Please Please Me (song)
Encyclopedia
"Please Please Me" is a song and the second single
released by The Beatles
in the United Kingdom, and the first to be issued in the United States. It was also the title track of their first LP, which was recorded to capitalise on the success of the single. It was originally a John Lennon
composition, although its ultimate form was significantly influenced by George Martin
.
It is a common belief that "Please Please Me" was never a Number 1 single in Britain but on 22 February 1963 the song reached number one on the singles charts compiled by the New Musical Express
(the most recognised chart at the time) and the Melody Maker
where it was Number 1 for two weeks. It only reached number two on the Record Retailer
chart, which subsequently evolved into the UK Singles Chart
and is the most widely quoted today.
The single, as initially released with "Ask Me Why
" on the B-side
, failed to make much impact in the US
, but when re-released there on 3 January 1964 (this time with "From Me to You
" on the B-side) it reached number three in the US Hot 100.
", but outside of Liverpool
and Hamburg
they were still practically unknown. Part of the problem was that the group were committed to begin what was to be their final Hamburg season just as "Love Me Do" entered the British charts, and so were unable to actively promote it on their home soil. 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 [earlier] recording of "How Do You Do It?
"", a previously taped Mitch Murray
composition that Martin insisted the Beatles record which he had seriously considered as an alternative debut single instead of "Love Me Do". The group replied that they were only interested in recording their own material. 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 ultimately 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".
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
", or something. And 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".
Originally it was vocally sparse, 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" and asked The Beatles to consider making major changes to it, including increasing its tempo. 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. In fact, if the session notes and date attribution in the 1995 compilation "The Beatles Anthology 1" are correct, a faster-tempo version sans harmonica was recorded at Abbey Road on 11 September; that track (No. 24 on "Anthology 1") was believed to have been wiped until its rediscovery in 1994 during the "Anthology" production, and it apparently includes session drummer Andy White instead of Ringo Starr. (That latter point is not addressed in the Mark Lewisohn-researched "Anthology" notes, although author Lewisohn's 1988 "The Beatles Recording Sessions" quotes session engineer Ron Richards as saying, "Ringo didn't play drums at all that evening.") The unexpected rediscovery of the 11 September up-tempo recording raises the question of whether the Orbison-inspired slow version might also still exist in the Abbey Road vaults, inasmuch as Lewisohn's 1988 quote from Martin ("We didn't keep outtakes then [1962])" was later contradicted.
As recorded on 26 November, 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. McCartney and Lennon initially share the vocals with McCartney holding a high note while Lennon drops down through the scale, a ploy they learned from the Everly Brothers
UK hit song "Cathy's Clown
" (April 1960). McCartney said: "I did the trick of remaining on the high note while the melody cascaded down from it". Ringo Starr asserts himself, exorcising any lingering doubts from the "Love Me Do" sessions regarding his ability. Where "Love Me Do" had been arguably parochial, relying to a large extent on their existing home fans for support "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
.
. Epstein made an appointment for 11am the following day but also made an appointment with another EMI subsidiary at 10am. Arriving on time for the first meeting Epstein was informed that the executive he was due to meet had not arrived yet. Still waiting at 10.25 Epstein decided he was not prepared to do business with an organisation that could not keep a scheduled appointment and left. Arriving at James's office 20 minutes early he apologised to the receptionist and said he was happy to wait until the appointed time of 11.00. The receptionist nevertheless phoned James who promptly came out of his office, welcomed Epstein and quickly got down to business. Epstein played the single and James remarked that it was a number one record. Epstein replied that if James could achieve that then he would be prepared to offer him a long term publishing deal. James then phoned Philip Jones, producer of Thank Your Lucky Stars, played the song down the phone to him and gained The Beatles a slot on the next edition of the programme. The two then shook hands on a deal that would make them, and The Beatles, extremely wealthy.
