Click on the image to enlarge it
Today, it’s the 50th release anniversary of The Beatles first album (LP) Please Please Me.
SIDE A
SIDE B
On the infographic there are some facts about the songs of the Please Please Me album, their lyrics, the recordings and a timeline.
Sources:
Davies, H. (2009) The Beatles: The Authorised Biography, London: Ebury Press.
Trynka, P. (ed.) (2006) The Beatles: Ten years that shook the world, London: Dorling Kindersley.
Turner, S. (2012) A hard day’s write: the stories behind every Beatles’ song, London: Carlton Books.
The Official UK Charts Company Website: Please Please Me
Billboard Website: Week of March 14, 1964
| If you found this post interesting, why not have a look at other related to music infographics: The Beatles: Please Please Me single (50th Release Anniversary) – infographic The Beatles: Love Me Do single (50th Release Anniversary) – infographic 50 years without George Formby (died on 6 March 1961) |
Click on the image to enlarge it
About two months ago we published an infographic about the 50th release anniversary of the first single of the Beatles, Love Me Do.
Today, it’s the 50th release anniversary of their second single, Please Please Me (with Ask Me Why on the flip side).
Some things the two singles (Love Me Do & Please Please Me) have in common include:
- all four songs are Lennon-McCartney compositions
- on the song of the A Side of each single the harmonica is present
- both have love songs, all of the songs include the word “love” and “you” in their lyrics
And some things that are different include:
- Love Me Do (single) has songs mainly composed by Paul McCartney; Please Please Me (single) songs have Lennon as the main contributor
- while both Love Me Do / P.S. I love you include the word “love” in their titles there is no “love” word in the titles of Please Please Me / Ask Me Why
On the infographic there are some facts about the songs of the Please Please Me single, the recording, the musical instruments and the people involved.
Please Please Me was mainly written by John Lennon. The Beatles performed it to George Martin during the second recording session of Love Me Do (11 September 1962) for him to consider it as a song for their first single but at the time George Martin was not enthusiastic about it.
After some alterations George Martin accepted it and the Beatles recorded it (18 takes) together with Ask Me Why (6 takes) on 26 November 1962. The single entered the (UK) Record Retailer charts (TOP 100). It stayed on the charts for 18 weeks reaching No 2 at its hay day. It reached No 1 on other publications (NME, Melody Maker and Disc).
Twenty years after its release it entered the UK charts again (22 January 1983) and stayed there for 4 weeks reaching No 29 at its peak.
In the US the single was first released about a month after its UK release; it failed to enter the charts. However, on 3 January 1964 it was re-released with From Me To You on the flip side and it reached No 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 about two months later.
Sources:
Davies, H. (2009) The Beatles: The Authorised Biography, London: Ebury Press.
Trynka, P. (ed.) (2006) The Beatles: Ten years that shook the world, London: Dorling Kindersley.
Turner, S. (2010) A hard day’s write: the stories behind every Beatles’ song, London: Carlton Books.
The Official UK Charts Company Website: Please Please Me
Billboard Website: Week of March 14, 1964
Credits:
The lyrics ‘cloud’ was partially designed with Wordle
| If you found this post interesting, why not have a look at other related to music infographics: The Beatles: Love Me Do single (50th Release Anniversary) – infographic 50 years without George Formby (died on 6 March 1961) The Real Group Discography: a timeline |
New Year, New Fares (2003 – 2013) [infographic] The evolution of the London tube & bus fares in the last decade
Click on the image to enlarge it
It looks like every new year and most often on the 2nd of January, the public transport fares in London are updated (a mild way to say “increase”).
The above infographic presents the evolution of the prices of single bus fares, one-day bus passes (or Oyster daily price cap nowadays) and one-day travelcards for London Underground (tube) zones 1 & 2 in the last decade (2003-2013).
Paying with cash, the single bus fare has gone up at least 240% (2.4 times) compared to its price ten years ago. Back in 2003 a single bus fare in central London cost £1.00 (£0.70 for outer zones). Starting today (2 January 2013) the single bus flat fare (paying by cash) costs £2.40.
However, using an Oyster card a single bus trip costs now £1.40 which is an 140% (1.4 times) increase compared to Spring 2004 prices when Oyster was introduced on buses.
