“One, two, three, four” – followed by that unmistakable guitar riff – and all at once the Beatles had announced themselves to the world. Nothing would ever be the same.
The thing about grading any Beatles record is that it’s relative — with Please Please Me, you’re contrasting against Sgt. Pepper’s and Revolver: the types of work in a league of their own. Anything will pale in comparison to such output. While most bands would be proud to ever record something as wonderful as Let It Be, the general consensus is that it’s their worst studio album. Thus, you have a tendency to underrate an album that, from another artist’s catalog, you wouldn’t hesitate to praise.
The amazing thing about the band, both then and now, is how quickly and masterfully they covered musical ground – Please Please Me is fairly straightforward by their later standards, but they essentially moved across more genres and boundaries in under a decade than most groups ever do in their entire careers. They established themselves, deconstructed and reconstructed themselves, and imploded in less time than it takes some artists to record a single album.
Please Please Me feels sporadic and loose – probably since it was recorded quickly in a last-ditch effort to capture the sound of the band’s live act and capitalize upon their pending fame – and, as a result, it’s not perfect: there are some songs here that many fans, depending upon which Beatles era they have an inclination towards, may not revisit often. Personally, most of the covers on the record have never done much for me – save “Twist and Shout,” which is one of the band’s early highlights. Recorded last because of the toll it took upon John Lennon’s cold-affected voice, this raucous rocker pretty much defines rock n’ roll. And if you can listen to it without thinking of Ferris Bueller dancing on a parade float, then props to you.
While it may not earn direct comparison to the band’s truest masterpieces, Please Please Me stands as an insightful snapshot of an evolving band at a pivotal moment in time, right before anyone had quite the idea of how big they’d really become.
