Review #197: Meet the Beatles!, The Beatles
#197: Meet the Beatles!, The Beatles
Just four more Beatles albums to go! At least this one has the honor of being the first Beatles album to enter the US album charts, which is for the best. Introducing is not as good, thoughit does have “Twist and Shout.”
Notice I specified US album charts — this is essentially a rejiggering of the UK release called With The Beatles, with some additions and minus some cover songs. Some of the covers on the UK release are pretty slamming: “Roll Over Beethoven” by Chuck Berry, “You Really Got A Hold On Me” by Smokey Robinson, and “Money (That’s What I Want)” by Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford.
As a Beatles lover, I was delighted to hear more of the Beatles. As a writer with a job to do, I groaned. What am I supposed to say about the Beatles that hasn’t been said before? Ringo is underrated! Paul is the cutest! George grew the best-looking mustache! John Lennon!
Well, this album was released before anyone had said any of that.
FAVORITE SONGS:
“I Want To Hold Your Hand” — The Beatles love songs from this era are my favorite. Such delicious harmonies. Also, if you’ve ever seen that kinda bad Across The Universe movie, this song is one of the best covers.
“I Saw Her Standing There” — Yeah, this is the Well, she was just seventeen/You know what I mean song. Listen, it was a different time.
“It Won’t Be Long” — Yeah! (Yeah!) Yeah! (Yeah!) Yeah! (Yeah!)
“All I’ve Got To Do” — Love these harmonies, too. You just gotta call on me!
“All My Loving” — Long distance relationship songs. Can you imagine doing that back in 1964, when there were no cell phones?
“Don’t Bother Me” — George “Best Looking Mustache” Harrison sings on this one! (Another long distance relationship song, by the way.)
“Till There Was You” — One of the covers they were wise to keep. Originally by Meredith Wilson, this is actually a show tune from The Music Man! The guitar on this is so lovely and unique — I feel like at this stage in their career, they’re pretty much a cookie cutter pop band, but you can tell that they had some wild creativity up their sleeves.
“I Wanna Be Your Man” — Ringo sings.
LEAST FAVORITE SONGS:
“Little Child” — Same age weirdness as “I Saw Her Standing There,” but slightly less catchy. Actually, it reminds me of a scene from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
IS RS FULL OF IT?
I’m Team Musical Diversity all the way, but I think this album deserves its spot. It was their US break, it has the hand holding song. They were only together for ten years, but they’re going to be talked about until ten years after the universe itself explodes.
