The Beatles Capitol albums generally get a bad rap from those who didn’t grow up with them and while this is possible justified for some, ‘Meet The Beatles’ is an exception. On the 59th anniversary of it topping the U.S. album chart, we look in detail at the history behind this album, not only how it was conceived and promoted but also how it sounds and what we think is the best way to experience it. Join us on a journey to discover what made this album so important in both Beatles and pop culture history.
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Used to cry myself to sleep listening to side 2 at age 8… I only ever heard "Don't Bother Me" and "Not a Second Time"… which punctuated serial nightmares of my mother having a hidden third eye 👁 and me not wanting my friends to know…
Might have come from the fact that she serially raped me and then, when I questioned her about it at age 4, totally put a wall between us (I suppose, to stop herself… but it just felt like utter rejection to me…)
There's more, worse…
Anyhow, "Don't Bother Me" and "Not a Second Time" helped me cope somewhere between "I know I'll never be the same, if I don't get her back a-again" and "You hurt me then, you're back again. No, No, No, not a Second Time."
Yeah… at 65 I remember the album and would probably re-live the same traumatic nightmare if I fell asleep to it again… 🤷🏼
The Vee-Jay records were always a mystery to me, thanks for clearing that up. I have a near mint copy of the Los Angeles pressing of Meet the Beatles with the original inner sleeve that I absolutely cherish. I used to buy these for a buck back in the day and give them to my friends and grand nephews. I love this album for the joy that these songs bring and the fond memories of that exciting and transformational time. Excellent video.
Beatles❤❤❤❤😎😎😎😎
An Americanized Beatle album that worked on so many levels not all U.S. releases did.although imo Rubber Soul was sequenced perfectly gave it a folkier feel and flow. The UK release is great too but to my ears US wins on that one
I still have my original Meet The Beatles album that I bought back in Jan. of '64. What an experience it was being stricken with Beatlemania.
Thank you for the background information, especially the VJ issue. Also intrigued by the effect of Capitol having cut out all the covers except one from Meet the Beatles. I still have my copies of them as well as all the other Beatles albums. When Meet the Beatles was released, a friend and I went to a neighborhood record store to look at it. We were astounded by the photograph, the likes of which we'd never seen before. I wasn't able to buy it until February 29, 1964, when my great aunt sent me a birthday check. I scandalized my mother by rushing downtown with my hair in curlers to buy it.
The A&R Guy at DECCA turned Beatles down. After Ed Sullivan show,he got FIRED.
VJ was notorious for not paying their artists. The Beatles were lucky to get away from them.
The date of the UK release of the Beatles first album was November 22, 1963? Something else happened that same day in the US that made headlines all over the world.
My first album and still my favorite.
Another top class content. I love topics like this one that are not really thoroughly discussed but deserve to have deep dive feature presentation. Specifically, today that EMI, Apple and those responsible for any The Beatles new release have abandoned the US Beatles Albums (the authentic US mono and stereo sound mix) from their official catalog. The Beatles are really a gem for music and modern recording. Although my favorite are the UK Albums or version, the US Albums are also great and gives a different taste of those classic Beatles songs.
John signed this version in 1965 or so. Had a friend that met them. Wish I could post a photo here
It's a beautiful album. I've listened to it since I was a kid. John wrote some of his most touching meaningful music. Paul's melodies and timing were superb. " All I've Gotta Do", and "This Boy" really reach me. "Till There Was You" is timeless.
Introducing the Beatles was a much better album
I have the original Capitol album handed down from my Dad. I have the VeeJay folder (good condition), but the record is missing. We never found it in another sleeve.
CBS really cross promoted Beatlemania heavily. They produced a Beatles tribute band, The Ladybugs from the three Petticoat Junction girls and Sally James aka Shelia Kuehl (Zelda on Dobie Gillis (Velma)). They appeared on Ed Sullivan as an act a month after the Beatles in March 1964, then on an episode of Petticoat a couple nights later singing "I Saw 'Him' Standing There".
CBS really promoted the Beatles heavily and to both kids and parents. They went with the Bye Bye Birdie angle in screaming crowds and parents coming around, TV having learned a lesson with Elvis to soft peddle Beatlemania so as to avoid early controversy. Capitol, as you said, included a few Hit Parade and mellow tunes for them so the parents would not protest.
