Throwback Thursday: With the Beatles

Following the success of their first album, it was only to be expected that another Beatles record would soon make its way to the shelves and the airwaves.  In October 1963, eight months after the release of Please Please Me, The Beatles' second album, With the Beatles, was released. This time, however, they took their time and recorded the album over three months, unlike Please Please Me, which was recorded in one day.

With the Beatles featured the same amount of covers (six) and original songs (eight) as its predecessor, only this time one song, 'Don't Bother Me', was written by George Harrison. The song was his first solely-written composition to be recorded and to feature on a Beatles album. He also sang lead vocals on 'Roll Over Beethoven' and 'Devil in Her Heart', both covers. Ringo Starr sung lead on 'I Wanna Be Your Man', a Lennon-McCartney original. The rest of the songs are either sung by Lennon, McCartney or both with Harrison.

The album was not released in the United States until 1987. Instead, a separate album was released in 1964 called Meet the Beatles! The track listing was different to With the Beatles', however. Meet the Beatles! features nine of With the Beatles' songs as well as two 1963 singles ('This Boy' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand') and 'I Saw Her Standing There' from Please Please Me, giving it a total of only twelve songs.

The album, ultimately, was a success.  The album remained at number 1 on the UK charts for 21 weeks, knocking Please Please Me off the top spot.  In 2003  Rolling Stone magazine ranked With the Beatles number 420 of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Fun fact:  EMI, the recording label of which Parlophone was under, in Australia never received the cover art for the album so they improvised and made their own, similar to the actual one, as seen below.

Unique to this Beatles album: it is the first album to feature a composition by George Harrison.

Paul and Ringo Rehearsing 'Queenie Eye'

Watch Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr rehearsing 'Queenie Eye', which they performed together recently at the Grammys.  Listen to them say some heartwarming things about each other! 

Throwback Thursday: Please Please Me

The cover of this 1963 album, featuring four soon-to-be legendary baby-faced early-twenties-year olds, is as well-known as the songs themselves.  In fact, a picture from the same shoot was used for the cover of the 1962 - 1966 compilation album, and a 1969 recreation photo for the 1967 - 1970 album (both released in 1973).

October 1962 saw the release of The Beatles' first single, 'Love Me Do', with 'P.S. I Love You' as the B-side.  As an interesting fact, this version of 'Love Me Do' (the second of three studio recordings) was the first released recording to feature all four Beatles. However, Ringo Starr played the tambourine instead of his designated instrument - session drummer Andy White played the drums.  In January of the following year, their next single was released - 'Please Please Me', backed by 'Ask Me Why'.  Due to the success of these two singles, an album was to be recorded and rush-released by recording label Parlophone.

The album is renowned for having been entirely recorded in just under thirteen hours. Standard 12" LPs contained fourteen songs and with four songs written already (the singles), the album required ten more.  February 11, 1963 was the day that the entire album was recorded.  Please Please Me contains eight songs written by dynamic duo Lennon/McCartney, whilst the remaining tracks were covers.  In addition to their singles, Lennon and McCartney provided 'Misery', 'Do You Want to Know a Secret' (sung by George Harrison), 'There's a Place' and favourite 'I Saw Her Standing There'.

At the end of the day, after a hard day's work, it was time to record the last song - 'Twist and Shout'.  Many would know the classic from 80s paradigm Ferris Bueller's Day Off but the fun fact behind its existence is relatively unknown to most people who are not die-hard Beatles fans.  John had developed a cold and the song had to be performed last so as not to ruin his voice for the rest of the recordings.  Producer George Martin was so impressed, that the first take is the one found on the album!

Released in March 1963, Please Please Me, The Beatles' first album, set the standard for the group and skyrocketed them into mega success in the UK and, later, the US.  It only went uphill from there!

Unique to this Beatles album: it was recorded in one day.

Paul and Ringo Reunite at the 56th Grammy Awards

One half of The Beatles - Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr - performed together at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (January 26).  They performed Paul's new hit Queenie Eye, and the both of them also performed separately on the night.  Pauls' colourful piano used on stage is one from the Magical Mystery Tour era (1967) and was used on many of the 1967 songs.  Watch their performance here. 

Queenie Eye Competition

Paul is offering his fans the chance to win a signed copy of his new album NEW by playing a game of Queenie Eye!  

It would be greatly appreciated if you would click on this link to help us out!  All you need to do is click, nothing else. 

Thanks!

