The Beatles - Please Please Me Review

The Beatles Please Please Me

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Tracklist:
1. I Saw Her Standing Ther
2. Misery
3. Anna (Go to Him)
4. Chains
5. Boys
6. Ask Me Why
7. Please Please Me
8. Love Me Do
9. P.S. I Love You
10. Baby It's You
11. Do You Want to Know a Secret
12. Taste of Honey
13. There's a Place
14. Twist and Shout

Release Date: 1963

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3.5
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other reviews

Med57 EMERITUS (4)
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Dan Stalcup (4)
A historically important but musically inconsistent album does not a simple review score make....

Bron-Yr-Aur (3.5)
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Storm In A Teacup (3)
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On 15 Lists

4.0
excellent

Alex -Slayer- Robertson USER (31 Reviews)

2009-09-19 | 18 comments | 356 views

Summary: Please Please Me doesn't have any of the world-changing music The Beatles were so well-known for, instead it has breezy pop songs that, to the right person, are almost as good.

1 of 1 thought this review was well written

I used to hate The Beatles. My hate wasn't for any particular or legitimate reason (pffft, as if), it just seemed a little unfair to thrust upon one band the titles of "best band ever" or "band that changed the world". More than anything else, the idea that my favorite band could not be the best ever because one band already holds that title irked me. So, I hated them. Of course, my abhorrence towards the band was unfounded, but someone listening to their debut album, Please Please Me, for the first time would find that I wasn't completely wrong: throughout the album, it's evident that The Beatles weren't out to change the course of music, much less the whole world. The album is full of simple pop songs (with arguably simpler rock-and-roll cleverly interspersed throughout) that don't have much to reveal past the first listen. Nevertheless, Please Please Me is still an extremely enjoyable look into pristine 60's pop, and, most importantly, it never tries to be anything it isn't. What it does try to be, however, is a lot of fun, and, in that sense, the album is a triumph.

The album kicks off with "I Saw Her Standing There", an early attempt at rock-and-roll that includes impressive vocal harmonies and exuberant handclaps backing up the percussion. The attempt is successful, and the song turns out to be an album highlight that sets the standard for the rest of the album. It also shows how fresh and young The Beatles were at the time: along with the music (mainstream rock-and-roll was in its early stages at the time), the lyrics also show the band in its raw, exciting adolescence, as Lennon and McCartney belt out melodies about dancing with That One Girl. Rock-and-roll doesn't make a return in the album until "Boys", which semi-humorously features a chorus about the joys of boys (the song was originally performed by girl group The Shirelles; The Beatles decided not to switch the gender of the lyrics).

However, The Beatles are also at their best when they step away from the hard-hitting rhythms of rock-and-roll: "Ask Me Why", possibly the best song on the album (and also the most beautiful), is a swaying pop song that features some of the best vocal harmonies on the album. The energetic bounce of songs like "I Saw Her Standing There" are nowhere to be found on the song until it fades into the title track, which acts as a peppy extension to the song before it.

Along with the originals, the covers also fit themselves into the album quite nicely. The first of the lot is "Anna (Go to Him)", a swinging soul tune originally written by the little-known Arthur Alexander. Despite being surrounded by songs that could possibly be seen as similar to it, the song's irregular guitar line and rhythm help it escape homogeneity. "Chains", originally written by husband-and-wife team Gerry Goffin and Carole King, fares a little worse for the exact same reason: the song fails to distinguish itself from the others, and doesn't keep the listener's interest for its two-minute length. In addition to the slightly forgettable "Baby It's You" (another one originally recorded by The Shirelles), "A Taste of Honey" is a late-album cover (this time from a play of the same name) that, despite having exceedingly cheesy lyrics, features impressive vocal harmonies and catchy melodies, boosting the song past sentimental cliché.

Stuck in between "Baby It's You" and "A Taste of Honey", however, is one of the album's hidden gems: at not even two minutes long, "Do You Want to Know a Secret" is bound to be overlooked by many listeners, but it features a calm beauty not seen on the rest of the album, with the exception of "Ask Me Why". In addition, its breezy melody is ferociously catchy (though this shouldn't be anything new for regular listeners of The Beatles).

The album, thankfully, ends on a high note with "Twist and Shout", famously done in one take, Lennon's explosive vocals and all. The song is one of the hardest-rocking in the Beatles' early catalog and has one of the most danceable rhythms on the album, and yes, Lennon's performance is certainly one of the most memorable moments on Please Please Me: in addition to his immediately noticeable sandpaper-voice delivery, he almost seems to be frothing at the mouth by the end (in a good way, of course). By the time the mid-song climax arrives and the band lets loose, you're probably banging your head to the beat and giving your own version of the vocals already anyway.

Overall, Please Please Me is the essence of "early Beatles": simple pop songs that, however enjoyable, didn't exactly give a taste of what was to come. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; their early albums, Please Please Me included, were almost or even just as enjoyable as their later ones in their own way. Appropriately, Please Please Me is never more or less than a surprisingly consistent and easily enjoyable pop album, and it never tries to be anything else. Which is important, because, with a band as simple and talented as The Beatles were in 1963, what they didn't do was almost as important as what they did.

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