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"Please Please Me" by The Beatles

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"Please Please Me" by The Beatles

Episode Transcript

Abram: Welcome to Prime Factors Prime Music. Today's album is *Please Please Me* by The Beatles. Yeah!

Joe: Yes!

Abram: And before I get into some background information, I would like to say this is a pilot episode of our newest podcast, our second ever, Prime Factors Prime Music, a podcast where we review music. Though it's mainly Beatles, uh, we also do some other stuff, and it's led by me! Yay!

Joe: Yes! Welcome to Prime Factors Prime Music. My name is Joe and I'm here with my son.

Abram: So this podcast is a Beatles thing, mostly. We review each song, I provide some background information, and at the end I do a recap which includes like greatest songs, hidden gems, and then the best of instruments, final rating, and my and yours overall opinions. We'll both do this, though you might have it harder because I was the one who mainly planned for this.

Abram: So, some background information is that the Beatles, they were once known as a band called the Quarrymen. I discussed this in the previous episode, like the intro episode.

Joe: Mm-hmm.

Abram: And they changed their name on Stuart Sutcliffe's suggestion to the Beatles. And they have a drummer, Pete Best, and a manager, George Martin. However, George Martin doesn't like Pete Best. So bye-bye Pete Best, hello Ringo Starr!

Abram: With Ringo, they record their first ever song by the Beatles, "Love Me Do." Yay! And its B-side, "P.S. I Love You." Yay! But no, Ringo wasn't even on drums in them.

Joe: Ooh!

Abram: They kicked him off to tambourine! How dare they! Andy White was instead, I guess.

Abram: So, now that they've done "Love Me Do," George Martin says, "Why don't you release another single?" So they made "Please Please Me" and its B-side "Ask Me Why." Yay!

Abram: Then, a month later after that, he says, "Why don't you record an album?" So they recorded an album in just one day. They recorded 10 songs one day. Though they weren't all complete, they did a pretty good job on it.

Abram: Two songs got overdubs 9 days later. "Baby It's You" got celesta. And "Misery" got piano, like really good piano. Mixing happened 5 days later on February 25th, and some instruments that were commonly used in this album was Paul's original Höfner bass and John and George's Rickenbacker guitars.

Track Overview

Abram: Okay, so the first track on this wonderful album is...

I Saw Her Standing There

Abram: So, what do you think of this track, Dad?

Joe: You're putting me on the spot. I'm supposed to know this album, right?

Abram: Yes. What do you think of it?

Joe: Uh, "I Saw Her Standing There." I think it's a good album, but it starts off with her being 17, if you know what I mean. And like, honestly, Paul, what do you mean? I, I don't want to know. How old were they when they made that song?

Abram: So Paul, who wrote it, this one, when it was made, he was about 21, I would say. 20 maybe.

Joe: So what was the age of consent in the UK?

Abram: Unknown.

Joe: In the 1960s?

Abram: Because the youngest was George, who at that time was only— well, he was just 19 at that time. So I guess that's better, but not by much. It does definitely lower it a little bit for you.

Joe: I'm a little sketched out by her being 17, but overall it's a good song and it's a good way to start the album. But we're not here for my opinions, Abram.

Abram: No, we're here for both of our opinions. So here's what I like about it. I think George did a pretty good job with his guitar solo. I feel like they kind of more or less just said, "Oh, let's play some random notes. Oh, that's a good solo. Hey, we have a first guitar solo."

Abram: And then the vocals work amazingly well. Paul delivers some excellent vocals. It's really good because it's sort of echoey, at least in the Apple Music version.

Abram: And I think it's an amazing opener as an album. Yeah, I think it's a pretty good song to kick off their album career, and it's an amazing potboiler, which if you don't know is George Martin's term for the opener of an album.

Joe: Yeah, I'll take it.

Abram: Okay, so what do you rate it out of 10?

Joe: So I apparently rated it a 6. I wrote these ratings a couple weeks ago, so I've now forgotten why, but I think I rated it a 6.

Abram: Yeah, I rated an 8. It's really good. I think it's very much a good album song. So I'm going to write it on the back of here. So we have a 7 for "I Saw Her Standing There." And next track is...

Misery

Abram: What do you think about "Misery"?

Joe: It's starting off a very long pattern of Beatles love songs.

