March 22, 20232 yr Please Please Me It's 60 years ago today that the Beatles' debut album was released. There were 14 tracks which included the two previous singles and their B sides which I've already covered so I'm just going to review the remaining 10 songs. I've played the album a few times now on Spotify so I'm reasonably familiar with the songs I didn't already know. I Saw Her Standing There - The ten songs were all recorded in one day (11th February) so they're pretty much all performed live as they would be at a concert and the opening track starts with a "1,2,3,4" count in. I knew this one quite well already, it has Paul on lead vocal and is a great upbeat start to the album with lyrics about teenage love and time for a guitar solo in the middle. Misery - The second track has Paul and John sharing the vocals and is about the break up of a relationship. I liked the piano part that was played by George Martin. At 1.48, this is the shortest track. It was written for Helen Shapiro but her manager didn't like it and Kenny Lynch recorded it instead before the Beatles' own version but his single wasn't a chart hit. Anna (Go To Him) - This is the longest track but still under three minutes. It's the first cover version, the original was by Arthur Alexander in 1962. John Lennon delivers a suitably angst ridden vocal for this song about two men in love with the same woman. Chains - George sings the lead vocal on this cover of a Goffin & King song that was a hit for the girl group The Cookies. This is my least favourite so far, there's nothing to make it stand out. Boys - I wasn't expecting George and Ringo to be singing lead vocals as early as this but here we have Ringo's song. It's another cover of a girl group song, The Shirelles recorded it as the B side of their 1960 single 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow'. It has a raw, informal sound to it and I'm guessing it's only on the album because it was part of their live set at the time. I preferred it to Chains. Baby It's You - This is another Shirelles song, this time from 1961. John sings the lead with a lot of "sha la la la" backing vocals from the others. I like the drum sound and guitar solo on this so it's an improvement on the last two tracks. Do You Want To Know A Secret - I know this one from the Stars On 45 Beatles medley from 1981. I still expect it to segue into We Can Work It Out. It's a good song with George having the lead vocal for the second time on the album. A Taste Of Honey - I reviewed Acker Bilk's version of this on my 1963 thread recently. The original was also an instrumental but there have been vocal versions before this one. Paul puts in a good vocal and there's a bluesy sound to the guitars. There's A Place - I like the vocal harmonies on this one and the harmonica is used again. Twist And Shout - The most streamed track on the album and probably the best known. John was suffering from a cold throughout the one day recording session which explains his strained vocal at the end of the busy day. Looking back now, it probably adds to the song's appeal. With the singles thrown in, this is a very good debut but still with room for improvement.
March 22, 20232 yr Never bothered to buy this one :o I have heard almost all the tracks (if not all of them) but the 3 singles are stand outs (I ignore the EP exclusive charts of the time in the official charts, sorry Record Chart Books but the EP's did as much for promoting tracks as the singles did, I know cos I was there and Twist & Shout was far and away the biggest, best-known track along with Please Please Me). Twist & Shout is a 10/10 by any standard. PS I Love You was decent enough, I Saw Her Standing There was a hit for Elton & John Lennon, Billy J had a hit with Secret, and The Fabs had a live version hit with Baby It's You in the 90's. So 6 hits isn't too shabby for a debut album (ignoring their other covers of older hit songs). Most of the covers don't improve on the original versions though, bar twist & Shout, so I see them as filler by and large....
March 22, 20232 yr Author Ooh I had a Beatles marathon today without even realising it was the anniversary *.* I love reading other people's thoughts on their albums, especially the earlier ones as they don't seem to get covered quite as much, understandable with them being less revered. I suppose it's hard to get too excited at this stage, with the record being covers heavy, but it clearly did the job at the time and I do go back to the debut more than a couple of their other albums. Both of my grandparents bought it at the time and passed on one of their copies to me :wub: 'I Saw Her Standing There' is definitely my favourite, the energy is infectious.
March 22, 20232 yr Hope the two members cover Viva Forever soon!! Would like to hear a Beatles interpretation of a Spicemania classic; and VF hasr most Beatles-like sound.
April 21, 20232 yr Thank You Girl (B side of From Me To You) I'm not so keen on this one. I liked Ringo's drumming on it and the harmonica is there again but I can see why it was only a B side. Paul and John sing the vocal together but I can hear John much more than Paul. The lyrics could be interpreted as being about a particular person but Paul said the song was a way of thanking each girl that had written a fan letter to the band. cGka0tXQYAI
April 21, 20232 yr Would you guys be interested in a Beatles singles rate, similar to the one that’s been done for Queen?
