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Wednesday, February 20, 1963

"Please Please Me" album session #2

For The Beatles

Last updated on February 7, 2016

From Beatles Bible:

The Beatles did not attend this overdub session for the Please Please Me album, as they were in London for a live radio session before travelling to Doncaster, Yorkshire, for an evening concert.

The group’s producer George Martin recorded overdubs for two songs between 10.30am and 1pm. The first was a piano part for Misery, followed by piano and celeste parts for Baby It’s You. The piano piece for the latter song was never used.

The tape operator on this session was Geoff Emerick, whose contributions as an engineer on The Beatles’ recordings from 1966 onwards would prove crucial to their developing sound.


Session activities

  1. Misery

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 12

    Unreleased track

  2. Misery

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 13

    Unreleased track

  3. Misery

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 14

    Unreleased track

  4. Misery

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 15

    Unreleased track

  5. Misery

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 16

    Unreleased track

  6. Baby It's You

    Written by Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Barney Williams

    Recording • Take 4

    Unreleased track

  7. Baby It's You

    Written by Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Barney Williams

    Recording • Take 5

    Unreleased track

  8. Baby It's You

    Written by Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Barney Williams

    Recording • Take 6

    Unreleased track


Staff

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!

Buy on Amazon

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.

Buy on Amazon

Paul McCartney writing

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