Abram: I mean, I mean, this one was a love song.

Joe: Obviously, "I Saw Her Standing There" was also a love song. I just don't have a ton to say. I really kind of need your help.

Abram: I feel like it's a cheerful hidden gem.

Joe: How is "Misery" cheerful?

Abram: How upbeat is it? For a song that's called "Misery," it's surprisingly upbeat.

Joe: I don't think it's upbeat.

Abram: It's surprisingly upbeat considering, um, like a lot of the songs are much slower. I think it's a pretty upbeat one. I do have to say they did a horrible job with designing a coda. Like, it sounds horrible.

Joe: See, I'm not as good as you at this because you have all these songs like in your head, and I should have taken notes when I listened.

Abram: One of the best moments is the piano. It really works well in this song. I think it's by far one of the best uses of piano ever, and it works really well to carry on the pace from "I Saw Her Standing There." What's your rating?

Joe: I don't know, you took the iPad.

Abram: Psst, Dad's not actually making these ratings up. He's using like a 10-month-old spreadsheet that doesn't actually portray his opinions anymore.

Joe: When we did this in the car, we didn't expect to record it.

Abram: Okay.

Joe: I rated it a 6.

Abram: So I rate it a 5. It's a fine song. Nothing like amazing about it. But there's nothing bad. Which brings us to...

Anna (Go to Him)

Abram: The first cover. It's by Arthur Alexander. It's the longest song of the album. It's a fine cover. John is pretty good at singing it. But I do have to say, it kills the pace of the first 2 tracks, and I think if it swapped places with "Baby It's You," the album flow would be much better. What do you think?

Joe: I don't think it's a bad song. I rated it a 5.

Abram: Yep, and I rated it a 3. However, it is a cover, which means I give penalties for covers. Totalus Rankium does too. I'm not quite as harsh on it because "Twist and Shout" exists and a few other great covers that we're gonna get to, but that means your rating goes down to a 4 and mine goes down to a 2, which averages it at 3.

Abram: Now we get to the next upbeat song.

Chains

Abram: It's George's first song he sings. It's an intro, nothing too good, nothing too bad. It has good harmonica, but if John really wanted to put harmonica in the song, he should have had it for more than the first 5 seconds, which, if you want harmonica, don't have it for just 5 seconds. It's a really good instrument. Don't use it just for the intro!

Abram: I overall think this is even worse than the previous song. It's—

Joe: Ehh.

Abram: I don't really like it. I rated it a 2.

Joe: Yeah, I just listened to this song 20 minutes ago, or maybe an hour ago, and I don't remember it. So I wrote down that I rated it a 4.

Abram: Okay. However, it's a cover, so that means your rating goes down to 3 and mine goes down to 1. It's the worst song so far. Next, track 5.

Boys

Abram: I think this is their best cover on the album. Totalus Rankium, I know you're gonna say, "No, it's 'Twist and Shout,' it's 'Twist and Shout.'" This is honestly better than "Twist and Shout." And it's Ringo Time! We should add some Ringo Time theme music.

Joe: Sure.

Abram: And it's a pretty good song, and Ringo can actually sing on this, which I've heard many people don't think he can sing. Well, listen to this song. He sings better than George.

Abram: Like, George, I think in the last song, George never liked to sing, and I feel like it definitely shows, and it picks up a lot on the second album, but he doesn't truly get into it until *Help!*, which is a while from now. But Ringo already can sing.

Abram: But the guitar solo can't. Obviously, it's a guitar. But no, they decide to choose the random notes thing from "I Saw Her Standing There" and make it worse. Like, horrible. That wasn't really the Beatles' decision, it is a cover after all, but yeah. What do you think of this song, "Boys"?

Joe: So I think it's interesting because most male bands of the time—

Abram: Sing about girls—

Joe: Covered it as "Girls" and just changed the words, but the Beatles, for whatever reason, they sang about how awesome it was to kiss boys, which, you know, in light of the sexual politics of the 1960s, is a little bit unusual.

Abram: I'm surprised they didn't get a lot of, like, complaints from that.

Joe: Well, I'm sure that nobody really thought that they wanted to kiss boys, but just the idea that they elected to keep the original lyrics of the song instead of gender swapping them, I think is very notable. Well, I have on my spreadsheet 4, but I'm gonna say I rate it a 5.

