Please Mr. Postman

Just made it to work, barely, over the gross skidding icy sidewalks here in Boston. I have a long walk to work, and today it must have been twice as long as usual thanks to the weird mincing steps I had to take. And all to get to my very favorite place of all-- the office. Argh.

Listening to a cover yesterday made me sort of crave another one today. And I'm not in an awesome mood after battling The Ice, so some uncomplicated rock and roll is just what I need. So here we go: "Please Mr. Postman" was originally recorded by the Marvelettes in 1961. It sounds so cool in girl-group form that I was dubious once I first saw, years ago, that the Beatles had done it. "This couldn't possibly be any good," I thought at the time. How wrong I was.

I love the vocals on this. John's lead sounds like he's having a ton of fun-- this version isn't nearly as filled with teeny-bopper angst as the original recording-- and Paul and George ooo away with the irrepressible energy of the best girl-group fans ever, which they pretty much were. It's a much more rocking version of the song than the original recording, thanks to the vocals as well as the relentless beat. Really, one of their best covers ever, or at least one of my favorites. It's perfectly at home on their second album, "With the Beatles," which took all the promise in "Please Please Me" and amped the rock.

"Please Mr. Postman," released in U.K. side A track 7 of With the Beatles, released November 22, 1963; released in U.S. side B track 3 of The Beatles' Second Album.

I am indebted for all discography information to the tremendous Beatles-Discography.com.