It is the first studio album by the English rock band The Beatles. Produced by George Martin, it was released on EMI’s Parlophone label in the UK, following the success of the band’s first two singles ‘Love Me Do’, which reached number 17 in the UK singles chart, and ‘Please Please Me ‘, which reached number 1 in the NME and Melody Maker charts. The album topped the Record Retailer LP chart for 30 weeks, an unprecedented achievement for a pop album at the time.
Aside from their already released singles, the Beatles recorded most of Please Please Me in a lengthy recording session at EMI Studios on February 11, 1963. On February 20, Martin added overdubs to ‘Misery’ and ‘Baby It’s You’. Of the album’s 14 songs, eight were written by Lennon-McCartney (originally credited as ‘McCartney-Lennon’). Rolling Stone magazine later cited these original compositions as early evidence of the Beatles’ ‘invention of the idea of the self-contained rock band, writing their own hits and playing their own instruments’.
In 2012, Please Please Me was voted 39th on Rolling Stone’s list of the ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’. It was voted #622 in Colin Larkin’s third edition of Colin Larkin’s 1000 Greatest Albums of All Time (2000).
