Please Please Me - Beatles (The) (Cassette 1987)

When rock n roll arrived in the mid-50s, it gave young teenagers a new form of music they can dance to aside from the old jazz and big-band music their parents were into in the previous decade. By the late 1950s, rock n roll was popular in the U.S. with stars like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino. As rock entered the 60s, Buddy Holly had died; Elvis was sent to the U.S. Army; Chuck Berry had some trouble with the law; and Little Richard became a minister. Rock n roll at first was on its way to become another passing fad as teen idols like Fabian and Frankie Avalon arrived and gave rock n roll a clean but wimpy look. In the U.S. as teen idols dominated the charts, pop producer Phil Spector gave pop some edge with his Wall of Sounds style as he gave hits to Dionne Warwick and the Ronnettes. Around that same time in the U.S., a group of California kids who called themselves the Beach Boys helped give rock some of its edge back with its songs about surfing and beaches but it wasn t enough. In 1964, rock n roll finally found their saviors but this time, these young men weren t from America. There were these four young lads from Liverpool, England who a year earlier had dominated the music scene in the U.K. and launched a British rock invasion into America. Ladies & Gentlemen, THE BEATLES!

In the history of rock n roll, no band or artist had been more celebrated or had become such an influence as the Beatles were in their career. Formed in 1958 by young Liverpool boys John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, the three boys from Liverpool would go through several name changes before settling into the Beatles by changing the word beetle with an a for beat . With drummer Pete Best on board along with Lennon s art-school friend Stuart Sutcliffe on bass, the Beatles went to Hamburg, Germany in 1960 to refine their rock n roll sound. Within a couple of years, the Beatles had done sessions for Tony Sheridan and were already drawing a huge audience in Hamburg and in England. Sutcliffe would leave the band in late 1961 to pursue a career in painting until his sudden death of a brain hemorrhage in 1962. Around that same year, the Beatles auditioned for several labels and were rejected until they met record producer George Martin who decided help shape their sound but found a problem in drummer Pete Best. Best was fired and replaced by another Liverpool drummer named Ringo Starr who not only improved the Beatles sound but was also the right person the Beatles could get along with.

After signing with EMI, George Martin produced the band s first single for the song Love Me Do and its B-side P.S. I Love You , that would define the great songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney that blended the song craft of pop music along with velocity of early rock n roll. The single reached the top 20 in the U.K. charts in the fall of 1962 as did a single for the song From Me To You that became the band s first number one single in their historic career that spawned more than twenty number one singles in the U.K. and U.S. In early 1963, the Beatles released their debut album Please Please Me to positive reviews and huge sales as the album became huge in the U.K.

Please Please Me at its time was a very powerful debut record from the band who would change the face of popular culture throughout their eight-year recording career. The band took the elements of American rock and pop music with sophisticated but well-crafted songs and hard-driving rock n roll that would define the Beatles early sound. Eight songs on the album, which are written by the duo of Lennon and McCartney, appear in the album along with six cover songs ranging from old-school rock n roll and American R&B music. With the love-ballad vocals of Paul McCartney, the hoarse, powerful vocals of John Lennon, the guitar-heroics of George Harrison, and the sparse, backbeat drumming of Ringo Starr along with carefully crafted production of George Martin. The Beatles have finally arrived with their debut album Please Please Me and the world was never the same after their arrival.

The first song on the album is a classic Lennon/McCartney composition I Saw Her Standing There that opens up with Paul McCartney counting 1-2-3-4 that leads to the song s up-tempo rhythm and rock n roll romp as he sings the song with guitar accompaniment from John Lennon and George Harrison along with Ringo Starr s thumping backbeat drums. Like many Beatles songs since then, I Saw Her Standing There carries flowing melody, carefully written pop song structures, and catchy hooks as McCartney sings the chorus of I could have dance with another, whoo!!! So I saw her standing there that includes a short but rocking guitar solo from Harrison in the middle of the song. Misery opens up with a melodic guitar strum with Lennon and McCartney singing the opening line of The world is treating me bad misery that leads into its simple, melodic pop structure of slow but catchy rhythms as Lennon sings lead in the song filled with lyrics of love-lost that was common in a lot of early 60s pop songs but the Beatles bring a freshness with their rock n roll influence into the table that makes Misery an early Beatles classic. Next is an old rock/pop cover of the song Anna (Go To Him) that is rooted with a simple R&B structure as Lennon sings the song with a bluesy-pop vocal style while being accompanied by its slow and smooth tempo from McCartney and Starr s rhythm section along with melodic guitar accompaniment from Harrison.

