Location and Time
EMI Studio 2
7:00pm to 10:00pm
Songs
Please Please Me (takes 1 – 18)
Ask Me Why (takes 1 – 6)
Tip of My Tongue (unknown takes)
Personnel
John Lennon – guitar, harmonica, vocals
Paul McCartney – bass, vocals
George Harrison – guitar, vocals
Ringo Starr – drums
George Martin – Producer
Norman Smith – Balance Engineer
Unknown – Tape Operator
Instruments and Amplification
The following list is according to Jerry Hammack in The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1, along with other sources listed below.
Format:
Year • Brand Model [Finish / Variant] — Type (Player) – Notes
Guitars
- 1957 Gretsch G6128 Duo Jet [Jet Black] with Gretsch Bigsby vibrato – Electric Guitar (George Harrison)
- 1958 Rickenbacker 325 Capri with Bigsby B5 – Hallow-body electric guitar, painted black (John Lennon)
- 1961 Höfner 500/1 ‘Cavern’ [Sunburst] – Violin‑style Bass Guitar (Paul McCartney)
- Gibson J-160E – Electro-acoustic Guitar (John Lennon, George Harrison)
Guitar Amplifiers
- 1962 JMI Vox AC30/6 Twin – 30 W Guitar Amplifier with two 12″ Vox Celestion Alinco Blue G12 T530 speakers (John Lennon, George Harrison) 1
- Leak ‘Point One’ Preamplifier – Valve Hi-Fi Preamplifier (Paul McCartney)
- Leak TL/12 Plus Power Amp + Tannoy 15″ Dual‑Concentric Cabinet — 12 W Bass Amplifier (Paul McCartney)
Percussion
- 1960 Premier 58 Mahogany drum kit (Ringo Starr)
- 20″ Duroplastic Bass Drum
- 12″ Duroplastic Rack Tom
- 16″ Duroplastic Floor Tom
- 14″ x 4″ Royal Ace Snare
- Cymbals (Ajax, Paiste Stambul or Kurt cymbals)
- 20″ ride
- 18″ crash
- 14″ hi-hats
Studio Gear
This is the standard setup used in the 1962 to 1964 era, unless noted.
The following list is according to Jerry Hammack in The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1, along with other sources listed below.
Control Room
- REDD.37 valve console
- BTR-2 mono tape machine
- BTR-3 twin-track tape machine
- Altec 605A (Altec 612 cabinets) monitors
- EMI RS141 Leak TL, 25 Plus amplifier
- EMI RLS10 – White Elephant 2
Outboard Signal Processors
- EMI RS114 Limiter
- EMI RS124 Altec Compressor
- EMI RS127 Presence Box
- EMI RS144 4-Way Mixer / Premix
- EMI RS92 Neumann Mic Equaliser
Effects
- Echo Chamber
- STEED send tape echo, echo delay
Microphones
- Neumann U 48 (vocals, electric guitar amplifiers, acoustic guitar, acoustic)
- Neumann U 47/48 (vocals, electric guitar amplifiers, acoustic)
- Neumann KM 54 (electric guitar amplifiers)
- STC 4038 (drum overhead)
- STC 4033-A (bass drum)
- STC 4033-A (bass guitar amplifier)
Session Notes
Mixing Techniques
- Please Please Me has Superimpositions with Lennon on harmonica, Lennon and McCartney on vocals, McCartney and Harrison on backing vocals.
- Please Please Me (remake) includes last 0:18 seconds ending of the song, partially out of sync with the main track. 3
- The songs were later mixed in mono on November 30, 1962 in Studio 2. The stereo mixes were made on February 25, 1963, in Studio 1. 4
- The Beatles were not present during the mixing session for the single. 5
- The stereo mix of Please Please Me are from takes 16, 17, and 18. 6
Additional Notes
- The Beatles arrived at 6:00pm to rehearse. 7
- John Lennon wrote Please Please Me in the style of Roy Orbison’s Only the Lonely. The title was influenced by Please by Bing Crosby (his mom would sign this song to him when he was a child). Vocals were influenced by Cathy Clown by the Everly Brothers. Lennon wrote it at his aunt Mimi’s house at Menlove Avenue. 8
- Please Please Me had been reworked since their 11 September, 1962 recording session.
- At the end of the session, Martin told the group over the control room’s intercom, “Gentlemen, you’ve just made your first number-one record.” 9
- The Beatles performed Ask Me Why at their Hamburg and Liverpool sets. 10
- The Beatles gave up recording Tip of My Tongue after several takes. It was later recorded by Tommy Quickly. 11
- John Lennon and Paul McCartney debated about whose name should be listed first, either McCartney-Lennon or Lennon-McCartney. Paul stated in August, 1963, “John got his way, as usual!” 12
- Lennon’s 1958 Rickenbacker had been painted black by this session. 13
- The featured photo is from the September 4th recording session. 14 There aren’t any known photos from this recording session.
Sources
Media
Books
All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release (Jean Michel Guedson, Philippe Margotin)
The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1 (Jerry Hammack)
The Beatles Recording Techniques (Jerry Hammack)
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (Mark Lewisohn)
Websites
Wikipedia – Please Please Me (song)
- Jerry Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1 (Gearfab Books, Ltd., 2023), p. 245 ↩︎
- Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1, p. 246 ↩︎
- Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1, p. 247 ↩︎
- The Paul McCartney Project ↩︎
- Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (Hamlyn, 2004), p. 23 ↩︎
- Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, p. 23 ↩︎
- The Beatles Bible ↩︎
- Jean Michel Guedson, Philippe Margotin, All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release, (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers), p. 36 ↩︎
- Barry Miles, Paul McCarney: Many Years from Now, (Secker & Warburg, 1997) ↩︎
- Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1, p. 36 ↩︎
- Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, p. 23 ↩︎
- Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, p. 23 ↩︎
- Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, p. 37 ↩︎
- The Beatles Bible ↩︎
