Please Please Me

Beatles - Feb 11, 1963
The Beatles, March 5, 1963 © Dezo Hoffman

For my birthday, Denro gave me the remastered stereo CD of “Please Please Me,” the first Beatles UK album. It was recorded by Norman Smith, with an assist by Richard Langham, in a single session on February 11, 1963. A quick skip-through listen on my best gear told me a lot about the decisions that were made by the remastering engineers.

One of these 80-second audio excerpts is from the new CD, the other is not. The MP3 bit rate is kicked all the way up to 320 Kbps. The player makes it easy to click back-and-forth between them. You should use a decent pair of headphones for your comparison. Which do you prefer?

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/09BabyIt’sYou.mp3]
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/10BabyIt’sYou.mp3]

6 thoughts on “Please Please Me”

  1. Thanks, Lia! Last night my husband took me out for a late birthday dinner. At the checkout, he had the nerve to ask if she’d given us the senior (over 55) discount, and she said, yeah, we both got it. I was devastated! πŸ™

  2. Lia — I agree, the first audio clip sounds better, and I’m not saying that because it’s louder. It’s from the Capitol CD of “The Early Beatles,” released in the US a few years ago. The second clip is from the brand-new set, and on a good system it sounds to me somewhat like a Dolby B cassette with the Dolby C button pushed in.

    Yep, yesterday it was my birthday, and for my twin sister Jeanie Beanie too. We’re like the Star Wars twins, Luke and Leia. πŸ˜‰

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