| Please Please Me - Sleeve Notes: 
Pop picking is a fast 'n' furious business these days whether you are on the recording studio side listening out, or on the disc-counter side listening in. As a record reviewer I find myself installed halfway in-between with an ear cocked in either direction. So far as Britain's record collecting public is concerned, the Beatles broke into earshot in October, 1962. My natural hometown interest in the group prevented me taking a totally unbiased view of their early success. Eighteen months before their first visit to EMI studios in London, the Beatles had been voted Merseyside's favourite outfit and it was inevitable that their first Parlophone record, 'Love me Do' would go straight to the top of Liverpool's local hit parade. The group's chances of national chart entry seemed much more remote. No other team had joined the best-sellers via a debut disc. But the Beatles were history makers from the start and 'Love Me Do' sold enough copies during its first 48 hours in the shops to send it soaring into the national charts. In all the busy years since pop singles first shrank from ten to seven inches I have never seen a British group leap to the forefront of the scene with such speed and energy. Within the six months which followed the Top Twenty appearances of 'Love Me Do', almost every leading DJ and musical journalist in the country began to shout the praises of the Beatles. Readers of the New Musical Express voted the boys into a surpassingly high place via the 1962/63 popularity poll ... on the strength of just one record release. Pictures of the group spread themselves across the front pages of three national music papers. People inside and outside the record industry expressed tremendous interest in the new vocal and instrumental sounds which the Beatles had introduced. Brian Matthew (who has since brought the Beatles to many millions of viewers and listeners in his "Thank your Lucky Stars", "Saturday Club" and "Easy Beat" programs) describes the quartet as visually and musically the most exciting and accomplished group to emerge since The Shadows Disc reviewing, like disc producing, teaches one to be wary about making long-term predictions. The hit parade isn't always dominated by the most worthy performance of the day so it is no good assuming that versatility counts for everything. It was during the recording Radio Luxembourg program in the EMI Friday Spectacular series that I was finally convinced the the Beatles were about to enjoy the type of top-flight national fame which I had always believed that they deserved. The Teen-audience didn't know the evening's line-up of the artist and the groups advance, and before Muriel Young brought on the Beatles she began to read out their Christian names. She got as far John ... Paul ... and the rest of her introduction was buried in a mighty barrage of very genuine applause. I cannot think of more than one other group - British or American - which would be so readily identified and welcomed by the announcement of two Christian names. To me, this was. To me, this was the ultimate proof that the Beatles (and not just one or two of their hit records) had arrived at the uncommon peak-popularity point reserved for discdom's privileged few. Shortly afterwards the Beatles proved their pop power when they by-passed the lower segments of hit parade to scuttle straight into the nation's Top Ten with their second single, 'Please Please Me'. This brisk-selling disc went on to overtake all rivals when it bounced into the coveted Number One slot towards the end of February. Just over four months after the release of their very first record the Beatles had become triumphant chart-toppers! Producer George Martin has never had any headaches over choice of songs for the Beatles. Their own built-in tunesmith team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney has already tucked away enough self-penned numbers to maintain a steady output of all-original singles from now until 1975! Between them the Beatles adopt a do-it-yourself approach from the very beginning. they write their own lyrics, design and eventually build their own instrumental backdrops and work out their own vocal arrangements. Their music is wild, pungent, hard-hitting, uninhibited ... and personal. The do-it-yourself angle ensures complete originality at all stages of the process. Although so many people suggest (without closer definition) that the Beatles have trans-Atlantic style, their only real influence has been from the unique brand of Rhythm and Blues folk music which bounds on Merseyside and which the Beatles themselves have helped to pioneer since their formation in 1960. This record comprises eight Lennon-McCartney compositions in addition to six other numbers which have been firm live-performances favourites in the Beatles' varied repertoire. The group's admiration for the work of the Shirelles is demonstrated by the inclusion of 'Baby It's You' (John taking the lead vocal with George and Paul supplying the harmony), and 'Boys' (a fast rocker which allows drummer Ringo to make his first recorded appearance as a vocalist). 'Anna', 'Ask Me Why' and 'Twist And Shout' also feature stand-out solo performances from John, whilst 'Do You Want To Know A Secret' hands the audio spotlight to George. 'Misery' may sound as though it is a self-duet created by the multi-recording of a single voice ... but the effect is produced by the fine matching of two voices belonging to John and Paul. There is only one 'trick duet' and that is on 'A Taste Of Honey' featuring a dual-voiced Paul. John and Paul get together on 'There's A Place and 'I Saw Her Standing There': George joins them for 'Chains', 'Love Me Do' and 'Please Please ME'. Tony Barrow