, EMI
's United States label, was offered the right to release "Please Please Me" in the US, but turned it down. Instead, it was placed with Transglobal, an EMI affiliate that worked to place foreign masters with US record labels. 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
. "Please Please Me" was then offered to Atlantic
, which also rejected it. 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. The exact date of the US 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. 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. Art Roberts, legendary DJ and Music Director at the time tells how the record came to be played first at the station:
"Please Please Me" peaked at number 35 on 15 March after four weeks on its "Silver Dollar Survey" chart. 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. Later copies of the single corrected the typo. 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. Today, copies of Vee-Jay 498, whether with the incorrect or correct spelling of The Beatles on the label, are valuable collector's items.
" 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
. 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 number three 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
". 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.
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. Some of these added a comma to the song title, rendering it as "Please, Please Me". Additionally, some copies of the record were issued with a picture sleeve. 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.
At least 1.1 million copies of "Please Please Me" were sold the second time. If Vee-Jay had been a member of the RIAA
, the single would have been eligible to be certified gold.
ranked the song at number 184 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"Please Please Me" was chosen for The Beatles' first national UK TV appearance, on Thank Your Lucky Stars on 19 January 1963.
"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."
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
released by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
in the United Kingdom, and the first to be issued in the United States. It was also the title track of their first LP, which was recorded to capitalise on the success of the single. It was originally a John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
composition, although its ultimate form was significantly influenced by George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
.
It is a common belief that "Please Please Me" was never a Number 1 single in Britain but on 22 February 1963 the song reached number one on the singles charts compiled by the New Musical Express
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
(the most recognised chart at the time) and the Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
where it was Number 1 for two weeks. It only reached number two on the Record Retailer
Record Retailer
Record Retailer was a trade newspaper for the UK record industry. It was founded in August 1959 as a monthly newspaper covering both labels and dealers. Its founding editor was Roy Parker...
chart, which subsequently evolved into the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
and is the most widely quoted today.
The single, as initially released with "Ask Me Why
Ask Me Why
"Ask Me Why" is a song by The Beatles originally released in the United Kingdom as the B-side of their hit single "Please Please Me". It was also included on their first UK album, Please Please Me.-Composition:...
" on the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
, failed to make much impact in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, but when re-released there on 3 January 1964 (this time with "From Me to You
From Me to You
"From Me to You" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and released by The Beatles as a single in 1963. The single was the Beatles' first number one in some of the United Kingdom charts, second in others, but failed to make an impact in the United States at the time of its initial...
" on the B-side) it reached number three in the US Hot 100.
Composition
The Beatles had accomplished a modest debut success with "Love Me DoLove Me Do
"Love Me Do" is The Beatles' first single, backed by "P.S. I Love You" and released on 5 October 1962. When the single was originally released in the United Kingdom, it peaked at number seventeen; in 1982 it was re-issued and reached number four...
", but outside of Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
they were still practically unknown. Part of the problem was that the group were committed to begin what was to be their final Hamburg season just as "Love Me Do" entered the British charts, and so were unable to actively promote it on their home soil. Nonetheless, their producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, 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 [earlier] recording of "How Do You Do It?
How Do You Do It?
"How Do You Do It?" was the debut single by Liverpudlian band Gerry & the Pacemakers. The song was number one in the UK Singles Chart on 11 April 1963, where it stayed for three weeks.-History:The song was written by Mitch Murray...
"", a previously taped Mitch Murray
Mitch Murray
Mitch Murray , is an English songwriter, record producer and author.-Musical career:...
composition that Martin insisted the Beatles record which he had seriously considered as an alternative debut single instead of "Love Me Do". The group replied that they were only interested in recording their own material. 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 ultimately 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".
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
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
doing "Only the Lonely
Only the Lonely
"Only the Lonely " is a 1960 song written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson. Recorded by Orbison, it became his first major hit. As an operatic rock ballad, it was a sound unheard of at the time, described by the New York Times as expressing "a clenched, driven urgency". It is seen as a seminal event...
", or something. And I was also always intrigued by the words to a Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
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".
