A signed LP of The Beatles' debut, Please Please Me, went for more than $36,000 on eBay recently.
NME reports that the listing for the record stated: "There are no stains/wrinkles/marks/other at all anywhere near the exquisite signatures of John, Paul, George and Ringo." It went on to say that the pressing "is an artifact worthy of the finest museum-grade collections, instantly transporting the new owner to a category of very, very elite collectors." The undisclosed bidder was American, beating out 38 other offers. As NME points out, last year, a signed copy of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band went for $290,500.
Please Please Me was released in 1963 in the U.K. and went straight to number one on Billboard's British charts. The album, which launched the group's career, didn't see a U.S. release until 1987 when it was reissued. In his comprehensive review of the reissues, Rolling Stone's Steve Pond urged listeners to "try Please Please Me for the Beatles' unfettered joy at making music."
"The party line on Please Please Me is that it's a raw, high-energy run-through of their live set, but to me this seems just a little disingenuous," Pitchfork wrote in 2009. "It's not even that the album, by necessity, can't reflect the group's two-hour shows and the frenzy-baiting lengths they'd push setpiece songs to. It's that the disc was recorded on the back of a #1 single, and there was a big new audience to consider when selecting material. There's rawness here-- rawness they never quite captured again-- but a lot of sweetness too, particularly in Lennon-McCartney originals 'P.S. I Love You' and 'Do You Want to Know a Secret.'"
Check out the title track below, in between the screaming, that is.
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