"PLEASE PLEASE ME"
PARLOPHONE PCS 3042, STEREO
RELEASED 3/22/63

INSANELY RARE 1963 YELLOW & BLACK VERY FIRST INITIAL LABEL
WITH SMALL "33⅓" SPEED INDICATOR PRINT.
ALSO HAS EARLIEST  "1G" STAMPER AND "ERNEST J. DAY" FIRST COVER

AS RARE - IF NOT RARER - THAN THE INFAMOUS PREMIERE "BLACK AND GOLD" ISSUE
AND HAS BECOME THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER PRESSINGS OF THIS ALBUM

ITEM#: PAR340
PRICE: $15,750

ON FEBRUARY 11, 1963, THE BEATLES ENTERED EMI'S ABBEY ROAD STUDIO TO RECORD SONGS FOR INCLUSION ON THEIR DEBUT ALBUM. IN WHAT IS GENERALLY ACKNOWLEDGED TO BE ONE OF THE MOST PRODUCTIVE DAYS EVER SPENT IN A RECORDING STUDIO, THE BEATLES RECORDED TEN HIGH-SPIRITED SONGS THAT WERE STANDARDS IN THEIR LIVE PERFORMANCES. OF THE TEN SONGS COMPLETED FOR RELEASE, FOUR WERE LENNON & McCARTNEY ORIGINALS (CREDITED ON THE ALBUM AS "McCARTNEY-LENNON") AND SIX WERE COVER VERSIONS THAT ARE TODAY BETTER KNOWN THAN THEIR ORIGINAL VERSIONS. THESE SONGS, PLUS FOUR SONGS RECORDED FOR THE GROUP'S FIRST TWO SINGLES, BECAME THE BEATLES FIRST ALBUM, WHICH WAS NAMED PLEASE PLEASE ME AFTER THE GROUP'S HIT SINGLE.

WITH ONLY A SINGLE DAY AVAILABLE IN ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS, PRODUCER GEORGE MARTIN KNEW TIME WAS AN ISSUE. WITH THE FOUR SONGS FROM THE GROUP'S FIRST TWO SINGLES SLATED FOR THE ALBUM, THE PLAN WAS TO COMPLETE TEN NEW SONGS TO FLESH OUT THE 14-SONG LP, ALL IN ONE DAY. THREE FEBRUARY 11 RECORDING SESSIONS IN STUDIO TWO WERE BOOKED FOR : 10 AM TO 1 PM; 2:30 PM TO 5:30 PM; AND 7:30 PM TO 10:45 PM. IT WAS AN AMBITIOUS GOAL, PARTICULARLY CONSIDERING THAT THE BAND HAD BEEN PERFORMING ON THE ROAD NON-STOP SINCE RETURNING FROM HAMBURG AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. IN ADDITION, THE GROUP HAD BEEN TRAVELING THROUGH A BRUTALLY FRIGID WINTER, AND JOHN WAS SUFFERING FROM A BAD COLD.

THE PLEASE PLEASE ME LP WAS ORIGINALLY RELEASED ONLY IN MONO AS PARLOPHONE PMC 1202 ON MARCH 22, 1963. ALTHOUGH IT HAS BEEN REPORTED THAT THERE WERE NO PLANS TO MARKET A STEREO VERSION OF THE ALBUM AT THAT TIME, THIS IS NOT THE CASE. EMI'S NEW RELEASE AD IN THE APRIL 4, 1963, ISSUE OF RECORD RETAILER SHOWS THE MONO LP AND STATES "STEREO TO FOLLOW". THE STEREO VERSION OF THE ALBUM, PARLOPHONE PCS 3042, WAS ISSUED FIVE WEEKS LATER ON APRIL 26.

BRITISH STEREO PRESSINGS ARE MUCH RARER THAN MONO, FOR RECORD COMPANIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM PRESSED RECORDS ON THEIR DEMAND. THE MARKET FOR STEREO POP RECORDS WERE COMPARATIVELY MINIMAL AS TO MONO AND THESE EARLY STEREO PRESSINGS ARE SOME OF THE RAREST BEATLES RECORDS YOU CAN FIND. MONAURAL OUTNUMBERED STEREO BY A TEN TO ONE RATIO, AND FOR THE POP MARKET, THAT NUMBER MAY BE QUITE LITERALLY 100 TO 1, FOR SO FEW WERE PRESSED.

FAB 4 COLLECTIBLES MOST PROUDLY OFFERS THIS MEGA-RARE PARLOPHONE 'YELLOW AND BLACK' LABEL VARIATION (MODERNIZED TO THIS STYLE BY PARLOPHONE IN THE SPRING OF 1963 FROM THE ORIGINAL 'BLACK AND GOLD' LABEL STYLE). THIS STEREO PRESSING OF THE ALBUM WAS RELEASED FIVE WEEKS FOLLOWING THE MONO ISSUE AND THIS RARE LABEL VARIATION WAS AVAILABLE FOR ONLY A SHORT ONE OR TWO WEEKS. BOTH SIDES OF THE DISC CARRIES THE VERY FIRST LABEL VERSION OF THE YELLOW AND BLACK LABEL, WHICH SHOWS THE LOWER HALF OF THE LABEL WAS EFFECTIVELY A DIRECT TRANSFER OF INFORMATION FROM THE BLACK AND GOLD LABEL WHICH INCLUDED THE SMALL  "33⅓'"  SPEED INDICATOR IN THE 9 O'CLOCK POSITION AND LACKS THE "RECORDING FIRST PUBLISHED...'" TEXT  ABOVE THE LEFT HAND SIDE NUMBERS (PAR 3042.SR3A, SPIZER).  THE LABEL WAS QUICKLY REDESIGNED WITHOUT THE SMALL REDUNDANT  "33⅓'"  PRINT, AS IT WAS NOTICED THAT THE NEWLY DESIGNED YELLOW AND  BLACK LABEL ALREADY HAD A SPEED INDICATOR INCORPORATED INTO THE NEW DESIGN ABOVE THE YELLOW 'PARLOPHONE' LOGO.  DUE TO THESE RAPID CHANGES IT IS, NUMBER-WISE, RARER THAN THE INFAMOUS BLACK AND GOLD LABEL VERSION. THIS TRULY EXCELLENT DISC BEARING THESE RARE LABELS IS ONE OF THE WORLD'S RAREST AND MOST SOUGHT AFTER PRESSINGS OF THIS ALBUM.

