Comments: 43

• Bob from MilanThe first Beatles appearance on British TV wasn' t Thank Your Lucky Stars - they performed Love Me Do on 5 O'clock Club in 1962.
  
  The NME review of the new single Please please me said - some people have hailed this as the greatest record of the year - but since it's still only February, maybe it's a bit too early to say!
• Birdman_euston from London, UkThe first single (Love Me Do) had been OK, but the Beatles really burst into life as the greatest pop group ever when they played to George Martin the up-tempo version of Please Please Me. What a moment of music history when after the second take he came over the microphone from the control room to announce to the band that they had just recorded their first number one!
• Trebor from TexasJohan-Love Me Do was number one in Australia and the United States and it was "Paul's song" (if you want to be petty about it). Doesn't that count? Or only when you count "John's songs??
• Jennifur Sun from RamonaFor some reason this is one of my fav Ringo drumming tunes.
• Johan Cavalli from SwedenThe greatness of John Lennon's music, as I see it
  --The increasing tension. For example I Should Have Known Better. Before Lennon, all pop music structure was AABA, where the tension decreased in the middle part B. But with Lennon the tension from the verse continued in the middle part. Besides that, in this song it is not only a key change in the transition to the middle part, it is even a little key change in it. The increasing tension was what first characterized The Beatles. The first single where the verse lacked this increasing tension was Can't Buy Me Love. (But the chorus is OK). I didn't know then it was a McCartney composition. – Other ways of increasing tension by Lennon is to pack together several little songs: Happiness Is A Warm Gun consists of three or four songs, and Bring On The Lucie consists of three songs put together. For every "song", the tension increases--All You Need Is Love has another way of increasing tension: First talking, then repeating half singing, then singing, and finally the climax in chorus.
  --The melody does not changes, but the background. For example in Strawberry Fields Forever and in Julia the singing melody uses the same notes, but instead the accompaniment changes! Listen to Puccini. He got tired of his sang melodies in Boheme and in Tosca he composed a lot where the sang melodies are often on the same notes, but the background changes instead. The effect can be stronger.
  
