Notes and Quotes: "Please Please Me"

George Martin, Dick James, & Brian Epstein

John Lennon. “Please Please Me” is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song… I wrote it in the bedroom of my house at Menlove Avenue… I remember the day and the pin eyelet on the bed and I heard Roy Orbison doing “Only the Lonely”… And also I was always intrigued by the words “Please, lend your little ears to my pleas—a Bing Crosby song. I was always intrigued by the double use of the word “please.” So it was a combination of Bing Crosby and Roy Orbison. (Sheff, 150)

John Lennon:  In the following weeks we went over it again and again.  We changed the tempo a little, we altered the words slightly and we went over the idea of featuring the harmonica, just as we’d done on "Love Me Do."  By the time the session came around we were so happy with the result, we couldn’t get it recorded fast enough.  (Beatles 90)

Brian Southall. According to Stephen James, his father was impressed with the record [“Please Please Me”] and when Epstein said that if James could get them a major TV show that would clinch the deal, the ex-singer went into action.  He called up his old friend Philip Jones, who was producer of the important Thank Your Lucky Stars television show, explained who was in the office with him and then played "Please Please Me" down the telephone to the TV executive. (Southall, 13)

Stephen James: My father had played about eight bars of the song when Philip said, "OK, that’ll do, they’re on the show"… Epstein was impressed that with just one phone call my father had got them something that Ardmore & Beechwood never managed. (Southall, 13)

Keith Fordyce (NME): "Please Please Me" recorded on Parlophone by the Beatles has been publicized as "the record of the year." I have just the slightest nagging doubt that, with fifty weeks of releases yet to come this year, it may prove to be a teensy weensy exaggeration! However, this vocal and instrumental quartet has turned out a really enjoyable platter, full of beat, vigour and vitality—and what's more, its different. I can't think of any other group currently recording in this style. "Ask Me Why" is really flipside value. I shan't be in the least surprised to see the charts invaded by Beatles. (New Musical Express (11 January 1963): 4.)

The apparent simplicity of this performance belies a carefully crafted approach to eliciting emotional response. Kozinn (1995: 51-55) describes this music as both harmonically inventive, and sexually suggestive. In particular, he notes Lennon and McCartney's vocal combinations and the relationship between the lead vocal and the responses in their word painting as as pleading and emotionally piqued.

The Beatles played this song on their first American television appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964.

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2 February, 2012