The Beatles - With The Beatles (1963) WMA320

This is the album that launched Beatlemania in the U.S. Well, sort of. The cover is the same, but this is the U.K. version of the Beatles' second album, which was released only eight months after their debut in March of 1963. The U.S. version (entitled Meet the Beatles) included only nine of these songs and added "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and its b-side "I Saw Her Standing There" along with "This Boy."
But even though this is not the version that millions of baby boomers (like myself) grew up with, it's still an essential album in the Beatles' catalog. Among the originals is their best song never released as a single, "All My Loving." Also Ringo gets a vocal on the song originally given to the Rolling Stones, "I Wanna Be Your Man." And George Harrison gets his first songwriting credit with "Don't Bother Me."

The Beatles raid the Motown vaults for many of the covers. "Please Mr. Postman," "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and "Money" are highlights. The latter features one of Lennon's best vocals. [It wouldn't be until their next album when they released a collection of all original material.]

All told, this album catches the Beatles while they are still not too far removed from their Cavern Club and Hamburg days. As such, you hear an urgency and energy in their performance that sets their music apart from the rest of the British Invasion that followed. ESSENTIAL

by Steve Vrana

TRACKLIST:

01 - It Won't Be Long.wma
02 - All I've Got To Do.wma
03 - All My Loving.wma
04 - Don't Bother Me.wma
05 - Little Me.wma
06 - Till There Was You.wma
07 - Please Mister Postman.wma
08 - Roll Over Beethoven.wma
09 - Hold Me Tight.wma
10 - You Really Got A Hold On Me.wma
11 - I Wanna Be Your Man.wma
12 - Devil In Her Heart.wma
13 - Not A Second Time.wma
14 - Money (That's What I Want).wma

WMA 320Kbps 44100Hz STEREO