Abram: Okay, I rate it a 7, but unfortunately it's a cover. No! So it goes down to 6 and 4, which makes this a 5 out of 10 song, which is still decent considering the previous 2 covers were absolutely horrible.

Ask Me Why

Abram: It's a good original, about as good as "Misery," I would say. It's another hidden gem. There's multiple. It's also the B-side of "Please Please Me." And I feel like this song is pretty good, but it should have had a guitar solo, one that I think should have been similar to the one featured in "Till There Was You" on the next album.

Abram: That's really my only complaint, is that I feel like they didn't— I feel like they didn't fully like flesh out the idea. But this is a really pleasant song to listen to. What do you think of it?

Joe: You know, on the whole, I did not find this song to be as interesting as you. Um, I only rated it a 4.

Abram: I rated it a 5. It's not a cover, so it's just a straight 4.5. Next, a big song for the album.

Please Please Me

Abram: The title track. I don't think it's that great of a title track. I feel like it should have been either "I Saw Her Standing There" or "Love Me Do" as the title track. I feel like this song's a bit underwhelming. I feel like it isn't the best. A decent song, but it's not amazing.

Abram: Some pretty good harmonica, but at the end of the track, something horrible happens. The drums fall down the stairs. Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft. Yeah. Apparently Totalus Rankium doesn't like that. I don't like it, but it's what you get for being cheaply recorded. I guess not cheaply, but quickly is the better term. What do you think?

Joe: I don't know. I think it's a great title track. I like the song. I think the message of the song is a little bit icky. You know, "Please please me. Yeah, like I please you." It's like, you know, "I make you happy, so you have to make me happy."

Abram: Exactly.

Joe: And that's, you know, it sort of should come a little bit more naturally than that. But overall, I rated this song a 6.

Abram: I rated it 6 too. Now for side 2, starting with a banger.

Love Me Do

Abram: Their first ever song. I think it's better than "Please Please Me." Like, "Please Please Me" was fine. This song I think was a bit better. It's a bit repetitive. It had really good harmonica, not just pretty good, really good, but the middle 8 unfortunately wasn't used enough. It was only used once with vocals, and unfortunately it's the best part of the song, so that does drag it down a bit. What do you think?

Joe: So is Ringo only playing the tambourine here, or is it—

Abram: Yeah, he's only playing the tambourine.

Joe: Or is it different than the single version?

Abram: He's only playing tambourine. Wow.

Joe: Who's playing drums?

Abram: Andy White.

Joe: Really?

Abram: Yeah.

Joe: Abram is showing me the personnel. Andy White, drums on both the album and singles. Okay, so I believed you.

Abram: You really didn't.

Joe: So we're talking "Love Me Do." I think it's an important early song, and I really do like it, so I gave it a 7.

Abram: I gave it a 7 too. That means it gets a 7 as its score. Now track 9.

P.S. I Love You

Abram: It's the B-side to "Love Me Do." It's basically "Ask Me Why" 2.0. This is Paul's "Ask Me Why." It's a decent song. It's nothing amazing. What do you think of it?

Joe: No, I think it's a decent song, nothing amazing. But I have a question. I thought that the Beatles did not put their singles on their albums.

Abram: They did for their really early singles, but then stopped.

Joe: Okay.

Abram: They stopped after "Please Please Me," which was their second single. They started putting their singles on albums, I would say, around *Help!*, but it was never an always thing. It was just a like half the time thing. So that makes sense. So what do you think?

Joe: Yeah, I just think "P.S. I Love You" is a bit of a throwback to a more '50s sound, and I gave it a— letter song. Yeah, I gave it a 4.

Abram: I gave it a 5, so it gets a 4.5. Now track 10.

Baby It's You

Abram: I think it's a really good cover. And it's very catchy. Like, I've seen myself humming it. It's really good. It's almost as good as "Boys," but not quite as good. It's pretty alright. What do you think of it? What are you doing? Let me guess, you're looking at the lyrics.

Joe: Yes.

Abram: He looked at the lyrics earlier. He likes doing that for some reason. I don't know how it helps him.

Joe: It's because I didn't take any notes while doing this because I wasn't expecting us to record a podcast episode about this album.

Abram: You did this morning when you listened.

Joe: Yes, you told me this morning that we were recording an episode, and I'm like—

Abram: I told you last night, actually.

