# What's the best song off of "Please Please Me"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937 "2010-09-07T16:29:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/21 "2010-09-08T16:46:10Z")
So many good songs on this album, but I wound up voting for “I Saw Her Standing There” because as I scanned the list of titles, that’s the one that made me want to turn on my iPod so I could listen to it. 🙂 Looking forward to the other polls in this series… ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/22 "2010-09-08T18:13:23Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Gah. I voted for “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” possibly because of all the hits on this album, it’s the one I seldom (if ever) hear on the radio. In retrospect, I could have gone with three or four others and still been satisfied with my choice: it’s that close. I don’t like early Beatles, but I agree with the first sentence. I wouldn’t necessarily skip past this track if it were on later albums, which I can’t say for the other choices. Still can’t say I’m a huge fan of it but it is the best track. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/23 "2010-09-08T18:35:13Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > So many good songs on this album, but I wound up voting for “I Saw Her Standing There” because as I scanned the list of titles, that’s the one that made me want to turn on my iPod so I could listen to it. 🙂 > > Looking forward to the other polls in this series… Pretty much my sentiments exactly. I’ll always keep the older polls open, but add a new album every time we reach 100 votes on the previous one. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/24 "2010-09-08T21:09:30Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > I had to go with **Please Please Me**. Maybe it’s because I’m secretly a twelve year old boy, but any songs about oral sex are naturally my favorite songs. This is the best guilting-her-into-a-bj-line ever. _But you know there’s always rain in my heart. I do all the pleasing with you it’s so hard to reason with you oh why do you make me blue?_ I think that’s reading a lot into the lyrics. Did Lennon actually say that that was what it was about? I remember reading that the lyric was born simply out of him being amused by the double use of “please”. Typical Lennon wordplay. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/25 "2010-09-08T21:25:19Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > > [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > > > I had to go with **Please Please Me**. Maybe it’s because I’m secretly a twelve year old boy, but any songs about oral sex are naturally my favorite songs. This is the best guilting-her-into-a-bj-line ever. _But you know there’s always rain in my heart. I do all the pleasing with you it’s so hard to reason with you oh why do you make me blue?_ > > I think that’s reading a lot into the lyrics. Did Lennon actually say that that was what it was about? I remember reading that the lyric was born simply out of him being amused by the double use of “please”. Typical Lennon wordplay. I’ve read a lot of far-fetched lyrical interpretations, and generally discount them, but I actually think this one is more than plausible. It doesn’t have to be oral sex _per se_, but there does seem to be a strong sexual undertone indicating that one party is not reciprocating some type of pleasure. I mean, you could take an innocent read to it, but I think Lennon knew full well the double meanings in the lyrics, and that type of double entendre is well-established in the blues and rock traditions. As far as I know, Lennon never admitted anything more than being amused by the “please please” wordplay, but I also think being a wordsmith, he was well aware of the sexual undertones of his lyric. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/26 "2010-09-08T22:56:40Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > > [@salinqmind](#): > > > > ISHST. I couldn’t remember There’s a Place. At ALL. Had to go listen to it on Youtube and even then it didn’t really ring a bell. > > I demand you relinquish your Beatles fan credentials. 😃 Me neither. Maybe that’s because I grew up with the American Beatles albums. Did “There’s a Place” appear at all on any of them? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/27 "2010-09-08T23:26:06Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@Pleonast](#): > > > > I demand you relinquish your Beatles fan credentials. 😃 > > Me neither. Maybe that’s because I grew up with the American Beatles albums. Did “There’s a Place” appear at all on any of them? Yes, the first one, _Introducing…The Beatles_. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/28 "2010-09-09T21:16:22Z")
Gotta go with “I Saw Her Standing There.” First Beatles song I ever heard, IIRC. Tough choice, though over “Twist & Shout” and “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” And **pepperlandgirl** is correct about the oral sex connotations in “Please, Please Me” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/29 "2010-09-09T23:24:35Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > > [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > > > I had to go with **Please Please Me**. Maybe it’s because I’m secretly a twelve year old boy, but any songs about oral sex are naturally my favorite songs. This is the best guilting-her-into-a-bj-line ever. _But you know there’s always rain in my heart. I do all the pleasing with you it’s so hard to reason with you oh why do you make me blue?_ > > I think that’s reading a lot into the lyrics. Did Lennon actually say that that was what it was about? I remember reading that the lyric was born simply out of him being amused by the double use of “please”. Typical Lennon wordplay. There’s no way that a 21 year old boy from Liverpool was unaware of the fact that he was writing suggestive-bordering-on-dirty-lyrics. There’s no way that _John Lennon_, who had a wicked dirty sense of humor innocently penned a song that could be boiled down to “Will you please suck my cock?”. I don’t even see how it’s reading a lot into the lyrics. What else could the song be about? I can’t think of a feasible alternative interpretation. _I don’t mean to sound complaining But you know there’s always rain in my heart_–Okay, he’s really down because his girlfriend doesn’t…kiss him properly? Hold his hand? Ask him if he’d like his slippers after a long day? _I do all the pleasing with you_–Pleasing in what way? Pleasing, in that way, has a very specific sexual connotation. If somebody asked you “Do you please your woman?” would you look at that person with confusion and say “Well, I always put the toilet seat down.” A general rule of thumb is that if something sounds sexual or like a drug reference in a Beatles song, it probably _is_. They knew what they were doing. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/30 "2010-09-10T22:42:12Z")
> [@choie](#): > > Plus, Paul’s vocal is awesome (if not quite as awesome as John’s “Twist and Shout”). “She was just seventeen… and you know what I mean…” Yes, Paul. Yes, we do. Supposedly he wanted to ditch that lyric, but John convinced him it was gold. I think John was proven right, as letches everywhere can attest. 😃 Of course, Paul was what, 19 when they recorded that song? So nothing really weird about him macking on a 17-year-old. Now, me singing that song with my old band at age 36, OTOH … ---
**Author:** ![Lilacs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Lilacs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilacs)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/31 "2010-09-11T02:21:25Z")
I went against the grain. I’ve fallen in love with “A Taste of Honey.” No arguments about the intended meaning of “Please Please Me.” John knew what he was about. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937/32 "2010-09-27T20:03:01Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > A general rule of thumb is that if something sounds sexual or like a drug reference in a Beatles song, it probably _is_. They knew what they were doing. I disagree with this. They weren’t stoned all the time, and certainly not when they were recording. Some of the supposedly acid-inspired lyrics of the Beatles were penned before they ever used LSD. And from what I have read about Lennon and McCartney’s earlier song writing, they were basically attempting to copy other songwriters that they admired. You may say that those songwriters were writing about sex, and I guess they were, and therefore Lennon and McCartney were too, but not I think in the rather obvious way that you suggest. I find it quite plausible that Lennon wrote “Please Please Me” without any particular thought of how the pleasing might be administered. His main concern, apparently, was to sound like Roy Orbison. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-please-please-me/552937.md?page=1)