A special project for the 60th anniversary of the release of the first Beatles album

On February 11, 1963, in a recording that lasted 13 hours, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who are the Beatles, recorded the band’s debut album, Please Please Me, which was released on March 22 of that year and brought Forever the Beatlemania craze.

A significant part of the album is cover versions that the band used to perform in their early shows, alongside original songs written by Lennon and McCartney. The album, musically produced by George Martin, has 14 songs and was ranked 39th by “Rolling Stone” magazine in the list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Idan Alterman (Photo: Or Danon)

“In the 1960s, this audacity was the essence of rock and roll”

Actor Idan Alterman on the song I Saw Her Standing There
“Since there are quite a lot of covers on this album, suddenly hearing an original song, which Paul McCartney still performs in concerts, is amazing. It’s a very politically incorrect song in today’s terms. A line like Well she was just seventeen, you know what I mean, would certainly not pass today, but back then, in the 60’s, this audacity was the essence of rock and roll.

“I really like the bass line of this song, which is very unique to Paul McCartney and reminds me of Chuck Berry. It’s a 60-year-old song, with the sound and rock and roll of yesteryear, which holds up to this day thanks to the good melody and the good energy it has.”

The idea for writing the song came to Paul McCartney during a trip from his home in Liverpool to the band’s concert in 1960, after hearing an Irish folk song called As I Roved Out based on the English folk song Seventeen Come Sunday on the radio.

Plotkin Nectar (Photo: Private)

“For a man who usually showed no emotions, this little song is surprising”

The Beatles researcher and director of the Facebook group “The Beatles – The Israeli Group”, Zuf Plotkin, on Misery
“The song Misery, written by John Lennon, may not be the first choice of many from the album. It’s a little R&B song and not very catchy. But if you listen for a moment to John’s soaring voice, you realize that this is an unusual song. Beatles researchers usually say that Lennon started writing deep and exposed songs when he met Bob Dylan, and thanks to him he started crying for help in songs like Help!.

“But Misery, which hides behind a fast tempo and vocal harmonies, is just as exposed as Lennon’s later songs. For a man who usually showed no emotions, this little song could not be more surprising. This is one of the reasons why it has become one of my favorite songs on this excellent album in recent years “.

When the Beatles warmed to Jewish British pop star Helen Shapiro, her artistic director was looking for new material for her. Lennon and McCartney offered this song, but he refused. The one who fell in love with the song was the singer Kenny Lynch, who released the song in March 1963.

Oron Korichoner (Photo: Yoel Levy)

“This is one of the fun songs to perform at concerts”

The musician and member of the “Magical Band”, Oron Korichoner, about Anna
“This is one of the most surprising and fun songs to perform at concerts. We rarely perform it because a large part of the audience is less familiar with it. At that time, the Beatles appeared in Liverpool clubs and performed covers of the rock and roll hits of the time. Lennon liked the song very much and added it to the catalog of songs at concerts. Here is a rough and amazing performance by John Lennon of a huge song by Arthur Alexander.

“Although the Beatles kept more or less the structure and musical roles from the original arrangement, the song took on a completely different character, the same character that distinguished the Beatles from their first album. What is musically special about the song is that the last stanza (which repeats twice) differs in its structure from the other stanzas. This is something that It was accepted at that time.”

The song was first recorded in 1962 by its creator, rhythm and blues singer Arthur Alexander, and was written about his girlfriend (and later wife) Ann and her ex, who was trying to win her back.

Zohar Ginzburg (Photo: Adi Ofer)

“Simple playing, full of emotion, clear message and catchy melody”

Musician and guitarist Zohar Ginsburg on the song Love Me Do
“Towards the age of 16, I realized the influence of the Beatles on the world of culture. I didn’t have many CDs at home, and buying a CD was expensive at the time. That’s why I asked the music center in the kibbutz where I grew up to lend me Beatles CDs. She gave me this album, and from that moment I sat for days and I listened to the CD over and over again.

“I was blown away by how simple and beautiful and true the songs were. Then I also started playing them, and the song that caught me the most was Love Me Do – both because I was a young girl and this is the perfect time for love songs, and also because it has a bit of a ‘campfire song’ element to it. Simple playing, full of emotion, a clear message and catchy melody. Everything a pop song should have.”

John Lennon and Paul McCartney began working on the song in 1958 and recorded the first version in June 1962 with drummer Pete Best. This version was shelved, and after the set was replaced by Ringo Starr, the song was re-recorded and released to radio on October 5, 1962. It reached number 17 in the UK Singles Chart. This is the first official single by The Beatles.

