Welcome to MusicDayz

The world's largest online archive of date-sorted music facts, bringing day-by-day facts instantly to your fingertips.
Find out what happened on your or your friends' Birthday, Wedding Day, Anniversary or just discover fun facts in musical areas that particularly interest you.
Please take a look around.

Fact #53529

When:

Short story:

The Beatles record Please Please Me at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London, UK.

Full article:

John Lennon : Please Please Me is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song, would you believe it? I wrote it in the bedroom in my house at Menlove Avenue, which was my auntie's place... I remember the day and the pink eyelet on the bed, and I heard Roy orbison doing 'Only the Lonely' or something. That's where that came from. And also I was always intrigued by the words of 'Please, lend your little ears to my pleas' - a Bing Crosby song. I was always intrigued by the double use of the word 'please.' So it was a combination of Bing Crosby and Roy Orbison.

George Martin : I still had How Do You Do It, which they didn't want to release. I had said, 'Well, if you can give me a song that's as good as that one, we'll record it.' They had said, 'Give us a week.' And they came back with a song I'd rejected previously, because they'd done it too slowly. In fact, I told them they needed to speed the whole thing up, make it much more vibrant. Someone mentioned that it was originally inspired by Roy Orbison. So they played it to me again in the studio and I modified a little bit of an ending and so on.

Paul McCartney : George Martin's contribution was quite a big one, actually. The first time he really ever showed that he could see beyond what we were offering him was Please Please Me.

It was originally conceived as a Roy orbison - type thing, you know. George said, 'Well, we'll put the tempo up.' He lifted the tempo, and we all thought that was much better, and that was a big hit. (Source : interview with Paul Gambaccini in Rolling Stone, 1974)

George Martin : At the end of the session, I was knocked out, because it really was a great record. I said to them, 'Gentlemen, you've got your first No1 hit.'
------------------------------------------
THE BEATLES' LONDON

By the mid-'60s the whole of London was The Beatles' kingdom and their playground, a mad whirl of celebrity, performance, strange award luncheons, afternoons with Her Majesty, film premieres, nightclubs and drug busts. They lived there, recorded there, got drunk, married and arrested there. Johnny Black guides us through the Fab Four-dominated streets of London.

1. EMI STUDIOS: 3 Abbey Road, NW8
Almost every Beatles recording was done here, including their first recording test (June 6, 1962) and their first proper session (including Love Me Do) on September 4, 1962. Promo clips filmed here included Paperback Writer, Rain, Day In The Life and Lady Madonna. Most memorable though, was the All You Need Is Love live TV broadcast (25 June, 1967), beamed live to 350 million viewers worldwide, with Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Jane Asher , Graham Nash, Mike McGear and Walker Brother Gary Leeds.
The group posed for the cover of their Abbey Road album on the zebra crossing outside at 11.35am on August 8, 1969.


2 LONDON PALLADIUM: 7-8 Argyll Street, W1
The Beatles appeared on the popular TV show, Sunday Night At The London Palladium, on 13 October, 1963. The appeared again on 12 January, 1964. Paul returned to the Palladium on 2 June, 1964, taking Jane Asher to see Cilla Black. in concert. The Beatles played The Palladium again on 23 July, 1964, as part of The Night Of A Hundred Stars.


3 BUCKINGHAM PALACE:
On 26 October, 1965, 4,000 fans screamed outside while The Queen gave The Beatles their MBEs, in the Great Throne Room. Lennon later revealed that in a rather smaller Buckingham Palace throne room, the group smoked marijuana to calm their nerves.


4 CHAPEL STREET, SW1
Brian Epstein bought this house on 20 December, 1964. On May 19, 1967, he threw a media party here to launch Sgt. Pepper. On August 27, Epstein was found here, dead in bed, aged 32.


5 PRINCE OF WALES THEATRE: 31 Coventry Street, W1
On November 4, 1963, John Lennon encouraged the glittering audience to "rattle your jewellery" during the group's Royal Variety Show appearance. On May 31, 1964 The Beatles played here again and on September 27, 1964, Ringo was a judge at an Oxfam beat group contest, televised on BBC2.


6 MARYLEBONE STATION: Great Central Street, NW1
The opening scenes of A Hard Day's Night were shot here on April 5, 1964. A hundred fans were paid