Paul's Out There! Tour

I'm sure many of you are in the same boat as us - that Macca is not performing in your city (or even country) during his Out There! tour.  As soon as the tour was announced, we watched for the updates, which came every few days, and announced another venue he will be gracing his presence with. Unfortunately, he is only venturing to Brazil, the US, Poland, Italy, Austria and Canada. On the day that this post was made he performed his seventh concert of the tour out of twenty-five in Austin, Texas. The dates and locations of the tour are as follows:

• 4 May - Belo Horizonte, Brazil
• 6 May - Goiânia, Brazil
• 9 May - Fortaleza, Brazil
• 18 and 19 May - Orlando, US
• 22 and 23 May - Austin, US
• 26 May - Memphis, US
• 29 and 30 May - Tulsa, US
• 8 and 10 June - New York City, US
• 14 June - Manchester, US
• 22 June - Warsaw, Poland
• 25 June - Verona, Italy
• 27 June - Vienna, Austria
• 7 July - Ottawa, Canada
• 9 July - Boston, US
• 12 July - Washington D.C., US
• 14 July - Indianapolis, US
• 16 July - Milwaukee, US
• 19 July - Seattle, US
• 23 July - Quebec City, Canada
• 12 August - Winnipeg, Canada
• 14 August - Regina, Canada

No Australia, eh?  Disappointing.  When I saw the setlist today, I cried. It is the best setlist with all of my favourites on it! 

Let's hope on his next tour (if there is one) he comes to Australia and any other country he missed out on!

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Beatles Songs

We posted Rolling Stone's list of Top 10 Beatles songs a while ago... well, here is the Top 100! Do you agree? Are some of your favourites missing, like some of mine are?

1. A Day in the Life
2. I Want to Hold Your Hand
3. Strawberry Fields Forever
4. Yesterday
5. In My Life
6. Something
7. Hey Jude
8. Let It Be
9. Come Together
10. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
11. A Hard Day's Night
12. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) 
13. Revolution
14. She Loves You
15. Help!
16. I Saw Her Standing There
17. Ticket to Ride
18. Tomorrow Never Knows
19. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
20. Please Please Me
21. All You Need is Love
22. Eleanor Rigby
23. Abbey Road Medley 
24. Happiness is a Warm Gun
25. Here, There and Everywhere
26. If I Fell
27. You're Going to Lose That Girl
28. Here Comes the Sun
29. Can't Buy Me Love
30. We Can Work it Out
31. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
32. Penny Lane
33. I Am the Walrus
34. Eight Days a Week
35. Paperback Writer
36. I Should Have Known Better
37. She Said She Said
38. Blackbird
39. Day Tripper
40. For No One
41. Get Back
42. I Feel Fine
43. Drive My Car
44. All My Loving
45. No Reply
46. Don't Let Me Down
47. Things We Said Today
48. The Ballad of John and Yoko
49. The Night Before
50. Got to Get You Into My Life
51. If I Needed Someone
52. Helter Skelter
53. It Won't Be Long
54. Two of Us
55. Taxman
56. I'm Down
57. I'm Only Sleeping
58. I've Just Seen a Face
59. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
60. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
61. With a Little Help From My Friends
62. Girl
63. Dear Prudence
64. I've Got a Feeling
65. And I Love Her
66. Nowhere Man
67. Oh! Darling
68. Baby, You're a Rich Man
69. Julia
70. You Can't Do That
71. I'm a Loser
72. From Me to You
73. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
74. Yellow Submarine
75. Think for Yourself
76. Yer Blues
77. Because
78. And Your Bird Can Sing
79. I'll Follow the Sun
80. Mother Nature's Son
81. Hey Bulldog
82. She's Leaving Homes
83. I'm So Tired
84. Across the Universe
85. Back in the USSR
86. Lady Madonna
87. Love Me Do
88. Rain
89. Good Day Sunshine
90. The Long and Winding Road
91. Every Little Thing
92. Dig a Pony
93. Sexy Sadie
94. You Won't See Me
95. Any Time at All
96. Within You Without You
97. All I've Got to Do
98. Long, Long, Long
99. Yes It Is
100. Hello, Goodbye 

Our New Facebook Page

Check out our new Facebook page here - created to promote the blog and easily post Beatles news that doesn't require a full blog post! 

Led Zeppelin/Beatles Mash Up

Ravi Shankar's death and George Martin's Birthday

The Indian sitar legend and Beatles' long-time friend, Ravi Shankar, passed away on December 11 at age 92 after undergoing heart surgery.  The virtuoso is perhaps most well-known as being a good friend of George Harrison's and the one who taught him how to play the sitar, an instrument featured in some Beatles songs from 1966 onwards.  He has been said to be the most well-known contemporary Indian musician. 

On another note, today, January 3rd, marks the 87th birthday of producer George Martin.  He was the producer for every Beatles album except Let It Be, which was produced by Phil Spector.