Beatles

On the afternoon of September 4th, 1962 The Beatles arrived at Abbey Road for their first official session. They rehearsed, had dinner, returned to the studio and recorded “How Do You Do it” chosen for them as their first single by George Martin.

The Beatles didn't like the song and wanted one of their originals to be their first single but they recorded it anyway and it was mastered and prepared for release.

The group then recorded onto one track of the two track tape recorder the rhythm track to “Love Me Do” requiring 15 takes to get one good enough to use, after which they performed the vocals. The session went late into the night and required a great deal of editing. Engineer Norman Smith recalled that Paul wasn’t pleased with Ringo’s drumming.

Both “How Do You Do It” and “Love Me Do” were mixed that evening and despite his original decision, Martin chose in the end “Love Me Do,” but not the version recorded September 4th. It wasn’t good enough for the group’s debut, mostly because of the drums.

Drummer Andy White was booked for the next session, scheduled for Tuesday September 11th, 1962.

First up was “P.S. I Love You” finished in 10 takes with Andy White on drums. 18 takes of the “Love Me Do” redo followed, with Ringo playing only the tambourine.

Late that night mono mixes were made of take 10 of “P.S. I Love You” and take 18 of “Love Me Do”. On Friday October 5th 1962 The Beatles first single “Love Me Do”/”P.S. I Love You” was released but with Ringo on drums, recorded at one of the earlier sessions.

When the EP “The Beatles Hits” was later released, the Ringo version of “Love Me Do” was replaced with the Andy White version and the decision was made to use that version on all subsequent releases of the song. To assure that yet another swap might take place in the future, the master tape of Ringo’s version was destroyed. Thus, only the original "Love Me Do" single has the version with Ringo on drums.

The group returned to Abbey Road on Monday November 26th to record "Ask Me Why" as well as uptempo takes of “Please Please Me”, after George Martin had rejected a slower version recorded at an earlier session.

After the "Please Please Me" single hit #1 on more than a few charts, the pressure was on to follow up with a full length album.

On Monday February 11th, 1963 The Beatles recorded an astonishing 10 songs in fewer than 10 hours. In addition to the originals they recorded five covers: Arthur Alexander’s “Anna (Go To Him)”, The Shirelles’ “Boys”, Goffin-King’s “Chains” and another by The Shirelles, “Baby It’s You.” With one more tune needed, the group chose a cover of Bert Berns's "Twist and Shout" originally recorded by The Isley Brothers.

By that time 12 hours had passed since the morning session had begun and all, but especially John, were beat. According to engineer Norman Smith John sucked on a couple of cough drops , gargled with some milk and then proceeded to sing the one, vocal cord shredding take of "Twist and Shout", thus completing Please Please Me

The above chronology is based upon Mark Lewisohn's extraordinary and highly recommended "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions—The Official Story of the Abbey Road years 1962-1970" (Sterling, 2013).

You might want to refer to the stereo box set review.

To assess the new all-analog mono record here's what I did: I played the new record first using a Miyajima Labs ZERO mono cartridge into Miyajimi Labs's ETR MONO step-up transformer feeding a Tektron monophonic tubed preamplifier, which is a very basic MM unit featuring a pair of 12AU7 tubes. I insisted upon that set up because it's how I heard the original absolute first pressing at a friend's and wanted to know how much of what I heard was the pressing and how much was that set-up.

Then I played the reissue. Then I played both again using the Transfiguration Proteus into the Ypsilon step up transformer and VPS-100 phono preamp. Finally I played the mono CD box set version. I'm going to do another pass using the Ortofon "Tribute" mono cartridge but I don't expect any surprises.

First, while the original first pressing was especially mesmerizing, much of the presentation resulted from the unique sound of the Miyajima Labs step-up/Tektron combo, because I got the same hypersonic effect here. So pronounced is the particular sonic personality of that combo that when I played the reissue it sounded so close to the original and so ethereally pleasing I stood up and applauded! But I was suspicious that the electronics were masking what must be differences between the two pressings and that turned out to be true and more easily revealed with the stereo cartridge but with the preamp's mono switch engaged.

However, the differences were relatively minor with a few favoring the original and few favoring the reissue.

What you really hope to not hear is sterile, antiseptic sound, juiced up bass or hard, thin high frequencies. You hope to hear a generous sense of front to back depth and a generously sized, stable, three dimensional front-to-back image—a centered ball of see-into-it "it's alive!".

What I particularly listened for generally was how the reissue dealt with instrumental attack, the generosity of the ample sustain produced by the generously applied echo chamber and the gracefulness of the decay. Specifically I listened for how natural Ringo's tambourine sounded, for how believable and bathed in reverb were the drum sticks Ringo hits together after the break on "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" and especially how "John" John sounded, how "Paul" Paul sounded and how "George" George sounded, if you know what I mean. Finally, did the micro-dynamic gestures that communicate musical intent survive the decades and the solid-state mastering?

