The album's 14 tracks include cover songs and original material written by the partnership of band members John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Finding the Cavern Club, the band's venue in their native Liverpool, unsuitable for recording, Martin switched to a simple studio album.

The band mostly played cover songs, although Lennon and McCartney had a budding songwriting partnership that also contributed material.

[11] As the Beatles had extensive stage experience and a large following of local fans in Liverpool, Martin proposed the band could record a live album, primarily of Lennon–McCartney songs at their resident venue, the Cavern Club, in December.

[12] Martin planned to attend the Beatles' 18 November Cavern concert to gauge its suitability for recording, though he postponed this visit until 12 December.

[19] The Beatles arrived with John Lennon suffering from a bad cold, which he attempted to treat with a steady supply of throat lozenges.

[15] In that session, Paul McCartney recorded a double-tracked vocal for "A Taste of Honey" (a standard later covered by renowned soul artists such as The Supremes, Four Tops, and Mel Carter[20][21][22]), George Harrison sang lead on "Do You Want to Know a Secret", and Lennon and McCartney sang co-lead on "Misery".

[15] During the evening session, the band recorded covers of "Anna (Go to Him)", "Boys" (Ringo Starr's sole vocal), "Chains" and "Baby It's You".

[23] The song "Hold Me Tight" was also recorded during the evening session, but proved "surplus to requirements" and was not included on the album.

[17][nb 1] At 10 pm, with the studios set to close soon, the day ended with a cover of "Twist and Shout".

"[25] At the end of the evening session at 10:30 pm, the Beatles attended a full tape playback in the studio control room.

[31] The album was recorded on a two-track BTR tape machine with most of the instruments on one track and the vocals on the other, allowing Martin to better balance the two in the final mono mix.

[32] These versions would continue to be made available via compilation albums (such as 1962–1966), and on Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs' half-speed mastered vinyl releases (catalogue number MFSL-1-101)[33] sourced from EMI's original stereo master tapes, until the Beatles' catalogue was standardised and issued on compact disc in 1987, starting with the first four UK albums being issued in their mono versions.

However, the society turned down Martin's request, and instead, Angus McBean was asked to take the distinctive colour photograph of the group looking down over the stairwell inside EMI's London headquarters in Manchester Square.

[31] Martin was to write later: "We rang up the legendary theatre photographer Angus McBean, and bingo, he came round and did it there and then.

The Beatles' press officer Tony Barrow wrote extensive sleeve notes, which included a brief mention of their early 1960s rivals the Shadows.

[40] At the time, the UK album charts tended to be dominated by film soundtracks and easy listening vocalists.

He concludes that, for a debut, the LP is "surprisingly good and up to standard", and contained many tracks that could have been released as singles, such as "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Misery".

Jopling further highlighted the LP's packaging, writing that its cover image and sleeve notes provided extra value.

The following year (1964) EMI (NZ) changed from black to a blue Parlophone label and the album was again available only in mono.

[51] In Canada, the majority of the album's songs were included upon the Canadian-exclusive release Twist and Shout, which featured "From Me to You" and "She Loves You" in place of "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Misery".

[65] Senior AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine summarised, "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh", serving as an effective encapsulation of the band's early influences, further finding the covers "impressive" and the originals "astonishing".

Pitchfork's Tom Ewing described the album as "a raw, high-energy run-through of their early live set" that acts as "the sound of rock'n'roll finding a suddenly large, new audience.

[63] The same year, Mark Kemp was positive reviewing the band's entire remastered catalogue for Paste, commending the band for infusing African American musical styles with "chirpy harmonies" from girl groups like the Shirelles to create "a sound the pop world had never heard".

[62] The Telegraph writer Neil McCormick praised the band's performances throughout the record, contending that "the sheer accomplishment of their tight, syncopated playing and perfect harmony singing is astonishing to behold.

"[59] Alex Young described the album as a dance masterpiece in Consequence of Sound, finding the remaster an improvement over the original mix.

[58] Writing for BBC Music in 2010, Mike Diver contended that although not regarded as their most critically acclaimed release, Please Please Me stands as a "vital moment" in the band's history, as it "set in motion the wheels that would carry them to the very peak of public recognition, and subsequently into realms of sonic experimentation that would create a template for so much rock and pop music since.

"[67] Diver further argued that the album's long reign at the top of the UK charts provided a rebuttal to Decca Records' stance that guitar groups were "on the way out".

"[53] Looking back on the album in 2016, the NME's Hamish MacBain found it imperfect, but commended the ensemble for creating a record of excellent covers and originals that displayed "flashes of brilliance".

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, Rubber Soul, The Beatles (also known as "The White Album") and Abbey Road ranked higher.