''With the Beatles'' is the second studio album by the English rock band

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 ...

. It was released in the United Kingdom on 22 November 1963 on

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 19 ...

, eight months after the band's debut ''

Please Please Me ''Please Please Me'' is the debut studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Produced by George Martin, it was released on EMI's Parlophone label on 22 March 1963 in the United Kingdom, following the success of the band's first two s ...

''. Produced by

George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the " Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the B ...

, the album features eight original compositions (seven by

Lennon–McCartney Lennon–McCartney was the songwriting partnership between English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is the best-known and most successful musical collaboration ever by records sold, with the ...

and " Don't Bother Me", George Harrison's first recorded solo composition and his first released on a Beatles album) and six covers (mostly of

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

and

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...

R&B hits). The sessions also yielded the non-album single, "

I Want to Hold Your Hand "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded on 17 October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment. With advance orders ...

" backed by "

This Boy "This Boy" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney). It was released in November 1963 as the B-side of the band's Parlophone single " I Want to Hold Your Hand". In the United S ...

". The cover photograph was taken by the fashion photographer Robert Freeman and has since been mimicked by several music groups over the years. A different cover was used for the Australian release of the album, which the Beatles were displeased with. In the United States, the album's tracks were unevenly split over the group's first two albums released on

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

: '' Meet the Beatles!'' and '' The Beatles' Second Album''. It was also released in Canada under the name ''Beatlemania! With the Beatles''. The album was ranked number 420 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'' magazine's list of

the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and indust ...

in 2003, and was included in Robert Dimery's '' 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' (2010). It was also voted number 275 in the third edition of English writer

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...

'' (2000).

Recording

In 1963, musical groups were typically required to release more than one LP a year. As such,

' producer

and manager

Brian Epstein Brian Samuel Epstein (; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was a British music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967. Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him i ...

planned for the band to release two LPs and four singles every year. Shortly after recording the non-album single "

She Loves You "She Loves You" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and recorded by English rock band the Beatles for release as a single in 1963. The single set and surpassed several sales records in the United Kingdom charts, and set a record i ...

" on 1 July 1963, the Beatles returned to London's

EMI Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music co ...

only four months after the release of ''

''. Unlike their debut, the bulk of whose tracks (10 of the 14, excluding previously issued singles) were recorded in one day, ''With the Beatles'' was recorded over seven sessions across three months. On 18 July, the group tracked four covers:

Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chi ...

's " You Really Got a Hold on Me",

Barrett Strong Barrett Strong (born February 5, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter. Strong was the first artist to record a hit for Motown, although he is best known for his work as a songwriter, particularly in association with producer Norman Whit ...

's "

Money (That's What I Want) "Money (That's What I Want)" is a rhythm and blues song written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, which was the first hit record for Gordy's Motown enterprise. Barrett Strong recorded it in 1959 as a single for the Tamla label, di ...

", the Donays' " Devil in His Heart", albeit retitled "Devil in Her Heart", and

Meredith Willson Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American flutist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and writer. He is perhaps best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 1 ...

's " Till There Was You", although this recording was deemed unsatisfactory. The Beatles reconvened at EMI on the morning of 30 July, recording a cover of

the Marvelettes The Marvelettes were an American girl group that achieved popularity in the early to mid-1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart (now Cowart Motley), and Georgia Dobbins, who ...

' "

Please Mr. Postman "Please Mr. Postman" is a song written by Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland and Robert Bateman. It is the debut single by the Marvelettes for the Tamla (Motown) label, notable as the first Motown song to reach the ...

" and beginning work on the first new

song, " It Won't Be Long". Following a break to record a BBC radio session for ''Saturday Club'', they returned in the late-afternoon, recording overdubs on "Money", a remake of "Till There Was You" and a cover of

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined a ...

's " Roll Over Beethoven". The session ended with finishing touches on "It Won't Be Long" and recording

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. On ...

's " All My Loving", which Beatles historian

Mark Lewisohn Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958) is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps.

described as "by far his best, most complex piece of songwriting yet." "She Loves You", backed by " I'll Get You", was issued as a single on 23 August and was the group's first single to sell over a million copies in Britain alone. After a break, the Beatles were back at EMI on 11 September 1963. They attempted

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

's " Little Child", drummer

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...

