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They were my favorite band ever so you knew the Beatles run of albums would start. I am going to guarantee that this will probably be extremely biased but what can you do? I will do a song-by-song review and just give general opinions about the song as well as any triviata that may come to mind. The CD’s will be ranked out of 10 and I will try to do ALL the Beatles albums I own (which is basically everything). For the 13 original releases, I will actually give you my personal rankings. For reference the 13 albums that will be ranked will be (in order of album release date): Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Days Night, Beatles for Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tours, The Beatles, Yellow Submarine, Let It Be and Abbey Road.
Enough of the pre-review, onto the REVIEW!
The first disc up will be the Beatles’ first ever album, Please Please Me. This was recorded and released WAAAAAAY back in 1963 in Britain. I don’t think it ever gained a release in the States in this version as they just put random songs of their first two albums and assorted singles and packaged them into Meet the Beatles and Introducing the Beatles. The album was recorded in ONE DAY, which is just astounding, by any standards. As a note, all songs are written by Lennon/McCartney unless otherwise noted. Some triviata, on this album, the songs are credited McCartney/Lennon until it was changed on the next album to Lennon/McCartney. Many, many years later, Paul would cause a furor over switching to McCartney/Lennon. Yoko was especially pissed though I don’t see why anyone would care some 40 years later.
As a little game we’ll play throughout the 13 original albums and past masters collections is to tally all the yeahs and loves (two words the Beatles used A LOT) and in the end we’ll see which word was uttered the most. Now, I will only count it when they say love, or loves not “loving” or “loved,” or any other part of speech of it.
The Album
1) I Saw Her Standing There
What a way to open up the Beatles recording career. This high-tempoed number is exciting and brilliant at the same time. In my opinion, George unleashes one of his best solos (from the early years) and it’s still a favorite of mine. Paul is always the best when he’s screaming like this and this is no exception.
Yeah Count: 1
Love Count: 3
2) Misery
This is an early Lennon/McCartney song and while it’s ok, it’s nowhere near as good as things they’ll write in the next few years. It’s a decent song but nothing too great or memorable (unless you’re a crazy ass diehard Beatles fan like myself who takes tallies of Yeahs and Loves in Beatles songs).
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
3) Anna (Go To Him)
Written by some guy named Alexander, and I’m pretty embarrassed right now, as I have no idea where this song originally came from. Anyway, it’s the Beatles covering it and I have no clue if it’s close to the original or not. The Beatles put their own spin on it and it’s like the rest of the album, not bad.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 7
4) Chains
Written by Goffin/King but originally done in America by some group of R&B female singers. The Beatles do an alright effort but it’s freakin’ CHAINS for crying out loud. That’s something that the Beatles wouldn’t do past 1965, put other people’s songs on their album. I think they wanted songs people would recognize and since no one wrote their own songs anyway I guess the producers didn’t want to take a chance with all Lennon/McCartney tunes and generally, listening back some 40 years, that when listening to the earlier albums I prefer the songs the Beatles wrote and generally don’t like the covers they did.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 8
5) Boys
Remember what I wrote above about covers? This is one I don’t like at all. The song isn’t that good, they just needed Ringo to sing on one song I guess. George whips out a vintage 1960’s rock solo that I always love and it’s the only redeeming thing about this song.
Yeah Count: 34
Love Count: 0
6) Ask Me Why
After covering three songs in a row, the Beatles whip out this song which is incredibly catchy and a hidden gem on this album. Obviously there are the famous three songs (I Saw Her Standing There, Please Please Me and Love Me Do) but the Beatles showed on this album that they were very capable songwriters.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 6
7) Please Please Me
42 years later and it’s still as catchy then as it was now. Unbelievable. I mean, this is from the same band that would change its music style drastically in the 3-4 years following this, but this song is still as good.
Yeah Count: 6
Love Count: 2
8) Love Me Do
The Beatles first ever number one song. I don’t like it as much as other songs on the album, but for a three-chord song, it doesn’t get much better than this.
Yeah Count: 3
Love Count: 26
9) P.S. I Love You
I have always really liked this song for no particular reason. I think I always liked the songs that the general population may not know, but I also have fond memories of listening to it on the Oldies stations as a child.
Yeah Count: 1
Love Count: 15
10) Baby Its You
Remember what I said about bad covers? For some reason, I have enjoyed this as a cover. It’s not that great or anything, and I probably SHOULDN’T like it, but I do. It has a nice solo in it, that’s totally easy, and it’s something the Beatles really wouldn’t do the rest of the way, covering songs like this.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 2
11) Do You Want to Know A Secret
George gets a chance to lay down some vocals here and it’s a nice song. I love the chord changes in it and shows that even a simple song with a verse and a chorus can be good if recorded well.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 4
12) A Taste of Honey
A really good cover version, sung by Paul, that has been almost forgotten over the years. If this were a record, the B-side would definitely be my favorite as every song is enjoybale, even the covers.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
13) There’s A Place
Another lost classic on the early album. Most of their works before 1965 were like the average pop song of the time. Talking of a love and using either me or you or we etc. This one is kind of different and showed how capable Lennon/McCartney were at writing and what better things would come.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 1
14) Twist and Shout
Probably the Beatles best cover song, and probably there most famous cover thanks to Ferris Bueler’s Day Off. It’s a great rocking song and one of the last songs they recorded that day. John was losing his voice and had only a few tries at the song and nails an amazing screaming vocal.
Yeah Count: 1
Love Count: 0
The Liner Notes
It’s 8 pages long. The first page is the cover and the second lists the members of the Beatles. Page 3 has the track listings. Pages 4-6 contains an essay written by then Beatles publicist Tony Barrow. Page 7 has the CD audio information and page 8 has pictures of the boys and the apple logo.
The Sound
This was recorded WAY back in 1963 using analog tapes and only 4 track tapes to boot. It sounds really good for its age. Nowhere near the standards of today, but the Beatles sounding like this is better than anything released now, in my totally unbiased opinion!
The Final Review
It’s the Beatles first album. What more do I need to say? Its historical significance is being felt even today. It’s worth at least a listen to see what all the fuss was about back then. Truth be told, the early Beatles albums don’t stand up well today as they did when they were first released. Their later albums would be considered masterpieces today, but the early stuff was really cookie-cutter pop music and sounds similar to any other British Pop band at the time. Of course, they were the originaters and I still love some of the early songs Lennon/McCartney wrote.
Out of the 13 Beatles albums, I love it, but I can’t place it any higher than 11 out of 13.
Final Rating:
7.5
Final Yeah Count: 46
Final Love Count: 74
Cumulative Yeah Count: 46
Cumalative Love Count: 74
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