Today is the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles’s first album, Please Please Me, which burst onto the British music scene on March 22, 1963.
The LP was only released in the United Kingdom and took six months to sell 250,000 copies but eventually went platinum and was a significant step in the band’s rapid ascendance to worldwide fame. The album was released in the United States nine months later, with all but two of the same songs under the name, Introducing… The Beatles. And the rest is history.
Rolling Stone lists Please Please Me as the 39th greatest album of all time.
The 14-track LP paired 10 newly recorded songs, including covers of “Taste of Honey” and “Twist and Shout,” with four tracks previously released as singles, including “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me.” Eight of the songs are attributed to the writing duo of Paul McCartney and John Lennon (in that order, as opposed to the now standard “Lennon-McCartney“) at a time when few rock bands were writing their own songs—and even fewer were releasing full albums.
The vinyl version of the album went through 10 pressings. A third pressing of the album sold yesterday for £2,550 on eBay.
