The Beatles’ first number one ‘Please Please Me’ turns 60
It was a solid start. For four unknown lads from Liverpool, England, landing a top 20 hit on the UK Singles Chart was a major coup. This came after the four members slogged through years of marathon gigs in Hamburg, Germany, and some painful replacements, which included the death of a close friend and former bassist. But The Beatles now had something valuable that they hadn’t stumbled upon before: momentum.
After landing their first single, ‘Love Me Do’, at number 17 in the last week of 1962, it was back to the studio for The Beatles. “We’d had a top 30 entry with ‘Love Me Do’ and we really thought we were on top of the world,” John Lennon said in 1963. “Then came ‘Please Please Me’ – and wham! We tried to make it as simple as possible. Some of the stuff we’ve written in the past has been a bit way-out, but we aimed this one straight at the hit parade.”
That was a nice sentiment, but it was far from the truth. The song that eventually became ‘Please Please Me’ had to go through a number of changes before it was released as a single. In the process, The Beatles would form a lasting bond and a creative partnership with the man who signed them to their EMI record contract in the first place, producer George Martin.
During their first meeting together, The Beatles and Martin were sniffing around each other. General pleasantries and small talk left Martin unsure if the group was ready to record. He certainly hadn’t been impressed seeing the band try to figure out the studio in their initial audition, but the breakthrough came when George Harrison made a snarky remark about Martin’s tie. From there, the rest of the band joined in, leading Martin to want to sign the band on their humour alone. For a former comedy record producer, Martin had found an in.
After Martin attempted to record ‘Love Me Do’ with three different drummers (originally with Pete Best, then with Ringo Starr and session drummer Andy White both taking turns), The Beatles insisted on their core lineup for the recording of ‘Please Please Me’. Lennon had written the track while trying to replicate the work of some of his heroes.
“‘Please Please Me’ is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song, would you believe it?” Lennon told David Sheff in 1980. “I wrote it in the bedroom in my house at Menlove Avenue, which was my auntie’s place… I remember the day and the pink coverlet on the bed, and I heard Roy Orbison doing ‘Only The Lonely’ or something. That’s where that came from. And also, I was always intrigued by the words of ‘Please, lend me 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.”
‘Please Please Me’ was in the band’s repertoire while they were deciding which song to record as their first single. At that point, the song had a noticeably slower tempo compared to the lively version that was eventually released. It was a touch-and-go process, especially considering how diligent Martin was about rhythm and speed for their debut single.
“We almost abandoned it as the b-side of ‘Love Me Do’,” Lennon later revealed. “We changed our minds only because we were so tired the night we did ‘Love Me Do’. We’d been going over it a few times, and when we came to the question of the flipside, we intended using ‘Please Please Me’. Our recording manager, George Martin, thought our arrangement was fussy, so we tried to make it simpler. We were getting very tired, though, and we just couldn’t seem to get it right. We are conscientious about our work and we don’t like to rush things.”
Instead of using one of the less-impressive versions of the song recorded in September of 1962, the band recorded ‘Ask Me Why’ as a B-side and saved ‘Please Please Me’ for their next studio session in November. “At that stage, ‘Please Please Me’ was a very dreary song,” Martin explained. “It was like a Roy Orbison number, very slow, bluesy vocals. It was obvious to me that it badly needed pepping up. I told them to bring it in next time, and we’d have another go at it.”
When The Beatles returned to EMI studios on November 26th, there was a slight tension in the air. During their previous sessions, Martin had convinced the band to record a song called ‘How Do You Do It?’, written by songwriter Mitch Murray. The group insisted on recording their own material, but Martin countered by wanting to release ‘How Do You Do It?’ if ‘Please Please Me’ wasn’t up to snuff.
But Martin was also sympathetic to the band’s desires. As such, he made a recommendation: increasing the song’s tempo and making it a pop song rather than a ballad. “We sang it and George Martin said, ‘Can we change the tempo?’ We said, ‘What’s that?'” Paul McCartney explained in Anthology. “He said, ‘Make it a bit faster. Let me try it.’ And he did. We thought, ‘Oh, that’s all right, yes.’ Actually, we were a bit embarrassed that he had found a better tempo than we had.”
After having previously replaced Starr with White on ‘Love Me Do’, it was up to the band’s new drummer to assert himself and keep the song moving at its new tempo. Starr took the challenge head on and laid down one of his most rock-solid grooves. After 18 takes, The Beatles successfully recorded the entire song live, minus a later harmonica overdub by Lennon.
At the end of the day’s session, Martin got on the intercom and reportedly informed the group: “Congratulations, gentlemen, you’ve just made your first number-one.” He was right, with a slight caveat. Although ‘Please, Please Me’ hit number one on the charts compiled by NME and Melody Maker, the Record Retailer chart had the song stuck at number two behind Frank Ifield’s ‘Wayward Wind’. Since the latter was what eventually evolved into the official UK Singles Chart, The Beatles would have to wait another three months for their first true number one hit.
Most importantly, after bringing in session players and forcing an outside songwriter on the band, George Martin had come to trust the musical abilities of The Beatles. In turn, the band saw Martin’s more sophisticated musical training as an asset, and the partnership that the two parties forged would continue for the rest of The Beatles’ career.
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