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Read the original blog post12.54pm
31 March 2008
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Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 6 June, 26 November 1962
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 11 January 1963 (UK), 25 February 1963 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: lead guitar, backing vocals
Ringo Starr: drums
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2.47am
24 March 2014
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This is such a beautiful song (imho). One of my favourite numbers in “Please Please Me “. Just the isolated vocals alone sound gorgeous:
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meaigs, Richard, Mr. Moonlight, Rube"I Need You by George Harrison"
11.57am
14 December 2009
Offline I find it inexplicable how George Martin really felt that “Love Me Do ” was the best of the handful of originals they had to offer for that June audition, when this one seems like a much more substantial song to me. (Maybe he just really liked that harmonica?)
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Shamrock Womlbs, RubePaul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
1.42pm
24 March 2014
Offline Yeah, i think a lot about that lately. Maybe George Martin wanted to play safe with a nice simple melodic song but even so… i find Love Me Do really monotonous and unispiring compared with Ask Me Why …
anyway, it sounds good even with Pete Best drumming 
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Rube"I Need You by George Harrison"
11.32pm
14 June 2016
Offline Love this song, and the whole Please Please Me album is an awesome showcase of John’s vocals. He’s at his youngest and is full of energy and soul.
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Rube1.The Beatles 2.Sgt. Pepper 3.Abbey Road 4.Magical Mystery Tour 5.Rubber Soul 6.Revolver 7.Help! 8.Let It Be
9.A Hard Day’s Night 10.Please Please Me 11.Beatles For Sale 12.With The Beatles 13.Yellow Submarine
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2.27am
Reviewers
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1 May 2011
Offline Von Bontee said
I find it inexplicable how George Martin really felt that “Love Me Do ” was the best of the handful of originals they had to offer for that June audition, when this one seems like a much more substantial song to me. (Maybe he just really liked that harmonica?)
‘LMD’ was the song needed to get them on the radio and out there, it stuck around the charts floating for a bit. It has a very simple quality to it admittedly and compared to a lot of their material in the coming months it does sound very basic. Listen back to charts of the time and you see how ‘LMD’ stood out from much of what was in the charts; it gave them an opened door which they then barged thru with ‘PPM ‘.
As for ‘AMW’, the Star Club performance is fabulously tight.
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Rube"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
2.40am
26 January 2017
Offline Hard to believe they’d found such confidence in their songwriting on this debut album. Aside from the legendary hits, Do You Want To Know A Secret and Ask Me Why sound like they could be Rodgers/Hammerstein tunes from a 40s Broadway Musical. Lyrically and Melodically they are an example of masters of their craft on top of their game before even entering their peak. The most impressive feat on the album is the constantly harmonic function of the G and D chords in P.S I Love You.
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Rube"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
2.56pm
25 November 2024
Offline Daily song review 6/213: Ask Me Why
While I don’t quite have the vocabulary to precisely describe why, this song has a slightly latin or Caribbean flavor to me. It’s at least partially coming from the guitars on the song. The backing vocals (the woo-woo-woos) from Paul also contribute, as well as the stutters from John. The lyrics of the song are decent as fluff-y love song filler but nothing special. Instrumentally, everyone does a perfectly component job. Ringo sounds steady, John and George contribute well, Paul isn’t super present but he is when he needs to be.
Despite being competent, the song is just pretty boring. I don’t mind listening to it, but it’s one of the weaker songs on Please Please Me . To me, the strongest aspect is not its quality, but rather its variety. It makes Please Please Me have more variety than it otherwise would with its latin/Caribbean aspects, which is appreciated.
Score: 5/10.
Favorite cover: Not many options to pick from for this one, so this one isn’t that great, but here’s a cover by a group called Rangzen. I don’t know what their deal is (the album is apparently from Italy but it is named after a Tibetan liberation movement, so who knows). The cover is pretty close to the original but, you know, it’s neat.
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RichardThere will be an answer; let it be.
10.01pm
30 August 2021
Offline I never heard this one for a long time, since as a B-side it was absent from The Beatles’ Hits EP which I started with (although it did include Thank You Girl , oddly enough), but I’ve come to like it very much. Probably more so than PS I Love You , the other missing B-side but which received a lot of radio airplay.
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Richard"Nothing is Beatle-proof."
3.31am
26 January 2017
Offline A close friend of mine loves this song. Its great. Do You Want To Know A Secret and Ask Me Why are some of the classiest tunes in the Lennon/McCartney songbook. Relatively superficial but pretty sophisticated musically. Excellent harmonies especially on Ask Me Why . They are really buttoned up as songwriters and performers and hit the ground running in the studio. This song is one of the best examples.
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Richard, Mr. Moonlight, Rube"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
11.56am
14 June 2016
Offline My comment is to say there’s a real tenderness and sincerity about the vocals.
The following people thank Timothy for this post:
Richard, Mr. Moonlight, meanmistermustard, Rube1.The Beatles 2.Sgt. Pepper 3.Abbey Road 4.Magical Mystery Tour 5.Rubber Soul 6.Revolver 7.Help! 8.Let It Be
9.A Hard Day’s Night 10.Please Please Me 11.Beatles For Sale 12.With The Beatles 13.Yellow Submarine
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12.23pm
24 March 2014
Offline It’s a top song written by a teenager. The starts and stops make it prerty unique for an early attempt on writing a song.
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Richard, Rube"I Need You by George Harrison"
4.03pm
Reviewers
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1 May 2011
Offline It showed a lot of promise and ability in the songwriters (since it was credited to both John and Paul) and the band in the lyrics, singing and arrangement. It’s another song of the Beatles early catalogue which when compared to what else was being released at the time becomes far better than when compared nowadays.
There are little things, like the start stop parts, which are really quite clever in taking the song away from being one of the billion utterly chronic pop entries that were being shoved out with little thought back in the early Sixties.
And you know John would have got a kick out of the line “I can’t conceive”.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
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