  Three long notes. Very, very typical for Lennon is three long notes in succession. It's wonderful. For example "give my heart…" in If I Fell, "…I'm so glad…" in I Feel Fine ", "…hard days night…" in A Hard Days Night", "…take my place…" in I'm Happy Just To Dance with You and "…love love love…" in All You Need Is Love.
  --Octave Leap. For example, in the middle part of Please Please Me, Lennon makes an octave run in "…it's so hard to reason with YOU…", the climax of the song. George Martin didn't understand the quality in that. In his orchestration of it in Off The Beatle Track, Martin excludes the octave, the most important bit of the song!
  --Verse and resolve. Typical for Lennon is a melody with increasing tension followed by a resolve, for example in No Reply "…I saw the light!"…and in Girl "…titti titti titti girl!". Lennon said that "a good song must have climax and a resolve". He thought that Yesterday is a good song, but perhaps it lacks climax and resolve.
  --Only one chord. In Tomorrow Never Knows there is only one chord, or bass note, an innovation in pop music. In the Middle Ages it was common with that bordun note, an unchanged bass note. When Lennon played the song the first time for George Martin, Martin didn't like it.
  --Whole-tone scale. Most scales have both whole step and half steps between the notes in an octave. In the verse in Norwegian Wood, there is most whole steps, and that's like the impressionists, for example Debussy. It sounds very clean.
  --Church Modes. A Hard Day's Night is written in the mixolydian mode, an ancient vocal scale, preserved in British, Irish and American folk song. --If you play the beginning of Please Please Me slowly, you can hear the similarities with the Westminster bells ringing. When Lennon was a little boy, he loved visiting the divine services. Afterwards he used to improvise anthem music. Westminster bells could unconsciously have inspired him to the beginning of Please Please Me. There is also anthem music in the beginning of All You Need Is Love: "love love love…".
  --The lamentation second. A little half step up in the scale. And that's to indicate a pain. In All You Need Is Love Lennon sings the refrain twice unchanged and then suddenly the third time, rises a little, a very expressive and important step up. That step up started in the baroque epoch, and was called The lamentation second. When Lennon played it the first time to George Martin, Martin didn't like it, he didn't understand the quality. He leaned towards McCartney and muttered: "It's certainly repetitive".
  --From darkness to light. Happiness Is a Warm Gun starts with a little melancholy, and ends with enthusiasm.—In the middle part of I Am The Walrus the darkness switches over to light: "sitting in an English garden…". And the transition from the chaos and darkness in Revolution 9 to the light in Good Night. That is very typical in Wagner's music. I think that temperamentally the two were similar. And I think Wagner would have loved the arrangement in Glass Onion.
  --Suggestive and hypnotic music. With small intervals between the notes in combination with some dissonance chord, Lennon can create a suggestive and hypnotic feeling in for example Across The Universe. It is more like Wagner than pop music.
  --Few notes. With few, but effective notes, Lennon can create more feeling than McCartney with all his notes, for example in If I Fell and Love.
  --A melody sang three times, in succession, with just a little change every time. When you hear it you can get frustrated or desperate not getting out from the melody. That we have in the middle part in I Call Your Name and in the middle part in And Your Bird Can Sing. And at the same time the melodies are stick together with a countermelody at the guitar. Rather hypnotically.
  --Melodies without joint. Innovation. When repeating the verse melody in Any Time At All, the first note is the same note as the last note in the first verse: "…there is nothing I won't DO if need a shoulder to cry on…"
  --The most excellent and lovely melodies in the middle part of Bad to Me, the middle part of This Boy, the middle part of Yes It Is, and the middle part of Nobody Loves You.
• Roy from Slough, United KingdomThat must mean that the song " My boy lollipop by Milly" is about oral sex.
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn February 1st 1963, The Beatles played at the Gaumont Cinema in Bradford, Yorkshire...
  It was the opening night of a Helen Shapiro tour; and the Beatles were the last on six-act tour bill...
  "Please Please Me" was the only original song they performed, the others were cover versions ("Chains", "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" and "A Taste of Honey".
• Johan from Stockholm, SwedenPlease please me was Lennon´s first number one hit in the Beatles. After that he had these following number one hits with the Beatles:
  Do You Want to Know a Secret, I Should Have Known Better (Norway), A Hard Day´s Night, If I Fell (Norway), I Feel Fine, Ticket to Ride, Help, Nowhere man ((Australia and Canada), All You Need Is Love, The Ballad of John and Yoko and Come Together. = That´s 12 hits.
  
  The covers from Lennon, reaching number one:
  Bad to Me, Billy J. Kramer, Do You Want to Know a Secret, Billy J. Kramer, You´r Gonna Loose That Girl, Stars On 45,
  I´ll Be Back, Stars On 45, No Reply, Stars on 45, and I Don´t Want to Spoil the Party, Rosanna Cash. = that´s 6 hits
  