THE CONDITION OF THE LABELS ARE A BEAUTIFUL NEAR MINT MINUS, BOTH OF WHICH ARE CLEAN AND BRIGHT WITH A MODERATE COLLECTION OF LIGHT SPINDLE TRAILS AROUND EACH CENTER HOLE AND JUST A HINT OF WEAR TO EACH CENTER HOLE. THERE ARE A SMALL NUMBER OF PIN SPECKLED SIZED BLACK SPOTS OF THE SIDE 1 LABEL, WHICH APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN FROM MANUFACTURE, AND A VERY FAINT MARK ON THE SIDE 2 LABEL JUST TO THE LEFT OF THE CIRCULAR PARLOPHONE SYMBOL, WHICH APPEARS MUCH FAINTER IN REALITY THAN IN THE IMAGE BELOW.  BOTH SIDES OF THE NEAR MINT VINYL OF THIS HIGH-QUALITY, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING ARE CLEAN AND GLOSSY WITH NO SIGNIFICANT SURFACE MARKS OR WEAR VISIBLE IN STRONG DAYLIGHT. CLOSER EXAMINATION DIRECTLY BENEATH HALOGEN LIGHT REVEALS A 1CM SOFT HAIRLINE SCRATCH OVER THE 1ST TRACK ON SIDE 2. HOWEVER, APART FROM THAT THERE ARE JUST THE USUAL MINOR WISPY SURFACE MARKS CONSISTENT WITH LIGHT PLAY AND INNER-SLEEVE REMOVAL WITH NO OTHER MAJOR VISUAL ISSUES.  THE Matrix numbers ARE: "YEX 94-1" AND  "YEX 95-1". THE Stamper codes ARE: SIDE ONE:"1 / P" AND SIDE TWO: "1 / G", WHICH IS THE EARLIEST SIDE TWO STAMPER.

THE ULTRA-RARE DISC IS HOUSED IN THE ORIGINAL, INITIAL FIRST RUN COVER MANUFACTURED BY "Ernest J. Day & Co. Ltd. London" (ONLY 10% OF BEATLES ALBUM COVERS IN BRITAIN WERE MANUFACTURED BY ERNEST J. DAY & CO. LTD.). IT IS INDEED THE VERY FIRST BATCH OF STEREO COVERS (PAR 3042.SC1A, SPIZER) THAT HAVE A LARGE "STEREO" DESIGNATION ON THE FRONT. THE TRUE FACT TO A FIRST ISSUE COVER IS EVIDENT BY THE ANGUS McBEAN PHOTO CREDIT IS SHIFTED TO THE RIGHT AT THE BOTTOM EDGE OF THE FRONT COVER, WITH THE WORD "PHOTO" STARTING UNDER THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE LAST "S" IN "SONGS".  THE NEAR MINT MINUS COVER IS A BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE OF A GENUINE EARLY COVER WHICH ALSO HOUSED THE FIRST BLACK AND GOLD LABEL PRESSINGS. THE FRONT PANEL IS CLEAN AND BRIGHT VERY LIGHT STORAGE WEAR RUBBING AND A COUPLE OF SMALL WRINKLES TO THE EDGES, BUT NO 'THUMBNAIL' WRINKLES. THERE IS MINOR SHELF WEAR RUBBING TO THE LOWER CORNERS AND A LITTLE BRUISING TO THE UPPER LEFT CORNER AS WELL THE OPENING EDGES ARE CLEAN AND STRAIGHT WITH A FEW SMALL 'PUSHES' TO THE REAR EDGE BUT AGAIN NO TEARS OR ANY OTHER MAJOR SIGNS OF WEAR. THE EXPOSED REAR PANEL IS SUPER CLEAN AND UNBLEMISHED WITH NO WRITING OR MISSING PAPER ANYWHERE. ALL OF THE DELICATE FLIP BACKS ARE FULLY INTACT AND IN-PLACE WITH NO REPAIRED OR MISSING SECTIONS. THERE IS A 2CM SECTION OF WEAR TO THE LAMINATE ON THE LOWER EDGE BUT THE SEAM HAS NOT SPLIT THROUGH. BOTH THE UPPER SEAM AND THE FULLY WORDED SPINE ARE CLEAN AND UNWORN.

THE SET IS Complete with its ACCOMPANYING original "Use Emitex..." rice-paper lined inner DUST sleeve. THIS NEAR MINT EXAMPLE IS CLEAN AND UN-CREASED WITH NO TEARS, WRITING OR SEAMS SPLITS.