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Recording Details

EMI Recording Studios, London – Studio 2
Recorded: 11 Sep 1962

John: lead vocal, guitar
Paul: backing vocal, bass
George: backing vocal, guitar
Andy White: drums

After their first two sessions at Abbey Road, the Beatles still only had one side of a single and so they returned to Studio 2 the following week to record a B-Side, this time with Ron Richards at the helm since, due to the prior difficulties, George Martin had at this point washed his hands of their first single. As the production team were not yet sold on Ringo’s drumming, Richards hired session drummer Andy White to ensure they got it right.

Having just finished recording P.S. I Love You, The Beatles first single was officially in the can. With their remaining session time they went for a second number, Please Please Me. The song had previously been rehearsed as a slower Roy Orbison style number ² in front of George Martin on 4 September who had told them “if they doubled the speed it might be interesting”.³ Now in its more up-tempo form, this more exciting version of Please Please Me was recorded live with no superimpositions, solely in mono, to an EMI BTR2 tape machine. ⁴ At this stage the composition was still receiving feedback from the EMI producers. Ron Richards recalls ‘George was playing the opening [guitar] phrase over and over and over throughout the song, I said, “For Christ’s sake, George, just play it in the gaps!”‘⁵

Please Please Me was good enough that it was considered for the B-side of Love Me Do over P.S. I Love You. It still wasn’t quite ready for release at this stage but it was well regarded enough for an acetate to be made. An acetate went up for auction at Sotheby’s in September 1994 which was likely purchased and used as the version on Anthology 1. ⁶

Recording Details

EMI Recording Studios, London – Studio 2
Recorded: 26 Nov 1962
EMI Recording Studios, London – Studio 2 (control room)
Mono Mix: 30 Nov 1962
EMI Recording Studios, London – Studio 1 (control room)
Stereo Mix: 25 Feb 1963

John: lead vocal, harmonica, guitar
Paul: backing vocal (higher harmony), bass
George: backing vocal (lower harmony), guitar
Ringo: drums

With Love Me Do in the charts, the aim for this 26 November session was to record both sides of a follow-up single for release on 11 January 1963.¹⁴ The session began with the most important song, the A-side, Please Please Me. The takes were recorded simultaneously in twin-track and in mono to an EMI BTR3 tape machine and an EMI BTR2 tape machine using the delta-mono function of the REDD desk. This enabled a quick and easy on-the-fly mono mix recorded to the BTR2, as well as simultaneous separation of the instruments and vocals recorded to the BTR3 twin-track machine which allowed for more control over the mono mix later on if necessary as well as the possibility of a stereo mix.

Recording of Please Please Me was mostly live with the exception of John’s harmonica overdubs which were added at the end. Famously, George Martin spoke to The Beatles afterwards over the studio talkback microphone to say “Gentlemen, you’ve just made your first number 1 record” and he was right! ¹⁵

References:

1. “Please Please Me was John’s baby … He’d remember how the words and tune came together in ‘the other bedroom in my auntie’s place at Menlove Avenue: I remember the day and the pink eiderdown on the bed’.” Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (pp. 674-675) ↩︎
2. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 675) and Lewisohn, Mark, 1988, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (p. 20) ↩︎
3. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 725) ↩︎
4. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 730) ↩︎
5. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 731) ↩︎
6. Johnson, C. (1998-2026) beatleg.info ↩︎
7. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 731) ↩︎
8. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 731) ↩︎
9. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 242) ↩︎
10. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 242) ↩︎
11. Please note this is not an exhaustive list. Thank you Maul for your incredible The Beatles The Complete Studio & Home Recordings pdf (last updated 2023) which compiles several major sources into a fantastic resource listing released versions of every Beatles studio and home recording ↩︎
12. The wise folks over at the Steve Hoffman Forums have determined that the 2011/2016 remasters are different, newer transfers than the 1995 versions. The general consensus also seems to be that the 2011/2016 remasters are preferable and lack the amounts of “amateurishly applied noise reduction” the originals have ↩︎
13. According to users of the Steve Hoffman Forums It would seem as though the 2017 DeAgostini vinyl pressings use the original 1995 masters and aren’t an improvement over them ↩︎
14. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 806-810) ↩︎
15. Please Please Me reached number 1 on the New Musical Express and Melody Maker charts. However, it only reached number 2 on the Record Retailer chart, which subsequently evolved into the UK singles chart. Because of this, it was not included on the Beatles’ number ones compilation, 1. wikipedia.org/wiki/Please_Please_Me_(song) ↩︎
16. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 807) ↩︎
17. Missin, Pat. (2002-2025). patmissin.com/ffaq/q29.html ↩︎
18. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 807) ↩︎
19. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 807) ↩︎
20. Astridge, Gary, 2006. Ringo’s Beatles-Era Drum Kits ↩︎
21. There is no shortage of threads on the Steve Hoffman forums regarding the sound quality of the original 1987-88 Beatles CDs. In a nutshell, the mono master tapes for the first 4 albums were badly transferred using a stereo tape machine. To my ears this version of Please Please Me sounds like it’s being played on a cheap radio in another room. The 2009 version represents a significant improvement ↩︎
22. I have to admit I had never heard of this release before making this table but the story behind it is very interesting. Users Bruce Eder and lukpac on the Steve Hoffman forums have some great insights, notably that this track was likely sourced from the master tape for the US The Early Beatles LP ↩︎
23. The Beatles EP Collection was released on CD in 1992 and for this project, transfers were made from the EP master tapes. These were done using the correct equipment (unlike the 1987 transfers of the first 4 albums) and despite the EP master tapes being a generation lower than the album master tapes, many listeners swear by the sound quality of this set ↩︎
24. In my opinion if you want to hear Please Please Me as a song in stereo then the 2023 mix is the best way to do it. It’s got modern separation so no more instruments on one side and vocals on the other. Using MAL technology they’ve also been able to fix the instrument doubling caused by dropping in the whole track along with the harmonica from the mono mix and the sync issues are miles better too. It’s still the stereo version so you’ve got the voice crack at 00:56, the alternate guitar line at 1:16, the lyric flub at 1:27 and the resulting giggle at 1:32 which differ from the mono mix ↩︎