The Beatles' 'Please Please Me' Took Only 12 Hours to Record—and It Hit No. 1 on 4 Charts

Creativity can be a capricious thing, but it can also be a euphoric experience when you're firing on all cylinders. For legendary rock band the Beatles, recording their debut album Please Please Me was like a fever dream and a swirling storm of creativity all in one. Why? Because the entire process took only 12 hours.

The band's producer, George Martin, also known as the "fifth Beatle," booked EMI Studios (later known as Abbey Road Studios) for the day on Feb. 11, 1963. Originally, the plan was to record Please Please Me at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, but Martin deemed it unsuitable.

The four-piece rock outfit started the day at 10 a.m. with "There's a Place," written primarily by John Lennon but credited under the McCartney-Lennon partnership. They barreled through the 14-track album, a mix of original and cover songs.

When 10 p.m. rolled around (at which point the studio was supposed to close), the Beatles recorded their last tune, their cover of "Twist and Shout." Lennon was suffering from a cold that day and was treating his sore throat with lozenges. Naturally, "Twist and Shout" was a behemoth to get through for him. You can hear it in his performance—his voice sounds raw, almost primal. It's like the vocalization of sandpaper.

At 10:30 p.m., Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr listened to the playback of the record, and, according to Lennon, were pleased with the end product. Starr later observed that they "had to just run, run them down," and that he struggled to recall the Please Please Me recording session: "For me, it was all a bit of a blur. The sessions and those times until we did the album — and that too — is a bit of a blur."

Please Please Me was released on March 22, 1963. It skyrocketed to No. 1 on four UK charts: Melody Maker, New Musical Express (NME), Record Mirror, and Record Retailer. It reigned at the top spot on Record Retailer for a whopping 30 consecutive weeks until it was replaced by the band's second studio album, With the Beatles. What a flex. This breaking of the musical glass ceiling came at a time when movie soundtracks and "easy listening vocalists" dominated the UK album charts, not pop music.

Source: yahoo.com/Melody McCune

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