You really got a hold of me (The Beatles) (113)

The classic version

The Beatles With The Beatles (CDs/ Vinyl - Parlophone, 1963) ***
The Beatles Meet The Beatles (Vinyl - Apple, 1963 ***

Genre: Beatles pop

Places I remember: The vinyl came from Noel Forth via swap deals - the American version (Meet...) is on Apple! The Australian vinyl of With... has a really bad cover (not the classic shadow one) and the various CDs are from either NZ or Kings Recording in Abu Dhabi (the remastered box set).

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: It Won't Be Long - for John's vocals!




Gear costume: Don't Bother Me 

My vinyl Aussie version

Active compensatory factors: The difficult second album: With The Beatles is a bit of a mixed bag. The first side gets off to a roaring start with four stone cold classics before John's weak Little Child and Paul's cringe inducing Till There Was You shake the side up, Please Mr Postman ends things well enough, but it's a cover and (whisper it) kind of slight.

Side 2 has some great moments and ends strongly with John's brilliant Money cover, but along the way we have Ringo's less than stellar take on the knock off I Wanna Be Your Man and the weakish Devil In Her Heart. A mixed bag, as I said.

Meet The Beatles is the American version and is even more piecemeal; it includes some singles (I Want To Hold Your Hand) and choice cuts off Please Please Me (I Saw Her Standing There) along with those less than stellar songs from With The Beatles. Weird.

Where do they all belong? Next up:  A Hard Day's Night. Back on track in a big way!