50 Years Out: The Beatles’ “Please Please Me”

Fifty years ago today (March 22), EMI/Parlophone released Please Please Me, the debut album release by The Beatles, in the United Kingdom.

The New Music Express said on March 8th 1963: “Things are beginning to move for the Beatles, the r-and-b styled British group. The disc Please Please Me follows closely on the heels of their first hit ‘Love Me Do’ written by group members John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It looks like a bright future for the Beatles, but knowing them I don’t think they’ll let it go to their heads.”

George Martin recalled, “Please Please Me was done in a day – we started at 10 o’clock in the morning finished at 11 at night, and that was the record made.”

In the United States, most of the songs on Please Please Me were first issued on Vee-Jay Records’ Introducing … the Beatles in 1964, and subsequently on Capitol Records’ The Early Beatles in 1965. Please Please Me was not released in the United States until the Beatles’ catalog appeared on CD in 1987.

The Beatles official web site

Video Du Jour: George Harrison/The Beatles

Here are Beatles producer George Martin, his son Giles and Dhani Harrison (son of George) listening to a mix of “Here Comes The Sun.” At one point Dhani turns up a channel with a forgotten electric guitar solo for the song that gives it a totally different feel. Fascinating.

Forward Into The Past: The Beatles Remastered

Sometimes it seems like they never left: the world momentarily stands still every time the Beatles release a new album.  Did you notice that the lads have been in the media lately? You can thank “The Beatles: Rock Band” for that, as well as the release today of meticulously remastered stereo and monophonic versions of the Beatles’ albums.  The group’s 12 original studio albums – plus a few newly created collections of singles – were issued on CD in 1987, but this new package has a sonic heft that benefits from two decades of technological improvements.

You can buy ’em as a pricey box set ($260 for the stereo, $298 for the mono) or you can purchase the individual CDs (stereo only) but unless you’ve never owned a Beatles album before, it may not be worth your money.  You don’t need a sophisticated stereo system to hear the difference – Paul McCartney’s bass rumbles, Ringo Starr’s drums take on a new sophistication, George Harrison’s guitar work stings and rings, and John Lennon is revealed to be one of the finest singers in rock and roll.  These boys were pretty good.  But you already knew that – so it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it to hear that all again.

Review: “The Stranger: 30th Anniversary Edition,” Billy Joel

In 1977, Billy Joel’s career was floundering. He had recorded four albums with no hits and Columbia Records was thinking of dropping him. So he decided to meet with the greatest producer of all time, George Martin (The Beatles. Enough said). Martin liked Joel’s material, but wanted to use studio musicians. Joel wanted to use his band, so it didn’t work out.

He then set up a meeting with Phil Ramone, who Joel said, produced a lot of records that he liked. He invited him to his concert at Carnegie Hall in early June, 1977, and as they say, the rest is history.

Joel and his band went into the studio in July and finished The Stranger in late August. Nobody knew it would be his breakthrough album, as Joel puts it, “we just liked what we had done.” The first single off the disc was “Just the Way You Are.”