‘Please Please Me’: the debut album by The Beatles turns 50

This month, the album ‘Please Please Me’ by British band The Beatles turns 50 years-old after its world debut, which marked a before and after in music history.

This first album by the “Fab Four”, with unforgettable songs like “Twist and Shout”, “PS I Love You”, “Love Me Do” and obviously the success title-track “Please Please Me”, was able to give birth to the “Beatlemania” and become the starting point of a new era in  music around the world.

On February 11, 1963, producer George Martin, nicknamed “the fifth Beatle”, brought together John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr and conducted a recording marathon that lasted 9 hours and 45 minutes. That day, the British band recorded ten of the fourteen songs of  the album “Please Please Me”.

The album was a success in sales and reached the number one position in the UK for 30 weeks, only defeated by the second album of this same quartet, “With The Beatles”.

Photographer Angus McBean was responsible for the cover of the album, which shows the four members on the steps of the London headquarters of the record company EMI, which was recreated in the cover of “Get Back” (1969).