The Beatles Please Please Me DECCA Contract Press

£ 50

$ 66

£ 50 Sold For

Mar 16, 2010 Sold Date

Mar 15, 2010 Start Date

£ 30 Start price

1 Number Of Bids

Great Britain Country Of Seller

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Description

Artist: The Beatles Title: Please Please Me Label: Parlophone Catalogue Number: PMC 1202 Vinyl Condition: Poor Sleeve Condition: Very Poor Year: 1963

Please Please Me - the first album by The Beatles.

DECCA Contract Pressing

This is a fourth pressing from the early days of The Beatles when it was charting for the first time (and holding the number 1 spot for a long time!). Hence it has no "Sold in the UK..." text. When the demand became too much, in late 1963, Decca were asked by EMI to help with the pressing of the album. By this time "With The Beatles" was out and charting well, so Decca contract presses are fairly common on that disc, but by then Please Please Me had already been bought by most fans, so the Decca press is much scarcer on this title!

Let's be clear about one thing: this disc isn't mint. In fact, it's far from it. The really annoying thing is that apart from the big scratches on side 2, covering 3 tracks, and the other surface scratches, it's actually not bad at all - it actually sounds quite good! Most Beatles discs of this age have heavy distortion, especially in the inner grooves; although this disc also has distortion it's much less than some discs that I've heard. Nearly all the discs you'll see for sale will have distortion, only the really fine ones don't (the ones that weren't played!).

The inner sleeve isn't an original one for this pressing, and the outer sleeve is in very poor condition. It seemed a waste to have a really good sleeve on a bad record! You can always use a standard 4th press sleeve though if you want to tart it up and be more presentable.

In other words, this is a spacefiller of a rather rare disc. I wouldn't recommend it as your playing copy, but it's the genuine article! I can't accept returns on this record because of the condition - it's really not good!

I've cleaned this disc on my ClearAudio record cleaning machine - if you wish more photos or sound clips from the LP please email me and I'll be happy to oblige.

In the meantime, here's a clip of the first and last tracks on each side

Decca Sound Clip

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