Please Please Me - Remastered 2009

On this song, John Lennon asks a girl to please please him, just like he does for her. Many assumed he was referring to oral sex, but of course The Beatles denied this, since they had a very clean image to maintain at the time. Lennon said of the song: "I was always intrigued by the double use of the word 'please.'"

John Lennon, a big Roy Orbison fan, wrote this in the style of Orbison's overly dramatic singing, and on September 11, 1962, they recorded the song that way. Beatles producer George Martin suggested it would sound better sped up, with more pop appeal, so on November 26, they went back in the studio and cut the version that was released. In 2006, Martin told The Observer Music Monthly, "The songs the Beatles first gave me were crap. This was 1962 and they played a dreadful version of 'Please Please Me' as a Roy Orbison-style ballad. But I signed them because they made me feel good to be with them, and if they could convey that on a stage then everyone in the audience would feel good, too. So I took 'Love Me Do' and added some harmonica, but it wasn't financially rewarding even though Brian Epstein bought about 2,000 copies. Then we worked for ages on their new version of 'Please Please Me,' and I said: 'Gentlemen, you're going to have your first #1.'" Although in the UK, "Please Please Me" was officially a #2 record, three of the four charts used at the time - Melody Maker, NME and Disc - listed it #1. Only the Record Retailer chart had it at #2. Their next single, "From Me to You," became their first official #1.

This was the second Beatles single released in the UK (following "Love Me Do") and the first Bealtes single released in America; getting it issued there was a struggle. In the UK, it was released on the EMI-owned Parlophone label on January 11, 1963. After EMI's US affiliate, Capitol Records, rejected the song (and a lot of other early Beatles material), the small, Chicago-based Vee Jay label stepped in and released "Please Please Me" stateside on February 25, 1963. The Chicago radio station WLS made history by becoming the first American radio station to play a Beatles song when they put it on the air, but it had little impact - the song reached #35 on their "Silver Dollar Survey" the week of March 15, but then dropped out. Over the next few months, the group caught on in the UK, and by 1964 were ready to conquer America. On January 30, 1964, "Please Please Me" was again released in America as "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was on its way to becoming the group's first American chart-topper. "Please Please Me" made it to #3 on March 14, 1964.