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Please Please Me
The Beatles
'Please Please Me' was started by John Lennon in his aunt Mimi's living room. He'd been listening to Roy Orbision and wanted to write something similar to 'Only The Lonely'.
The words had been inspired by a '30s song recorded by Bing Crosby called 'Please', a number that played on the dual |
 Song facts |
| Composer |
John Lennon/Paul McCartney |
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| Genre |
Pop |
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| Album |
Please Please Me |
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| Released |
1963 |
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| UK Chart |
2 |
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meaning of the sound of please and pleas. But the innocent lyrics pointed to a sexual subtext that could be as explicit as the imagination allowed.
They took the song into the studio and played it to producer George Martin at the end of their Love Me Do session. Martin thought the song needed work and suggested they speed it up and add some harmonised voices.
John and Paul, who'd been singing Everley Brothers numbers for years, took the No. 1 'Cathy Clown' as a template. Lennon stayed with the melody while Paul sang the root E as reflected in the bass line. With a call and response harmonised in the bridge, the song drives into the chorus and breaks open into a three-part harmony.
During recording, Martin added the harmonica played by John but changed nothing else. After hitting the stop button he told them "Congratulations, gentlemen, you've just made your first number one."
He was almost right. At that time, there were no standardised charts and though the single got to No. 1 in a number of charts, including Melody Maker and the BBC's Pick of The Pops, officially it came in at No. 2 (behind Frank Ifield's Wayward Wind).
On the strength of this song, they hurriedly recorded an album of the same name and attracted the attention of Dick James who set up Northern Songs, The Beatles' own publishing copyright company.
McCartney on when to listen to the producer |
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Please Please Me was certainly a Lennon and McCartney composition but George Martin's guidance moved the song in a direction that gave it impact and polish. Paul McCartney and George Martin on the song.
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Other versions |
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 This Partridge Family live performance recalls the female teen hysteria of early Beatles appearances. The 'family', invented by the same people who brought us The Monkees, made numerous albums before David Cassidy went on to bigger things.
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