Joe: Oh, the things we do.

Abram: What do you think of it?

Joe: I rated it a 4.

Abram: I rated it a 6. However, it's a cover. No! So it goes down to a 5 and a 3, which means it's only a 4. It's decent. Next we have track 11.

Do You Want to Know a Secret

Abram: Do you?

Joe: I do.

Abram: Let me whisper it in your ear. This song is horrible. What's so funny?

Joe: I like the song okay. I don't think it's horrible.

Abram: I think the backing vocals are horrible.

Joe: Okay.

Abram: Do you at least think so?

Joe: Yeah, well, I rated it a 6.

Abram: What? It is good guitar in my opinion, but George didn't do a good job singing. Paul does this stuff better. I know they want George's spotlight, but George just can't really sing on this album in my opinion. So you rated it a 6?

Joe: Mhm.

Abram: I rated it a 2. It isn't a cover, so it gets a 4.

Joe: You know, when we did this in our car, you rated it a 6. What changed?

Abram: Backing vocals.

Joe: Mhm.

Abram: They're now horrible-er than they ever were. Next, one of my personal favorites, track 12.

A Taste of Honey

Abram: It has good backing vocals and guitar. They sort of alternate. And it has extremely wordy verses, like extremely so.

Joe: Mm-hmm.

Abram: I don't understand half of the verses. I would say it's a pretty solid cover. What do you think?

Joe: I think that this song has a shocking amount of double entendre for me to discuss with a 12-year-old. And ultimately, I don't think that it came together that well, so I give it a 4.

Abram: I gave it a 6, but it's a cover, so it still gets a 4. It's the third in a row. Track 13. This one's a good one.

There's a Place

Abram: It has a really good part, which is like the bridge and the last line of the verse. I really like that part. What do you think about that part?

Joe: Yeah, no, I like that part too.

Abram: Okay, I think it's the third and final hidden gem of the album. Do you agree?

Joe: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely very solid for the album.

Abram: And it has good harmonica. So what do you think of it? I think it's one of the album's best.

Joe: I give it a 7.

Abram: Me too, I also gave it a 7. We're completely in sync right now. Not really, we haven't given a 0.5 since track 9. Now, to Totalus Rankium's favorite, track 14.

Twist and Shout

Abram: I don't want to be controversial, but I think this song is too repetitive. Like, it's just the same verse and the solo. Like, it's too repetitive. It's not great. What do you think?

Joe: I mean, this is a classic of the Beatles. It has some—

Abram: Yeah, but it isn't— they didn't even write it.

Joe: It has some amazing harmonies, very gruff vocals from—

Abram: Yeah, about those vocals, I don't want to upset anyone, but I feel like the vocals do make the song worse. They make it like more authentic, but I do think that the song would have been better without them.

Joe: You and I will have to agree to disagree on this. I think that the scratchy vocals and the kind of dirtier sound really make this track, and that if they had just sang it as, you know, with a pure barbershop '50s style singing, I don't think it would have been as good.

Abram: Okay, but can we both agree it's an amazing song to close your album?

Joe: Yeah, no, I think it's, it's, uh, it ends with coughing, which is the last sound in the album.

Abram: It's a fantastic song.

Joe: Uh, what did you rate it?

Abram: Uh, well, I rated it 7 before, but I'm going up to 8.

Joe: I rated it a 5, so it goes down to 4 because it's a cover. 4 and 7, that's a total of 5.5.

Abram: If you liked it, why did you give it a 4?

Joe: I liked it as a closer. That doesn't mean it's a good song.

Abram: Okay.

Joe: Like "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," for example. It works well as a closer, but not only does it stop "Yesterday" from being a closer, it isn't that great of a song.

Abram: Sure.

Joe: Do you know what I mean? It works to close an album, but not much else.

Recap

Abram: So I have some categories. So great songs, what do you think? These are like all-time amazing songs. What do you think? How many songs do you think are all-time greats?

Joe: I don't know. I didn't invent this rating system, so—

Abram: Just what are all-time great songs in this album?

Joe: Probably only the first and the last.

Abram: So you think "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist and Shout," correct?

Joe: Correct.

Abram: I think "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Love Me Do," which means "I Saw Her Standing There" is the only true classic of this album. Do you agree?