Originally it was vocally sparse, 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" and asked The Beatles to consider making major changes to it, including increasing its tempo. 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. In fact, if the session notes and date attribution in the 1995 compilation "The Beatles Anthology 1" are correct, a faster-tempo version sans harmonica was recorded at Abbey Road on 11 September; that track (No. 24 on "Anthology 1") was believed to have been wiped until its rediscovery in 1994 during the "Anthology" production, and it apparently includes session drummer Andy White instead of Ringo Starr. (That latter point is not addressed in the Mark Lewisohn-researched "Anthology" notes, although author Lewisohn's 1988 "The Beatles Recording Sessions" quotes session engineer Ron Richards as saying, "Ringo didn't play drums at all that evening.") The unexpected rediscovery of the 11 September up-tempo recording raises the question of whether the Orbison-inspired slow version might also still exist in the Abbey Road vaults, inasmuch as Lewisohn's 1988 quote from Martin ("We didn't keep outtakes then [1962])" was later contradicted.
As recorded on 26 November, 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. McCartney and Lennon initially share the vocals with McCartney holding a high note while Lennon drops down through the scale, a ploy they learned from the Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
UK hit song "Cathy's Clown
Cathy's Clown
"Cathy's Clown" is a popular song, written and recorded by The Everly Brothers, in which an unnamed narrator informs Cathy that he "don't want your love anymore." It was their first single for Warner Bros., after spending three years on Archie Bleyer's Cadence label. "Cathy's Clown" sold eight...
" (April 1960). McCartney said: "I did the trick of remaining on the high note while the melody cascaded down from it". Ringo Starr asserts himself, exorcising any lingering doubts from the "Love Me Do" sessions regarding his ability. Where "Love Me Do" had been arguably parochial, relying to a large extent on their existing home fans for support "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
Thank Your Lucky Stars (TV series)
Thank Your Lucky Stars was a British television pop music show made by ABC Television, and broadcast on ITV from 1961 to 1966. Many of the top bands performed on it, and for millions of British teenagers it was essential viewing...
.
- If one were to accept Record Retailer's chart positions for "Please, Please Me" and "How Do You Do It?", then George Martin's instincts for a number one hit were absolutely correct, the former reaching number two and the latter number one for Gerry & The PacemakersGerry & the PacemakersGerry and the Pacemakers were a British beat music group prominent during the 1960s. In common with The Beatles, they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein and recorded by George Martin. They are most remembered for being the first act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with...
.
- 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. Also different in the stereo mix is Harrison's lead guitar line before the final verse; rather than duplicating the overdubbed harmonica exactly as he had earlier in the song, Harrison drops down a fourth for the third note, rather than continuing down by stepwise motion.
- It was credited to "McCartney-Lennon", as were all other Lennon/McCartneyLennon/McCartneyThe Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership is one of the best-known and most successful musical collaborations in history...
originals on the Please Please Me album. The songwriting credit was changed to the more familiar "Lennon/McCartney" sequence for their second album, With the BeatlesWith the BeatlesWith The Beatles is the second studio album by the English rock group The Beatles. It was released on 22 November 1963 on Parlophone, and was recorded four months after the band's debut Please Please Me...
.
Publishing
According to Ray Coleman's biography "Brian Epstein - The Man Who Made The Beatles" Epstein had been dissatisfied with EMI's promotional efforts for "Love Me Do" (published by EMI's subsidiary Ardmore and Beechwood) and asked George Martin if he could suggest a publisher who would push the single more effectively. Martin suggested three candidates, one of which was Dick JamesDick James
Dick James , born Reginald Leon Isaac Vapnick, was a music publisher and the founder of the DJM record label and recording studios, as well as The Beatles' publisher Northern Songs.-Early life:...
. Epstein made an appointment for 11am the following day but also made an appointment with another EMI subsidiary at 10am. Arriving on time for the first meeting Epstein was informed that the executive he was due to meet had not arrived yet. Still waiting at 10.25 Epstein decided he was not prepared to do business with an organisation that could not keep a scheduled appointment and left. Arriving at James's office 20 minutes early he apologised to the receptionist and said he was happy to wait until the appointed time of 11.00. The receptionist nevertheless phoned James who promptly came out of his office, welcomed Epstein and quickly got down to business. Epstein played the single and James remarked that it was a number one record. Epstein replied that if James could achieve that then he would be prepared to offer him a long term publishing deal. James then phoned Philip Jones, producer of Thank Your Lucky Stars, played the song down the phone to him and gained The Beatles a slot on the next edition of the programme. The two then shook hands on a deal that would make them, and The Beatles, extremely wealthy.
