Holy Shmoly, it's now been over twenty years since With the Beatles has seen its release on CD. I feel it's way past due that this CD and the rest of the original studio album catalogue gets a newly remastered version. I guess that it sort of shows just how highly regarded Beatles music is, when just about every other artist has seen a remastered upgrade of their music many times over, we Beatle Freaks are stuck with these CDs from the olden days when Compact Discs were a fairly new format.

With the Beatles is the second release from The Beatles released back on November 22, 1963. These older releases from The Beatles are not among my favorites from the band mainly due to the fact that they were littered with nasty cover songs that the lads were "forced" to record. Yet having said this, the covers on this CD are among the best that the band committed to a studio album. Money, is a strong cover written by Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, originally a Motown style song, The Beatles amped it up to one of the harder songs on their album with John Lennon's powerful vocal and the answering harmonies from Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Another cover, Please Mr. Postman like Money is another from the R&B/Motown genre. Lennon gives a stellar and powerful vocal performance; Ringo's drums are more prominent than usual which again gives the song a harder edge.

Also, these early Beatle records sound a little bit one dimensional due to the large percentage of Lennon songs. The first three albums Please Please Me, With the Beatles and A Hard Day's Night have more original Lennon songs than anything else. Don't get me wrong, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, Lennon's heavy output contains quality top-notch music, but not until maybe the Help! soundtrack that The Beatles music added more diversity and color. The best of Lennon's original songs here is It Won't Be Long, the CD's opener. Lennon's double-tracked vocal sounds powerful and raw, the melody is catchy. The song was not released as a single in the UK or the US, but it provides the perfect soundtrack for the Beatlemania which was at it's global peak with this release and the US version two months later with Meet The Beatles.

Besides It Won't Be Long the best original is All My Loving written by Paul McCartney. The song was released as a single in America and reached #45. The lyrics are simple about sending letters home to a girl while away. Paul sings double-tracked and John and George add the harmonies. McCartney still sings this song when he plays live and is effectively evident as we can the audience members break down and cry in Paul's recent DVDs, Back in The US and Back in the World.

My least favorite original on this album is George Harrison's Don't Bother Me. While he gives an OK vocal, the music sounds drab and uninspiring, yet as it is Harrison's recorded songwriting debut we tend to cut him some slack. On the other hand, this song will always make me remember those Beatles cartoons from the 1960s that they used to air on The Disney Channel.

Chuck Berry's 1956 rocker Roll Over Beethoven was covered on this album, a favorite of John, Paul and George. George, once again, takes on duties of lead vocal, and the song was a good choice since they had to include a few covers. The last good cover song is Till There Was You, one of the songs that Shirley Jones sang in the film The Music Man. Paul sings lead here on a song that The Beatles would play in their live act since the early 60s to showcase their versatility since the song was not rock and roll, but more of a schmaltzy standard.

What would seem like a good choice of a cover song would be Smokey Robinson's You Really Got a Hold on Me. John Lennon sings lead and for most of the track he harmonizes with Paul and George. It was a mistake to cover this song since they couldn't do it better than Smokey. John Lennon is a great singer, but somehow louses up the vocal here and he's not alone as the 3 part harmonies sound off key more often than not.

Ringo is always given at least one song to sing per album, and on this one it's I Wanna Be Your Man, a song written by Lennon and McCartney for The Rolling Stones. The Stones put their touches and changes on the song and it came out much bluesier with their thicker accents and a slide guitar. The Beatles version was much more of a rocker, maybe the heaviest on the album. Ringo is credited with lead vocals despite the apparent inclusion of Paul and John singing along on every note.

As for the remainder, the songs pretty much fall into the same category and sound similar to one another. Hold Me Tight, Little Child, Not a Second Time and all I've Got to Do feature Lennon on lead vocals and I've said above, the songs are too one dimensional, they sound too much alike.

This is by no means their greatest effort, but The Beatles were by this time the biggest thing that the planet would ever see. The Beatles had two recent singles aside from their album releases with I Want To Hold Your Hand and She Loves You. In this context, it makes more sense why The Beatles were so big despite this mediocre release.

Yet the album remains an icon. The album cover has been parodied and copied various times since its (well, the Meet the Beatles really) release from such artists as KISS, Van Halen, Genesis and even The Simpsons did a spoof in one of their episodes that featured Homer's old band The B-Sharps. The album reached #1 and remained there for weeks. The American version of this record, Meet The Beatles is the record that started the 1960s phenomenon known as The British Invasion, scores of rock bands from the UK were all the rage and definitely a hot seller in the USA after The Beatles came to town. I have to recommend this CD because it is The Beatles after all, but I would suggest starting out with everything else first.

the songs

1. It Won't Be Long
2. All I've Got to Do
3. All My Loving
4. Don't Bother Me
5. Little Child
6. Till There Was You
7. Please Mister Postman
8. Roll Over Beethoven
9. Hold Me Tight
10. You Really Got a Hold On Me
11. I Wanna Be Your Man
12. Devil in Her Heart
13. Not a Second Time
14. Money



♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦More Beatles-related Epinions from Scapp70♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦


~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Beatles~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Help!
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The White Album
Abbey Road
Real Love (CD Single)
Free As A Bird (CD Single)
Tropical Tribute to the Beatles
Bach On Abbey Road
My 20 Favorite Beatles Songs
Love

Here, There & Everywhere - My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles

~~~~~~~~~~~Paul McCartney~~~~~~~~~~

McCartney
RAM
Red Rose Speedway
Band on the Run
Band on the Run - 25 Year Anniversary Edition
Venus and Mars
Wings at the Speed of Sound
Thrillington
Should Paul McCartney Go Back On Drugs?
The Walrus Was Paul
Top 20 Favorite SOLO Beatles Songs W/O


~~~~~~~~~~~~Ringo Starr~~~~~~~~~~~

Ringo
Goodnight Vienna
Blast From The Past
Rotogravure
VH1 Storytellers


~~~~~~~~~~~~John Lennon~~~~~~~~~~~

Plastic Ono Band
Imagine




~~~~~~~~~~~George Harrison~~~~~~~~~~

All Things Must Pass







Recommended: Yes