The Beatles
The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono
★★★★
CAPITOL
America and Britain are two nations separated by salt water, a common language (per George Bernard Shaw) and different Beatlemanias. The U.K. phenomenon in 1963 remains the gold standard for pop hysteria, a massive rush of love at the speed of light detonated by a handful of singles and an album, Please Please Me, almost half of which was covers from the club sets.
The former colonies were late to the party – EMI's Yankee arm, Capitol Records, spent that year exercising its right of first refusal – but we caught up fast. And this deluxe, vinyl set of the Beatles' first six American studio LPs from mono-master tapes in period sleeves (also available separately) – is hardly the full chaos. Add the cash-ins by ’63 licensee Vee-Jay plus the sudden worth of the 1961 Hamburg sessions and nearly two dozen U.S. albums and 45s were issued over 1964. Capitol's trade pitch for The Beatles Story, a two-LP audio documentary released that November and a bonus in the box, put it bluntly: “The Greatest Profit Package in History.”
But this helter-skelter has a story of its own, a weirdly reordered, uniquely illuminating arc of breakthrough at once belying and beholden to Capitol's mercenary disregard for the Parlophone canon (shortened LPs to save on publishing royalties; made-up platters sequenced with the logic of a roulette wheel). If Please Please Me is the first, giant step of a killer bar band led by two emerging-virtuoso composers, Capitol's debut, Meet The Beatles!, is that genius unleashed with visceral finesse: nearly all John Lennon-Paul McCartney originals, largely drawn from the British jump forward, late-’63's With The Beatles. In this telling, America doesn't stand a chance – the shotgun entrance of I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There; the hard Liverpool stares in Robert Freeman's iconic mod-noir cover photo – and George Harrison is a writer from the start (Don't Bother Me).
In his 2007 book, The Beatles' Second Album, Dave Marsh makes a convincing case for that April ’64 grab bag of With… remnants and B-sides as “an ungainly, fraudlent mess” capturing “the greatest rock'n'roll band the world has ever seen . . . with maximum brute force.” Here are the Fabs of Cavern and Star-Club lore, heavy on the Detroit soul – the hip rescue of Devil In Her Heart, then a ’62 obscurity by the Donays; Lennon and Harrison's rare lead-vocal exchange in the Miracles' You Really Got A Hold on Me. McCartney owns the Little Richard bonfire Long Tally Sally (not yet out in the U.K.) and She Loves You, by then old news in Britain, closes the record like radiant, breaking news. In short, pure party from a band and year like no other.
Beatles ’65 – released in December, 1964 and based on the fourth U.K. LP, Beatles For Sale – comes close, a half-hour of robust roots (Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins) and modernism (the plaintive sheen of No Reply; the feedback intro to I Feel Fine). As for the rest, there's not much reason now to love the truncated U.S. edition of A Hard Day's Night except nostalgia. Something New is plenty of fun but barely coherent: more covers, leftovers from the film and the German-language version of I Want to Hold Your Hand. And The Early Beatles, actually a ’65 release, is arguably the first Beatles reissue, Capitol's roundup of lingering Vee-Jay tracks.
The inevitable irony is that the first-class packaging and mono fidelity makes this serial potpourri feel new and thrilling again - while none of it accurately reflects the Beatles' creative intent and daily momentum. Yet no matter how you slice it, this is the historic, unbeatable sound of conquest. Britain has its gospel. This is ours.
The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono is out November 22.
ORDER: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
TRACKLISTING:
Meet The Beatles! [ LP1 ]
SIDE 1
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Saw Her Standing There
This Boy
It Won’t Be Long
All I’ve Got To Do
All My Loving
SIDE 2
Don’t Bother Me
2.Little Child
Till There Was You
Hold Me Tight
I Wanna Be Your Man
Not A Second Time
The Beatles’ Second Album [ LP2 ]
SIDE 1
Roll Over Beethoven
Thank You Girl
You Really Got A Hold On Me
Devil In Her Heart
Money
You Can’t Do That
SIDE 2
Long Tall Sally
I Call Your Name
Please Mister Postman
I’ll Get You
She Loves You
A Hard Day’s Night [ LP3 ]
SIDE 1
A Hard Day’s Night
Tell Me Why
I’ll Cry Instead
I Should Have Known Better (Instrumental)
I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
And I Love Her (Instrumental)
SIDE 2
I Should Have Known Better
If I Fell
And I Love Her
Ringo’s Theme (This Boy) (Instrumental)
Can’t Buy Me Love
A Hard Day’s Night (Instrumental)
The Beatles Story [ LP4 ]
SIDE 1
On Stage With The Beatles
How Beatlemania Began
Beatlemania In Action
Man Behind The Beatles - Brian Epstein
John Lennon
Who’s A Millionaire?
SIDE 2
Beatles Will Be Beatles
Man Behind The Music - George Martin
George Harrison
The Beatles Story [ LP5 ]
SIDE 1
A Hard Day’s Night - Their First Movie
Paul McCartney
Sneaky Haircuts And More About Paul
SIDE 2
The Beatles Look At Life
Beatle Medley
‘Victims’ Of Beatlemania
Ringo Starr
Liverpool And All The World!
Something New [ LP6 ]
SIDE 1
I’ll Cry Instead
Things We Said Today
Any Time At All
When I Get Home
Slow Down
Matchbox
SIDE 2
Tell Me Why
And I Love Her
I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
If I Fell
Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand (I Want To Hold Your Hand...sung in German)
Beatles ’65 [ LP7 ]
SIDE 1
No Reply
I’m A Loser
Baby’s In Black
Rock And Roll Music
I’ll Follow The Sun
Mr. Moonlight
SIDE 2
Honey Don’t
I’ll Be Back
She’s A Woman
I Feel Fine
Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby
The Early Beatles [ LP8 ]
SIDE 1
Love Me Do
Twist And Shout
Anna
Chains
Boys
Ask Me Why
SIDE 2
Please Please Me
PS I Love You
Baby It’s You
A Taste of Honey
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Photo: Apple Corps Ltd.
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