Original US release
Capitol RecordsCapitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's United States label, was offered the right to release "Please Please Me" in the US, but turned it down. Instead, it was placed with Transglobal, an EMI affiliate that worked to place foreign masters with US record labels. 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
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
. "Please Please Me" was then offered to Atlantic
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, which also rejected it. Finally, Vee-Jay
Vee-Jay Records
Vee-Jay Records is a record label founded in the 1950s, specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was owned and operated by African Americans.-History:...
, which had released the top-five hit "I Remember You
I Remember You (1941 song)
"I Remember You" is a popular song. The music was written by Victor Schertzinger, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The song was published in 1941.The song was one of several introduced in the movie The Fleet's In...
" by Frank Ifield
Frank Ifield
Francis Edward Ifield is an early Australian-English easy listening and country music singer. He achieved considerable success in the early 1960s, especially in the UK Singles Chart, where he had four Number 1 hits between 1962 and 1963....
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. The exact date of the US issue was lost for decades, but research published in 2004 showed that the single "Please Please Me"/"Ask Me Why
Ask Me Why
"Ask Me Why" is a song by The Beatles originally released in the United Kingdom as the B-side of their hit single "Please Please Me". It was also included on their first UK album, Please Please Me.-Composition:...
" was released by Vee-Jay on 7 February 1963. Coincidentally, this was exactly one year before The Beatles' plane landed in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on their first visit as a band to America.
Dick Biondi
Dick Biondi
Dick Biondi is an American Top 40 and Oldies disc jockey. Calling himself "The Wild I-tralian", he was one of the original "screamers," known for his screaming delivery as well as his wild antics on the air and off. In a 1988 interview, Biondi related he had been fired 23 times; both fits of...
, a disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
on WLS
WLS (AM)
WLS is a Chicago clear-channel AM station on 890 kHz. It uses C-QUAM AM stereo and transmits with 50,000 watts from transmitter and towers on the south edge of Tinley Park, Illinois....
in Chicago and a friend of Vee-Jay executive Ewart Abner
Ewart Abner
Ewart Abner was an American record company executive.-Career:...
, 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. 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 number 35 on 15 March after four weeks on its "Silver Dollar Survey" chart. 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. Later copies of the single corrected the typo. Also, unlike on the UK Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
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. Today, copies of Vee-Jay 498, whether with the incorrect or correct spelling of The Beatles on the label, are valuable collector's items.
Second US release
In the wake of the rush-release of "I Want to Hold Your HandI Want to Hold Your Hand
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band The Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment....
" 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
Jack Paar
Jack Harold Paar was an author, American radio and television comedian and talk show host, best known for his stint as host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962...
. Playing it safe, the label chose to put "From Me to You
From Me to You
"From Me to You" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and released by The Beatles as a single in 1963. The single was the Beatles' first number one in some of the United Kingdom charts, second in others, but failed to make an impact in the United States at the time of its initial...
" on the B-side, as Del Shannon
Del Shannon
Del Shannon was an American rock and roll singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit, "Runaway", in 1961.- Biography :...
'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 number three on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart for the week ending 14 March 1964, trailing only "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You
She Loves You
"She Loves You" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney based on an idea by McCartney, originally recorded by The Beatles for release as a single in 1963. The single set and surpassed several records in the United Kingdom charts, and set a record in the United States by being one of the...
". 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.
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. Some of these added a comma to the song title, rendering it as "Please, Please Me". Additionally, some copies of the record were issued with a picture sleeve. 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
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
in February. This sleeve is considered to be extremely rare.
At least 1.1 million copies of "Please Please Me" were sold the second time. If Vee-Jay had been a member of the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
, the single would have been eligible to be certified gold.
Critical reception
Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
ranked the song at number 184 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"Please Please Me" was chosen for The Beatles' first national UK TV appearance, on Thank Your Lucky Stars on 19 January 1963.
"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
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
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."
Personnel
- John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
– vocalLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes... - Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
– vocal, bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
– harmony vocalBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
, lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure... - Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - George MartinGeorge MartinSir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
– producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Norman Smith – engineerAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
- Personnel per Ian MacDonaldIan MacDonaldIan MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...