The Beatles - Please Please Me (1963) Review
The Beatles are the best band of all time. I plan to review all of their albums and be straightforward about my bias toward their music. Somehow a band managed to gather three of the greatest songwriters of all time and make some of the most creative and melodic songs ever. They are a band that I like to constantly learn about and it makes me appreciate the progression they made as musicians and how they influenced music and culture as a whole.
Please Please Me was recorded in about twelve hours since The Beatles recorded a majority of the album live because they had hundreds of hours worth of playing shows under their belt by the time they got in the studio. When Please Please Please Me was released, John Lennon and Ringo Starr were 22 years old while Paul McCartney and George Harrison were only 20 years old.
They are one of the most, if not the most, documented bands in history and if you wanted to learn about each track and how they were recorded and stories about it you can find all that information easily. To stop me from rambling and writing a book about each album, I'm just going to give a brief explanation of what I like or dislike about the songs.
The album kicks off with “I Saw Her Standing There” and it's a great early Beatles track. The instrumentation on this song is so tight, and you can tell with most of the songs on the album that they had played these songs tons of times. The guitar tones are great, I absolutely love the Rickenbacker guitar sound and it is a staple of early Beatles songs.
“Misery” is a good song all around. The vocals and harmonies are top tier and the lyrics are really good, especially for being such young songwriters. The 50s-inspired “la la las” right at the end of the track are great.
“Anna (Go To Him)” is a cover song and it is one of my favorites on the album. This song was written by Arthur Alexander and his original version is a bit more soulful than the Beatles rock version but both are fantastic. John Lennon’s vocals on this song stand out and the final verse of the song truly shines.
“Chains” is another cover initially recorded by The Everly Brothers and it’s decent, but nowhere near one of the best songs on here. However, George Harrison’s voice is great and this is a good showcase of the Beatles’ excellent harmonies.
“Boys” is also a cover originally by The Shirelles and it is the first time Ringo is on lead vocals. I prefer the Shirelles version, but I do like the surf rock stylization and guitar work on this song. The song was a fan favorite during early live shows which is why it was included on the album.
“Ask Me Why” is a decent song with a solid melody. It's not the strongest on the album but not bad by any means, it is a really sweet love song. “Please Please Me” is one of the best songs on the album. Once again the harmonies shine throughout the track. The chorus, including George’s guitar lick, makes this one of the stand-out songs on the album for me.
The next track, “Love Me Do” was the first ever single as well as the first charting song by the Beatles, entering at number 17 on the U.K. charts. This reminds me heavily of the Everly Brothers and is arguably the most sonically 50s-sounding song on the album which would make sense since Paul allegedly wrote it when he was 16 years old (He was 16 in 1958.) It has a classic Beatles intro and the song is pretty good.
“P.S. I Love You” may be the weakest on the album if I had to choose the weakest link. This song was originally the B-side to “Love Me Do.” I really like the final verse and chorus but have always felt like something was missing throughout the song. “Baby It’s You” is a great song and John’s vocals throughout this whole album are so good and stand out on this track. George’s guitar solo on this is so melodic and nice it is one of my favorite guitar parts on this album.
“Do You Want To Know a Secret” is a really good song and I adore the melody and groove of the song. The song's instrumentation is fantastic for being such a simplistic early Beatles song. This has a better George vocal performance than “Chains.” One of the highlights of early Beatles songs, highly recommend checking this one out.
“A Taste of Honey” is another cover song originally for a Broadway play and probably the other contender for weakest song for me on the album. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass also covered this song later on in the 60s and I enjoy that version more.
“There’s a Place” is one of my favorite songs on the album (it might be my favorite) and it is insanely underrated. This one really makes it evident that since the beginning John Lennon and Paul McCartney had incredible songwriting talent. This song sums up the album greatly since it’s got the Rickenbacker guitar tone, the great melody, the amazing vocals, and the Beatles’ timeless harmonies.
“Twist & Shout” hands down has John Lennon’s best vocal performance on all of Please Please Me. This is probably the best cover on the album and easily my favorite version of the song. It always reminds me of the scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. “Twist and Shout” is a very high-energy, exciting song that is a classic of early Beatles songs.
I recommend listening to the mono version of this album (and most of the early albums) since the 2009 remasters that are on streaming services are insanely jarring to listen to with headphones because everything is hard-panned.
This isn’t even close to the best album by The Beatles but it is a solid start to a career and worth a listen, however, there’s most likely nothing here you haven’t heard before. Even at the time it was released there was nothing crazy revolutionary about it but it was still some solid pop music that was able to reveal early songwriting talent by Lennon and McCartney. It is simply some classic rock and roll music that has some sparks of what would later become a legendary career.
7/10 - Good