Capitol Records
CDP 7243 8 66875 2-6
(CDP 7243 8 66878 2 1)

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You’ve read about them in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times.

Here’s the big beat sound of that fantastic, phenomenal foursome: Meet The Beatles!
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Stereo:

1. I Want To Hold Your Hand
2. I Saw Her Standing There
3. This Boy
4. It Won’t Be Long
5. All I’ve Got To Do
6. All My Loving
7. Don’t Bother Me
8. Little Child
9. Till There Was You
10. Hold Me Tight
11. I Wanna Be Your Man
12. Not A Second Time

Mono:

13. I Want To Hold Your Hand
14. I Saw Her Standing There
15. This Boy
16. It Won’t Be Long
17. All I’ve Got To Do
18. All My Loving
19. Don’t Bother Me
20. Little Child
21. Till There Was You
22. Hold Me Tight
23. I Wanna Be Your Man
24. Not A Second Time
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The Beatles all hail from Liverpool, a seaport city which because it’s sailing men bring in the latest hit singles from America, is the hippest pop music spot in England. They wear “pudding basin” haircuts that date back to ancient England, and suits with collarless jackets which they’ve made the newest rage. John Lennon plays rhythm guitar and harmonica, George Harrison lead guitar, Paul McCartney electric bass guitar, Ringo Starr drums, and all four of the boys sing. They also work piano, Hammond organ, tambourine, mouth organ, Arabian bongos and claves into their act. That’s John doing the lead vocal in It Won’t Be Long and All I’ve Got To Do and the double track solo in Not A Second Time. Paul does the lead vocal in All My Loving and Hold Me Tight, and the solo in Till There Was You. Ringo is soloist in I Wanna Be Your Man and George in Don’t Bother Me, double-tracked.

A year ago the Beatles were known only to patrons of Liverpool pubs. Today there isn’t a Britisher who doesn’t know their names, and their fame has spread quickly around the world.

Said one American visitor to England, “Only a hermit could be unaware of the Beatles, and he’d have to be beyond the ranch of television, newspapers, radio, records and rioting fans.”

Said another, “They’re the biggest, hottest property in the history of English show business.”

The foursome – John Lennon, 23, George Harrison, 20, Ringo Starr, 23, and Paul McCartney, 21 – write, play and sing a powerhouse music filled with zest and uninhibited good humor that makes listening a sensation-filled joy. It isn’t rhythm and blues. It’s not exactly rock ‘n’ roll. It’s their own special sound, or, as group leader John Lennon puts it, “Our music is just – well, our music.”

Whatever it is, the Beatles’ robust, roaring sound has stimulated a reaction the English themselves describe as “Beatlemania.”
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Consider these manifestations:

In Newcastle, England, four thousand fans stood all night in pouring rain to get tickets for a Beatles appearance.

In Portsmouth, the queue started 90 hours before the box office opened. Teenagers brought food, drink, blankets and transistor radios, and two determined 16 year-old girls spent four nights outside to hold their place in the queue.

In Carlisle, frantic schoolgirls battled police for four house in a do-or-die effort to gain admission to a sold out show.

In Dublin, Ireland, the Beatles’ first visit set off a mob free-for-all resulting in unnumbered broken limbs.

At London airport, report Ann Butler had her gloved hand kissed repeatedly by youngsters who saw it accidentally brush against the back of a Beatle.

Similar wild enthusiasm has greeted the Beatles in such disparate places as Sweden (where frenzied girl swarmed up onto the stage), Germany, Finland and France, and the acclaim recently brought them one of the highest of all entertainment honors, an appearance before Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and Lord Snowden at the Royal Variety Performance in London.

And their records? In America, a total sale of a million discs calls for celebrations, gold records, trade new headlines and delirious self-congratulations. A recent Beatles recording had an advance order of a million copies in the United Kingdom three weeks before release. And simultaneously the Beatles occupied positions 1 and 2 in the hit singles charts and 1 and 2 in the album charts – a phenomenal achievement anywhere.

Now the Beatles are getting a royal welcome in America. Ed Sullivan signed them for three appearances in rapid succession on his Sunday night TV show. They are shortly to film in England a feature length United Artists movie for worldwide release.
And here is their first Capitol record – twelve of their most sensational songs in their wildest Beatlemanic style!

Produced by George Martin.

Cover photo by Robert Freeman.
Remastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, New York.

Capitol Records is a Capitol Music label (p) 1963, 1964 EMI Records LTd., under exclusive license to Capitol Records, Inc. This compilation (P) 2004 Capitol Records Inc., © 1964, 2004 Apple Records Ltd., under exclusive license to Capitol Records, Inc. 1750 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized Duplication is a Violation of Applicable Laws. Printed in U.S.A.

MEET THE BEATLES!
All songs written by John Lennon/Paul McCartney, published by Sony/ATV Tunes LLC (BMI) / EMI Blackwood Music (BMI) except "I Want To Hold Your Hand" published by Songs of Universal, Inc., (BMI); "I Saw Her Standing There" & "I Wanna Be Your Man" published by Gil Music Corp. (ASCAP); "Don't Bother Me" written by George Harrison, published by Universal Songs of Polygram International, Inc., (BMI) and "'Til There Was You" written by Meredith Willson, published by Frank Music Corp., (ASCAP) / Meredith Willson Music (ASCAP).

All images (C) Apple Corps Ltd EXCEPT photo pages 25, 38, 44 provided by Capitol Records, Inc., photo page 36 (C) 1964 SEPS. Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN. All rights reserved. www.curtispublishing.com; photo page 47 - (C) 2004 VNU Business Media, Inc. Reprinted with permission from Billboard.

Introductory text by Mark Lewisohn
Design and Art direction Wherefore Art?
Original Album sleeves courtesy of Chip Madinger.