I'll always be true (The Beatles) #15 - 20 of 300 singles

Okay folks - hunker down for a doozy series of posts cos we've now reached The Beatles corner of my singles collection. Batches of five I think.

The Beatles Love Me Do/ P.S. I Love You   (Parlophone R 4949*, 1962)

The Beatles Please Please Me/ Ask Me Why   (Parlophone R 4983, 1963)

The Beatles From Me To You/ Thank You Girl   (Parlophone R 5015, 1963)

The Beatles She Loves You/ I'll Get You   (Parlophone R 5055, 1963)

The Beatles I Want To Hold Your Hand/ This Boy   (Parlophone R 5084, 1963)

The Beatles were a killer singles band. The best ever, and there is healthy competition for the title. The Beach Boys, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Bay City Rollers (just checking you were paying attention) - all great singles bands.

None of them can match the fabs.

What a roll call of hits. One after the other in quick succession and the quality just kept getting better (all the time). Within the space of five singles they'd conquered the world.

Amazingly only the first two singles (A + B sides) appeared on albums at the time (talking proper UK albums here, not the cobbled together US versions). Prolific and great value for money!

The other glaring fact is how John dominated the singles in the early days - all the lead vocals here are by Johnny Rhythm, although it's also clear how he and Macca combine their voices so well on these early ones. And check out those pronouns!

* I have multiple copies/pressings of Beatle singles/E.P.s and so the default numbers I've used will be the English versions.

Hidden gems: no fluff on any of these but This Boy is a key song. Lennon and those FAB harmonies are knockouts.