Please Please Me [Digipak]

Performer: The Beatles
Engineer: Norman Smith
Producer: George Martin
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: The Beatles: George Harrison (vocals, guitar); John Lennon (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Paul McCartney (vocals, bass); Ringo Starr (vocals, drums). Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, England. "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" were recorded in September 1962. The other 12 tracks were recorded on February 11, 1963 ("Twist And Shout" was the last song to be recorded). Includes liner notes by Tony Barrow. This reissue of PLEASE PLEASE ME has been digitally re-mastered. It comes packaged with replicated original U.K. album art, an expanded booklet containing original and newly written liner notes, and rare photos. Limited quantities of the CD are embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Personnel: George Harrison (guitar); Paul McCartney (bass guitar); Ringo Starr (drums). Audio Remasterers: Sam Okell; Sean Magee; Steve Rooke; Guy Massey; Paul Hicks. Liner Note Authors: Mike Heatley; Tony Barrow; Kevin Howlett. Once "Please Please Me" rocketed to number one, the Beatles rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out Please Please Me in a day. Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins. As the songs rush past, it's easy to get wrapped up in the sound of the record itself without realizing how the album effectively summarizes the band's eclectic influences. Naturally, the influences shine through their covers, all of which are unconventional and illustrate the group's superior taste. There's a love of girl groups, vocal harmonies, sophisticated popcraft, schmaltz, R&B, and hard-driving rock & roll, which is enough to make Please Please Me impressive, but what makes it astonishing is how these elements converge in the originals. "I Saw Here Standing There" is one of their best rockers, yet it has surprising harmonies and melodic progressions. "Misery" and "There's a Place" grow out of the girl group tradition without being tied to it. A few of their originals, such as "Do You Want to Know a Secret" and the pleasantly light "P.S. I Love You," have dated slightly, but endearingly so, since they're infused with cheerful innocence and enthusiasm. And there is an innocence to Please Please Me. The Beatles may have played notoriously rough dives in Hamburg, but the only way you could tell that on their first album was how the constant gigging turned the group into a tight, professional band that could run through their set list at the drop of a hat with boundless energy. It's no surprise that Lennon had shouted himself hoarse by the end of the session, barely getting through "Twist and Shout," the most famous single take in rock history. He simply got caught up in the music, just like generations of listeners did. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Recorded in between a cup of tea and a cigarette, this album is raw yet dazzling. Here were four lads, highly experienced on stage, but with little or no idea of what a recording studio was like. They were subtly marshalled by the much-respected George Martin to deliver an entire album that was exactly what the fans wanted, but was still a surprise. Things were never as simple as this again, yet the genius is there. Examples are Lennon's unmatchable rasping on "Twist And Shout," McCartney's graceful ease in singing "I Saw Her Standing There," Harrison's sparse but definite Gretsch chords, and Starr's ace vocal on "Boys."

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.108) - Ranked #39 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...For productivity alone, it is one of the greatest first albums in rock..." Paste (magazine) (p.58) - "It's difficult to put into words just how new and exotic these songs sounded in early 1963..."

No other band has had quite the same impact as the four lads from Liverpool. Over the course of eight years and more than a dozen albums, the Beatles changed popular music and culture forever, spearheading the 1960s British Invasion and shaping rock & roll along the way. Along with their amazing musical output and unprecedented worldwide celebrity, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were responsible for many pop music revolutions, major and minor--writing their own material, pushing the limits of the studio, making films of their music, printing song lyrics on albums--that today are taken for granted. Although the Beatles disbanded in 1970, their artistic legacy is permanently ingrained in the entire world's musical vocabulary.

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