Any Time at All

Did The Beatles save rock and roll?

If John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr didn't save the still-young form, they certainly gifted it with a reinvigorating, exhilarating jolt of musical euphoria the likes of which hadn't been seen before - and hasn't been duplicated since.  The scene was early 1964.  Buddy Holly was long gone, and the big hits had dried up - at the moment, at least - for Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.  Elvis had served his time in the Army and was spending most of his time in Hollywood cranking out innocuous pop pictures.  Of course, all was far from lost.  The rise of the Brill Building led to some of the most well-crafted, immaculately-produced records of all time, though many of those were as indebted to classic Tin Pan Alley songwriting as to the youthful spirit of rock and roll.

Enter The Beatles.  By the end of the year, the group had charted 28 records in the U.S. Hot 100 (11 in the top 10) and released five albums on Capitol plus one soundtrack on United Artists.  Capitol had a lot of catching up to do to sate the seemingly insatiable demand for the music of the Liverpudlian quartet.  Those heady early days in which The Beatles began the charge that would transform "rock and roll" into "rock" are chronicled anew on a stunning 8-LP box set from Capitol, Apple, and Universal.  The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono presents the unique albums released stateside at the birth of Beatlemania in brand-new, all-analog remasters by Kevin Reeves from the original U.S. tapes.  The audio issues that complicated (at best) or marred (at worst) the last CD presentation of this material in 2014 - a somewhat "Frankenstein"-ed affair, with many sources drawn from later (if arguably truer to The Beatles' intent) mixes - are wholly absent here, with Reeves genuinely and faithfully replicating the sound that jumped off the turntable and into the American consciousness some six decades ago.  [Every album in the box is also available for individual sale save the audio documentary double album The Beatles' Story which is exclusive to the box.]

Meet the Beatles!

From the time The Beatles broke into the British Top 20 in late 1962 with "Love Me Do," there was no turning back.  By the end of 1963, the hard-working band had scored five singles in the U.K. top 20, three of which went to No. 1.  Debut long-player Please Please Me was No. 1 on the U.K. Albums Chart for 30 weeks, only finally displaced with the arrival of sophomore LP With the Beatles.  The stage was set for world domination, and the key to that international success was America.  But could The Beatles repeat that level of success on American shores?

Dave Dexter Jr., head of Capitol's international A&R, had been rejecting Beatles singles since late 1962 and "Love Me Do."  Dexter's recalcitrance led to EMI entering into early licensing agreements with small, independent labels such as Vee-Jay and Swan. (Remember The Beatles vs. The Four Seasons?  Or Introducing...The Beatles?  Altogether unsurprisingly, they're not included in this box set!).  But the executive could only ignore the future Fabs for so long.  "She Loves You," turned down by Dexter for U.S. release, had become the first British record to sell one million copies prior to its release; With the Beatles sold 500,000 copies within a week of its release date.  Capitol had no choice but to pay attention to these numbers, especially given the small size of the U.K. compared to the U.S. market.  When Capitol finally acquiesced and signed the lads, Dexter was the one in charge of packaging the band's music for American audiences.

Meet the Beatles!, his first newly-created U.S. album, was based on With the Beatles, the group's second British LP.  Dexter top-loaded the album with hits ("I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There," both of which positively explode out of the speakers in these new remasters) and the then-fresh U.K. B-side "This Boy," with sparkling harmonies that are clear and distinct in the true mono mix here.  (All tracks other than "This Boy" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" were fold-downs from stereo.)  For the adults, Dexter made sure to include Meredith Willson's ballad "'Til There Was You" from The Music Man, a favorite of Paul's via Peggy Lee's Capitol recording.

The American producer cannily retained With the Beatles' now-famous Robert Freeman cover photograph. The Capitol art department added a blue tint to the stark U.K. B&W original and a new tag line: "The First Album by England's Phenomenal Pop Combo."  The 12-song LP (two songs down from the U.K. standard of 14, and sans all five of the covers on With the Beatles) arrived in stores on January 20, 1964, just weeks before the band debuted on the February 9 broadcast of The Ed Sullivan Show.  In his new liner notes, Bruce Spizer notes that some copies arrived in shops as early as January 11 to meet demand.  73 million viewers tuned in to Sullivan, a higher number than had watched any program in television history.  The reviews weren't all glowing; in fact, many were far from it.  But Beatlemania couldn't be stopped.  The ensuing frenzy was, perhaps, a manifestation of the power of the nascent youth culture, but soon the Fab Four dominated culture, period.

