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Meet The Beatles! is the second Beatles' album released in the United States, despite the "first album" claim on its cover. Released on 20 January 1964, it was the first Capitol Records Beatles album, issued in both mono and stereo. Capitol is a sister company to Parlophone, the Beatles' British label, and both are subsidiaries of EMI.

Ten days prior to the release of Meet the Beatles!, Chicago's Vee-Jay Records released The Beatles' first album, Introducing... The Beatles, which had been delayed for release from the previous summer. Perhaps as a result of the Vee-Jay release, Liberty Music Shops advertised in the New York Times of 12 January 1964 that Meet The Beatles was available for purchase, an ad not authorised by Capitol.^[2]

The cover featured Robert Freeman's portrait that was used for the UK With The Beatles release with a tinted blue hue added to the original, stark black-and-white photograph.

"Meet The Beatles!" reached the number one spot on Billboard album charts starting on 15 February 1964. It remained at number one for an impressive 11 weeks before being replaced by "The Beatles' Second Album"; the first time that an artist replaced itself at the number one album position.

In 2004, the album was released on CD in stereo and mono as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 box set with the catalogue number CDP 7243 8 66875 2 4.

In 2003, Meet The Beatles! was ranked number 59 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[3]

Music[link]

Meet The Beatles! opens with the December 1963 Capitol single "I Want to Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There", and the B-side "This Boy" from the original November 1963 Parlophone single of "I Want to Hold Your Hand". It contains many of the tracks from the earlier British album With The Beatles and shares the same cover photograph. However, "You Really Got a Hold On Me", "Devil in Her Heart", "Money (That's What I Want)", "Please Mister Postman" and "Roll Over Beethoven" were omitted from Meet The Beatles! and released on the next Capitol album, The Beatles' Second Album.^[4] The latter two tracks were also released on the EP Four by The Beatles.^[5]

The track "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was originally released as a UK (and US) single A-side and "This Boy" was originally released on the "I Want to Hold Your Hand" B-side in the UK. "I Saw Her Standing There" was from Please Please Me, and the remaining tracks were from With The Beatles. The songs "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "This Boy" are also in duophonic [fake] stereo, due to the lack of a proper stereo mix that was supposed to be given to Capitol. In addition, "I Saw Her Standing There" has a special mono remix done specifically for the American single and album release.

Track listing[link]

All tracks written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except where noted. See also: Lennon–McCartney.

Side one

1. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" – 2:24
2. "I Saw Her Standing There" – 2:50
3. "This Boy" – 2:11
4. "It Won't Be Long" – 2:11
5. "All I've Got to Do" – 2:05
6. "All My Loving" – 2:04

Side two

7. "Don't Bother Me" (George Harrison) – 2:28
8. "Little Child" – 1:46
9. "Till There Was You" (Meredith Willson) – 2:12
10. "Hold Me Tight" – 2:30
11. "I Wanna Be Your Man" – 1:59
12. "Not a Second Time" – 2:03

Personnel[link]

• John Lennon – rhythm guitar, harmonica, vocals
• Paul McCartney – bass guitar, vocals
• George Harrison – lead guitar, vocals
• Ringo Starr – drums, vocals
• George Martin – piano, producer

Notes[link]

References[link]

• "The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 18 November 2003. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time/. Retrieved 13 November 2009. 
• Spizer, Bruce (2000). The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part Two: The Albums. New Orleans, Louisiana: 498 Productions. ISBN 0-9662649-2-4. 

External links[link]

• Bruce Spizer's The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part One: Beatlemania and the Singles website
• Bruce Spizer's The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part Two: The Albums website
• WhatGoesOn.com - Beatles Capitol Albums Vol. 1 now two weeks away article