Today marks the 50th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded their debut album ‘Please Please Me’ and the occasion is being celebrated with a rerecording of the tracks by some of the UK’s most talented stars.
On February 11th 1963, John, Paul, George and Ringo spent almost 10 hours at Abbey Road studios in London recording tracks from their live set amid a manic schedule of touring and promotions.
There were worries that John Lennon’s voice would crack during the session due to a sore throat, however he powered through and the recording went down in history as the first of their groundbreaking albums which set them on the road to stardom.
Ten of the LP’s 14 tracks were recorded in one day. ‘Twist and Shout’, ‘There’s a Place’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Please Please Me’, and ‘Love Me Do’ appear on the debut album, which was released just 11 days later.
In a time when the charts where dominated by music such as movie soundtracks and easy listening soloists, the album was a startling success as it stayed at the top of the UK charts for 30 weeks.
Musicians including Mick Hucknall, Gabrielle Aplin, Joss Stone and the Stereophonics will today attempt to recreate the 10-hour recording session live on BBC Radio 2 at Abbey Road studios which were made famous by the Fab Four.
Meanwhile here in Liverpool, celebrations are set to take place next week to mark the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ first number one single – ‘Please Please Me’ – taken from the debut album of the same name.
The world-famous Cavern Club is set to celebrate the momentous occasion in style next Tuesday, starting at 10am with performances continuing until midnight, alongside a display of photographs taken by acclaimed photographer Michael Ward.
In October last year, a Guinness World Record was set by the people of Liverpool with a mass singalong of ‘Love Me Do’ to mark the 50th anniversary of their first single release.