Review Summary: George, Paul, Ringo, John. Grabbed a guitar and all hopped on.
Imagine. A world with no Beatles. No Paul. No John. Nope, no Ringo. No George, either. None. Imagine that. No British invasion. No moptop. No drugs, no LSD. You can't right? Most people can't either. It's simply because rock and roll music as it is right now would simply not exist without the existence of four lads from Liverpool. In a relatively short window of time, The Beatles took the world by storm, and in doing so changed it forever. So much has been said about The Beatles, and to go back to the very first album they released, it's shocking to hear the progression they underwent. But it's a good thing they did what they did.
"Please Please Me" is quite run of the mill for its time of release. A lot of influence from the 50's doowop, and earliest rock and roll recordings can be heard. Tracks such as "Misery", and "Anna (Go To Him)", sound very much like jukebox 50's classics, in the vain of
Buddy Holly or
Dion and the Belmonts. "Please Please Me" was released in 1963. The spillover from the 1950's isn't shocking, and their songwriting abilities make up for the fact they play more to influence than to originality.
Considering all the members were in their early 20's at the time they recorded this, there is something to be said by the confidence in musicianship they held. Each track is presented with a sense of absolute confidence in what they were playing, even if this confidence would wane and they would soon change their sound dramatically. For what that may be worth, "Please Please Me" is certainly an album based upon songwriting abilities, and influence. All four members of The Beatles were well equipped with songwriting abilities. The ability to write a song that stuck and had power behind it. This ability plays well when the youngest member is just barely a teen anymore, and the sound is covered in influence. Other bands would have played this as weak, but The Beatles sheer musical ability propels them over the herd.
In conclusion, "Please Please Me" was a slightly flawed entry point for what would soon be the world's biggest and most influential band ever to be. The Beatles are often times cited as influences for musicians of any genre, but their influence on rock and its subsidiaries is undeniable. "Please Please Me" is not the best Beatles album, not even close. But for what it was worth, the amount of confidence they had in themselves helped propel them to the absolute maniacal stardom they would soon achieve. Some may even say we're all still under Beatlemania. We may never not be.