April 21, 20232 yr One possibility I mentioned before would be to do the Blue and Red albums which would be about the same size as the Queen rate, but that’s just one idea. :)
April 21, 20232 yr Including double A sides and all the tracks on the Magical Mystery Tour EP, I make it 44 Beatles songs that can be said to be Top 75 hits. I think that’s a fair number, if we ask people to give a top 40 out of that? All You Need Is Love Ain’t She Sweet Can’t Buy Me Love Come Together Baby It’s You Back in the USSR The Ballad of John and Yoko The Beatles Movie Medley Blue Jay Way Day Tripper Eleanor Rigby I Feel Fine Flying The Fool on the Hill Free as a Bird From Me to You Get Back A Hard Day’s Night Hello Goodbye Help! Here Comes the Sun Hey Jude I Am the Walrus I Want to Hold Your Hand Lady Madonna Let It Be Love Me Do Magical Mystery Tour My Bonnie Paperback Writer Penny Lane Please Please Me Real Love Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band She Loves You Something Strawberry Fields Forever Ticket to Ride Twist and Shout We Can Work It Out With a Little Help from My Friends Yellow Submarine Yesterday Your Mother Should Know
April 22, 20232 yr Sounds good to me. I guess realistically we probably wouldn’t get much more than 10 voters as there aren’t that many 60s fans on the forum, but I suppose that wouldn’t really matter.
April 22, 20232 yr One possibility I mentioned before would be to do the Blue and Red albums which would be about the same size as the Queen rate, but that’s just one idea. :) It's 50 years ago since they came out this week-ish, and they include most of the essential stuff, so that would be my preference, but happily also go for the actual tracks that charted too. I would be shocked if opportunist release My Bonnie didnt come last though.... :o There might be an argument that opportunistic contemporary copycat cover versions of their album tracks should also be included? Michelle Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da Got To Get You Into My Life You've Got To Hide Your Love Away or alternatively, if we're including the Magical Mystery Tour tracks we should also really include tracks from their other EP's which did make a lot of 60's music charts too - they were just excluded from the OCC charts of the time and exiled to a separate EP chart until the rules changed later in the decade: Thank You Girl * A Taste Of Honey Do You Want To Know A Secret (Hit for Billy J Kramer) There's A Place * I Saw Her Standing There * Misery Anna Chains All My Loving* Ask Me Why Money PS I Love You * Long Tall Sally I Call Your Name Slow Down * Matchbox Any Time At All I'll Cry Instead * Things We said Today I Should Have Known Better * If I Fell Tell Me Why And I Love Her * No Reply I'm A Loser Rock And Roll Music Eight Days A Week * I'll Follow The Sun Baby's In Black Words Of Love I Don;t Want To Spoil The Party * Act Naturally * You Like Me Too Much It's Only Love Nowhere Man Drive My Car Michelle You Won't See Me But that would it too many - Could add in the US singles chart hits instead (there's still loads!!) (*) So maybe just drop the EP tracks altogether except for I Am The Walrus (B side to Hello Goodbye, it was basically outselling everything when they were 1 & 2 in the singles chart Xmas 1967 and it featured on both discs) and lead track Magical Mystery Tour, which was also the main track of the Xmas TV movie they did then. I Am The Walrus * Rain * Revolution *
April 22, 20232 yr OK The Beatles next, then I’ll do ABBA haha There was an ABBA one in the pop forum around when Voyage came out, not that I’d ever object to more ABBA: http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=250311 http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s...713&hl=Abba Edited April 22, 20232 yr by JulianT
April 22, 20232 yr OK, I’ve missed the boat with ABBA haha. Let’s try and keep it as objective as possible with the Beatles shortlist if that’s OK - OCC Top 75 hits, including double A sides and EP tracks. I think 44 is manageable number for a couple of listen throughs, and there’s some less well known stuff there that might do surprisingly well?
May 10, 20232 yr Well deserved too! I’m up to ‘Revolver’ now in my listening to all the Beatles albums, only given it a few spins though. The previous album was of course ‘Rubber Soul’ and have to say it’s my favourite album so far, some fantastic stuff on it such as ‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘Drive My Car’, ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘Michelle’, ‘In My Life’, ‘Wait’ and ‘If I Need Someone’ all 10/10s for me!
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