''Meet The Smithereens!'' is the seventh studio
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by
Carteret, New Jersey
Carteret is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough's population was 25,326.
History
Carteret was originally created as the borough of Roosevelt on April 11, 1906, from porti ...
-based
rock band
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two gui ...
The Smithereens
The Smithereens are an American rock band from Carteret, New Jersey, United States. The group formed in 1980 with members Pat DiNizio (vocals & guitar), Jim Babjak (guitar & vocals), Mike Mesaros (bass guitar & vocals), and Dennis Diken (drum ...
, released in stores on January 16, 2007.
The album features the band covering
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...
' 1964 American album, ''
Meet the Beatles!
''Meet the Beatles!'' is a studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released as their second album in the United States. It was the group's first American album to be issued by Capitol Records, on 20 January 1964 in both mono and stere ...
''.
It is the first Smithereens album to feature Severo "The Thrilla" Jornacion, who replaced original bassist
Mike Mesaros in 2006.
Background
In 2006, The Smithereens hadn't released an album in seven years since 1999's ''
God Save The Smithereens
''God Save The Smithereens'' is the sixth studio album by The Smithereens, released on 19 October 1999 on Velvel/ Koch Records. Produced by Don Fleming, it was originally intended to be a concept album based on the idea of the world ending as soo ...
''. "There was simply no demand from record companies for a new Smithereens album", lead singer
Pat DiNizio
Patrick Michael DiNizio (October 12, 1955 – December 12, 2017) was the lead singer, songwriter, and founding member of the band The Smithereens, which he formed in 1980 with Jim Babjak, Dennis Diken, and Mike Mesaros, from Carteret, New Jerse ...
explained.
The band still performed live, and in May 2005 they were invited to perform at
Abbey Road on the River
Abbey Road on the River (AROTR) is a five-day, multi-staged music festival which was initially created to honor the music and spirit of the Beatles. The festival took place in Louisville, Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend but moved across the O ...
, a Beatles music festival in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana borde ...
.
The band had often performed Beatles songs as encores and were asked to do a whole set of covers at the festival. During the set the audience called out for Smithereens songs and the band realized that there was some crossover between die-hard Beatles fans and Smithereens fans. Soon after, DiNizio began to receive e-mails from fans who had attended the concert suggesting the band record an album of Beatles songs. The band was intrigued and decided to record an album of all-Beatles material as a way to reintroduce The Smithereens to their old audience.
“I realized that to attempt to record songs from every phase of the Beatles’ career and have any sense of continuity would be almost impossible", DiNizio said.
The idea of a song-by-song cover of ''Meet The Beatles!'' took shape when DiNizio came across an article in the October 2006 issue of ''
American Heritage American Heritage may refer to:
* ''American Heritage'' (magazine)
* ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language''
* American Heritage Rivers
* American Heritage School (disambiguation)
See also
*National Register of Historic Plac ...
'' magazine titled "1964 - When a New Age Was Born".
It talked about the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, America dealing with the
assassination of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle wi ...
, the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
but also about
Beatlemania
Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me (song), Please Please Me", "From Me to You ...
.
"I believe ''Meet the Beatles'' is historically the most important rock-and-roll album ever released in America", DiNizio said. "It just started a cultural revolution that hasn't stopped".
DiNizio contacted Bob Frank, president at the band's last record label,
Koch Records
MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch", formerly known as Koch Records and eOne Music) is a New York City-based independent record label and music management company. It was formed in 2009 from the music assets of Koch Entertainment, which had ...
, and presented him the idea of "The Smithereens versus The Beatles". Frank loved the idea and signed the band to a new record deal.
According to DiNizio, the band immersed themselves in 1964 ephemera in preparation for recording, with objects like magazines, posters and the
bobblehead
A bobblehead, also known by common silly nicknames such as nodder, wobbler, or wacky wobbler, is a type of small collectible action figure. Its head is often oversized compared to its body. Instead of a solid connection, its head is connected to ...
s that made the cover.
[Crawdaddy!
''Crawdaddy'' was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine w ...]
co-producing, the album was recorded in five days in November 2006 at The Grip Weeds' House of Vibes studio in
.
"It was really successful", DiNizio said of the album in 2013, "it broke download records on
let us do a Christmas album, another Beatles tribute and the live album".
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.
– guitar, vocals (lead vocals on "Don't Bother Me"), production
*Severo "The Thrilla" Jornacion – bass
*
– drums, percussion, vocals (lead vocals on "I Wanna Be Your Man"), production, liner notes
;Additional personnel
*
– vocals, production, recording, mixing
*Kristin Reil – percussion on "Don't Bother Me"
*Dennis Drake – mastering
*Paul Grosso – creative direction
*Andrew Kelley – art direction, package design
*Todd Sinclair – CD cover design
*