The American media was poised to rebel against this revolution, looking upon The Beatles' seemingly inevitable success with curiosity and distrust.  But America, still smarting from the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, was poised to accept these bright young men with all of their enormous promise, goofy humor, and messages of love and hope in their music.  What wasn't immediately evident except perhaps to the most perceptive listeners was the mélange of influences that informed The Beatles' revolutionary sound: showtunes, music hall ballads, rockabilly, country-and-western, Brill Building pop, and rhythm and blues, to name a few.  It didn't hurt that the boys' looks were as revolutionary as their music.  They offered audiences "the whole package."    The Beatles were frequently queried about how long such success could possibly last.  Even the most confident of them likely couldn't have imagined the fact that, 60 years later, their music would remain just as beloved, or perhaps even more.

Meet the Beatles! remained at No. 1 on the Billboard chart for eleven weeks, ceding only to The Beatles' Second Album.

Make me feel alright...

Second Album - one of the U.S. albums with no U.K. counterpart - was assembled by Dexter from those leftover covers from With the Beatles, plus a couple of tracks issued on 45 RPM by Swan ("She Loves You" and B-side "I'll Get You"), the B-side of Capitol's "Can't Buy Me Love" single (the scorching "You Can't Do That"), the B-side of Vee-Jay's "From Me to You" ("Thank You Girl"), and two songs from the film sessions for A Hard Day's Night ("I Call Your Name" and a cover of Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally").  Despite having only 11 songs (which would become standard practice for these U.S. records), Second Album was no mere filler; it remains one of the most potent, straight-ahead rock-and-soul albums in the Fabs' catalogue.  The Motown influence is undeniable with "Please Mr. Postman," "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," and "Money (That's What I Want)" all highlights, as is the wailing take on Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven."  If Dexter had wanted Meet the Beatles to also serve as an introduction to The Beatles as songwriters, Second Album showcased their interpretive skills, too.  Five of the LP's tracks are true mono with the others fold-downs; the only sonically disconcerting cut is the folded-down "Thank You Girl" with its lathered-on echo from the U.S. stereo mix present.

The lone non-Capitol LP in the box, the original United Artists Records soundtrack to A Hard Day's Night, is also one of the Fabs' most controversial albums.  UA only had access to the eight songs earmarked for the film ("A Hard Day's Night," "Tell Me Why," "I'll Cry Instead," "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You," "I Should Have Known Better," "If I Fell," "And I Love Her," "Can't Buy Me Love"), which was hardly sufficient for a full-length Beatles LP.  So the label brass turned to producer George Martin, who had recently signed to UA as an instrumental recording artist in the mold of Percy Faith or Jackie Gleason.  Martin would round out the soundtrack album with four orchestral treatments of Beatles songs, some of which resembled the score cues he orchestrated for the film and others not so much; either way, the addition of the Martin tracks resulted in a hybrid LP.  It didn't matter where record buyers were concerned.  A Hard Day's Night went to No. 1 Pop and broke records with its 14-week stay at the top.  The album (a far cry from the U.K. platter of the same title, despite sharing the same eight film songs) disappeared in the CD era until being restored to print in 2014, and makes for a delightful listen today.  Martin's contributions including a brassy "I Should Have Known Better," slinky, John Barry-esque "And I Love Her," and Brubeck-and-Desmond-influenced "A Hard Day's Night" enjoyably complement the Beatles originals.

