The Beatles — Please Please Me: How to Identify a First Pressing

• Label: The earliest copies pressed in March 1963 used the black-and-gold Parlophone label design; this was quickly replaced by a black-and-yellow design, making it the key visual feature for identifying a very early first pressing.
• Label: On the earliest labels, the songwriting credit for tracks A1, A2, B4, and B6 reads 'Dick James Mus. Co.'; slightly later pressings changed this credit to 'Northern Songs' — a copyright-text clue for telling a very early first pressing from a slightly later one.
• Cover: The first-issue sleeve was a single-layer (non-laminated) printed board with no lamination, which feels different from the laminated sleeves used on later reissues.

• During 1963, Parlophone quickly changed the label from black-and-gold to black-and-yellow, and the copyright credit changed from Dick James Music to Northern Songs; copies from late 1963 onward already carry both of the newer versions, which rules them out as a first pressing.

No directly quotable primary source could be reached for this entry in this research environment: discogs.com returned a 403, jpgr.co.uk has no page for this album (pmc1202.html/pcs1202.html both 404), and the English Wikipedia article's body text does not verbatim describe the black-and-gold/black-and-yellow label or the Dick James/Northern Songs credit change. The assertions in first_pressing_marks and later_pressing_tells above rest on facts widely documented across vinyl-collecting reference works, but no citable page text could be verified this time, so source_url/quote are set to null throughout and this is disclosed honestly in unverified_fields rather than fabricated.

• Read the runout (the smooth area between the last groove and the label) with the disc tilted under a lamp: matrix numbers, stamper codes and mastering initials are the strongest evidence.
• Label details change between pressing plants and years: rim text, logo style, address, "Manufactured by" wording.
• Cover printing shows the plant and era: printer credit, catalog number position, barcode presence.
• Match all three. A first-press disc in a later cover, or the reverse, is common.

Shoot the label straight on in even light, then the runout with the disc tilted so the etched text catches the light (a phone torch from the side works). Add the front and back cover, the spine, and any inner sleeve or insert. The app reads the label and cover; the runout photo is what confirms the pressing.