1 - Please Please Me

We talk about the Beatles' first album: the incredible "Please Please Me." Recorded in a stunningly short 9 hours, this is the album that announced what would quickly become the greatest band in rock history. Although the band was still taking shape (Ringo, after all, had just joined the week before they recorded this), there is still plenty of evidence on this record of how great the Beatles were. What other band was writing so many of its own songs, never mind ones as great as "Please Please Me" (the song, obvs) and "I Saw Her Standing There." Who else was cool enough to cover Ray Charles and Carole King and Motown? Who could do songs in the style of classic standards like "A Taste of Honey" but also rock harder than all of Motown when John blows open "Twist and Shout?" Oh my God, look at me, this is just the first episode and I've already lost my mind. Panelists: Will Hines, Curtis Gwinn, Ben Rodgers, Ariana Lenarsky.