Recorded: 18 July-23 October 1963
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 22 November 1963
John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, tambourine, handclaps
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, piano, claves, handclaps
George Harrison: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, handclaps
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums, bongos, maracas, handclaps
George Martin: piano, Hammond organ
Tracklisting:
It Won't Be Long
All I've Got To Do
All My Loving
Don't Bother Me
Little Child
Till There Was You
Please Mister Postman
Roll Over Beethoven
Hold Me Tight
You Really Got A Hold On Me
I Wanna Be Your Man
Devil In Her Heart
Not A Second Time
Money (That's What I Want)
The follow-up to The Beatles' debut album Please Please Me consolidated their position as the United Kingdom's number one pop act.
With The Beatles was released eight months to the day after Please Please Me, and was an instant hit. Although no singles were taken from it, it came three months after She Loves You became a smash, and just seven days before The Beatles conquered the world with I Want To Hold Your Hand.
Seven of the album's 14 tracks were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. On Please Please Me the pair had demonstrated to audiences that they were more than capable at writing their own material, and With The Beatles proved that they were no flash in the pan.
The Beatles rarely had a day off in 1963, working a punishing schedule of recording sessions, concerts, dozens of radio and television appearances and numerous other public engagements. On 13 October they appeared on Sunday Night At The London Palladium before a television audience of 15 million, winning over Fleet Street journalists who coined the term Beatlemania to describe their fans' hysteria, and the following month they appeared before the Queen at the Royal Command Performance.
Admiration for The Beatles had spread by this time into the establishment. In his essay What Songs The Beatles Sang, The Times newspaper's music critic William Mann praised Lennon and McCartney as "the outstanding English composers of 1963."
One gets the impression that they think simultaneously of harmony and melody, so firmly are the major tonic sevenths and ninths built into their tunes, and the flat submediant key switches, so natural is the Aeolian cadence at the end of Not A Second Time (the chord progression which ends Mahler's Song of the Earth).
The Times
By the time they came to record With The Beatles, Lennon and McCartney had used up the best of their original compositions. The challenge of writing a new selection of songs meant they recorded the album's cover versions first, but the pair eventually came up with a host of classic songs: It Won't Be Long and All My Loving were on a par with anything The Beatles recorded in 1963, and I Wanna Be Your Man later became a hit single for The Rolling Stones, though for the album it was sung by Ringo Starr.
George Harrison, too, was emerging as a songwriter. His first released composition, Don't Bother Me, was recorded for With The Beatles; although its author later dismissed it as a throwaway, it is often acknowledged that Lennon and McCartney had several years of songwriting by 1963 and were far more confident in their abilities.
The remaining six songs were cover versions. The choice of songs demonstrated the group's maturity, with a greater emphasis on Motown and R&B songs. Two were sung by Harrison: Devil In Her Heart and Roll Over Beethoven.
Iconic artwork on the cover. Although possibly a poorer representation of Astrid Kirsheners work, this was the first step to rewriting the rules on pop production. George Martin calls it their first songbook. It took me longer to get to know this album than any other Beatle album. By the time of With The Beatles, the innocence of Please Please Me had given way to an expectation. This is a fine album. But to truley appreciate what was happening with the group, you really need to listen to their first three albums, in order, one after another, and then you will actually hear The Beatles sound evolve.