Haim Allegranti (Photo: Bar Allegranti)

“We really liked playing rhythmic rock songs of this type”

The musician and vocalist of the rhythm band “The Lions”, Haim Allegranti, on Boys
“In the 1960s, when I played in the band ‘The Lions’, we really liked playing rhythmic rock songs of this type, and we also played Boys quite a bit at concerts in the various rhythm clubs. The song reminds me of the first time I heard The Beatles: I was 12 years old.

“When the Beatles came out with the song Love Me Do, I wasn’t that enthusiastic, but when I heard a few more of their songs – I fell in love. As soon as the Beatles released the first record, there were already great songs that I really liked. The song Boys is exactly the style of Ray’s well-known and beloved song Earls What’d I Say, and the interesting thing is that Ringo Starr is the vocalist in this song.

The song Boys was recorded for the first time by the American girl group “The Shirleys” in 1960 as a B-SIDE of the well-known Lahita Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?.

Benny Dudkevich (photo: Private)

Benny Dudkevich (Photo: Private)

“It’s a great song that’s always fun to listen to”

Journalist and radio and music personality Benny Dudkevich on Ask Me Why
“This is the first Beatles song played on the radio. Everyone thinks that Love Me Do is the first song that was played on the radio, but that’s not true. It’s a great song that’s always fun to listen to, and it also illustrates the good work that George Martin did with the band as a producer. There were two versions of this song recorded that year.

“The first version was recorded with the drummer Pete Best and the second version, which of course appears on the record, is with Ringo Starr as the drummer. This song was not so successful because it was a B-SIDE and less people know it, even though it is just as beautiful as the beloved Beatles hits.”

John Lennon, who composed the song, was influenced by the style of the musician Smokey Robinson and his band “The Miracles”, and especially by their song What’s So Good About Goodbye from 1961.

Moti Dichna (Photo: Elin Bashor)

“It’s a very complex song, even though it sounds simple, light and happy”

The musician and member of the band “The Sixties”, Moti Dichna, on Please Please Me
“It’s a song that sounds terribly simple, but it’s not. His entire arrangement, vocal and musical, is outstanding. This is a song we perform in the band ‘The Sixties’, and it was difficult to get the voices out of it because it is so complex. The use of harmonica in it was rare in the early 1960s. When I heard this song for the first time I was shocked, there is an outstanding bass sound. The more you listen to this song, you will realize that it is very complex, even though it sounds simple, light and happy. It has an amazing melody and phrases that were not accepted. They pushed their limits a little further in this song.

“When the song came out, I was living in Japan as a child and I heard it for the first time there. As soon as I was exposed to this Beatles album, I decided that this is what I want to do with my life. It is the soundtrack of my life. It is the record that I have listened to the most ever. The songs on it were recorded live on four channels, without additions in the studio . There is one word in this song that McCartney sings, while Lennon sings another word on the same channel, and it was a mistake that could not be corrected. But because the singing was the best, they didn’t want to record it again, so they left it like that.”

John Lennon created the song inspired by Roy Orbison’s Only The Lonely and Bing Crosby’s Please. The song was released on CD on April 11, 1963 as the B-SIDE of the song From Me To You. It qualified for second place in the British charts and third place in the American charts.

Aryeh Moscona (Photo: Rafi Deloya)

“This song represents the beginning of the Beatles for me”

Actor and singer Aria Moscone on Chains
“This song represents the beginning of the Beatles for me, like the whole album. You hear harmonica in it influenced by Bob Dylan, matching voices influenced by the Eberly brothers and other influences from Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. These are simple words that spread love. It’s an album where they were looking for their sound and direction, and they still tried to offend the audience’s taste, so they also did covers and created original songs inspired by those covers.”

The song was recorded by the American girl group “The Cookies” in 1962 and was covered by many British rhythm groups, including The Beatles. The singer in the song is George Harrison, and this is also the first time that his voice, as a singer, is heard.

Dodi Fatimer (Photo: Michal Kleinberg)
Dodi Fatimer (Photo: Michal Kleinberg)

“The romantic lyric touched my heart as a teenager experiencing unfulfilled crushes”

Journalist Dodi Fatimer on the song Ps I Love You
“The first time I was exposed to this song was in the late 1990s, when Limore, the English teacher, assigned us a task to get a Beatles CD and write our opinion on a song from it. Eitan, my neighbor in a building in Tel Aviv, had a father who lived in Jerusalem, and he had Beatles CDs. Eitan asked his brother, who was visiting his father, to record the album’s songs for me on a tape and give them to him. The first time I heard The Beatles was through that tape.

