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500 Greatest Albums

39

Please Please Me - The Beatles


Please Please Me - The Beatles
39/500

The Beatles recorded ten of the fourteen songs on their British debut album at EMI's Abbey Road studio in just over twelve hours (10 a.m. to 10:45 p.m.) on February 11th, 1963. For productivity alone, it is one of the greatest first albums in rock. But even at this early stage, the Beatles had invented a bracing new sound for a rock band — an assault of thrumming energy and impeccable vocal harmonies — and they nailed it here, just by running through the covers and originals in their live repertoire: the Shirelles' "Boys" and Arthur Alexander's "Anna"; the Lennon-McCartney burners "There's a Place" and "I Saw Her Standing There." John Lennon appropriately finished the sessions by shredding what was left of his vocal cords on two takes of "Twist and Shout."


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