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The Beatles' Second Album

 
Album Review: The Beatles' Second Album

  • Artist: The Beatles
  • Rating: StarStarStarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: April 10, 1964
  • Total Time: 22:13
  • Genre: Rock

Review

The Beatles' Second Album was the first album of the group's work to be assembled by Capitol Records exclusively for the American market (as opposed to, say, Meet the Beatles!, which was a reconfigured and shortened version of With the Beatles). As such, it offends some historical purists, who don't think of it as a real album. Regardless of its origins, however, The Beatles' Second Album stands as probably best pure rock & roll album ever issued of the group's music. In the process of pulling songs from various British and American EPs, singles (including "She Loves You") and B-sides, as well as tracks left over from the editing of With the Beatles for American release, the compilers somehow managed to avoid any trace of the pop ballads favored by Paul McCartney that usually slowed down the group's other early albums, and the result was the longest uninterrupted body of hard rock & roll and R&B in their entire output. No other long-player by the group featured them doing more covers of songs by black American artists or songwriters, including Little Richard("Long Tall Sally"), Chuck Berry ("Roll Over Beethoven"), Smokey Robinson ("You Really Got a Hold on Me"), Barrett Strong ("Money"), and others, and just to show how rich a vein this all was at the time of its release, the version of "Roll Over Beethoven" here actually charted briefly as a single, while "Long Tall Sally" served as their concert finale. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Roll over Beethoven Chuck Berry The Beatles (2:44)
Thank You Girl John Lennon, Paul McCartney The Beatles (2:01)
You've Really Got a Hold on Me Smokey Robinson The Beatles (2:58)
Devil in Her Heart (Lyrics) Richard Dropkin The Beatles (2:23)
Money (That's What I Want) Berry Gordy, Jr., Janie Bradford The Beatles (2:47)
You Can't Do That (Lyrics) John Lennon, Paul McCartney The Beatles (2:23)
Long Tall Sally (Lyrics) Little Richard, Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, Enotris Johnson The Beatles
I Call Your Name (Lyrics) John Lennon, Paul McCartney The Beatles
Please Mr. Postman (Lyrics) Brian Holland, Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Robert Bateman, Freddie Gorman The Beatles (2:34)
I'll Get You (Lyrics) John Lennon, Paul McCartney The Beatles (2:04)
She Loves You John Lennon, Paul McCartney The Beatles (2:19)

Credits

The Beatles (Main Performer), George Harrison (Guitar), George Harrison (Vocals), George Harrison (?), John Lennon (Guitar), John Lennon (Harmonica), John Lennon (Vocals), John Lennon (?), Paul McCartney (Piano), Paul McCartney (Guitar (Bass)), Paul McCartney (Vocals), Paul McCartney (?), Ringo Starr (Drums), Ringo Starr (Vocals), Ringo Starr (?), George Martin (Piano), George Martin (Producer)
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Wikipedia: The Beatles' Second Album
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The Beatles' Second Album
Studio album by The Beatles
Released 10 April 1964
Recorded 5 and 13 March; 1, 18, and 30 July; and 17 October 1963; 25 February and 1 March 1964; Abbey Road Studios, London, United Kingdom
Genre Rock and roll
Length 27:30
Language English
Label Capitol
Producer George Martin
Professional reviews
The Beatles American chronology
Meet The Beatles!
(1964)
The Beatles' Second Album
(1964)
A Hard Day's Night
(1964)
Singles from The Beatles' Second Album
  1. "She Loves You"
    Released: 16 September 1963

The Beatles' Second Album is the The Beatles' second Capitol Records album, released in mono (catalogue number T 2080) and stereo (ST 2080.) It was their third in the United States counting Introducing... The Beatles, released three months earlier on Vee-Jay Records.

The Beatles' Second Album went to number one on the album charts in the U.S., knocking off Meet the Beatles!, the first time an artist replaced itself at number one on the U.S. album charts.[2]

In 2004 this album was re-released for the first time on Compact Disc (catalogue number CDP 7243 8 66877 2 2) as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 box set.

Contents

Music

Unlike the contemporaneous British Beatles albums, The Beatles' Second Album is composed exclusively of uptempo numbers, and for this reason is a favorite of some Beatles aficionados and rock critics. "The Beatles' Second Album stands as probably best pure rock & roll album ever issued of the group's music", wrote Allmusic.[1]

Songs for this album were compiled from four different UK releases. Included were the five remaining tracks from the group's second British LP With the Beatles. Those songs were left off the previous Capitol album Meet the Beatles!. Also included were "Thank You Girl" (the B-side to the British single "From Me to You"), the single "She Loves You" / "I'll Get You", "You Can't Do That" from the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack in the UK, and two new songs, "Long Tall Sally" and "I Call Your Name," both released a month later in the UK on the Long Tall Sally EP. Also, the Capitol Records engineers, headed by record executive Dave Dexter Jr., added a lot of echo and reverb to give the music more of a "live" feel. This is much more noticeable on the "With The Beatles" tracks, as they were recorded in two-track stereo.

Worth noting is the inclusion of the stereo version of "Thank You Girl," as The Beatles' Second Album featured the only "true" stereo version of the song released on any US or UK album for over 40 years, until a another stereo version of the song was released on the 2009 remastered edition of Past Masters (this album's version was included on The Beatles Beat, a German release). Since some echo was added, this version remains a bit of a rarity. The Capitol album mix is also unique for another reason: this version contains 3 additional harmonica riffs. They are twice during the bridge; first, during the second time the line "way that you do" is sung, and second, after the phrase "that's the kind of love that seems too good to be true". The third riff is tagged on at the very end of the song. For its American-album debut, Capitol took this stereo version and transferred it into a two-to-one stereo-to-mono mixdown for the mono album release, thus creating an alternative mono mix of the song.

Track listing

All tracks written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except where noted. See also: Lennon/McCartney.

Side one

  1. "Roll Over, Beethoven" (Chuck Berry)
  2. "Thank You Girl"
  3. "You Really Got a Hold on Me" (Smokey Robinson)
  4. "Devil in Her Heart" (Richard Drapkin)
  5. "Money" (Janie Bradford, Berry Gordy, Jr.)
  6. "You Can't Do That"

Side two

  1. "Long Tall Sally" (Robert Blackwell, Enotris Johnson, Little Richard)
  2. "I Call Your Name"
  3. "Please Mr. Postman" (Robert Bateman, Georgia Dobbins, Garrett, Fred Gorman, Brian Holland)
  4. "I'll Get You"
  5. "She Loves You"

Notes

  1. ^ a b Eder, Bruce. "Review of 'The Beatles' Second Album". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:6s320r3ac48i~T1. Retrieved 2009-09-12. 
  2. ^ Cross, Craig (2005). The Beatles: Day-by-Day, Song-by-Song, Record-by-Record. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc.. pp. 551–552. ISBN 0-595-34663-4. 
Preceded by
Meet the Beatles! by The Beatles
Billboard 200 number-one album
2 May – 5 June 1964
Succeeded by
Hello, Dolly! by Original Cast

 
 
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