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- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the Please Please Me (Mono) LP.
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Timeline
More from year 1963
Some songs from this session appear on:
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About
From Wikipedia:
[…] 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.”
Initially only a morning and afternoon session were booked; the evening session was added later. Therefore, at 10:00 am on Monday, 11 February 1963, the Beatles began working their way through their live set song by song, the number of takes varying on each, and finished at 10:45 pm—less than 13 hours later— capturing in essence an authentic representation of the band’s Cavern Club-era sound. The day ended with a cover of “Twist and Shout,” which had to be recorded last because John Lennon had a particularly bad cold and Martin feared the throat-shredding vocal would ruin Lennon’s voice for the day. This performance, caught on the first take, prompted Martin to say: “I don’t know how they do it. We’ve been recording all day but the longer we go on the better they get.” Mark Lewisohn would later write: “There can scarcely have been 585 more productive minutes in the history of recorded music“. Paul McCartney double tracked his vocal on “A Taste of Honey” and Lennon added harmonica onto “There’s A Place” during these sessions. Martin overdubbed piano on “Misery” and celesta on “Baby It’s You” on 20 February during which the Beatles were not present.
The song “Hold Me Tight” was recorded during these sessions, but was “surplus to requirements” and not included on the album. “Hold Me Tight” was recorded again on 12 September 1963 for With the Beatles.
The whole day’s session cost around £400 (£10,000 as of 2016). Martin said: “There wasn’t a lot of money at Parlophone. I was working to an annual budget of £55,000.” This budget had to cover all of the artists on Martin’s roster. Individually, under a contract with the Musicians’ Union, each Beatle collected a £7 10s (£7.50) session fee for each three-hour session. […]
Last updated on February 7, 2016
Songs recorded
1.
Recording • Take 1
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
2.
Recording • Take 2
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
3.
Recording • Take 3
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
4.
Recording • Take 4
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
5.
Recording • Take 5
Album Officially released on Bootleg Recordings 1963
6.
Recording • Take 6
Album Officially released on Bootleg Recordings 1963
7.
Recording • Take 7
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
8.
Recording • Take 8
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
9.
Recording • Take 9
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
10.
Recording • Take 10
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
11.
Recording • Take 1
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
12.
Recording • Take 2
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
13.
Recording • Take 3
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
14.
Recording • Take 4
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
15.
Recording • Take 5
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
16.
Recording • Take 6
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
17.
Recording • Take 7
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
18.
Recording • Take 8
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
19.
Recording • Take 9
Album Officially released on Free As A Bird
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
Recording • Take 7
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
32.
Recording • Take 8
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
33.
Written by Bobby Scott, Ric Marlow
Recording • Take 6
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
34.
Written by Bobby Scott, Ric Marlow
Recording • Take 7
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
35.
Recording • Take 11
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
36.
Recording • Take 12
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
37.
Recording • Take 13
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
38.
Recording • Take 10
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
39.
Recording • Take 11
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
40.
Recording • Take 12
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
41.
Recording • Take 1
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
42.
Recording • Take 2
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
43.
Recording • Take 3
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
44.
Recording • Take 4
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
45.
Recording • Take 5
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
46.
Recording • Take 6
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
47.
Recording • Take 7
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
48.
Recording • Take 8
Album Released on bootleg Please Please Me - Studio Sessions - Back To Basics
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
Staff
Musicians
- Paul McCartney:
- vocals, bass guitar, handclaps
- Ringo Starr:
- vocals, drums, handclaps
- John Lennon:
- vocals, handclaps, harmonica, guitar
- George Harrison:
- vocals, guitar, handclaps
Production staff
Going further
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions • Mark Lewisohn
The definitive guide for every Beatles recording sessions from 1962 to 1970.
We owe a lot to Mark Lewisohn for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - the number of takes for each song, who contributed what, a description of the context and how each session went, various photographies... And an introductory interview with Paul McCartney!
The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1: My Bonnie through Beatles For Sale (1961-1964)
Nominated for the 2018 Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.
The first book of the series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1: My Bonnie through Beatles For Sale (1961-1964)" tracks the evolution of the band from their earliest recordings and initial hits, through "Please Please Me", "With The Beatles", "A Hard Day's Night", and "Beatles For Sale". From the first take to the final remix, discover the making of the greatest recordings of all time.
Through extensive, fully-documented research, these books fill an important gap left by all other Beatles books published to date and provide a unique view into the recordings of the world's most successful pop music act.
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