#3: Please Please Me

Written by: Paul McCartney & John Lennon
Released: January 11th, 1963
Appears on: Please Please Me
Lead vocal: John

The English language has a lot to offer to songwriters. You have homophones, synonyms, metaphors, similes and everything else. Even on "Love Me Do", John & Paul played with language (what does the phrase "love me do" mean anyway?), but on "Please Please Me", John takes it to another level.
The song is specifically John's, who had said he was interested in how the word "please" can have two meanings and he perfectly executes this. One is, of course, a polite thing to say when asking someone to do something..."Can you please do this for me?" The other is making someone happy...and in this case, we all know what that means. (Let's make this a family friendly blog, shall we?)
Anyway, as a single, it's perfect. You have a fantastic hook, grabbing the listener from the start. That intro, with the harmonica bit, when it comes onto the stereo, is so enticing. It is also a very energetic track. Ringo and George are completely into it, which you can tell with Ringo's drum rolls and George's fantastic guitar riff. John comes off as this tough guy, who is totally into it and then there's the "woah...yeah" and the "youuuuuu" ending. Man, these guys knew how to foreshadow what was to come and we're just getting started.