||||
| Producer | George Martin | ||||
| The Beatles singles chronology | |||||
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| Music sample | |||||
| Please Please Me track listing | |||||
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| Vee-Jay 498 | |||||
Original U.S. 45 with band name misspelled as "The Beattles"
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"Please Please Me" is the second single released by the The Beatles in the UK, and the first to be issued in the US. It was also the title track of their first LP, which was recorded to capitalise on the success of the single.[1] It was originally a John Lennon composition,[2][3][4] although its ultimate form was significantly influenced by George Martin.[5]
It has long been a point of contention as to whether the song should be regarded as the Beatles' first #1. At the time there were several record charts published in the UK, and the song reached #1 on all of them except Record Retailer - whose charts are those now used historically by The Official UK Charts Company.
The single, as initially released with "Ask Me Why" on the B-side, failed to make much impact in the U.S., but when re-released there on 3 January 1964 (this time with "From Me to You" on the B-side) it reached #3 in the US Hot 100.
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[edit] Composition
The Beatles had secured a minor debut success with "Love Me Do", but outside of Liverpool and Hamburg the Beatles were still virtually unknown. Part of the problem was that the group were committed to begin what was to be their last Hamburg season just as "Love Me Do" entered the British charts, and so were unable to actively promote it on their home soil.[6] Nonetheless, their producer, George Martin, felt it was a promising start and decided to go ahead with a second single. "Please Please Me" has a diverse history. George Martin has stated that the original version of this song was "rather dreary", was too slow and consequently had little prospect of being the big hit the band were looking for. Martin said: " I was still thinking that we should release their recording of "How Do You Do It" (a Mitch Murray composition that Martin had insisted the Beatles record as a possible alternative single release to "Love Me Do"). The group replied that they were only interested in writing their own material.[5] McCartney said, "It was symptomatic of our group that we turned down "How Do You Do It". Ringo Starr commented "I remember us all being ready to stand up for the principle of, "We have written these songs and we want to do them". George Martin was sympathetic to their appeals, but said later, "[I] would still have issued "How Do You Do It" had they not persuaded me to listen to another version of "Please Please Me".[7]
John Lennon first conceived "Please Please Me" as a bluesy, slow tempo song. Lennon recalled: "I remember the day I wrote it, I heard Roy Orbison doing "Only The Lonely" on the radio. I was also always intrigued by the words to a Bing Crosby song that went, "Please lend a little ear to my pleas". The double use of the word "please". So it was a combination of Roy Orbison and Bing Crosby".[5] Originally, it was vocally sparse, it did not contain any harmonies or responses, and nor did it have the scaled harmonica intro. George Martin first heard it at the "Love Me Do" re-make session on 11 September and, in his opinion, it "badly needed pepping up"[8] and asked the Beatles to consider making major changes to it, including increasing its tempo.[5] By the time it was brought back into the studio on 26 November 1962, its arrangement had been radically altered, and it took 18 takes to record what George Martin immediately predicted would be their first major hit.[9]
Lennon's harmonica playing features prominently and, similar to other early Beatles compositions such as "Love Me Do" and "From Me to You", opens the song. Paul McCartney and John Lennon initially share the vocals with McCartney holding a high note while Lennon drops down through the scale, a ploy they learnt from the Everly Brothers UK hit song "Cathy's Clown" (April 1960).[2] McCartney said: "I did the trick of remaining on the high note while the melody cascaded down from it".[10] Ringo Starr asserts himself, exorcising any lingering doubts from the "Love Me Do" sessions regarding his ability.[9] Where "Love Me Do" had been arguably parochial, relying to a large extent on their existing home fans for support[11] "Please Please Me" would be groundbreaking, especially as the Beatles were now back in the UK and able to appear on influential national television shows such as Thank Your Lucky Stars.[12]
- If one were to accept Record Retailer's chart positions for "Please, Please Me" and "How Do You Do It?", then Martin's instincts for a number one were absolutely correct, the former reaching number two and the latter number one.
- There are three different mixes of the song, two in mono and one in stereo. The mono mix that appears on the single is not the same as the Please Please Me album mix, as extra echo was added to the LP version. A new mix was performed for the stereo version of the album, and on 25 February 1963 Martin made one created from original takes 16, 17 and 18. This stereo version has Lennon fluffing the final verse, causing him to sing 'come on' with a slight chuckle in his voice.
- It was credited to Paul McCartney and John Lennon, as were all other Lennon-McCartney originals on the Please Please Me album. The songwriting credit was changed to the more familiar "Lennon-McCartney" for their second album, With the Beatles.
[edit] Original U.S. release
Capitol Records, EMI's United States label, was offered the right to release "Please Please Me" in the U.S., but turned it down.[13] Instead, it was placed with Transglobal, an EMI affiliate that worked to place foreign masters with U.S. record labels.[13] It was told to find an American outlet for the record as quickly as possible, in order to appease Martin and Beatles manager Brian Epstein.[13] "Please Please Me" was then offered to Atlantic, which also rejected it.[13] Finally, Vee-Jay, which had released the top-five hit "I Remember You" by Frank Ifield in 1962, another record Capitol had turned down, was offered the right to issue "Please Please Me" in the States, and chose to do so.[13] The exact date of the U.S. issue was lost for decades, but research published in 2004 showed that the single "Please Please Me"/"Ask Me Why" was released by Vee-Jay on 7 February 1963.[14] Coincidentally, this was exactly one year before the Beatles' plane landed in New York on their first visit as a band to America.
