The Beatles Second Record: With The Beatles (1963)

1963\’s With The Beatles is definitely not not the best Beatles studio album, in actuality I think it\’s arguably their worst LP. That\’s not to imply I do not love hearing this early album in it\’s new remastered format nor is it to imply that this album doesn\’t have any groovy tracks on it because that is definitely not the case.

I do believe that when looking at only the eight original songs on the LP, it\’s likely the least inspiring collection of original compositions The Beatles ever put out on a record (the very underrated Beatles For Sale has a much better collection of 8 original songs) on the other hand, the six covers on With The Beatles are quite good (superior to the six covers on Beatles For Sale, which was their fourth album.)

My favorite original songs to listen to on the With The Beatles Remastered CDs (stereo and mono) are the first three songs: \”It Won\’t Be Long,\” \”All I\’ve Got To Do,\” and \”All My Loving.\” In particular I\’ve been enjoying track number two, \”All I\’ve Got To Do\” in the remastered mono. It sounds delicious.

Another original track that has actually been making an impression on me is track #9, \”Hold Me Tight.\” Paul McCartney wrote and sang lead on this one and he\’s been very dismissive of it. And while the song is a bit sloppy sounding, I do think it is a good time.

Among the cover songs I think \”Till There Was You\” is my favorite. It\’s a very sickly sweet ballad but I think in some strange way it works because of that. The album closer, \”Money\” is a great way to end the album. When I listen closely to the versions of this song included in remastered box sets I actually hear the song as much more unhinged than I realized. It rocks pretty darn hard.

For most of the CDs I do prefer the stereo versions(especially with the later albums which are my favorite, anyway) when it comes 2009 Beatles box sets but I do think that this particular album sounds a bit better in mono.

Harold Donald Quesenberry\’s favorite music sites are this Beatles Focused Music Blog and this Online \”Radio Station\”

categories: The Beatles,1963,Classic Rock,British Invasion,Oldies,Music

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