"Please Please Me" by the Beatles (March, 1963)

Dad's Take:
"1, 2, 3, 4!" And with that countdown that opened this record, history changed.

How do you review an album whose iconic status is due as much or more in hindsight to what it led to than to its own content? There was no Beatlemania yet. None of the insanity that followed the Beatles everywhere. The Beatles had not yet become a phenomenon in the United States and the rest of the world. There was no British Invasion yet. There were none of the cultural changes with the Beatles at the forefront.

All there was was this British band that had combined skiffle with rock and roll and R&B from the fifties. They dressed a little funny, and their hair was long. Girls and teens liked them. A lot. Their playing and singing was exciting. Electrifying. Nobody could tell at the time just how much better they'd get and how quickly they'd do it.

The only thing you can can compare this album to, really, is Elvis Presley's debut album. Good, but holy cow what it would lead to.

There are great songs here, to be sure. The opener, "I Saw Her Standing There." "Boys." The title track. "P.S. I Love You." "Do You Want To Know A Secret." "Twist and Shout" (so much more exciting than the version on Booker T & The MGs "Green Onions" record). The Beatles had already grown far beyond "Love Me Do" (also included on this album), but what they would do with each succeeding album, produced quickly while they were also spending much of their time on the road, almost defies explanation. In retrospect, much of what was improved upon in later albums is here. But there was no benefit of retrospect when this was released. Just an exciting new sound that those of us who are too young to have experienced it might not ever fully understand.

So, yeah (yeah, yeah), this is a great classic album. But it's only the beginning for the force that would change rock and roll and create the sounds that defined a decade and influenced nearly everything that came after. And that influence went far beyond the music.

Brad's Take:

There's no denying that The Beatles' first album Please Please Me would be classified as a classic. What the Beatles did for rock and roll goes beyond words. They upped the anty in their early years of making simple rock/pop songs, but then they changed the game entirely shortly thereafter when they caught on to Americans ears, and then when they started being more experimental in the studio in the mid 60s.

Please Please Me doesn't sound like a band's first record, but more like a greatest hits album compiled of early songs from their career. They were already ahead of the game. Although a lot of it doesn't sound that much different than earlier classic rock music we've reviewed so far, you can tell that the Beatles had something really special that no one else had at the time, not even Elvis. It's crazy to think that this new young band would become the Beatles that we all know today.

I was going to mention a couple of highlights from this album, but let's be honest, this entire album is a highlight. Every song is golden.