As legend has it, Lennon had a cold, the band were worn out and they only had one day to do it in. But the Beatles entered EMI on February 11th, 1963 and with George Martin producing, recorded what would be the world changing first Beatles album, Please Please Me.
Fifty years later, the album sounds younger than Springtime and not just because the four boys were just out of their teens, and not just because in 1963 the recording technology was about the same as 1943. It was recorded on two track… that’s right TWO TRACK and when you hear it today it has the urgency of a live performance. When it was recorded it was pop rock, coming from US Motown and adding skiffle, it was a hybrid pop. Today it sounds rockier, definitely so in “Twist And Shout” one of the Beatles best covers ever.
It cost four hundred pounds to produce. And its effects on the world, on my world and yours, were seismic. But you know that, right? It is boiler plate stuff. Please Please me has been written about and listened to and thought about for so long it is a “Mona Lisa” of rock, all you can do is gaze and wonder because it is so much an artifact you can’t creep up on it. Any angle you choose has been used before and so all that’s left is notice it and move along.
Still, in celebration of its 50th Anniversary, Mick “Simply Red” Hucknell and Stereophonics are being filmed for the BBC recreating the 12 hour recording session at Abbey Road. I am not sure how I feel about this at all, first of all is all 12 hours on tape? I mean, will it be a real recreation? Or are they just playing the album for 12 hours. I did read they will be performing the songs in the order they were performed in. Though what will that do?.
Bob Shennan of BBC Radio 2 says, "The re-creation of Please Please Me promises to be one of Radio 2's stand-out moments of 2013. Hearing those tracks brought to life again with a contemporary twist will have the network buzzing as much as the original did. It's one album that changed the world of pop music and I think the 50th anniversary is a timely moment to remind everyone why."
The album is 32 minutes long so I guess it’s gonna be a hard day’s night to make it last 720 minutes.