  With the Beatles McCartney had: Can´t Buy Me Love, Eight Days Week, Yesterday, Paperback Writer, Penny Lane, Hello GoodBye, Hey Jude, Get Back, Let It Be and The Long And Winding Road. = 10 hits
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  If I Fell (Norway)
  I Feel Fine
  Ticket to Ride
  Help
  Nowhere Man (Australia and Canada)
  All You Need Is Love
  Come Together
  The Ballad of John and Yoko
• David from London, United KingdomOne thing - a man performing oral sex on a woman was not very common in the early 1960s in Liverpool - a "provincial" city as we say in the UK, not a part of the sophisticated metropolis of London. Much more likely to be the hand down in that area causing the orgasm...and he's asking for a reciprocal arrangement.
• Allyson from Waverly, NyOne of my favorite songs by them!! <3
• Johan from Stockholm, SwedenRefering to what I wrote latest, I will make it clearer. They cared for that everybody for many many years wrongly thougt that McCartney was the Beatles composer. That led at last to the split of the Beatles. All writers of books and articles thought that for many years. See for example what Ned Rorem wrote in "The New York of Review of Books, January 1968 and see the article in "Readers Digest" 1968. Nobody writes about it, just Albert Goldman a little, see page 392 in his book from 1988. Lennon was depressed; "Most people thought it was all Paul or George Martin".
• Johan from Stockholm, SwedenIn the 11 singles and 5 albums 1962-1965 - before Yesterday - Lennon was the dominant composer, but nobody knew. Not even George Martin knew that Lennon was the composer of "Please PLease Me" (The book "Northern Songs", Southall and Perry, 2006, page 102). There was a kind of "Dont tell anybody". But when "Yesterday" was realised 1965 George Martin and McCartney cared for that the whole world at once knew that McCartney was the composer, and they cared for many many years that McCartney was the Beatles composer. One of the biggest scandals in Music History
• Roy from Leeds, United KingdomPlease Please Me was not a numbr one in UK, officially
• Megan from Stevenson, AlOh my! AMAZING! Absolutely love this song, album, and band!!! Best music ever made!!!
• Christopher from Marlboro, NjDavid Cassidy did his own version of this song. Not bad. I liked it.
• Claire from Colorado Springs, Cowhen the beatles released their first single, 10,000 people joined rock groups because they wanted to be like the beatles. On that same day, 10,000 people quit their rock groups because they realized that the beatles were way better then them. BEATLES FOR EVER!!!!
• Valentin from Beijing, ChinaKeith Richards also recorded it, his version is kinda funny because of his humming instead of full voice singing %)
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyIn the fall of 1963 the 50,000 watt power house radio station WKBW out of Buffalo, NY had this song on it's play list. One of the DJs pronounced the group's name as though it were two words; "Here are The Beat Less", I used think what kind of group has a name like The Beat Less!!!
• Russell from Bridgnorth, United KingdomIt wasn't only Roy Orbison who inspired the song, in Lennon's own words: "I remember the day I wrote it, I heard Roy Orbison doing "Only the Lonely", or something. And I was also always intrigued by the words to a Bing Crosby song that went, 'Please lend a little ear to my pleas'. The double use of the word 'please'. So it was a combination of Roy Orbison and Bing Crosby".[
• Samuel from Kilsyth, United KingdomI have been reading all the "Gossip" sent in about this song, and HONESTLY, Most of it is "CRAP", (you should get your `Facts Right`)Before you Write Down, what you`ve `Read` or What you`ve been told. Here are the `TRUE FACTS`. This Song `PLEASE PLEASE ME`, was more like a (Roy Orbison Ballad), When George Martin heard it, it sounded a Bit Dreary, for his liking, so he Asked them if they could UP-Tempo it, which was done to `Such Affect`,And The RESULT was Their "1st NUMBER ONE", (And may I point out),It Was "NOT BANNED",when first Released,in the UK, (as some guy said),So "PLEASE PLEASE" us ALL, By Getting your `FACTS RIGHT`, Before Commenting on a Song OR Group, and Leave ALL the `INNUENDO`,OUT Of It, Thanks.
• Carrie from Roanoke, VaI can see how this song could be about sex (even oral sex). He says "Please please me like I pleased you." He gave his girl and orgasm and she didn't return the favor. The "don't make me blue" line is obviously about blue balls. I don't usually go looking for prurient meanings in songs, but with this one, the sexual content is right there on the surface.
• Syd Malone from Liverpool, United Kingdombest beatles song of all time, no doubt, that or love me do
• Mark from Vancouver, BcI was just listening to the mono "Beatles' Hits" Ep version of "Please Please Me". The vocals ,obviously, are from another take of the song. This is without John's flubbed lyric near the end. But there is is another fascinating quirk here. I noticed a rather sloppy edit near the end, like the tape was damaged during editing. I find little things like this make the recording more endearing. It was about the spirit of the song. It wasn't necessarily about perfection which can be the folly of the mainstream recording industry these days. I find the independent acts I support tend to have more of the spirit the Fabs had.
• Dakota from Mansfield, OhI think this song was very RISKAY at the time it came out. So was I am the walrus and a day in the life. I am the walrus wasn't allowed to be played over the BBC in 1967.
• John from Liverpool, EnglandWhen this was released in the UK it was banned from airplay by the BBC and denounced by the Church for its suggestive lyrics. Everyone thought it was about sex. (Well perhaps there were a few exceptions)
• Paul from London, EnglandThis was not "officially a #2 record". It got to number 1. The Beatles at the time considered it a number 1, as did their friends, family, fans and over 99% of the British public. All the radio stations announced it as number one. Every biography until the late 80s had it as number 1. Record Retailer meant nothing to most people at the time. The number 2 fallacy comes from Guinness chart books which have rewritten history, and even EMI fell for it by leaving it off the "1" album.
  