And finally the real test: if you feel like cranking up the volume because you're having such a good time, does doing so improve or destroy the experience? That's one of the things that makes CDs so annoying: when you turn up the volume on the ones that don't sound bad, they do.

While I was hopeful that the reissue would sound great, I still had a bit of trepidation as I lowered the stylus onto the record. Not to worry: the presentation was top to bottom coherent, big and "analogy". The bottom end had not been jacked up. It's relatively weak on the original and on the reissue too. On bottom they sound just about identical. In fact, tonally despite the years and the different playback and mastering gear the overall picture was a faithful reproduction not a dramatic revision.

Paying such close attention produces a bonanza of previously unappreciated micro-events like when in "Please Please Me" when John emphasizes "oh yeah! (why do you make me blue?)". I'd never before appreciated the way he sounded as if he was surprising himself when he delivered it. Listening to "Love Me Do", I heard for the first time a connection to The Everly Brothers' cascading harmonies on "Cathy's Clown", which was a #1 single in the UK for 7 weeks in the Spring and early Summer of 1960.

Within 10 seconds of "Love Me Do" you'll know you're listening to AAA and you'll know that Magee and Berkowitz treated the originals with full respect—and that includes not trying to tuck it in where the vocal recordings occasionally get hard or bright. They remain so as on the original. This is a bright vocal recording but in the analog domain there's far less pain involved.

If you know this recording only by its stereo version, I think you'll be a mono convert after the first play. The generously applied reverb produces a big, billowy image between the speakers that has depth and great transparency. Its coherence is guaranteed to let you in on details obscured in the stereo mix, where your mind tends to wander between the vocals and the backing tracks. Here, for instance, on "Ask Me Why", John's voice projects forward directly in front of you with a compelling immediacy lost in stereo.

Does the original have slightly greater upper frequency transparency? And a bit more "creaminess"? Yes, but that could be the 50 year old record's somewhat worn grooves talking too. When I compared the old and new through the Miyajima set-up they sounded more similar than different. Through the Proteus/Ypsilon combo, which is somewhat more analytical and way less "tubey" (though the Ypsilon has tubes), the reissued sounded cleaner, somewhat leaner and "faster". The original had more midband "glow" but both convince on Ringo's tambourine on "Love Me Do". You hear the skin and the metal zils in just the right balance. Through the Miyajima/Tektron combo, the pronounced midrange and probably excessive bloom and rising top end produce a verisimilitude that's creepy even though you know you're being punked by colorations and in between tracks the noise level is so high it sounds like a pipe burst in your walls. But it sounds so real!

On whichever cartridge and phono preamp I played this reissue, what comes through is the sensation of the event unfolding before you. I cannot imagine a digitized edition of "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" sounding this transparent and ethereal, nor can I imagine those drum stick hits sounding so "woody" and the reverb around them having such graceful and believable decay.

But why imagine when there's a mono CD box set I hadn't played for a few years. I forgot how well the jacket reproduction was there compared to the stereo box both on CD and vinyl. The mono CD box jackets featured fold-over covers, the stereo CD box jackets didn't. That tells you which EMI then considered the more important and that they had the fold over covers in mind all along for the mono LP box set as well.

Less was done in the mono CD transfers too as I recall, compared to the revisionist stereo box, so I expected the CD and LP versions of Please Please Me to sound more similar than different and they do. The mono CD box set is very good sounding tonally and in fact it's really one generation earlier than the LP (as long as you don't count digitization as a generation but then again so is cutting to lacquer) since the CD is directly transferred from the master tape while the LP is a tape copy assemblage. But spatially and emotionally the CD is flat. Nothing reaches out and grabs you. It's all behind a spatial, if not tonal scrim as if you are watching from a distance and not experiencing it directly. Every time I hear "Chains" all-analog at the beginning it has this inviting "bloomy" quality. Not so on the CD. It just lays there. "Ask Me Why" is one of the best sounding tracks on the record, with John's vocal projecting well in front of the backing track on vinyl but on CD it just sits flat against the instrumental track.

LP detractors will call those differences on LP "colorations". I think CD colorations cause the loss of life that's so vital on the LP.

The pressing quality of this record was outstanding: flat, quiet and without an audible pop or click. It looks and feels good too.

So far so great, though of course this wasn't a great recording to begin with. However it was recorded "live" and in haste and that gives it a unique vitality and energy that survives (and prospers) all these years later.

That said, if you own an original and compare this reissue generated from a copy of a 50 plus year old tape with an original cut when the tape was fresh, you won't be surprised to hear a transparency difference favoring the original. However, this reissue manages, in my opinion to get all that can be gotten from the old tape. You'll never confuse it with a digitized tape transferred to vinyl or to CD.