I always like to keep track of the debut albums of my favourite artistes and bands. There is something intriguing in getting deeper into their early sounds and then watch it evolve with time.
Please Please Me was released in 1963 and tells you a lot about why The Fab Four from Liverpool went on to become such enormous successes on the global music scene. This was a sound that was youthful, exciting, fresh, innovative, tight, edgy and energetic - all rolled into one. It wasn’t hard to predict that this sound would take the world by storm and stand the test of time.
Lennon and McCartney started writing and composing while hanging out at each other’s homes; in retrospect, I think they had a three-point song-writing "formula"
Keep it short(most of their songs are less than three minutes in duration)
Keep it simple(in lyrical terms - musically, the songs are complex because both Lennon and McCartney were classically trained musicians)
Have a killer hook - a guitar riff, a chord or a repetitive element(like Yeah-Yeah-Yeah) that would grab the listeners’ attention immediately
Listen to I Saw Her Standing There, Please Please Me, Love Me Do, PS I Love You, Twist and Shout - and you’ll find these three elements in each of these super-hits.
And if you analyse each of the songs on the album using these three key elements, you will realize that for a bunch of young, incipient musicians, their knowledge of the creative process as applicable to pop music was remarkable.
What a great beginning!