Please Please Me (song)

Please Please Me
The Beatles
publication	January 11, 1963
length	2 min 0 s
Genre (s)	Merseybeat , rock 'n' roll
Author (s)	Lennon / McCartney
album	Please Please Me

Please Please Me ( English ; "Erfreu me") is the title of a song of the British rock group The Beatles from 1962. It was on 11 January 1963 as the A-side of the second single released by the Beatles. On the B-side is Ask Me Why , another composition by Lennon / McCartney . In March of the same year, the song also appeared on the band 's debut album of the same name . In Germany, the song was released as the B-side of the single Love Me Do also in March.

Emergence

The song was by John Lennon , who named two starting points for his composition. Firstly, Bing Crosby's song Please , which contained the line of text “Please lend your ears to my pleas”, whereby Lennon liked the double use of the word “Please”. On the other hand, Roy Orbison's special singing style played a role. In his 1980 interview with David Sheff for Playboy magazine, Lennon described the piece as "[...] trying to write a Roy Orbison song [...]" after listening to an Orbison song while lying in bed.

The recording

George Martin's assistant, Ron Richards, recalled the Beatles' Please Please Me being presented during the recording sessions for Love Me Do on September 4, 1962. At the time, George Harrison was playing the opening phrase of the song on guitar. In the final version, the passage is played by John Lennon on the harmonica .

Producer George Martin had initially urged the Beatles to record the third-party composition How Do You Do It , which he considered a sure hit. The musicians actually recorded the song, but were of the opinion that the song did not suit them. Martin then asked them if they had any suitable material of their own, and Lennon suggested Please Please Me . On September 11, 1962, the group made a first attempt to record Please Please Me . Originally a slow, bluesy ballad, the piece went through some important changes at the suggestion of George Martin. The arrangement was changed and the tempo increased significantly.

“At that stage Please Please Me was a very dreary song […] It was like a Roy Orbison number, very slow, bluesy vocals. It was obvious to me that it badly needed pepping up. "

“At that time, Please Please Me was a very monotonous song […] It was like a Roy Orbison number, sung very slowly, like a blues. It was clear to me that it urgently needed to be spiced up. "

- George Martin

After the Beatles' Please Please Me had revised their producer's suggestions, the piece was recorded on November 26, 1962 in London's Abbey Road Studios . George Martin was the producer, and Norman Smith was the sound engineer . John Lennon sang the lead and played the rhythm guitar . Paul McCartney played bass and contributed the harmony vocals . George Harrison played lead guitar and also sang in the background. Ringo Starr played the drums . Lennon then added the harmonica passages via overdub .

After the recordings were finished, their producer told the Beatles:

"You've just made your first number one."

"You just recorded your first number one."

- George Martin

Hit parade

After the single entered the British charts at number 17 on February 2, 1963, it reached number 1 on February 23, 1963, its highest position in the NME chart , which it occupied for two weeks. The single also reached first place in the hit parade of the competition magazine Melody Maker . In Record Retailer , the forerunner of the UK Singles Chart , the single came in at number 2. After the success of the single, the Beatles' debut album, which was also named Please Please Me , was hastily produced .

Although it was published as the B-side of Love Me Do in March 1963, In contrast to the A-side , Please Please Me placed itself in the charts in Germany, but only in April 1964, with the highest position 20.

A version of the album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 was released in 2013, which the band had recorded for the BBC radio station .

literature

• Walter Everett: The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001. ISBN 978-0-19-514105-4
• Mark Lewisohn : The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years . Hamlyn, London 1988. ISBN 978-0-600-61207-0
• Ian MacDonald: Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties . Chicago Review Press, Chicago 2007. ISBN 1-55652-733-0
• David Sheff: The Ballad of John and Yoko. The last big interview . Hannibal-Verlag, Höfen 2002. ISBN 978-3-85445-202-7

Individual evidence

1. ^ Walter Everett: The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul , p. 131.
2. ↑ David Sheff: The Ballad of John and Yoko. The last big interview , p. 175.
3. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years , p. 18.
4. ^ Ian MacDonald: Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties , p. 62.
5. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years , p. 20.
6. ↑ For the musicological analysis of the Beatles recording see: Ansgar Jerrentrup: Development of rock music from the beginnings to the beat . Regensburg: Gustav Bosse Verlag, 1981 (Cologne contributions to music research, vol. 113), also Diss. Phil. University of Cologne 1980, p. 200f; the full score transcription of the recording is on pp. 239–241.
7. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years , p. 23.
8. ↑ Dafydd Rees, Barry Lazell, Roger Osborne: 40 Years Of NME Charts. London: Boxtree Ltd., 1992, p. 123 f .; Overall, the single stayed in the NME charts for eleven weeks.
9. ↑ The Beatles in the British Charts (OCC).
10. ↑ Entry for Love Me Do / Please Please Me at 45cat.com, accessed June 22, 2019
11. ↑ Quotations for Please Please Me at chartsurfer.de, accessed on June 22, 2019