Meet The Beatles!

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Meet The Beatles! is the second Beatles' album released in the United States, despite the "first album" claim on its cover. Released on 20 January 1964, it was the first Capitol Records Beatles album. Capitol is a sister company to Parlophone, the Beatles British label, and both are subsidiaries of EMI.

The album was recorded at Abbey Road on February 11, 25, July 18, 30, August 21, September 11, 12, 30, October 3, 17, 21, 23, 29, 1963.

Just ten days earlier Chicago's Vee-Jay Records released Introducing... The Beatles, which had been delayed for release from the previous summer; perhaps as a result of the Vee-Jay release, Liberty Music Shops advertised in the New York Times of 12 January, 1964, that Meet The Beatles was available for purchase on that date, an ad not authorised by Capitol.

The album opens with the December 1963 Capitol single "I Want to Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There", and the B-side "This Boy" from the original November 1963 Parlophone version of "I Want to Hold Your Hand." It contains many of the tracks from With The Beatles and shares the same cover photograph. However, "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "Devil in Her Heart", "Money (That's What I Want)", "Please Mister Postman" and "Roll Over Beethoven", were omitted from Meet the Beatles and released on the next Capitol album, The Beatles' Second Album. The latter two tracks were also released on the EP Four By The Beatles.

Track listing

All tracks written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except where noted. See also: Lennon-McCartney.

Side one

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"

Side two

1. "Don't Bother Me" (George Harrison)
2. "Little Child"
3. "Till There Was You" (Meredith Willson)
4. "Hold Me Tight"
5. "I Wanna Be Your Man"
6. "Not a Second Time"

The track "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was originally released as a UK (and U.S.) single A-side and "This Boy" was originally released on the "I Want to Hold Your Hand" B-side in the UK. "I Saw Her Standing There" was from Please Please Me, and the remaining tracks were from With The Beatles. The song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" also is in duophonic [fake] stereo, due to the lack of a proper stereo mix that was supposed to be given to Capitol.

Personnel

• John Lennon – rhythm guitar, harmonica, vocals
• Paul McCartney – bass guitar, vocals
• George Harrison – lead guitar, vocals
• Ringo Starr – drums, vocals, maracas, tambourine
• George Martin – piano, producer

Re-releases

In 2004, Meet The Beatles! was released for the first time on CD as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 box set.

Cultural references

• Meet the Smithereens!, a tribute album by The Smithereens.
• Meet the Residents
• Kurt Cobain cited this as one of his favorite albums in his Journals. He stated that "About a Girl" was his attempt of writing a Beatles song after having spent the day listening to the album.
• Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls has a whole episode called "Meat the Beat-Alls" in which four villains team up to destroy the girls. There are many references to the Beatles in this episode, including using lyrics as dialogue.
• In The Simpsons episode Homer's Barbershop Quartet, the album called "Meet The Be Sharps"'s cover looks just like this one

Notes

External links

• The Beatles Discography 1962-1970: Meet the Beatles page
• Bruce Spizer's The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part One: Beatlemania and the Singles website
• Bruce Spizer's The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part Two: The Albums website
• WhatGoesOn.com - Beatles Capitol Albums Vol. 1 now two weeks away article

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Friday February 22, 2008 at 10:05:22 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation