After the success of Please Please Me, the group recorded the next album, With the Beatles, four months after they recorded the first one. Like the first album, this one was a mix of original material and covers. 8 new songs appear here including the first from George Harrison (with the exceptions of A Hard Day’s Night and Beatles for Sale there would always be at least one Harrison song on each album).
Like Please Please Me, the album was recorded on a two track tape recorder with the vocals on one track and the instruments on the other. They were mixed into a mono version as well as a stereo. The album was released in the UK on November 22, 1963 on the Parlophone label. In the US most of the songs were on the album Meet the Beatles!, released on January 20, 1964 with a few on the next US Capitol release, The Beatles’ Second Album. The album quickly displaced Please Please Me on the UK charts in the number one spot which it held for 21 weeks (together with Please Please Me, the Beatles held the top spot for 51 consecutive weeks). This was also the second album to sell over a million copies in the UK, and the first rock album (the previous was the South Pacific soundtrack).
The album was released as a mono LP in the US in 1987 as well as a mono CD at the same time. Like with Please Please Me, the current stereo re-master is the first time the stereo mix has been released on CD.
One final note, I think that as George Martin became more comfortable with the group and learned how they operated, the stereo mixes start to become as good as the mono.
Roll Over Beethoven – Stereo wins. Being a great R&B/Rock song from Chuck Berry, I really wanted to choose stereo over the mono here, and I was happy to do so. This wonderful cover of the Chuck Berry hit is a standard rock and roll song so dependent on the guitars. At the beginning of the song, I was about to pick Mono because the guitar solo only came from the one side, but later there is a wonderful mix of the instruments on both sides.
Hold Me Tight – I was never a big fan of this song, until I heard a great cover of it (in the movie Across the Universe) which I feel is the best version of the song! But choosing between the two here, I pick the Stereo because the wonderful guitars and bass are balanced on the two sides perfectly.
You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me – I just have to use the first few bars to pick the stereo version here. The piano is so much cleaner on the stereo mix.
I Wanna Be Your Man – Mono is far superior. I find no difference between the two except that the vocals are in the center on the mono so that makes it win.
Devil In Her Heart – Tie. The drums and guitars are so much better in the stereo but the vocals better in the mono.
Not A Second Time – Tie. There are things in the stereo that you just cannot hear in the mono but again the vocals in the center bring up the mono.
Money – Stereo wins. This is perhaps the best of the stereo mixed songs from the early albums. Although the vocals are only on the right the far superior bass and piano make the stereo the winner here.
Here are the two versions of Money, and as an added bonus, Hold Me Tight from the movie “Across The Universe.”
Enjoy!
Mono
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQCb6s9A6mw]
Stereo
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEY20X55Dqw]
Hold me Tight from Across The Universe (extended version – you may need to turn up the volume for this) I can write a whole posting just on this one scene!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8oOk26Q24g]