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| Cover album of With The Beatles |
With the fore-mentioned worldwide release date of November 22,1963,the album yet again failed to be released in the United States wherein a butchered album adopting its original cover was released instead on January 1964.About three months after the release of With The Beatles,Meet The Beatles was considered to be the first Beatles album to be released in the American market.Though the said claim was still in dispute(Introducing The Beatles was released by Veejay preceding Meet The Beatles at an earlier date) with the legal battles that went through between VeeJay and Capitol with the latter winning the case and ended up being the band's American distributor.++
TRACK LISTING:
1.It Won't Be Long (Lennon-McCartney)
2.All I've Got To Do (Lennon-McCartney)
3.All My Loving (Lennon-McCartney)
4.Don't Bother Me (Harrison)
5.Little Child (Lennon-McCartney)
6.Till There Was You (Willson)
7.Please Mister Postman (Dobbins-Garrett-Gorman-Holland-Bateman)
8.Roll Over Beethoven (Berry)
9.Hold Me Tight (Lennon-McCartney)
10.You Really Got A Hold On Me (Robinson)
11.I Wanna Be Your Man (Lennon-McCartney)
12.Devil In Her Heart (Drapkin)
13.Not A Second Time (Lennon-McCartney)
14.Money(That's What I Want) (Bradford-Gordy)
Track number 9,Hold Me Tight dates back from the Please Please Me sessions but was put in the can with a said reason of not being an appropriate song for the debut LP.
WITH THE BEATLES VS. MEET THE BEATLES!
Contrary to what one blogger on Rolling Stone had said,that both With The Beatles and Meet The Beatles have the same album cover,the latter album's was actually adapted from the original British and worldwide release in the sixties,for Meet The Beatles came out in a later date compared to the former.With the butchered US version featuring songs from the original With The Beatles album alongside singles the band issued for the US market like I Want To Hold Your Hand and its B side This Boy.The butchered album consists of 12 songs.Reasons on why Capitol altered the first seven Beatles albums in the sixties is still unclear with speculations ranging from copyright issues to lack of foresight or simply maximizing the label's profits.
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| Cover of the butchered US LP Meet The Beatles released January 20,1964 |
Again,let us compare the track listings of both albums,the original release and the US incarnation.
Track listing for Meet The Beatles-released January 20,1964
1.I Want To hold Your Hand*
2 I Saw Her Standing There+
3.This Boy*
4.It Wont Be Long
5.All I've Got To Do
6.All My Loving
7.Dont 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
*-single with "This Boy" as its B-side
+-originally from Please Please Me,the Beatles' debut album released in March 1963,the song also appeared on the album Introducing The Beatles(Butchered US version of Please Please Me) distributed by Veejay Records with the US release date of January 10,1964.
Other tracks that were removed on the US incarnation of the album were included on another Capitol LP The Beatles Second Album,along with singles the band has issued previously.Nevertheless,the said albums never got the favor and approval of the fab four themselves.
Track listing for With The Beatles(already featured above,but featured here again for comparison)
worldwide release: November 22,1963 except the US
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(That's What I Want)
CONFUSION AMONG FANS:
With the same covers but with different logos nonetheless,both With The Beatles and Meet The Beatles has caused a bit of confusion among Beatles fans outside the US particularly in Japan when Japanese distributor Toshiba released the US version Meet The Beatles alongside With The Beatles in 1964.
UNIFICATION BY EMI
On February 26,1987, a unification effort was made by EMI Records and declared the original 13 albums the overall standard for the entire Beatles catalogue, hereby deleting the butchered US versions of the Beatles' LPs pre-Sgt Pepper in the 1960s wherein the latter got only available at the hands of bootleggers and recently on box sets.With The Beatles along with the original six albums were issued domestically in the US after being considered as an import in the past.The effort was made to avoid further confusion particularly with the American fans.
++[To see the complete story of the Beatles albums click here ]
CHART PERFORMANCE
With The Beatles topped the UK charts for 12 weeks trouncing off the Beatles' own debut album Please Please Me on December 1963.The album also fared well in other countries in Europe and Asia in the same year 1963,achieving gold certifications in Germany,Canada and Australia.
The album was also a huge success in Asian countries like the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan in 1963 with Beatlemania becoming a worldwide phenomenon.
Upon its US issue in 1987,the album was also certified gold by the RIAA and was praised by Rolling Stone magazine along with the original six albums pre-Sgt Pepper as the albums with the most cleverly arranged songs.It was ranked at 420 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time List along with other Beatles albums and with Sgt Pepper,released in 1967 hitting the top spot.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS AND ALBUM FEATURES
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| The Beatles with George Martin,Abbey Road studios 1963 |
Contrary to what younger Beatles fans might have thought,the song "Till There Was You" was not written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.Though the song was a regular on early Beatles concerts and recently became a regular on McCartney's tours post-Beatles,the song was actually written by Meredith Willson from the Broadway Musical "The Music Man".
