With the Beatles (Stereo - 2009 remaster)

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Disc 1

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About

From the liner notes:

Historical Notes

With The Beatles was released in the UK on 22nd November, 1963. In the time that had elapsed since their debut album’s release in March, The Beatles had dominated the British pop scene. Please Please Me topped the album chart for seven months, Twist And Shout became the year’s best selling EP and three singles reached number one ‘Please Please Me’ (in most charts), ‘From Me To You’ and ‘She Loves You’. The Beatles’ work schedule throughout 1963 was unrelenting with over two hundred concert engagements all over the country, dozens of radio and television shows and their first international tour in Sweden.

The term ‘Beatlemania’ was coined by the press to describe the fan hysteria aroused by the group but as an appearance on The Royal Variety Show demonstrated, their popularity stretched way beyond the teenage market. Casting aside the usual LP formula, none of the fourteen tracks on With The Beatles was released as a single. It also broke new ground for a pop album through its distinctive front cover featuring Robert Freeman’s stylish black and white photograph of The Beatles’ faces in moody half-shadow. It was a striking change from the cheery images usually associated with pop music. With The Beatles replaced Please Please Me as the best selling album in the country and, because its weekly sales were so impressive, it was even listed for several weeks on the singles chart. The first LP by British recording artists to sell a million, it was number one for 21 of the 51 weeks it stayed in the Top Twenty.

The week after the new album arrived in the shops, The Beatles released their fifth single ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. It quickly became their fourth UK number one and was the song that first captivated the USA when it was rush-released on 26th December, 1963. It was soon accompanied by their first Capitol album Meet The Beatles, using the same cover shot as With The Beatles but with a different track listing. Five of the six cover versions had been sidelined and substituted with both songs on the first Capitol single ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ plus the British B-side ‘This Boy’.

When The Beatles returned home after a brief but all-conquering visit to the States in early February, Meet The Beatles had already begun an eleven week stay at the top of the US album charts. It yielded the number one slot to The Beatles’ Second Album which rounded up the five unused With The Beatles songs and a variety of singles and EP tracks. While American fans were falling in love with songs from the previous year, The Beatles had already moved on to make their first movie and soundtrack album A Hard Day’s Night…

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With The Beatles

Recording Notes

Produced by George Martin

Principal Engineer: Norman Smith

With The Beatles took longer to make than the previous album Please Please Me but, even so, its fourteen songs were recorded in just 28 hours spread over six days. The sessions with George Martin were squeezed into The Beatles’ hectic 1963 schedule between 18th July and 23rd October.

As with their previous discs, all the songs were recorded on twin-track tape machines and overdubbing frequently revealed the inconvenience of that technology. The need for more tracks was particularly apparent during the recording of ‘Money’. Overdubbing using twin-track machines was achieved by copying the first recording to another tape while at the same time adding more instruments or vocals. ‘Money’ required this process to be repeated yet again onto a third tape. But before the album was completed, a session for their next single marked the beginning of a new phase of Beatles studio work. ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ and ‘This Boy’ were recorded on a four-track tape machine, which allowed much greater flexibility. After With The Beatles the group never returned to twin-track recording.

In addition to the extra vocal and instrumental overdubs for the album, there was another reason for the greater time spent on the second album. With their confidence growing in the studio, if they thought their performance could be improved or might benefit from a new arrangement, they would abandon a recording after several takes and start afresh on another occasion. As their music progressed and studio time became more plentiful, Beatles re-recordings were much more frequent. Indeed, the contrast between the sessions for their early and late sixties albums is remarkable. As their arrangements grew more complex, the hours needed to finish one song could sometimes equal the studio time spent making their first two albums in 1963.

With The Beatles was released at a time when mono was the preferred format and stereo records sold to a small number of hi-fi enthusiasts. The twin-track recordings formed the basis of this stereo album but their original purpose was to achieve a good balance between the instruments recorded on one track and the vocals on the other when creating the final mono master.

This remastered album has been created from the original stereo analogue master tapes.

Remastered by Sam Okell, Steve Rooke and Guy Massey

Project Co-ordinator: Allan Rouse

Thanks to Simon Gibson

Historical Notes: Kevin Howlett and Mike Heatley

Recording Notes: Allan Rouse and Kevin Howlett

Project management for EMI Records Ltd: Wendy Day and Guy Hayden