Please Please Me

Please Please Me is the debut studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Parlophone rush-released the album on 22 March 1963 in the United Kingdom to capitalise on the success of the singles "Please Please Me" (No. 1 on most lists but only No. 2 on Record Retailer) and "Love Me Do" (No. 17).

Of the album's 14 songs, eight were written by Lennon–McCartney (originally credited "McCartney–Lennon"), early evidence of what Rolling Stone later called "[their invention of] the idea of the self-contained rock band, writing their own hits and playing their own instruments." In 2012, Please Please Me was voted 39th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."

Recording

The norm for British 12" vinyl pop albums in 1963 was to have seven songs on each side (American albums usually had five or six songs per side) leaving producer George Martin needing only ten more tracks if he were to include the four sides of the group's first two singles: “I asked them what they had which we could record quickly, and the answer was their stage act” Martin said. He had at first contemplated recording the album live at the Cavern Club in front of the group's home audience and visited the Liverpool club on 9 December 1962 to consider the technicalities (or, as more recent scholarship indicates, on 12 December 1962.) But when time constraints intervened, he decided to book them at EMI Studios in Abbey Road and record them live there instead. Martin said, "It was a straightforward performance of their stage repertoire—a broadcast, more or less."

Please Please Me (song)

"Please Please Me" is a song and the second single released by English rock group the Beatles in the United Kingdom, and the first to be issued in the United States. It was also the title track of their first LP, which was recorded to capitalise on the success of the single. It was originally a John Lennon composition, although its ultimate form was significantly influenced by George Martin. John Lennon: "Please Please Me is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song, would you believe it? I wrote it in the bedroom in my house at Menlove Avenue, which was my auntie's place". (David Sheff. John Lennon: All We Are Saying).

The single was released in the UK on 11 January 1963 and reached No. 1 on the New Musical Express and Melody Maker charts. However, it only reached No. 2 on the Record Retailer chart, which subsequently evolved into the UK Singles Chart. Because of this it was not included on the multi-million selling Beatles compilation, 1.