A film adaptation of the play was released in 1962,wherein a version by actress Shirley Jones was featured in the movie.
On the Beatles' own rendition of the song,it was noted that Paul McCartney was the only member of the band that was using electricity on his trademark Hofner bass,with George Harrison and John Lennon using acoustic guitars respectively.
A noted Motown cover song "You Really Got A Hold On Me" originally from Smokey Robinson & The Miracles was also featured on the album with John Lennon on lead vocals.The track,written by Robinson was a top 10 hit in 1962 with Lennon delivering that awesome R&B vocal,accompanied by Paul and George in harmonies.
George Harrison did three lead vocal duties on the album,aside from the self-penned song "Don't Bother Me",he was also the lead vocals on two cover songs "Devil In Her Heart" and the Chuck Berry staple "Roll Over Beethoven" where he delivered an awesome guitar lick.
THE COVER PHOTO
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| Robert Freeman,photo:SF Art Exchange |
The cover photo was said to have been shot in a hotel corridor with a natural light coming from an opened window contrary to other claims that it was shot in a studio with a spotlight from the right side of the band.
Ringo was actually sitting on a stool and that made him look like he was lower than the others.The Beatles' wore their trademark 'drainpipes',a thing they use to describe their dark suits,and the results were way ahead of its time considering that it was nearly withdrawn coz the band,according to their label,wasn't smiling.But with the intervention from their ever-so-cool producer George Martin,the photo finally made it as the album cover.
TRIBUTES AND PARODIES
Like other Beatles albums,With The Beatles has also been parodied by other artists paying their huge respect and admiration to the band.
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| Land Of Confusion single sleeve |
"Land Of Confusion" is a 1986 single by rock group Genesis from their album Invisible Touch.The single sleeve features a parody of With The Beatles.
The single peaked at number 4 on the charts in 1986.
Songwriter and musician R.Stevie Moore also parodied the album cover on his 2008 compilation album Meet The R.Stevie Moore.
Moore who has been recording since 1968 at the age of seven,cites this as his 401st album.
3.WITH THE MUPPLES
Though not really cited as a real music album,the Muppets, a group of androgenic and lifelike puppets created by Jim Henson,paid tribute to the album with a calendar version entitled With The Mupples.
Henson,who died in 1990,is known to be a huge Beatles fan.The Beatles were also parodied on several episodes of Sesame Street where Jim Henson's creations also appeared particularly The Beetles(muppet parody of the Beatles) with "Letter B" which is a parody of the band's 1970 song "Let It Be".
According to Muppet Wiki,the Muppets and its producers did tried to reunite the four Beatles on the show in the 1970s but didnt have the alloted time and budget to do so.
4.MEET THE RUTLES
The Rutles were a Beatles parody band.Originally a fictional group,the Rutles became famous from a comedy sketch called All You Need Is Cash produced by ex-Beatle George Harrison.
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| Actor Zachary Levi in a scene from Alvin And the Chipmunks |
5.MEET THE CHIPMUNKS
Though only a fictional album, Meet The Chipmunks was used in the 2009 film Alvin And The Chipmunks:The Squeakquel as a parody of the album With The Beatles.The parody LP can be seen hanging in the wall of David Seville's house where the Chipmunks also lived.
Merely a fictional group,the fabulous rodents who sang on records for children paid tribute to the Beatles by releasing an album called The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles Hits in 1964.
copyright 2009 20th Century Fox;Fox DVD
Photo right: The Chipmunks tribute album for the Beatles:The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles Hits released in 1964
Four long haired boys in a dark corridor wearing dark suits,With The Beatles remains a top rock music icon 50 years after its release.The album continues to influence and inspire people, thus gave birth to new generations of Beatles fans.The Beatles,having introduced modern rock in the sixties astonishingly prevails as the most influential rock group of all time.Hence, the legacy of the band remains the yardstick on how modern rock is measured.
(c) Keith Vernon Adagio
Wonderful tribute to this album by the world's greatest band! There are very informative facts that everyone, even hard core Beatles fans, will find interesting. Thanks Keith, another great article!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea there were so many look alike covers Keith. I did know about the Rutles. I personally think Capitol resequenced their albums to maximize profits. They didn't issue any Beatles music when originally approached to do so. Vee Jay, Swan and others reached agreements to release some of the songs, especially Vee Jay. I think Capitol wanted to make up for lost time and their decisions made them a LOT of money. I grew up with the Capitol albums and the running order of the albums is usually what I think of when I here those songs.
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