's vocal contribution to the album, "

I Wanna Be Your Man "I Wanna Be Your Man" is a Lennon–McCartney-penned song first recorded and released as a single by the Rolling Stones, and then recorded by the Beatles. The song was primarily written by Paul McCartney, and finished by Lennon and McCartney in ...

", a Lennon–McCartney original that was given to

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

, who released it as their second single; both attempts were deemed unsatisfactory. The group started and finished Lennon's compositions "

All I've Got to Do "All I've Got to Do" is a song written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and performed by the English rock band the Beatles on their second British album, ''With the Beatles'' (1963). In the United States, "All I've Got to Do" origi ...

" and " Not a Second Time", and began recording Harrison's first solo composition, " Don't Bother Me", which was also left unfinished. The next day, the band remade "

Hold Me Tight "Hold Me Tight" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1963 album '' With the Beatles''. It was first recorded during the '' Please Please Me'' album session, but not selected for inclusion and re-recorded for their second al ...

", which was attempted earlier in the year on 11 February, finished "Little Child" and "Don't Bother Me", but again left "I Wanna Be Your Man" unfinished. On 30 September, Martin added piano and

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

overdubs to "Money" and "I Wanna Be Your Man", respectively, while the band were on holidays. The band returned on 3 October, recording more takes of "I Wanna Be Your Man". Four-track recording was installed at EMI before the 17 October session, when the Beatles recorded their new non-album single, "

" / "

", as well as speeches for a Christmas record for the band's fan club. The band finished up "I Wanna Be Your Man" on 23 October before Martin commenced mono and stereo mixing the same day and continuing six days later. Final preparations were made on 30 October, with the album officially completed on 4 November.

Packaging

Impressed with Robert Freeman's black-and-white pictures of

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and rai ...

, Epstein invited the photographer to create the cover image. Harrison later said that, whereas the cover of ''Please Please Me'' had been "crap", their second LP was "the beginning of us being actively involved in the Beatles' artwork... the first one where we thought, 'Hey, let's get artistic.'" The group asked Freeman to take inspiration from pictures their friend Astrid Kirchherr had taken in Hamburg between 1960 and 1962, featuring the band members in half-shadow and not smiling. To achieve this result, on 22 August 1963, Freeman photographed them in a dark corridor of the Palace Court Hotel in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the English ...

, where the band were playing a summer residency at the local Gaumont Cinema. To fit the square format of the cover, he put Starr in the bottom right corner, "since he was the last to join the group. He was also the shortest". McCartney described the result as "very moody", adding: "people think he must have worked at tforever and ever. But it was an hour. He sat down, took a couple of rolls, and he had it." The original concept was to paint the picture from edge to edge, with no bleeding, title or artist credit – a concept that went against music industry practice and was immediately vetoed by EMI. The first album to carry an edge-to-edge cover was the Rolling Stones' self-titled debut, released five months later. EMI also objected to the fact that the Beatles were not smiling; it was only after George Martin intervened, as head of Parlophone, that the cover portrait was approved. Freeman was paid £75 for his work, which was three times the fee first offered by EMI. Music critic John Harris finds the cover most reminiscent of the photos Kirchherr took in Hamburg of Lennon, Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe using the "half-lit technique" and says that, together with songs such as "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Money (That's What I Want)", ''With the Beatles'' thereby represents "a canny repackaging of their early '60s incarnation: Hamburg shorn of Prellies and leather, and sold to their public as a mixture of accomplished rock 'n' roll and art-house cool". Harris also sees the LP cover as a "watershed" design that encouraged other acts to eschew "the more cartoonish aspects of pop photography" and continued to exert an influence in the 1970s on covers such as those for

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

's ''

Transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

'' (1972),

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''. Called the "punk poet ...

's ''

Horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million ...

'' (1975) and various punk rock albums. EMI Australia did not receive the cover art, and used different shots of the band in a similar style to the black-and-white photograph on other releases. The Beatles were unaware of this until fans showed them the cover during their only Australian tour, and informed the EMI publicity staff that they were not pleased with the substitution.

