(Spring 2026) MUS 354 Unit 1: In the Beginning (1958 - 1963) LECTURE 7: PLEASE PLEASE ME
Arizona State University
Unit 1: In the Beginning (1958 - 1963)
Lecture 7: Please Please Me
, Audio Lecture
Featured Songs
• "Please Please Me"
• "Misery"
• "Do You Want to Know a Secret?"
• "There's a Place"
• "Twist and Shout"
Clip:
In January 1963 the band begins its first headlining tour, performing throughout Scotland and the
first national TV appearance on ITV's Thank You Lucky Stars, performing a new song, Please Please
Me. Please Please Me is the first biggie for the Beatles. They had a version of this and they brought it
in the day that they recorded How Do You Do It but the version that day was slow and a somewhat
like a Roy Orbison type ballad. George Martin gave them some pointers, they brought the song back
in, fixed up, sped up and George Martin realized this would be their first number one. It does
prompt an album with the same name and the song itself has become the first signal of the real
Beatles' magic will come to know. Please Please Me, their second single enters the charts. The
United Kingdom by February is number one, stays there for two weeks. and causes the hurried
recording sessions by February of the Please Please Me album. In America Capitan and several
other US record companies pass on releasing this album. It's a small record label VJ and other
record labels are like Tolly. These will be the record labels that put out the early Beatles stuff until
they finally hit our shorts in 64 and all their early stuff is unearthed and put out by Capitan. John
wrote this song he said it's my song completely please please me it was a Roy Orbison song I wrote
on the bedroom of my Aunt Mimi's house he said I remember one day sitting on the bed and
thinking of Roy Orbison singing Only The Lonely but I also was intrigued by Please laying her little
ears to my Please a Bing Crosby song And I can interrupt here to mention that John loved color and
word play in his writing then again generalizations were made that well John's a lyric writer and
Paul's a song music writer which isn't but John does have a gift for particularly abstract stories
whereas Paul tends towards the narrative or storytelling but John comes up with the unusual as far
as lyrics are concerned especially with word play and color in this case Please P-L-E-A-S-E and
Please P-L-E-A-S John continues I was intrigued by the double meaning the double use of the word
please so I combined Bing Crosby and Roy Orbison so I said they brought an original version it was
slow George Martin didn't like what they were doing so in November they come into the studio and
they've got a new version of it I listened to it it was great I told them what the beginning and what
the end should be George Martin says and they went into number two studio and recorded it it was
beautiful my whole session was a joy at the end of it I pressed the airtime button in the control
room and I said to them gentlemen you've just made your first number one record after this they go
on to do a song called Ask Me Why at that same session Paul says George Martin's contribution was
a big one he really shows that he could see beyond what we were just offering at that moment on
Please Please Me we can see that this is a Roy Orbison thing very slow George said well put the
Arizona State University
Unit 1: In the Beginning (1958 - 1963)
Lecture 7: Please Please Me
, Audio Lecture
Featured Songs
• "Please Please Me"
• "Misery"
• "Do You Want to Know a Secret?"
• "There's a Place"
• "Twist and Shout"
Clip:
In January 1963 the band begins its first headlining tour, performing throughout Scotland and the
first national TV appearance on ITV's Thank You Lucky Stars, performing a new song, Please Please
Me. Please Please Me is the first biggie for the Beatles. They had a version of this and they brought it
in the day that they recorded How Do You Do It but the version that day was slow and a somewhat
like a Roy Orbison type ballad. George Martin gave them some pointers, they brought the song back
in, fixed up, sped up and George Martin realized this would be their first number one. It does
prompt an album with the same name and the song itself has become the first signal of the real
Beatles' magic will come to know. Please Please Me, their second single enters the charts. The
United Kingdom by February is number one, stays there for two weeks. and causes the hurried
recording sessions by February of the Please Please Me album. In America Capitan and several
other US record companies pass on releasing this album. It's a small record label VJ and other
record labels are like Tolly. These will be the record labels that put out the early Beatles stuff until
they finally hit our shorts in 64 and all their early stuff is unearthed and put out by Capitan. John
wrote this song he said it's my song completely please please me it was a Roy Orbison song I wrote
on the bedroom of my Aunt Mimi's house he said I remember one day sitting on the bed and
thinking of Roy Orbison singing Only The Lonely but I also was intrigued by Please laying her little
ears to my Please a Bing Crosby song And I can interrupt here to mention that John loved color and
word play in his writing then again generalizations were made that well John's a lyric writer and
Paul's a song music writer which isn't but John does have a gift for particularly abstract stories
whereas Paul tends towards the narrative or storytelling but John comes up with the unusual as far
as lyrics are concerned especially with word play and color in this case Please P-L-E-A-S-E and
Please P-L-E-A-S John continues I was intrigued by the double meaning the double use of the word
please so I combined Bing Crosby and Roy Orbison so I said they brought an original version it was
slow George Martin didn't like what they were doing so in November they come into the studio and
they've got a new version of it I listened to it it was great I told them what the beginning and what
the end should be George Martin says and they went into number two studio and recorded it it was
beautiful my whole session was a joy at the end of it I pressed the airtime button in the control
room and I said to them gentlemen you've just made your first number one record after this they go
on to do a song called Ask Me Why at that same session Paul says George Martin's contribution was
a big one he really shows that he could see beyond what we were just offering at that moment on
Please Please Me we can see that this is a Roy Orbison thing very slow George said well put the
