Please Please Me (Stereo - 2009 remaster)

About

From the liner notes:

Historical Notes

Please Please Me was released into a pop music market that was still in its infancy. In March, 1963, ‘music for teenagers’ revolved around the single and many of the American rock ‘n’ roll artists loved by The Beatles found little success in an LP chart dominated by sophisticated singers, easy listening instrumentals and musicals of stage and screen. The achievements of The Beatles would soon reverse that trend by vividly demonstrating the artistic and commercial, potential of a pop album aimed at young record buyers.

In 1963, however, the first Beatles album on EMI’s Parlophone label was intended as no more than a quickly-produced audio snapshot of a group enjoying its first taste of chart success. It featured the four songs from their two hit singles (although ‘Love Me Do’ was a different version) plus another ten tracks recorded in just one day. Many of these were covers of rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm & blues favourites from the group’s stage repertoire.

The gathering momentum of The Beatles during 1963 proved unstoppable. George Martin’s decision to sign the group to Parlophone in 1962 and EMI’s small gamble to fund an album had both paid off handsomely. Please Please Me topped the UK album chart at the same time that their third single ‘From Me To You’ was at number one and only surrendered that position thirty weeks later to the second LP With The Beatles. It continued its run in the Top Twenty for a further nine months.

In this era, local hits for British artists rarely translated to American chart success and, not unusually, EMI’s company in the States – Capitol Records did not release either the album or ‘From Me To You’. Instead, the material was licensed to the independent R&B label Vee-Jay, who issued ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘From Me To You’ in 1963. Although both singles failed to make any impact, an album was planned for the summer to include twelve of the Please Please Me songs. Called Introducing The Beatles, the Vee-Jay LP eventually surfaced when the States fell under the Beatles’ spell in January, 1964. It reached number two held off the top by the group’s first Capitol album Meet The Beatles. The tracks licensed by Vee-Jay returned to their rightful home at Capitol in October, 1964 and eleven of them were shuffled into a different order for the album The Early Beatles released in March, 1965.

Simply through its initial British chart success, Please Please Me had given EMI an unparalleled return on their investment in studio time. It was The Beatles’ fifth single ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ and their second album With The Beatles which sparked the explosive international success that changed everything… .

Recording Notes

Produced by George Martin

Principal Engineer: Norman Smith

Having recorded two singles in 1962, The Beatles made their fifth visit to EMI’s studios in Abbey Road, North London on 11th February, 1963 to record the songs needed to make their debut album. In just nine and three quarter hours and using seven half-hour reels of tape, they completed eleven titles. The only song not used from that day was ‘Hold Me Tight’. It was re-recorded seven months later for the next LP. Recording on a twin-track tape machine with the instruments sent to track one and the vocals to track two meant that the mono and stereo mixes could be made on another day. This ensured producer George Martin could devote all the valuable studio time to the intense recording schedule.

The first session of this productive day began at 10.00am and after three hours they had two songs ready for overdubbing in the afternoon. Three more songs were recorded between 2.30 and 6.00pm and two of them were also given overdubs. The second to be worked on was ‘A Taste Of Honey’, which features the ‘trick duet’ mentioned in the album’s original cover notes. On that song, the recording made earlier was played back to Paul in the studio and simultaneously copied to another twin-track machine while he sang along with his original lead vocal. Double-tracking, as this was known, became a frequently used technique but for this album it was limited to this song. The afternoon’s other overdubs included harmony vocals, harmonica, percussion and handclaps.

When the evening session began at 7.30, they had five songs finished. Three and a quarter hours later they had completed a further six. After working on ‘Hold Me Tight’, The Beatles stormed through five cover versions – ending the day with two performances of ‘Twist And Shout’. It was their first take that was chosen to close the album. Two weeks later, the ten selected songs were mixed into mono and stereo during a three-hour session and, when added to the four from 1962, the album was now complete. Please Please Me had taken a little over 25 hours to record, edit and mix – a few albums later, as Beatles recordings became more adventurous, that would be hardly enough time to complete one song.

Please Please Me was released at a time when mono was the preferred format and stereo records sold to a small number of hi-fi enthusiasts. The twin-track recordings formed the basis of this stereo album but their original purpose was to achieve a good balance between the instruments and the vocals when creating the masters. Inevitably, the stereo mix provides an unusual experience of hearing all the voices on the right side with all the instruments coming from the left.

However, because the 1962 twin-track tapes of ‘Love Me Do’ and ‘P.S. I Love You’ had been discarded, the original stereo vinyl LP presented them in fake stereo. Although this was common practice at the time, it subsequently fell out of favour and so these songs are presented on this CD in mono.

This remastered album has been created from the original stereo analogue master tapes except for tracks 8 and 9, which are from the original mono analogue master tapes.

Remastered by Paul Hicks, Steve Rooke and Guy Massey.

Project Co-ordinator: Allan Rouse

Thanks to Simon Gibson

Historical Notes: Kevin Howlett and Mike Heatley

Recording Notes: Allan Rouse and Kevin Howlett

Project management for EMI Records Ltd: Wendy Day and Guy Hayden

All songs published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, except track 3 Shapiro Bernstein & Co. Ltd., 4 EMI Music Publishing Ltd., 5 Ardmore and Beechwood Music Ltd., 6 & 7 Universal/Dick James Music Ltd., 8 & 9 MPL Communications Ltd., 10 Windswept Music (London) Ltd., EMI United Partnership Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Ltd., 12 Ambassador Music Ltd./ Songiest Music Corp (MCPS), 14 Sony/ATV Music Publishing (UK) Ltd.

Digital Remaster ® 2009 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by EMI Records Ltd. © 2009 EMI Records Ltd. This label copy information is the subject of copyright protection. Ali rights reserved.

Artwork © 2009 Apple Corps Ltd. All photographs © Apple Corps Ltd. except where otherwise stated.

Front cover photography: Angus McBean.

Album Redesign: Drew Larimer

Photo Retouching: Gavin O’Neill

Photo editing and research: Aaron Bremner and Dorcas Lynn