"Please please me" - The Beatles
1962 Written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon
An entry in Let's Do It, my personal favourite singles from 1954-76.
"Congratulations, gentlemen. You've just made your first No. 1."
Lennon's original arrangement featured a Roy Orbison-style vocal leap in the chorus, and was significantly slower than the song we know and love. Producer George Martin suggested they speed up the tune, put some harmonica in the mix, and add a second vocal line. That trick of diverging harmonies? Directly copied from "Cathy's clown".
It gave the young lads from Liverpool lots of firsts. First big hit single, hitting the top spot in early 1963. First television appearance, on Thank Your Lucky Stars. First song onto their album, first release stateside, and first record bought by Glasgow schoolboy James Gordon Brown.
Unlike that budding politician, The Beatles would bestride the world like a four-headed colossus. A seven-year reign as The World's Biggest Band begins here.
