February 11, 1963: The Beatles Record Their 1st Album

Left to right: Ringo, Paul, George, John

February 11, 1963: The Beatles recorded most of the songs that will go on their 1st album, Please Please Me. The world -- and not just the world of music -- will never be the same.

On September 4, 1962, at Studio 2 at EMI Studios at 3 Abbey Road, in the St John's Wood neighborhood of "The City of Westminster," in London, NW8 9AY. There, they recorded some songs, including both sides of what would become their 1st single for EMI's Parlophone Records label, which was run by the man producing the session, George Martin: "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You."

Martin wasn't satisfied with the recording of those 2 songs, so he brought the not-yet-Fab Four -- rhythm guitarist, sometimes lead singer, and sometimes writer John Lennon; bass guitarist, sometimes lead singer, and sometimes writer Paul McCartney; lead guitarist George Harrison; and drummer Ringo Starr -- back a week later, on September 11, to redo the songs.

On "Love Me Do," he gave Ringo a tambourine, and replaced him on drums with session drummer Andy White, and it was this version that would go on the album, and eventually be released as a single in America, which would hit Number 1. On "P.S. I Love You," Martin gave Ringo maracas, and there was no drumming.

On February 11, 1963, a break in their performing schedule, they gathered at Abbey Road, with John suffering from a cold, and popping throat lozenges as if they were the amphetamines that the group had taken to stay up all night when they were playing clubs in Hamburg, Germany in 1960 and '61, honing their craft.

Ringo later said, "We didn't rehearse our first album. In my head, it was done "live". We did the songs through first, so they could get some sort of sound on each one; then we had to just run, run them down."

They began their morning session at 10:00 AM, with "There's a Place," and then a song then titled "Seventeen," which would become "I Saw Her Standing There." One song they recorded that day that didn't go on the album was "Hold Me Tight."

Before the group started experimenting, John and Paul would give George and Ringo one lead vocal each on every album. George's was "Do You Want to Know a Secret," and he got a 2nd lead vocal, on "Chains"; while Ringo's was "Boys." Which, like Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" in 1957, with its line of "You the cutest jailbird I ever did see," didn't raise homophobic eyebrows like it might have later.

In addition to George on lead guitar, John on rhythm guitar, Paul on bass guitar and Ringo on drums, George Martin played piano on "Misery" (as he would on the cover of "Money (That's What I Want)" on their 2nd album), and celesta on "Baby It's You."

At 10:00 PM, it was decided to record "Twist and Shout." This was a cover of an Isley Brothers hit on which John had sung lead in Beatles' performances. But with his cold and the long day, he didn't think he could do it.

Martin thought they nailed it on the 1st take, and so they used it. Martin said, "I don't know how they do it. We've been recording all day, but the longer we go on, the better they get." John said, "The last song nearly killed me. My voice wasn't the same for a long time after. Every time I swallowed, it was like sandpaper."

The day of recording cost approximately £400 (equivalent to £10,000 in 2022 -- with the exchange rate, about $160,000). Martin said: "There wasn't a lot of money at Parlophone. I was working to an annual budget of £55,000." This budget had to cover all of the artists on Martin's roster. Individually, under a contract with the Musicians' Union, each Beatle collected 22 pounds, 10 shillings (in 2022 money, about £54, or $864).

Side One: "I Saw Her Standing There," written by Paul, and it would become the B-side of the later-recorded "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which became their 1st U.S. Number 1 hit; "Misery," a Lennon-McCartney co-write and co-lead-sing; "Anna (Go to Him)," a cover of an Arthur Alexander song, with John singing lead; "Chains," written by Gerry Goffin & Carole King for The Cookies; "Boys," written by Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell for The Shirelles, as The Beatles all loved the American "girl groups," especially the black ones; "Ask Me Why," by John; and "Please Please Me," and John-Paul co-write, with John singing lead.

Side Two: "Love Me Do," Paul's song; "P.S. I Love You," Paul's song; "Baby It's You," written by Mack David, Barney Williams and Burt Bacharach, and another hit for The Shirelles; "Do You Want to Know a Secret," written by John and sung by George; "A Taste of Honey," written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow, a minor hit for Lenny Welch, Paul singing leade, and later an instrumental hit for Herb Alpert; "There's a Place," a John song; and "Twist and Shout," written by Bert Berns for The Isley Brothers (under the dual pen name of Phil Medley and Bert Russell, as Berns had done on the Isleys' similarly-titled "Shout!"), with John on the raspy lead.

Total: 31 minutes and 59 seconds of rock and roll history.

The album was released on March 22, 1963. Think about that: In a little over 12 hours, they recorded 13 songs, using 12 of them, and released the album with them on it less than 6 weeks later. Within 10 years, it was taking a rock band over a year from first recording session to release.

While "Love Me Do" had only hit Number 17 on the British pop music charts, "Please Please Me" hit Number 1 there. "Beatlemania" was on. Their 2nd album, With the Beatles, was recorded in pieces from mid-July to late October, and released on November 22. That album became their 1st U.S. album, Meet the Beatles!

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February 11, 1963 was a Monday. This was also the day that Julia Child's cooking show The French Chef premiered on what would become PBS, and the day . I have separate entries for those events.

Baseball and football were out of season. No NBA or NHL games were played. So there were no scores on this historic day.