Sources:
Various ephemera (tickets)
Fares and tickets guides London: Transport for London (various publications)
GLA Website
TfL Website
BBC Website
Credits:
Many thanks to Kalliopi Vgontza for her technical expertise and Marina Vellou, Christos Makropoulos and Pavlos Kapralos for their feedback and suggestions.
| If you found this post interesting, why not have a look at other related to transportation infographics: Traffic information (Terminal Passengers) for UK airports (November 2010) Airlines’ load factor – February 2010 |
Click on the image to enlarge it
U.S. Presidential Election 2012 is getting closer its big day and the developers of Super PAC App have shared with us their data and their idea to create an infographic about the election.
Super PAC App is an iphone app with which, “while watching a political TV ad, a user can hold up her phone to identify the commercial and receive objective, third-party information. Super PAC App allows the user to rate the ad, while understanding who and how much money is behind the ad, what claims the ad is making, and whether those claims are based on facts.“
Using the data the users of Super PAC App have produced we have created two U.S. maps: the top one illustrates the reaction of the users to official campaign ads while the next one shows their reaction to ads funded by outside groups including super PACs. Super PACs are outside groups that can raise and spend unlimited funds on political races. To date, they’ve spent over $546 million.
A few words about the methodology that has been used for the data analysis:
- States are given a score as to how positively they rated Romney and Obama ads. Scores are normalized to account for differences in number of ratings per state
- States are ranked 1 (most positive) through 45 (least positive) relative to each other based on these scores (for the 44 states and D.C. for which we have data)
- State rankings are compared to determine whether the state is deep red, deep blue, or in the middle. For example, on the Outside Group ads map, North Carolina is deep red. It has the 2nd most positive rating for Romney ads and 39th most positive rating for Obama ads, making it one of the most pro-Romney states. Maryland ranks 16th for both Romney and Obama ads, making it neutral ground.
Data collected from Sept. 24 through Oct. 23. The size of the sample is 3,492 users (not statistically significant).
If you want to know who is behind that TV ad you watch, and take part into rating the ads why don’t you try the app yourself? Download Super PAC App in the App Store. It’s free!
At the bottom of the infographic there is a section dedicated to Super PACs (super political action committees or “independent-expenditure only committees”). According to www.opensecrets.org, on Oct. 22 there were 946 Super PACs. 56% (531 of 946) of them were inactive (had neither raised nor spent any money).
We have excluded from the wordle with the names of the super PACs all the inactive ones (among which there were examples like “My Cat Xavier for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow”, “Zombies of Tomorrow” and 52 “Horse Assn” (associations)).
The word “America” is the most used one (46 times), followed by the word “Fund” (33 times), “Action” (29 times), “American” (23 times) and “Freedom” (19 times).
Sources:
Super PAC App www.superpacapp.org
2012 Outside Spending, by Super PACs www.opensecrets.org
Credits:
The “Super PACs: What’s in a name?” graphic was designed with Wordle
| If you found this infographic interesting, why not have a look at other infographics we have created? Click here for more |
Click on the image to enlarge it
It was 50 years ago today that the first single of The Beatles, Love Me Do (with PS I Love You on the flip side) was released.
On the infographic there are some facts about the songs of the single, the recordings, the musical instruments and the people involved.
Paul McCartney was only 16 years old when he composed, in 1958, the [Love Me Do] song. John Lennon contributed to the bridge of the song. With only 18 (different) words and mainly 2 (+1) chords they reached No 17 on the UK Record Retailer charts (end of 1962). No wonder that after a while they were composing No 1 hits.
Lots of love around the two songs: the word is used 24 times in Love Me Do and 17 times in PS I Love You.
Lots of fascinating stories too, on how the Fab Four met their recording producer George Martin, how they changed their drummer (from Pete Best to Ringo Starr) and how the latter ended up playing the maracas in PS I Love You (Andy White played the drums in his place).
Andy White, a session drummer, also played the drums during a recording session of Love Me Do , while Ringo Starr was given the tambourine. The version of Love Me Do on the following YouTube clip is with Ringo Starr on the drums and no tambourine or Andy White.
Although the single didn’t make The Beatles famous overnight, it was the beginning of their recording career and their very prolific collaboration with George Martin.
20 years after its release, it went even higher on the UK charts (No 4) although in 1964 it had become a No 1 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100.
On Sunday (7 October 2012) at 10pm there is a TV show about the release of The Beatles’ first single on BBC Four.