“I fell in love immediately. For the same work in English, I chose Ps I Love You because of the melodic and soft style, a kind of country and pop champ. The romantic lyric touched my heart as a teenager experiencing unfulfilled crushes. Later I found a similar style in the Beatles’ fourth album Beatles For Sale (December 1964) ), and I loved him so much. By the way, for the same assignment in English I got an 85, but the grade didn’t really matter to me: I knew the Beatles, and it was worth everything.”

Paul McCartney wrote the song during the band’s performances in Hamburg, Germany. He drew inspiration for the melody from the song Soldier Boy by the band “The Shirleys”.

Hami Rodner (photo: Amir Meiri)

“It’s essentially a teenage song, but a clearly gifted teenager”

The musician and founder of the band “Where is the child”, Hami Rodner, about There’s A Place
“I love the early work of the Beatles as much as their later and more complex work. It’s obviously a teenage song at its core, but a clearly gifted teenager. The melody rises in two voices and is surprising in its twists.

“The beat is full of life, and the harmonica gives a slightly melancholic dimension. The private place we can escape to when we are lonely or sad is music for me. There, out of solitude, a harmony is created that connects people. The private and intimate become everyone’s treasure, just like the Beatles.”

In the composition of this song, John Lennon drew inspiration from the black music of the Motown record company. The name of the song was inspired by the song There’s A Place For Us from the soundtrack of the movie “Suburban Story”.

The Beatles 1963 (Photo: Hulton Archive.GettyImages)

“In my eyes, this song is the epitome of John Lennon”

The radio and music personality, Menachem Garnit, for the song Do You Want To Know a Secret
“This is one of my favorite songs from the album, and it touches me very emotionally. When the band was about to record it, Lennon said it wasn’t that sophisticated a song, so he decided to let George Harrison sing it, and it became a huge hit. In my eyes, this song is the epitome of John Lennon. It’s a sweet and great song.”

Menachem Granit (Photo: Private)

John Lennon wrote the song inspired by I’m Wishing, a song from the 1937 cartoon “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, which his mother, Julia, used to sing to him as a child.

Cheli Sigalsky (photo: Amir Ezer)

“There is a scent of honey in this song, it reminds me of my magical childhood”

Musician and leader of the Blues Messengers band, Cheli Sigelski, on A Taste Of Honey
“I grew up listening to this song. When my mother would turn on the radio in the morning, I would hear the Beatles playing it. This song has a scent of honey, it reminds me of my magical childhood. It was recorded in a very simple way and in a very small studio, with a perfect combination of voices and harmonies A song that is all sweeter than honey.”

The origin of the song is an instrumental melody written for the Broadway version of a British play of the same name. Hanaima, performed by the musician Rabbi Alpert, won the Grammy Award. In 1961, a vocal version of the song was recorded by the singer Billy Dee Williams, but only in 1962 did it become a vocal hit performed by the singer Lenny Walsh.

Yoel Lerner (Photo: Ilan Bashor)

“You saw in the song their far-reaching abilities”

The musician and member of the band “The Sixties”, Joel Lerner, on Baby It’s You
“When I was 8 years old, they bought me a turntable and the first Beatles record. The performance of this song and the other cover versions on the album were so beautiful that it surpassed the original. Their whole package – the sound, the playing and the vocals – was perfect. I would listen to this record from start to finish The end. In this song there is an amazing performance by Lennon, and already in it you saw their far-reaching abilities.”

The song was originally recorded by the American girl group “The Shirleys” in 1961 and bore the name of an album released in ’62. The Beatles began to perform the song in their concerts in 1961.

Miki Gabrielov (Photo: Moshe Chitiat)

“This song caught me when I was 14 years old and I started playing with groups of children in the neighborhood”

Musician Mickey Gabrielov on Twist And Shout
“This song caught my eye when I was 14 years old and I just started playing with groups of kids in the neighborhood. It was a song that everyone wanted to perform. It was a time of the twist dance and everyone danced the twist at parties and all this was before we formed the band ‘The Churchills’.”

This is one of the successful Beatles covers, originally recorded in 1961 by the American rhythm and blues band The Top Notes. In 1962, the song won a successful cover version by the “Easley Brothers” band. Lennon, who sings the lead voice in the song, sounds hoarse in it, as it is the last single recorded in the recording session after nearly 12 hours of recording in the studio.

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