Release and reception

issued ''With the Beatles'' on 22 November 1963, eight months to the day after ''Please Please Me'', with the catalogue number PMC 1206. The album became the first Beatles album released in North America when it was released in Canada on 25 November 1963 under the augmented title ''Beatlemania! With the Beatles'', with additional text on the album cover, and issued only in mono at the time, catalogue number T 6051 (a stereo Canadian release would come in 1968, catalogue number ST 6051). For the United States release, the original running order of ''With the Beatles'' was unevenly split over the group's first two Capitol albums: nine tracks were issued on '' Meet the Beatles!'' (the eight original compositions plus "Till There Was You"), while the remaining five songs, all cover versions, were placed on '' The Beatles' Second Album''. The LP had advance orders of a half million and sold another half million by September 1965, making it the second album to sell a million copies in the United Kingdom, after the soundtrack to the 1958 film ''

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

''. ''With the Beatles'' remained at the top of the charts for 21 weeks, displacing ''Please Please Me'', so that the Beatles occupied the top spot for 51 consecutive weeks. It even reached number 11 in the "singles charts" (because at the time UK charts counted all records sold, regardless of format). No other group or singer has achieved 51 consecutive weeks at number 1 in the album charts. However, the soundtrack for the South Pacific movie did achieve 70 consecutive weeks at number one in the album charts. Reviewing the album on release for ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the '' NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in '' ...

'', Peter Jones hailed ''With the Beatles'' as an improvement over ''Please Please Me'', praising the covers and originals, particularly Harrison's "Don't Bother Me". On 26 February 1987, ''With the Beatles'' was officially released on compact disc (in mono only, catalogue number CDP 7 46436 2). Having been available only as an import in the US in the past, the album was also issued domestically in the US on LP and cassette on 21 July 1987. Along with the rest of the Beatles' canon, it was re-released on CD in newly re-mastered

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

and mono versions on 9 September 2009. The album was ranked number 420 on ''

'' magazine's list of

in 2003, and was included in Robert Dimery's '' 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''. It was voted number 275 in the third edition of English writer

's ''

''. It was rated the 29th greatest album in the book ''Paul Gambaccini Presents the Top 100 Albums''. This book "canvassed a panel of experts in seven countries" to determine the greatest albums. Based on the album's appearances in professional rankings and listings, the aggregate website

Acclaimed Music Acclaimed Music is a website created by Henrik Franzon, a statistician from Stockholm, Sweden in September 2001. Franzon has statistically aggregated hundreds of published lists that rank songs and albums into aggregated rankings by year, dec ...

lists ''With the Beatles'' as the 3rd most acclaimed album of 1963, the 64th most acclaimed album of the 1960s and the 345th most acclaimed album in history.

Track listing

Personnel

According to

: The Beatles *

– lead, harmony and backing vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; handclaps; harmonica on "Little Child"; nylon-string acoustic guitar on "Till There Was You"; tambourine on "Don't Bother Me" *

– lead, harmony and backing vocals; bass guitar and handclaps; piano on "Little Child",

claves Claves (; ) are a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of short, wooden sticks about 20–25 centimeters (8–10 inches) long and about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) in diameter. Although traditionally made of wood (typically rosewood, ebon ...

on "Don't Bother Me" * George Harrison – lead, harmony and backing vocals; lead and acoustic guitars; handclaps; nylon-string acoustic guitar on "Till There Was You" *

– drums, tambourine,

maracas A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were ...

, handclaps; lead vocals on "I Wanna Be Your Man", Arabian loose-skin

bongo Bongo may refer to: Entertainment * ''Bongo'' (Australian TV series), on air from August to November 1960 * Bongo Comics, a comic book publishing company * Bongo (''Dragon Ball'') or Krillin, a character in ''Dragon Ball'' media * ''Bongo'' ...

on "Till There Was You" and "Don't Bother Me" Production * Robert Freeman – cover photograph *

– arrangement, production and mixing; organ on "I Wanna Be Your Man", piano on "You Really Got a Hold on Me", "Not a Second Time" and "Money" * Norman Smith –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

and mixing

Charts

Certifications and sales

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

*
Recording data and notes on mono/stereo mixes and remixes
{{Authority control 1963 albums Albums arranged by George Martin Albums produced by George Martin Albums with cover art by Robert Freeman (photographer) British rock-and-roll albums Parlophone albums The Beatles albums