Capitol wanted its piece of the Hard Day's Night songs, too, so another LP without a British counterpart was cooked up: Something New.  Thanks to a contractual quirk, Capitol couldn't release a proper soundtrack album but could release all of the same songs on both LPs and 45s.  So they did, quickly earning a million-seller with "A Hard Day's Night" as a single and earning further successes with "I'll Cry Instead" (ultimately not included in the film, but already on its soundtrack album)" and the sweet pairing of "And I Love Her" and "If I Fell."  But Capitol couldn't beat their competitor to the gates when UA issued the soundtrack LP in June.  The competing release was pushed up to July 20, and in order to attract listeners away from the UA soundtrack, the decision was made to emphasize that it was Something New.  Ads trumpeted its five songs never-before-heard in the U.S. ("Things We Said Today," "Any Time at All," "When I Get Home," and covers of Larry Williams' "Slow Down" and Carl Perkins' "Matchbox," the latter led by Ringo), ultimately propelling Something New to No. 2...right behind UA's A Hard Day's Night, meaning that the top two albums on the Billboard chart shared eight of the same songs.  It remains a mixed bag - even featuring the German-language version of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" - but a significant "all-Beatles" spin on the U.S. A Hard Day's Night.

Even with four albums released in six months (three on Capitol and one on United Artists), America couldn't get enough of The Beatles.  Capitol recorded the band's Hollywood Bowl concert on August 23, 1964 with the intention of getting a live album in stores for the lucrative holiday season, but George Martin and the group rejected its release.  Capitol wasn't ready to give up, yet, and instead assembled The Beatles' Story - apparently without any involvement from Martin, Brian Epstein, or the group.  The audio documentary was produced by Gary Usher and Roger Christian, both notable Beach Boys associates.  With a running time of under 50 minutes spread over four sides of vinyl, the album contained no complete Beatles performances.  Instead, snippets of their recordings - as well as lush instrumental covers by The Hollyridge Strings - were interspersed with ostensibly factual narration by John Babcock and Roger Christian, interviews, and even a brief sampling of the shelved Hollywood Bowl album.  Some of the segments are more wince-inducing than others ("Victims of Beatlemania" offers up the musings of parents unhappy with their kids' enjoyment of the mop tops), but most are merely florid.  The Beatles' Story has to be taken with a large grain of salt, but as an audio version of a teen magazine of the era, it's a suitably nostalgic bonus on this set and a reminder of a more innocent time that The Beatles were happily disrupting.  It wasn't the home run Capitol was expecting, but made it to No. 7 Pop and was certified Gold...not bad for an album with not one complete Beatle tune.  (The attractive and eye-popping gatefold package, replicated here, couldn't have hurt.)

After looking back with The Beatles' Story, Capitol's was ready to spring forward with its fifth and final Fab album of the year.  Hence, the name Beatles '65.  The album was based on the U.K. Beatles for Sale, even repeating the exact sequence of its first six songs on Side One ("No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Baby's in Black," Chuck Berry' "Rock and Roll Music," "I'll Follow the Sun," and Roy Lee Johnson's "Mr. Moonlight").  Dave Dexter scrapped "Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" from Beatles for Sale's Side One, and jettisoned all of Side Two except for two Carl Perkins covers: "Honey Don't" and the closing "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby," sung by Ringo and George, respectively.  (The six songs cut from Beatles for Sale would form the backbone of Beatles VI - but that's a story for another box set!)  To bring the tunestack to 11, Dexter added "I'll Be Back," "She's a Woman," and "I Feel Fine."  The latter two songs were the band's current single, and Dexter knew their inclusion would bolster sales of the LP.  "I'll Be Back" had been rescued from the U.K. Hard Day's Night LP.  Though not quite what the Fabs intended, Beatles '65 works well in its own right as a varied set of originals and covers, with the originals evidence of Lennon and McCartney's increasing maturity as songwriters: "Baby's in Black" is in waltz time. "I'll Follow the Sun" is a gentle acoustic ballad.  "No Reply" has a pronounced Dylan influence, while "She's a Woman" is rooted in the blues.  (In his excellent liner notes, Bruce Spizer points out that Beatles '65 has the rare U.S. mixes prepared especially for the market by George Martin.  These comprise "I'll Be Back," "I Feel Fine," and "She's a Woman.") Beatles '65 spent nine weeks at No. 1 and was crowned the best-selling LP of 1965.