In Liverpool, the Boys’ hometown, there is the Love Me Do Weekend and there are other similar events elsewhere.
Sources:
Davies, H. (2009) The Beatles: The Authorised Biography, London: Ebury Press.
Trynka, P. (ed.) (2006) The Beatles: Ten years that shook the world, London: Dorling Kindersley.
Turner, S. (2010) A hard day’s write: the stories behind every Beatles’ song, London: Carlton Books.
The Official UK Charts Company Website: Love Me Do
Billboard Website: Week of May 30, 1964
Credits:
The lyrics ‘cloud’ was partially designed with Wordle
| If you found this post interesting, why not have a look at other related to music infographics: 50 years without George Formby (died on 6 March 1961) The Real Group Discography: a timeline |
Click on the image to enlarge it
As today the first Olympic medals will be awarded, “The Missing Graph” presents an infographic with the evolution of the (Summer) Olympic Games medals.
The medals become bigger, thicker and heavier! At the first modern Summer Olympic Games (Athens 1896), the medals had a 48mm diameter, a 3.8mm thickness and weighted 47g. At the London 2012 summer Olympics, the medals have an 85mm diameter (biggest ever), a 7mm thickness and weigh between 375-400g (heaviest ever).
Diameter wise the closest to the record-breaking 85mm are the 70mm medals awarded at the 1992 (Barcelona), 1996 (Atlanta) and 2008 (Beijing) Games. Interestingly, the smallest ever Olympic medals (33mm diameter) were awarded at the 1908 (London) Games.
The thickest Olympic Games medals ever were awarded at the 1992 (Barcelona) Games: 9.8mm. This time they are 7mm thick.
These Summer Olympic Games medals are the heaviest ever (375-400g) followed by the 1992 (Barcelona) Games medals (231g). The lightest ones ever were awarded at the 1904 (Saint-Louis) and 1908 (London) Games: almost 18 times lighter (21g).
If you are around London you have the opportunity to have a closer look at the medals of all the Olympic Games by visiting the exhibition “The Olympic Journey: The Story of the Games” (Royal Opera House, free entry, opens today (28 July 2012) and lasts until 12 August).
There is also a display at The British Museum (free entry, open until 9 September 2012) where you can see the medals of the Olympic Games held in London (1908, 1948 & 2012).
Enjoy the Games!
Sources:
IOC Olympic Summer Games Medals: from Athens 1896 to London 2012 (PDF Document)
BBC London 2012: Olympic medals timeline
Credits:
Many thanks to Maria Kafantari, Adela Pickles and Dinos Konstantinou for their valuable feedback and suggestions.
| If you found this post interesting, why not have a look at other related posts: 2012 London Olympic Games: Ticket Prices A history of the Basketball World Championships (Mundobasket) [1950-2006] World Cup 2010: Representation of the Continents World Cup Finals 2010: the Group Stage – an infograph The History of the Football World Cup Finals (1930-2006) |
Labour Force (15-74 year olds) in Greece (May 2011)
Click on the image to enlarge it
Today, the Hellenic Statistical Authority (HSA) published the data of the monthly survey related to the Labour Force (15-74 year olds) in Greece for May 2011.
On the infographic from the top left corner to the bottom right one there are charts for:
a) the percentage and number of unemployed, employed and economically inactive people in Greece in May 2011; the unemployment rate (16.6 per cent) was the highest in recent years (at least since January 2005)
b) the unemployment rate for men (14.1%) and women (20.0%); 1 out 5 women was unemployed
c) the unemployment rate by region (map of Greece). The more dark red a region is painted, the higher the unemployment rate was. It was the second consecutive month that the highest unemployment rate was in West Macedonia (24.9%).
d) the number and rate of unemployed people in May for the last six years (this year it was the highest)
e) the unemployment rate by age group; the younger the people the higher the unemployment rate (reached 40.1% – more than 2 out of 5 people – for those aged between 15-24 years)
For more details on the matter you can view the complete Press Release by the Hellenic Statistical Authority. You could also view the equivalent infographic / post for the previous month (April 2011) by clicking here.
On Thursday, 08 September 2011, the Labour Force survey infographic (in Greece) for June 2011 will be published on The Missing Graph.
Sources:
Hellenic Statistical Authority (HSA) Statistics about the Labour Force in Greece
