Their first-ever album, raw and rough and still very rock & roll. Lennon and McCartney begin to flex their writing muscles and had already scored two UK hits when this appeared, but they still relied heavily on the cover material to see them through. Their insecurity about their own abilities seems curious in hindsight since they’d pulled the title song and “I Saw Her Standing There” (with thanks to Little Richard) out of their hats. But they were an unknown quantity, still to l [Read More...]
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With “A 1,2,3,4,” history was made with the rousing opening number, “I Saw Her Standing There” from Please Please Me, the debut album of the best group the world has had the pleasure to experience.
“Misery” has the rhythm guitar that became part of the Beatles’ signature style. At least in the early days. I wonder if Helen Shapiro set fire to her coiffure after turning this great number down–it was originally offered to her.
“Anna (Go To Him)” is an archetypal 60’s type ballad originally done by R&B singer Arthur Alexander. Beatles renditions of other Alexander songs appear on the Live At The BBC album.
Their rendition of the Cookies’ “Chains” shows they do justice to the works one of America’s best songwriters, Carole King and Louise Goffin.
“Boys” is classic rollicking rock and roll and sung by Ringo, and one of two Shirelles numbers done here–the other is the slow and languid “Baby It’s You,” the song beginning with “Sha la la la la la la.”
The centerpiece of this album is the title track, which became the Beatles’ first #1 hit on the British charts–it only reached #3 in the U.S. Anyone who wonders why the Beatles made it big need only hear this song. Love that harmonica inbetween the verses!
The “Love Me Do” version here is not the originally recorded single version which reached #17 on the British charts and #1 on the Billboard Singles Chart. Rather, this has Andy White on drums while Ringo is relegated to tapping a tambourine. For the version that hit the single charts, get Past Masters Volume I. I like both versions all the same.
“P.S. I Love You” is sung by Paul and is the first song on where he sings solo–he sings with John on the previous songs. The other song where he sings solo is on the ballad “A Taste Of Honey,” singing of honey “tasting much sweeter than wine.”
It’s George’s turn to sing lead on “Do You Want To Know A Secret.” The backing vocals after the second verse provide a nice touch.
Two rollicking numbers signal the close of Please Please Me, both sung by John. They are “There’s A Place” and the definitive rendition of the Isley Brothers’ “Twist And Shout.” I wonder how long it took John’s vocals to recover after nearly singing himself to shreds.
Many artists would not have come to be without the Beatles, and we have this album to thank for.
There’s only so much that audio engineers can do with material that was frankly rather sloppily recorded four and a half decades ago. Back in the 1970s, I owned a high-end audio store, and as familiar as I was with the Beatles’ U.S. releases, I still purchased all the Beatles LPs on British Parlophone anticipating the “real thing.” However, none of those LPs, including this album, were anything great in terms of fidelity. The sound was generally thin, brittle, weak, and lacking in detail. The U.S. versions, with all their weaknesses, were better. But keep in mind that high-quality audio systems were very rare in 1962, and the engineers did the mastering, equalization, etc., with “record players,” not audio systems, in mind. It should not be surprising that the early Beatles’ recordings didn’t hold up so well on top-quality audio equipment.
Whatever else they have done to their manufacturing capability over the past few decades, the British have remained extremely important in terms of audio engineering. Bowers & Wilkins 801s are still damn fine speakers a quarter century after they first appeared. The British masterings of Frank Sinatra’s 1950s output simply blow away the American versions. While the American engineers worried about removing hiss, the British engineers went after capturing the music, the comparison to modern digital recording be damned.
What the engineers have done with this album, and I assume the others, is dig as deep as they could into the master tapes and get us as close to the music as possible. Beware that this is not as close as possible to the sound that we heard from our GE or RCA portables. It is what we wish they could have sounded like back then. It is the Beatles reworked for the modern age and, to my mind, very successfully.
Compare this remastered version to the old LP or the early CDs. It’s no contest. It’s not a matter of whether the harmonica sounds squeaky or the voices on occasion sound hard. That’s on the tape and can’t be changed. It’s a matter of detail, and balance, and definition, and capturing the music. Eight remastered CDs arrived today. I can’t wait to hear the rest.