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This was the Beatles second British release and actually came out on November 22nd, 1963. Astute history buffs will know that day to be the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The album is perhaps more famous for it’s cover (the black and white shaded picture) than for any of the songs on the album. Other than that, I don’t know what else to say about it!
The Album
1) It Won’t Be Long
This is a nice uptempo number to start things off. The Beatles would usually do that on the early albums, put a nice rousing number to start (and usually to end) and it worked well for them. It gets you pumped for the album. There’s more yeahs on this song than probably any other in history. I love the little riffs George throws in the song and it really compliments it well.
Yeah Count: 55
Love Count: 0
2) All I’ve Got to Do
This is a slower number that has some concise guitar parts to enter and picks up for the choruses. There’s really not much else to say. It’s not too well known but it’s an alright song.
Yeah Count: 7
Love Count: 0
3) All My Loving
Probably the most famous song on the record, this was also the first song the Beatles played on their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. John Lennon shines on guitar here as he does the crazy strumming that fits the song to a T. George throws in a nice good ol’ countryish solo and it’s without a doubt the best song on the album.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
4) Don’t Bother Me
This is a momentous song to say the least. It is the first song George Harrison wrote and recorded. It is definitely a lot different from anything he wrote in his later years, but you can already see how he was souring on fame. Don’t bother me, leave me alone. Nice guitar solo too.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
5) Little Child
Brace yourselves, it’s all down hill from here. This song is probably one of my least favorite Beatles songs ever. It just doesn’t click. I don’t know what it is, I just don’t like it.
Yeah Count: 3
Love Count: 0
6) Till There Was You
A nice ballad sung by Paul. This was written by a person named Wilson and is best known from the play, The Music Man. I really like this song as a cover and there’s some nice guitar playing all around and Paul does a great voice for the slower things.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 2
7) Please Mister Postman
Yes, the Beatles covered this. The song is just your average cover song as there’s nothing too interesting going on.
Yeah Count: 15
Love Count: 0
8) Roll Over Beethoven
The covers continue as George tackles this Chuck Berry tune. It’s basically the Beatles doing a Chuck Berry song note for note. It’s not bad but again, there’s nothing new added and I could hear it done better by the original guy who wrote it.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
9) Hold Me Tight
Another filler song. It’s a very repetitive song. There’s like 2 verses repeated over and over. The rhythm guitar/bass overpowers the song sometimes and makes it really hard to get into it.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 2
10) You Really Got A Hold On Me
Remember what I said about Roll Over Beethoven? This song is like the same. I’ve heard it before and this adds nothing new to it.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 5
11) I Wanna Be Your Man
The Beatles wrote this song as a favor to the Rolling Stones and it was the Stones first big hit in Britain. So the Beatles kind of started the Stones career. The Beatles took a stab at it and gave it to Ringo to sing. The song is alright, just a straight up rocker. The Stones did it well too, but I don’t think I prefer any one version over the other. I think the Stones had a better solo on it (thanks to Brian Jones) but the Beatles one seemed more energetic.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 6
12) Devil In Her Heart
A cover of a song I have never heard of before. As a rule, The Beatles covering other peoples songs are nice, but I really don’t like them.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
13) Not a Second Time
Another throwaway song. It’s not really that memorable and I guess the distinguishing characteristic would be the organ/piano that plays the bassline the whole song and solo.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
14) Money
Hmm, it worked on the first album. Cover an energetic song to end the album and have John sing it till his throat is raw. This is pretty good but the vocals seem far off in a way. I don’t know if that’s because of the audio or because they isolated the vocals from another track and put it on over the playing but it sounds weird in a way.
Yeah Count: 8
Love Count: 0
The Liner Notes
There are 12 pages to this one. The first one is the cover, and the 2nd is the band line-up. Pages 3, 7, 9 and 12 show each Beatles and is taken from the album cover. Pages 4 and 5 show the track listings as well as the authors of the songs and producers. Pages 6, 8 and 10 have an essay written by then Beatles publicist, Tony Barrow. Page 11 is the usual CD information.
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
Easily one of the worst Beatles albums, they really just did the same thing as the first album. It was the same formula. They had 14 songs with 6 covers. There was a cover of an energetic song to finish, their own energetic song to start, and 12 songs in between. This album doesn’t have the charm as the first and the songs aren’t as good. The covers aren’t as good and it seems Lennon/McCartney didn’t have a decent song between them at this point. Things would get better with the next album though, so don’t fret! I guess there were too many “Yeah’s” on this record.
Out of the 13 Beatles albums, this one is easily my least favorite. 13th out of 13.
Final Rating:
6.0
Final Yeah Count: 88
Final Love Count: 15
Cumulative Yeah Count: 134
Cumalative Love Count: 89
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