Meet the Beatles! [1964 Mono Master] [180g Vinyl]

by The Beatles

Overview

Meet the Beatles! wasn't the first Beatles album released in the U.S. (that would've been Introducing the Beatles, on Vee Jay), but as the first Beatles album released by Capitol Records, it was indeed the LP where many millions of Americans were introduced to the Fab Four. As an introduction, there could hardly have been one better. Largely comprised of material released on their second U.K. LP, With the Beatles -- the album art offers a blue-tinted spin on that late-1963 release -- Meet the Beatles! contains nine of that album's 14 songs, cutting out almost all the covers (all the better for publishing rights, but also an effective showcase of the group's talents; it's hard not to view the inclusion of the one remaining cover, "Till There Was You" from The Music Man, as a way to illustrate how Meet the Beatles! could appeal to parents) in a quest to trim the LP down to 12 songs. What was added to the With the Beatles material are three of the Beatles best early songs: their American breakthrough single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and its U.K. B-side ballad "This Boy," plus "I Saw Her Standing There" from their U.K. debut Please Please Me (this song was the B-side of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the U.S.). The revisions make Meet the Beatles! slightly more of a frenetic rock & roll record than its parent LP -- there isn't much R&B or as many ballads -- which, at the time, made it an appropriate soundtrack for the wild heyday of Beatlemania but, as the years have passed, the emphasis on joyous, exuberant rock & roll means that Meet the Beatles! still sounds fresh and exciting on its own terms. [A 50th Anniversary release of the album included both mono and stereo mixes of the original.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	11/22/2024
Label:	Capitol
UPC:	0602468019718

Tracks

1. I Want To Hold Your Hand
2. I Saw Her Standing There
3. This Boy
4. It Won't Be Long
5. All I've Got To Do
6. All My Loving
7. Don't Bother Me
8. Little Child
9. Till There Was You
10. Hold Me Tight
11. I Wanna Be Your Man
12. Not A Second Time

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Beatles   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

John Lennon   Composer
George Harrison   Composer
Paul McCartney   Composer
Robert Freeman   Cover Photo
Meredith Willson   Composer