Today, Fifty Years Ago…

Recorded  on 11 February it was released on March 22, 1963 in the UK. An edited version (see above) was released in the US later that year, and retitled Introducing the Beatles.

Songs in this album included:

• Anna
• Ask Me Why
• Baby its You
• Boy
• Chains
• Do you want to know a Secret?
• I Saw her Standing there
• Love me Do
• Misery
• Please Please Me
• PS I Love You
• A Taste of Honey
• Theres a Place
• Twist and Shout

“Love Me Do” made the Top Twenty for one week late in 1962 then vanished from the charts. Manager Brian Epstein personally bought 10,000 copies, to give the band a hit; he didn’t realize that they would have to sell that many every week, to stay in the charts. Industry people caught on quickly, and it nearly ruined the band’s credibility. The album included their first two singles, plus the B-sides (though “Love Me Do” was an alternate take).