Significations et usages de The_Early_Beatles

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

The Early Beatles
Compilation album by The Beatles
Released	22 March 1965
Recorded	4 and 11 September, 26 and 30 November 1962; 11, 20 and 25 February 1963, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Rock, rock and roll
Length	26:26
Language	English
Label	Capitol
Producer	George Martin
Compiler	Dave Dexter, Jr.
The Beatles American chronology
Beatles '65 (1964) The Early Beatles (1965) Beatles VI (1965)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

The Early Beatles is The Beatles' sixth release on Capitol Records, and their eighth album for the American market. The album resembles more of an early compilation because all of the tracks had previously been featured on the early 1964 Vee-Jay release Introducing... The Beatles. The front cover photo for this album features the same back cover photo for the British LP Beatles for Sale.

Vee-Jay had gained American rights to the tracks before the group became popular in America (because Capitol, the US division of EMI which owns The Beatles' record label Parlophone, had refused to release the group's records), and their releases had initially failed to chart. But after the group became popular, Vee-Jay, still having the rights to the early material, were able to re-release them in America and this time the records sold in the millions. Capitol tried to stop Vee Jay from releasing the tracks, but were not successful. In October 1964, Vee-Jay's license to distribute the Beatles recordings they possessed expired, so Capitol were finally able to get the American distribution rights for the album.

Though Vee-Jay had compiled four Beatles albums in the space of just fifteen months from these sessions (all of which charted), when released on Capitol, the album still sold, but its highest chart position was only number 43, thus making it the only original Capitol or United Artists released Beatles album not to reach numbers 1 or 2 in America (with the exception of the Capitol documentary album, The Beatles' Story which peaked at number 7). Capitol did little to promote the album since the label merely viewed it as a replacement for the Vee-Jay LP, rather than a "new" Beatles album. The Early Beatles sold one million copies by late 1973 and was certified Gold by the RIAA on 8 January 1974.^[2] It was released in both mono and stereo versions. As no stereo masters of "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" exist, Capitol used EMI's duophonic mixes of both songs. There was also some added echo and reverb to "Twist And Shout".

This album is available on compact disc as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 box set (catalogue number CDP 0946 3 57498 2 3), in both mono and stereo, although the mono album mix appears to be strictly a stereo-to-mono fold-down; the song "Please Please Me" features the lyric slip-up and layering in the last verse, as issued on the stereo release and on the original stereo UK album Please Please Me.

  Track listing

The album includes eleven of the fourteen tracks from the group's first British LP Please Please Me. Tracks not included are: "I Saw Her Standing There" (issued on Meet the Beatles!), "Misery" and "There's a Place". The latter two tracks, first issued by Capitol in 1965 on "Starline" singles, would finally get a Capitol LP release in 1980 in the American version of the Rarities album. Two other tracks originally released by Vee-Jay in America but also not included in this album were "From Me to You" (which wasn't released on an LP in America until 1973 on the compilation 1962–1966) and "Thank You Girl" (which Capitol had already released on the LP The Beatles' Second Album).

Side one

1. "Love Me Do" (Lennon–McCartney)
2. "Twist and Shout" (Phil Medley and Bert Russell)
3. "Anna (Go to Him)" (Arthur Alexander)
4. "Chains" (Gerry Goffin and Carole King)
5. "Boys" (Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell)
6. "Ask Me Why" (Lennon–McCartney)

Side two

1. "Please Please Me" (Lennon–McCartney)
2. "P.S. I Love You" (Lennon–McCartney)
3. "Baby It's You" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David, and Barney Williams)
4. "A Taste of Honey" (Ric Marlow and Bobby Scott)
5. "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (Lennon–McCartney)

  Notes

1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r1511
2. ^ Stannard 1981, p. 138.

  References