Description
With the Beatles is the second studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 22 November 1963, on Parlophone, exactly eight months after the band's debut Please Please Me. The album features eight original compositions (seven by Lennon–McCartney and "Don't Bother Me", George Harrison's first recorded solo composition and his first released on a Beatles album) and six covers (mostly of Motown, rock and roll, and R&B hits). The cover photograph was taken by the fashion photographer Robert Freeman, and it has been mimicked by several music groups over the years.
The album became the first Beatles album released in North America when it was released in Canada on 25 November under the augmented title Beatlemania! With the Beatles, with additional text on the album cover, and issued only in mono at the time, catalogue number T 6051 (a stereo Canadian release would come in 1968, catalogue number ST 6051). For the United States release, the original running order of With the Beatles was unevenly split over the group's first two Capitol albums: nine tracks were issued on Meet the Beatles! (the eight original compositions plus "Till There Was You"), while the remaining five songs, all cover versions, were placed on The Beatles' Second Album.
The LP had advance orders of a half million and sold another half million by September 1965, making it the second album to sell a million copies in the United Kingdom, after the soundtrack to the 1958 film South Pacific. With the Beatles remained at the top of the charts for 21 weeks, displacing Please Please Me, so that the Beatles occupied the top spot for 51 consecutive weeks. It even reached number 11 in the "singles charts" (because at the time UK charts counted all records sold, regardless of format).
On 26 February 1987, With the Beatles was officially released on compact disc (in mono only, catalogue number CDP 7 46436 2). Having been available only as an import in the US in the past, the album was also issued domestically in the US on LP and cassette on 21 July 1987. Along with the rest of the Beatles' canon, it was re-released on CD in newly re-mastered stereo and mono versions on 9 September 2009.
The album was ranked number 420 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, and was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Release info
Label: Apple Records 0094638242017
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo
Country: UK & Europe
Released: 2012
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Beat, Rock & Roll
Tracklist
A1 It Won't Be Long
A2 All I've Got To Do
A3 All My Loving
A4 Don't Bother Me
A5 Little Child
A6 Till There Was You
A7 Please Mister Postman
B1 Roll Over Beethoven
B2 Hold Me Tight
B3 You Really Got A Hold On Me
B4 I Wanna Be Your Man
B5 Devil In Her Heart
B6 Not A Second Time
B7 Money