The Beatles Recorded Their First Album In 13 Hours [#TBT]

These days artists can spend 13 hours trying to decide what type of sushi to order for lunch.

The Beatles recorded most of their debut album, 'Please Please Me' on February 11th, 1963 in a little less than 13 hours.

They cut 10 of the album's 14 songs that day, beginning at 10am and ending shortly before 11pm. There were three, 3-hour sessions scheduled for that day, with the most productive being the 7:30-10:30pm session.

That would make sense, as the Fab Four were constantly playing clubs in those days, and they most likely didn't wake up until the late afternoon. They also did most of the session playing live, with very few overdubs. The amount of touring up until then paying off as they were incredibly tight as a unit, and you can hear the energy on the album.

Of course, the last song recorded that night famously was the Isley Brothers 'Twist and Shout', a tune they didn't decide to record until they were taking a coffee break at 10pm.

Because it was the last song of the night, John was able to let it rip vocally, and they called it a night. A couple more sessions for a few overdubs followed, and 'Please Please Me' was released on March 22nd, less than 3 weeks after the session.

Ironically, towards the end of their very short recording career, The Beatles became famous for the amount of time they'd spend in a studio, with the recording of their masterpiece 'Sgt Pepper' taking the better part of six months to record.