Long time readers of my blog will remember last year I had a song of the day posting for most days. Back in March I did a special week of Beatles postings, focusing on what I called middle Beatles. This middle period for The Beatles was from 1965 to 1967 and featured the albums Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers, and Magical Mystery Tour. This is certainly my favorite of the Beatles catalog and I think the most creative of all of their work. I also spent a week focusing on the self titled album The Beatles (aka the White Album) which is perhaps the most disjointed of all of their work.
This week I want to get back looking at Beatles work (pun intended 🙂 ) and focus on the early Beatles. I am not going to go over the band’s history, but suffice it to say that by 1963 the band had solidified and recorded their first album, Please, Please Me in March of 1963. The album did well in the UK but was not released in the US. It was not until January 1964 that their singles were being played on the radio in the US, and by the time they were on the Ed Sullivan show in February they were a major hit and Beatlemania was an official word in the US as well as the UK.
The albums produced in this period were Please, Please Me; With the Beatles; A Hard Day’s Night; and Beatles for Sale. There were also a few singles recorded that did not make any of the albums. I am going to highlight one album each day (with a song pick for the day) and on Friday choose my top three from the period.
Please, Please Me was released in March of 1963 following up on the major success in the UK of the singles Please, Please Me and Love Me Do. The most startling thing of this album was that of the fourteen songs on the album, eight were written by Lennon and McCartney. They can easily be credited as creating the “self contained” rock band, writing their own songs and playing their own instruments. The album is sometimes ranked as the best of the early albums, and I think it clearly established the group as the best rock band of the day.
I have three picks from this album. The first is the first song on the album, I Saw Her Standing There is perhaps not as well known as Love Me Do, or the title song, but I think a better song and really shows off their talents. The second is also less popular, Do You Want to Know a Secret. Here we can see more of their vocal talent which was often not as highlighted on the earliest songs. Finally the last song on the album, Twist and Shout, while not written by Lennon/McCartney, is perhaps one of the best recordings and certainly one of the most well known from the band.
Enjoy!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZThkK7KjIo]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkbUHMA-yF0]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6TIEkB4_F8]