  In a competition, if all 6 judges but one named Miss X a winner, but that one judge went on to write a bestselling book of the event 20 years later detailing that Miss X had not won, and that became the common perception, it still wouldn't mean that Miss X had not won.
  
  
  
  
• Zhane` from New York City, NyI love the Beatles they are so coooooooooooooool.
• Sam from Portsmouth, VaI read somewhere that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this song because since all the other Beatles songs didn't sound poppy enough, the record label told them if they couldn't write a pop song, then they would have to release a single a studio songwriter had written for them (the Beatles were only interested in writing and releasing their own songs).
• Sal from Bardonia , NyThis song broke the Beatles in the U.K and it was the first major hit song by a Merseybeat group beating Gerry and the Pacemakers by a couple of months and it was first number one album by a Merseybeat group.
  Sal,Bardonia. NY
• Julian from Anaheim, CaWhen I saw Paul in 05 he sang a great version of this song!
• John from Hartford, CtIt maybe about sex.
  "Oh please, please me like I pleased you"
  What is Lennon saying?
  I dont look for sex in every song but......
• Ken from Louisville, KyAt their first recording session (for "Love Me Do") John and Paul tried to convince George Martin to let them record this song, but Martin considered it too slow and bluesy. For their second session, John and Paul changed the arraignment to something more "pop". Martin liked it, but by speeding up the tempo, the song was barely a minute and a half long. He suggested repeating the first verse at the end to "pad" the song to 2 minutes.
• Ken from Louisville, KyAfter the second take, George Martin got on the studio intercom and said "Gentlemen, you have just recorded your first number one!" Well, he was close!
• Lee from Clearwater, FlCan't it just be a rock n roll song about a guy wanting his girl to please him? Does it have to be about drugs, or oral sex etc. "please me sexually, or please me by going to the dance with me, or by being my steady.
• Roman from Vilnius, Otherno guyes it's really was a rumor about oral sex =D
  the EMI refused to realise album just because of text sexuality... it written in book =)
• Jo-c from Lima, PeruYes Liliana, I hate it when people start getting just the wrong message from songs to make it sound like "drugs" or "sex", when its just love
• Mark from Barrow-in-furness, EnglandOn my Please Please Me album: The writing credits on their songs go to McCartney/Lennon instead of the later established Lennon/McCartney....Twit+Shout is dead good.
• Charlie from Cape Girardeau, MoProducer George Martin was not aware of the songwriting talents of Lennon/McCartney and had wanted them to record "How Do You Do It?" at this session. The Beatles lobbied to do their own "Please Please Me". As soon as he heard the first few bars, according to Martin, "I knew it was going to be number one." "How Do You Do It?" can be heard on the Anthology I album, but wasn't released by the Beatles. Instead it went to Gerry and the Pacemakers, and ironically, it was number one for them.
• Mauricio from Hanford, CaYo billy, The Beatles are awsome buddy!
• Liliana from Huntley, Iloh please, any love song can be said to be about "oral sex"
• Deana from Indianapolis, InI can see how it was about oral sex
• Steve from Willmar, MnHe got the idea from a Frank Sinatra song-double words
• Gene from Hammond, InI have heard two versions of this song. On one version, you can plainly hear John blow the words in the last verse. Don't know why they ever released that version, but it sure makes them seem "more human" making mistakes on their recordings!

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