Uncropped
 |
| Uncropped photo by Angus McBean |
An uncropped and unsmiling version of a photo from this session recently appeared online. For U.S. based readers, you may associate this photo with the one used on the Vee Jay album from early 1964, “Introducing The Beatles”, which is similar, but mirror imaged and with the fabs smiling.
 |
| Introducing…The Beatles on Vee Jay Records. |
Readers elsewhere in the world may associate the photo with the U.K. EP release “The Beatles’ Hits”, which was out on 6 September 1963. Here, the photo is presented correctly and not mirrored, but with the background airbrushed out. You can also see The Beatles in full figure, down to McCartney’s shoes.
 |
| The Beatles’ Hits EP release. |
The photo session took place 11 February, 1963 – and McBean also took the photos of the Beatles in the staircase of the EMI building in Manchester Square the same day – among these, one ended up gracing the Please Please Me album cover.
 |
| The smiling photo was also used on the first French Beatles EP release in October, 1963. |
The French “From Me To You” EP, catalogue number SOE 3739 was released in October 1963, ahead of the group’s 3 week long residence at “L’Olympia” in Paris. It also featured the smiling photo, more cropped than the “Introducing…” version, but the right way.
According the booklet that followed the 2009 Please Please Me CD, the photo used on "Introducing The Beatles" was taken in January 1963, and the staircase photos in February.