"Please Please Me" by The Beatles (1963)
Dad's Song of the Day #93, Nov. 30, 2025
After 3 months with barely a mention of the most famous and popular artist of all time, here’s a “heads up” that the next few days will be Beatles-heavy, as I work my way through the updated re-release of the Beatles Anthology documentary on the Disney Channel.
It originally came out in the mid-90s to tremendous fanfare: Not only did it feature contemporaneous interviews with Ringo, George and Paul, it was also co-produced by Yoko Ono, marking a significant melting of the ice that had lingered since John was murdered in 1980.
I’ll choose a DSOTD to represent different stages of their sound, as the Anthology takes us along on this spectacular journey that helped define music (and the wider culture) in the 1960s and afterward.
In the first episode, we’re presented with the young Beatles and follow the band’s establishment and emergence into local popularity in Liverpool, as well as the wild period they spent honing their art in Hamburg, Germany. In Episode 2, we see the Beatles rise to stardom in Britain and parts of Europe, up to the moment they arrive in New York in early 1964.
“Please Please Me”—the Beatles’ first #1 hit in Britain and the title track of their first album—signals the promise of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team.
It has all the musical elements that marked early Beatlemania and hints at their later, more “sophisticated” sound: The upbeat 4/4 tempo, George’s chiming guitar sound, the “c’mon, c’mon” call-and-response, the falsetto “woooos”…
And, most importantly, “Please Please Me” highlights the gorgeous two-part harmony with John and Paul that we’d love throughout the life of the band, especially in vocals-focused songs like “If I Fell" and “Because.”
Next, the Beatles conquer America and become global megastars!
By the way, if you had a chance to see yesterday’s post, I got a very cool email yesterday:
Spotify:
YouTube:
This series is for my two 19-year-olds, who moved off to school with the misguided belief they’d escaped their dad’s relentless nostalgia and monopolization of the car stereo. I’m very happy for anyone else to come along for the ride.
The Spotify playlist for Dad’s Song of the Day is located here:
Wow, Dave Hodge watching. Very cool. And of course he is dead on about Frank