With The Beatles - Sleeve Notes: 
Fourteen freshly recorded titles - including many sure-fire stage-show favourites - are featured on two generously filled sides of this record. The Beatles have repeated the successful formula which made their first 'Please Please Me' LP into the fastest-selling album of 1963. Again they have set eight of their own original compositions alongside a batch of 'personal choice' pieces selected from the recorded repertoires of the American R&B artists they admire most. The first half of the session gets away to a rip-roarin' start with John's powerful treatment of IT WON'T BE LONG. Two more Lennon/McCartney compositions follow with these two remarkably talented tunesmiths handing their own lyrics on ALL I'VE GOT TO DO and ALL MY LOVING. On the first slower number John takes the vocal lead with Paul supplying the harmony. On ALL MY LOVING Paul stands in the vocal spotlight with John and George chanting in the background. Listen to George's superb, slightly Country and Western solo, an interesting feature of ALL MY LOVING. DON'T BOTHER ME marks the disc debut of George Harrison as a composer. It is a fairly fast number with a haunting theme tune. Behind George's double-tracked voice the rest of the fabulous foursome create some unusual instrumental effects. Paul beats out a lean, hollow-boned rhythm from the claves, John uses a Tamborine and Ringo hits out at a loose-skinned Arabian bongo (don't ask me where he picked that up!) to pound out thee on-beat percussive drive. On a fair number of previous recordings by The Beatles producer George Martin has joined the group to add suitable piano sounds to their instrumental arrangements. His keyboard contributions come a little later in this new programme but on LITTLE CHILD it is Paul McCartney who plays piano. John and Paul join forces for the vocal on this rocker and, whilst Paul was over-dubbing the piano bits, John was standing beside another microphone adding in some neatly-timed mouth-organ phrases. Those who considered Paul's interpretation of A taste of honey to be a stand-out attraction of The Beatles' first LP will be more than pleased to hear him assume the role of romantic balladeer again on TILL THERE WAS YOU, the near-standard hit from the show 'The Music Man'. Ringo plays the bongos behind Paul's solo performance. George and John switch acoustic guitars for this track only Paul's pulsating bass uses electricity. If you have read a great deal in the musical press about Merseyside's beat basement, The Cavern, you might imagine that the cellar stompers of Liverpool would demand an all-up-tempo programme. Curiously Paul's persuasive handling of TILL THERE WAS YOU used to go down extremely well at the club long before the Love me do days when The Beatles were frequent bill-toppers at this now famous venue. The first half closes with another number which dates back to The Beatle' Cavern Club period. Once an American chart-topper for a recording group called The Marvelettes, PLEASE MR. POSTMAN features a double-tracked John Lennon with George and Paul in vocal support. Chuck Berry's ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN has been one of the most requested items at recent concert performances by The Beatles. George duets with himself on this one; the boys add to the atmosphere of active excitement by their hand- clapping. Paul issues forth with the invitation HOLD ME TIGHT on the fairly brisk second track of Side Two. More handclapping and energetic vocal support from John and George. The boys have an immense admiration for America's rhythm group The Miracles, to whom they pay tribute via their interpretation of YOU REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME. John and George tackle the wild, relentless vocal with Paul Joining them for the chorus lines. Incidentally that is George Martin on piano this time! Observing the tremendous audience response that Ringo has been getting whenever he sings Boys, John and Paul put their heads together to pen a special new number for a fierce-voiced drumming man. The result is a real raver entitled I WANNA BE YOUR MAN. The Hammond organ in the background is played by John Lennon. Through they are lesser known on our side of the Atlantic than The Crystals or The Shirelles, the American all-girl group The Donays have always commanded plenty of professional respect from The Beatles. Therefore they switched around the lyrics of DEVIL IN HER HEART and handed the medium-paced beat offering with Ringo using maracas. The final Lennon/McCartney composition of this session features a double-tracked John Lennon singing NOT A SECOND TIME. George Martin's piano work is featured on this number and again upon the programme's closing track MONEY. Paul describes MONEY as 'a really big screamer' and he recalls the numerous Cavern Club occasions when this item brought forth the same type of overwhelming response given to Twist and Shout. Much recorded by American blues merchants, MONEY has John shouting the raw lyrics with tremendous force and feeling whilst George and Paul supply the answers. MONEY makes a completely worthy climax to this knockout programme. Hope it doesn't leave you too breathless to flip back to Side One for a repeat-play session WITH THE BEATLES TONY BARROW | 