Despite the 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono title, the new box actually goes one step further, concluding with the band's first Capitol release of 1965.  The Early Beatles was Capitol's reclamation of 11 of the 16 songs originally issued in the U.S. on the Vee-Jay label.  The Chicago indie's license to distribute Beatles recordings ended on October 15, 1964 as a result of litigation, so Dexter moved swiftly to reconfigure the U.K. Please Please Me for the U.S. market.  This necessitated the removal of three songs including "I Saw Her Standing There" (already on Meet the Beatles!), "Misery," and "There's a Place."  What remained was choice: "Love Me Do" (the version with Andy White on drums and Ringo on tambourine), the sweet "Do You Wanna Know a Secret," the title track of Please Please Me, and an A-list crop from the Brill Building: John's throat-shredding cover of Bert Berns and Phil Medley's "Twist and Shout," Gerry Goffin and Carole King's "Chains," Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell's raucous "Boys" (a showcase for Ringo), and Burt Bacharach, Luther Dixon, and Mack David's "Baby, It's You."  The Beatles had come a long way since these early recordings; perhaps to hedge their bets, Capitol used a more recent photo from the back of Beatles for Sale on the cover.  The label didn't promote The Early Beatles, and it placed at a respectable No. 43 (and higher on Cash Box and Record World).  It eventually became a million-seller.

Tell Me Why

The pressings within the slipcased 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono are visually and sonically spot-on replicas of the records that ushered in the British Invasion.  (Truthfully, one would be hard-pressed today to find an original that sounds as good as these do.)  Each 180-gram vinyl platter with accurate replica Capitol rainbow labels is housed in a lined sleeve within a sturdy, glossy jacket, and the jacket also contains a four-page insert and a replica of the original, printed inner sleeve.  The inner sleeves, in particular, reveal just how seismically The Beatles shook up the Capitol roster.  The label's solid roster of Italian crooners (Frank Sinatra, Al Martino, Bobby Darin, and Vic Damone) dominates, with rock-and-roll only represented by The Beach Boys.  When Capitol finally gets around to a sleeve promoting "The Teen Set on Capitol," The Beatles, their pals Peter and Gordon, and The Beach Boys are joined by the soft adult pop of The Four Preps and The Lettermen.

The inserts in each album are also available with the individual pressings.  Each insert is adorned with a photo of the master tape box, and Bruce Spizer's essential notes are contained inside.  The back cover has credits and mastering information for each LP.  The pressings (at least those played by this author) are crisp, quiet, and free of any and all pops, crackles, and clicks.

Assessing this lavish package, it's easy to forget that the importance of the U.S. Capitol albums wasn't always recognized.  When The Beatles' recordings came to CD for the first time in 1987, the U.S. releases were almost completely ignored, as Apple Corps favored standardizing the catalogue with the U.K. albums - which, it's paramount to note, were the only versions completely created and sanctioned by the band and their producer, George Martin. (One U.S. release did "make the cut" - 1967's Magical Mystery Tour.)  It wasn't until 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that The Beatles finally were able to demand that their original albums - created and sequenced by the band and their producer in the U.K. - be released worldwide, untouched.

Apple initially delivered on the promise of CD releases for the familiar U.S. titles in 2004 with The Capitol Albums Vol. 1, containing Meet the Beatles!, The Beatles' Second Album, Something New, and Beatles '65 on CD for the first time. A second volume followed in 2006 with The Early Beatles, Beatles VI, and the U.S. versions of the later Help! and Rubber Soul.  Both of those box sets retained all of Capitol's mixes.  The subsequent The U.S. Albums in 2014 aimed to upgrade those packages but suffered from its use of a confusing hodgepodge of sources.   The new 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono set, the first vinyl presentation of the U.S. mono records in over three decades, is richly rewarding.  As produced for reissue by Guy Hayden, mastered with lacquers cut by Kevin Reeves, and annotated by Bruce Spizer, the box offers a true representation of those seminal albums with superior sonics and beautifully-recreated packaging.  For all the controversy, Dave Dexter built these U.S. albums to last.

Director David Tedeschi and producer Martin Scorsese's documentary Beatles '64 is streaming now on Disney+.  Though a digital soundtrack to the film is currently available, 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono is the most transporting companion back to the period covered onscreen.  Once more, with feeling: Yeah, yeah, yeah!

The Beatles' 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono set is available now.  As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

​1964 U.S. Albums in Mono (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Meet The Beatles! (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
The Beatles' Second Album (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
A Hard Day's Night (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Something New (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Beatles '65 (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
The Early Beatles (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)​