It was an LP released on the strength of just one hit record. After the single 'Please Please Me' sold like crazy (making the top of 3 out of the 4 record charts that were around at the time) George Martin decided to play on the strength on the groups increasing popularity and get an LP recorded and released as soon as possible - a gamble that later proved to pay off big time. When the mono pressing of the LP was released on March 11th, 1963 it stormed the charts and sat comfortably at the top spot until November when the groups next LP 'With the Beatles' finally managed to knock it down.

When the LP was in production George Martin sat down and typed out the text that was to appear on the labels. Unbeknown to him as he was doing so Dick James and Lennon and McCartney were finalising a deal where the new partnership that was to be formed (called 'Northern Songs') would handle all of John and Paul's original songs. The four songs that were affected were the 4 songs on the album that had not already been issued on a single ('I Saw Her Standing There', 'Misery', 'Do You Want to Know a Secret' and 'There's a Place') George Martin only learned of this after the text had been submitted and it wasn't until the second batch that the labels were revised. These 2nd press 'Northern Songs' copies are much harder to find than the 'Dick James' variation and it's widely believed in the collecting world that their values will soon split in the future.

Copies in any condition are very hard to find because the 'gold on black' Parlophone copies were only ever available during the first few weeks of the LPs release and these were the copies that were bought by the die-hard fans - the majority of copies were played into the ground and then thrown away. The copies that have survived to this day are usually in a rough state and the top condition copies can sell for many hundreds of pounds.

The mono copies are hard to find, but the Stereo presses are near impossible! It's believed that only around 900 copies were ever pressed before the label design changed to the 'yellow on black'. Whereas the mono copies in EX condition can sell for around £300-400 the stereo copies in the same condition can sell for around £3,000-£3,500!