Joe: No, I'm changing my mind. I want— I think "Love Me Do" is a classic song.

Abram: So that means "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Love Me Do" are its classic songs, as we both agreed on it.

Abram: Hidden gems. I listed 3. What do you think are hidden gems of the album? "Boys," is that it?

Joe: Pretty much, yeah.

Abram: I think it's "Misery," "Ask Me Why," and "There's a Place." We completely disagree. Also, I don't list covers under hidden gems, so it doesn't really count. So you list no hidden gems?

Joe: Nope.

Abram: Okay, best guitar of the album, what do you think?

Joe: See, these are going to be really hard for me because I don't pay as much attention to the instruments as you do.

Abram: Okay, what do you think is the best guitar?

Joe: I was about to say "I Want to Hold Your Hand," but that's not even on the album. This is hard.

Abram: So you have no opinion.

Joe: I don't have an opinion.

Abram: I'm going with "I Saw Her Standing There." Same with bass. I don't really know the bass in "I Saw Her Standing There," but I've heard it's good, and it's the only bass I've heard that's good on the album, so good enough.

Abram: Best drums. I think it's "Twist and Shout." Do you think so?

Joe: Yes.

Abram: I think it has really good drums. And the best vocals is "Anna (Go to Him)." Horrible as that song is, the vocals do work.

Abram: The best harmonica of the album?

Joe: "Love Me Do."

Abram: Yeah, we both agree on that. And the best other instrument, which is in this case piano, won't always be, is "Misery." Do you agree?

Joe: Yes.

Abram: Okay, so my final rating of this album out of 10 is 4.5. That doesn't go along with this, but it's a good estimate.

Abram: And now I'm going to tally up my actual score, which is, if I calculated this right, this is, drumroll please, 4.93 out of 10. Do you think that works?

Joe: Yes, it seems about right given it's not quite—

Abram: It's barely, I would say, below your average album.

Abram: And what my overall opinion on this is, for a first album, this is— it's pretty good, but it's not amazing. It essentially relies on 3 songs though: "Please Please Me," "I Saw Her Standing There," and "Love Me Do." 2 of them were already released. "Twist and Shout" and "There's a Place" just turned out decent. Besides those 5, there really isn't that much else. The only other good songs are "Misery" and "Ask Me Why," so this album gets a solid mediocre spot.

Abram: If you want better early Beatles, then you should either check out *The Red Album*, which is a compilation album released in the '70s, or their third album, *A Hard Day's Night*.

Joe: I agree, this is a very typical early '60s boy band album that happens to be by an artist that was great but had yet to rise above their genre.

Abram: Yeah, I think that's most of what we have to say. You have been listening to Prime Factors Prime Music. I hope you've enjoyed, and we'll see you next time.

Joe: Say goodnight, Abram.

Abram: Banana!

Joe: Auf Wiedersehen.

Producer's Note

Joe: This is Abram's podcast, so I won't be adding these tags frequently, but I'm excited by what he's up to, and I want to provide some context and background.

Joe: This project obviously owes a great deal to Totalus Rankium's Beatles podcast, which is undoubtedly Abram's favorite at the moment. You can find that on their Patreon feed. Abram largely borrowed their format and rating system, but while they can get away with including short clips of Beatles songs, we're not going to be so bold. This is on a public feed and I don't want to get my accounts banned.

Joe: Abram has been planning on a Beatles podcast for months, and he's been toying with different formats, either history or music, and ultimately that led to the April Fools episode. He so loved doing that April Fools episode that he immediately set out working on an album-by-album retrospective series, which is what you are listening to now.

Joe: This specific project actually started in our car. Abram and I have been listening first to all the Beatles albums and then to their solo projects, starting with Wings, while discussing the ratings and having essentially a mock podcast in the car on our long drives. This is our attempt to distill some of that father-son road trip energy into a podcast format that you can listen to.

Joe: All that said, I was completely flat-footed when he wanted to record this and barely given enough time to re-listen to the album before it was time to go. In the future, I'm gonna try to be more prepared and have more structured notes. Unlike my son, I do not have his incredible memory for detail.

Joe: I hope you enjoyed this first episode. He's already working on his notes for *With the Beatles*, and I look forward to seeing where Abram takes this as he podcasts for the first time without training wheels. We'll see you next time. Thanks for joining him and I on this adventure.