Quora: Why did George Martin make the Beatles rerecord “Please Please Me”?

(via Quora) Written by Matthew Russell

At the very early stage in their career that the Beatles wrote Please Please Me, Martin was very much the one holding all the cards. As the head of the label they were newly signed to and their producer, Martin was the one with the final say on what the band did in the studio, and he still needed to hear something special to convince him that the band were songwriters of the calibre they claimed- or at least aspired- to be. Martin and Parlophone were quite keen to have the band release How Do You Do It, written by songwriter Mitch Murray and later a number one hit for fellow “Merseybeat” act Gerry and the Pacemakers.

The Beatles hated the song (you can see why- they thought it was simplistic and a little old fashioned, and thought it would damage their credibility) but obligingly recorded it. Knowing that they needed to come up with something better in order to keep Parlophone from opting to release How Do You Do It likely spurred Lennon and McCartney on to work harder on their original material…

Read more: https://www.quora.com/Why-did-George-Martin-make-the-Beatles-rerecord-Please-Please-Me

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