With the Beatles
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| With the Beatles | ||
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| Studio album by the Beatles | ||
| Released | 22 November 1963 | |
| Recorded | Abbey Road 18 July - 23 October 1963 |
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| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 32:24 | |
| Label | Parlophone PMC 1206 (mono) PCS 3045 (stereo) CDP 7 46436 2 (reissue) |
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| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| the Beatles chronology | ||
| Please Please Me (1963) |
With the Beatles (1963) |
A Hard Day's Night (UK-1964) --- Introducing... The Beatles (US-1964) |
With the Beatles is the Beatles' second British album, recorded four months after the band's first album and released on 22 November 1963.
The album features eight original compositions (including the first by George Harrison) and six covers, mostly of Motown and R&B hits. Most of the songs from the album were released in the United States on Meet the Beatles! on 20 January 1964.
The LP had advance orders of a half million and sold another half million by September 1965 — making it the second album to sell a million copies in the UK (the first being the South Pacific soundtrack). It stayed at the top of the charts for 21 weeks, displacing Please Please Me, so that the Beatles occupied the top spot for 51 consecutive weeks. It even reached number eleven in the "singles charts" (because at the time UK charts counted all records sold, regardless of format).
In 2003, the album was ranked number 420 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
On 26 February 1987, with the beatles was officially released on CD, as were three other of the Beatles' UK albums, Please Please Me, A Hard Day's Night, and Beatles for Sale.
Contents |
[edit] The cover
The cover was shot by Robert Freeman on 22 August 1963 in the Palace Court Hotel, Bournemouth, England. He was already famous for working on the first Pirelli Calendar and for photographing Khrushchev in the Kremlin. But it was his black-and-white photos of the jazz-legend John Coltrane that brought him to the Beatles' attention. Paul McCartney remembered:
| “ | He arranged us in a hotel corridor: it was very un-studio-like. The corridor was very dark, and there was a window at the end, and by using this heavy source of natural light coming from the right, he got that very moody picture which most people think he must have worked at forever and ever. But it was only an hour. He sat down, took a couple of rolls, and that was it. | ” |
Freeman himself recalled:
| “ | They had to fit in the square format of the cover, so rather than have them all in a line, I put Ringo in the bottom right corner, since he was the last to join the group. He was also the shortest. | ” |
The original idea was to paint the picture from edge to edge, with no bleeding or title, but the studio vetoed it, on the grounds that the Beatles were not yet famous enough to carry a nameless cover. (The first album to carry an edge-to-edge cover was the Rolling Stones' self-titled debut, released a few months later.) The studio also tried to pull the cover because the Beatles were not smiling, and it was only after George Martin intervened that they won the day. Freeman was eventually paid £75 for his work (three times the normal fee).
The American Capitol release Meet the Beatles! used the same photograph on its cover.
Over the years, the cover has been parodied several times. In 1974, the Residents scribbled on it and released it as Meet the Residents. In 1986, Genesis used the idea for their "Land of Confusion" single cover. Phil Keaggy used it as the basis for the cover of his Beatles tribute album, Phil Keaggy and Sunday's Child. Van Halen did a similar cover (not necessarily a parody but an undeniable imitation) for their album OU812. Utopia's cover for its Deface the Music album was also a parody.
[edit] Track listing
All tracks credited to Lennon/McCartney, except where noted.
[edit] Side one
- "It Won't Be Long" – 2:13
- "All I've Got to Do" – 2:04
- "All My Loving" – 2:09 SAMPLE (95k)
- "Don't Bother Me" (George Harrison) – 2:29 SAMPLE (79k)
- "Little Child" – 1:48
- "Till There Was You" (Meredith Willson) – 2:16 SAMPLE (121k)
- "Please Mister Postman" (Georgia Dobbins/William Garrett/Freddie Gorman/Brian Holland/Robert Bateman) – 2:36
[edit] Side two
- "Roll Over Beethoven" (Chuck Berry) – 2:47
- "Hold Me Tight" – 2:32
- "You Really Got a Hold on Me" (Smokey Robinson) – 3:02
- "I Wanna Be Your Man" – 1:59
- "Devil in Her Heart" (Richard P. Drapkin) – 2:27
- "Not a Second Time" – 2:08
- "Money" (Janie Bradford/Berry Gordy) – 2:47 SAMPLE (83k)
[edit] Personnel
- John Lennon - Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
- Paul McCartney - Bass guitar, Piano, Vocals
- George Harrison - Guitar, Vocals
- Ringo Starr - Drums, Maracas, Vocals
- George Martin - Piano, Producer