The next cover is an old Gerry Goffin/Carole King composition for the song Chains that features chiming guitars and a harmonica solo from Lennon who sings the classic pop song with a smooth and thudding backbeat from Starr s drum along with McCartney s bass accompaniment. Boys is another rock cover except this time, it s sung by drummer Ringo Starr, who although doesn t carry great vocals as the rest of his band mates does make up for it with his sparse and consistent drumming where he keeps hitting the snare drums without bringing in cymbal crash on every downbeat which is very important to the song and Ringo does that perfectly which is why he s one of the greatest drummers in rock n roll. The song also carries backing vocals from the band including Harrison who brings in a Chuck Berry guitar solo into the middle of the song. Ask Me Why is a lovely Lennon/McCartney composition that is an ode to old-school rock n roll and R&B love songs with simple R&B structures, slow and soothing tempos and Lennon s poetic vocals as he sings lyrics of love in a pop setting as he is accompanied by McCartney on the vocals along with Harrison s chiming guitars. Next is another Lennon/McCartney classic to the title track of Please Please Me with its catchy harmonica riff from Lennon who also sings lead on the track with backing vocals from McCartney and Harrison especially in its famed chorus of Come on, come on/ (repeat 3 more times/Please, please me oh yeah/Like I please you that contains the Beatles brilliance as pop songwriters by taking a simple melody and putting into a catchy rhythm and simple rock structures.

The second half of the album begins with the band s first single Love Me Do with its opening harmonica riff from John Lennon and slow but thumping downbeat from Ringo Starr as Paul McCartney sings the opening line of Love, love me do/You know that I love you/I ll always be true/So please, love me do, oh love me do as George Harrison brings in some guitar accompaniment to the song. Next is the song P.S. I Love You that is a slow but rhythmic love song from Lennon/McCartney with its chiming guitar accompaniments and thudding drum tracks as the team of Lennon/McCartney sings this song about writing a love letter to a girl in a simple and innocent setting that is lacking in today s pop music. Next is a cover of the Burt Bacharach song Baby It s You with its smooth R&B tempo and simplistic pop song structure as Lennon sings the classic girl-group love song as if it was an R&B song sung by a white boy with its chorus of Baby, it s you/Sha-la-la-la-la-la as the band brings in a slow and rhythmic accompaniment to the song. Next is another Lennon/McCartney composition for Do You Want To Know A Secret that opens with a lovely guitar strum as Lennon sings the song as he is then joined by the rest of the band in its simple, R&B song structure with a thumping downbeat from Starr along with Harrison s accompanying guitar hooks.

A Taste Of Honey is another cover song that is sung by McCartney that is set in a mid-acoustic ballad tempo as Starr brings in a slow but smooth rhythm along with McCartney s accompanying bass and chiming guitars from Harrison and Lennon who also accompany him on the vocals for this lovely pop gem. Next is the last Lennon/McCartney composition on the album for the song There s A Place , an up tempo ballad with an opening harmonica solo that leads into Lennon and McCartney singing the thumping pop song with its bopping rhythm and rough but playful guitar accompaniment that shows the Beatles aren t all clean and slick because they started in some ways like a punk band and McCartney always said that the Beatles sounded like the Sex Pistols back in their day which surprised Pistols lead singer John Lydon.

Then there s the album s famed closer for the song Twist And Shout with its bopping up tempo rhythm spurred by Starr s drumming and the garage-rock guitars of Harrison and Lennon who sings the rock classic with its opening of lyrics of Well shake it up baby now (shake it up baby)/Twist and shout (twist and shout)/Come on, come on, come on, come on baby now (come on baby)/Work it on out (work it on out) as the band bring in the Whoo and screams to the classic song that became a bigger classic in its appearance to the 80s classic movie Ferris Bueller s Day Off where Matthew Broderick lip-synced the classic song during a parade where everyone in Chicago including his un-suspecting dad danced around to the classic song.

Please Please Me became a big hit in Britain in 1963 and would become a bigger hit in the U.S. and all over the world a year later as the Beatles broke the doors down for British rockers and became pop luminaries. As the album approaches forty next year, Please Please Me remains a classic among Beatles fans, as it was the beginning of the Beatles dominance in popular culture. Though the old rock/pop structure might seem dated to some, the album remains fresh among pop purists at the Beatles took elements of rock and R&B into pop music and it remains fresh to some fans. Although the Beatles would make greater albums in the years to come, they wouldn t have made those albums if it weren t for Please Please Me , the one that started it all. Rock fans will consider this album an essential record in rock n roll history since it was made none other than the Fab Four.