Dick Biondi, a disc jockey on WLS in Chicago and a friend of Vee-Jay executive Ewart Abner, played the song on the radio, perhaps as early as 8 February 1963, thus becoming the first DJ to play a Beatles record in the United States.[15] Art Roberts, legendary DJ and Music Director at the time tells how the record came to be played first at the station. "Let me tell you the story of PLEASE PLEASE ME. The record was released on the Vee-Jay label. It was a local Chicago recording company. The owner, Ewart Abner, brought a copy of the record to W. L. S. I was the music director at the time and listened to his story about a group, and looked at pictures in teen magazines he brought back from England. I figured, what if this group would get as popular in the United States as they were in England and Europe. So I added the record to the list." "Please Please Me" peaked at #35 on 15 March after four weeks on its "Silver Dollar Survey" chart.[15][16] But the song did not chart on any of the major national American surveys.
The first pressings of the Vee-Jay single, which was assigned the catalog number 498, featured a typographical error: The band's name was spelled "The Beattles" with two T's..[17][18] Later copies of the single corrected the typo.[19] Also, unlike on the UK Parlophone edition, the composers on the Vee-Jay edition were credited as "J. Lennon-P. McCartney" on both sides. Except in Chicago, the record was a flop, as it sold approximately 7,310 copies.[18] Today, copies of Vee-Jay 498, whether with the incorrect or correct spelling of the Beatles on the label, are valuable collector's items.
[edit] Second U.S. release
In the wake of the rush-release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the United States, Vee-Jay reissued "Please Please Me" on or about 3 January 1964, after footage of the Beatles had appeared on a television program hosted by Jack Paar.[20] Playing it safe, the label chose to put "From Me to You" on the B-side, as Del Shannon's version had been a minor hit in 1963. The new single was issued with the catalog number 581.
This time, "Please Please Me" was a massive hit, eventually peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending 14 March, 1964, trailing only "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You".[20] It was one of the songs that comprised the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 of 4 April, when the Beatles held the top five spots.[20]
Because Vee-Jay wanted to get as many copies of the record pressed as quickly as possible, it did not insist on uniformity from one pressing plant to another. As a result, a dizzying number of label variations exist.[21] Some of these added a comma to the song title, rendering it as "Please, Please Me".[21] Additionally, some copies of the record were issued with a picture sleeve.[21] Early promotional copies had a special sleeve proclaiming "Please Please Me" as "The Record That Started Beatlemania". The text on the sleeve noted that the Beatles had just appeared on Paar's program and were scheduled to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in February. This sleeve is considered to be extremely rare.[22]
At least 1.1 million copies of "Please Please Me" were sold the second time.[20] If Vee-Jay had been a member of the RIAA, the single would have been eligible to be certified gold.
[edit] Critical reception
Rolling Stone ranked the song at #184 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"Please Please Me" was chosen for the Beatles' first national TV appearance, on Thank Your Lucky Stars on January 19, 1963.[23]
"Please Please Me" is cited as the "first real oral sex pop song" in Tim Riley's 1999 book about the Beatles' discography. He credits two Beatles-era writers for the first such observation, Robert Christgau, and John Piccarella. Riley also notes the lyric's (call and responses) "c'mon, c'mon," and points out the song "closes the side [of the album] ignoring the conventional practice of putting the hit up front, and fleshing out the album with weaker material."[citation needed]
[edit] Credits
- John Lennon – rhythm guitar, harmonica, lead vocal
- Paul McCartney – bass, backing vocal
- George Harrison – lead guitar, backing vocal
- Ringo Starr – drums
[edit] Notes
- ^ Norman, Philip (1993). Shout!. London: Penguin Books, 169. ISBN 0-14-017410-9.
- ^ a b MacDonald, Ian (1998). Revolution in the Head. London: Pimlico, 55. ISBN 0-7126-6697-4.
- ^ Harry, Bill (1992). The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia. London: Virgin Books, 528. ISBN 0-86369-681-3.
- ^ Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 91. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
- ^ a b c d The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. London: Cassell& Co, 90. ISBN 0-304-35605-0.
- ^ Norman, Philip (1993). Shout!, 163.
- ^ The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology, 77.
- ^ Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. London: Hamlyn, 20. ISBN 0-600-55798-7.
- ^ a b Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, 23.
- ^ Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, 92.
- ^ Norman, Philip (1993). Shout!, 159.
- ^ Harry, Bill (1992). The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia, 648.
- ^ a b c d e Spizer, Bruce (2004). The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America. New Orleans: 498 Productions, 14. ISBN 0-9662649-9-1.
- ^ >Spizer, Bruce (2004). The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America, 15.
- ^ a b >Spizer, Bruce (2004). The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America, 17.
- ^ WLS Silver Dollar Survey, March 15, 1963. Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
- ^ >Spizer, Bruce (1998). Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles Records on Vee-Jay. New Orleans: 498 Productions, 4. ISBN 0-9662649-0-8.
- ^ a b >Spizer, Bruce (2004). The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America, 16.
- ^ >Spizer, Bruce (1998). Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles Records on Vee-Jay, 7.
- ^ a b c d Spizer, Bruce (2004). The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America, 90.
- ^ a b c Spizer, Bruce (1998). Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles Records on Vee-Jay, 20-28.
- ^ Spizer, Bruce (1998). Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles Records on Vee-Jay, 22.
- ^ "Tell Me Why" by Tim Riley, 1989, Vintage books
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