Petticoat Junction was full of "good girls" so if they were OK then it must be OK.
This might be the first TV spin-off BeatleBand leading up to The Mosquitos, The Honeybees and finally The Monkees.
NO WAY! Vee-Jay had the first Beatles contract in America?? I knew so many guys from there
A video about a great album featuring a great band. What could go wrong? Some guy running his mouth through the whole thing like he knows more than anyone else about what was happening at the time. He does not. I have listened to these songs many, many times without any input from this blowhard and will continue to without a minute's thought to anything on this video. Listen to the music. Ignore arrogant narrators.
I had an odd experience with this album. Maybe it was an oddball version of it somehow. One side of it had Beatles songs, but the other side consisted of the same songs, but in instrumental form! It was a string orchestra playing them. I remember feeling ripped off. Anyone else experience this? I do love the Beatles, by the way.
When EMI decided in the late 80s to standardize the Beatles' UK discography worldwide, it had an interesting consequence. Many Millenial-generation Beatles fans living in the US, such as myself, actually grew up with the British albums, not the American ones. Those were out-of-print ghosts from the past that I only saw at friends' houses because their parents had them (my parents did not keep their old records, sadly). And even if there were old copies around, not a lot of people I knew had a way to play them; the "vinyl renaissance" hadn't really taken off yet in my neck of the woods, and it's funny to think that in 2023 I'm probably more likely to find a phonograph in someone's home than I was twenty-odd years ago. I did buy The Capitol Albums CD box when it came out, and it was a fascinating listen. One reason was that it was the first time I had actually heard any of this material in any kind of stereo mix! After all, the original "With the Beatles" CD was actually mastered from the mono mix (a prudent decision, as it is the superior mix in my opinion).
I'd say their masterstroke album is "Magical Mystery Tour" that took a double EP and added other non-album tracks of 1967 to create the only American album to be adopted into the UK canon. British fans were having to buy import copies of it at the time.
Andrew, being Australian, i have never seen this album before. Side one looks stunning – what a perfect track listing!! Side two, not so much for me. I've never been a big fan of "Little Child" or "Not A Second Time". They don't appeal to me much.
Foolish Vee-Jay. They had a billion dollar group that they let slip away for someone's gambling problem. Back in 1964 we bought Beatles trading cards for $5c that came with bubble-gum and color cards of each member of the group at the Circus Market in Alameda, CA. Those were such special, simple days……
Oh God I remember the Singing Nun.
I found a copy of an original mono pressing my mom purchased back in 1964. She’d given it to my dad along with a Sgt Peppers copy. Not the best sounding but with my mono cartridge has barely any surface noise.
My first exposure to these fabulous mop top Beatles songs was as covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks, hehe. My parents had an old copy of that LP.
Please take the fork outta Meet the Beatles.
For the first time and every time afterward I was jolted to my soul whenever I heard "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
It was a shiny, happy sound I had never experienced in my sleepwalking teenage life.
The vocals, the beat, the guitars and the handclaps have stunned me for well over half a century.
The tune began to divide me from all the generations but my own.
Famous conservative William F. Buckley, Jr had a different opinion:
"The Beatles are not merely awful. They are so unbelievably horrible, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art, that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music."
God bless the commenters on this great video. You knew what it was all those years ago.
We will always be ONE….
I would like to see a video on the Wally cuts. The last US pressings of this and the other lps are probably the best variants.
I have this album. The cover is a little rough around the edges. It has the Number 3 on lower back right side cover. It is the mono version . I know you said this meant it was produced in Scranton, PA. Looking to find the value and possibly sell it.
I've always hated the US slicing and dicing of the pre Pepper albums and with the possible exception of this one the compilations belong in the trash – not the music
I think an even better Mee tthe Beatles would had been a 16 track album with the a and B sides of the Hand single, which I would have had This Boy as the flip and the 14 cuts from With the Beatles.
Eres el mejor, saludos desde chile 🇨🇱🇨🇱🇨🇱
Thanks for shedding some light on this one, which I've always seen as With the Beatles' bastard brother. Now I know better.
The Capitol building is one mile east of where I type. Why can't I remember I Saw Her…from 1964? I remember She Loves You, Please Please…I Want to Hold…but not I Saw…it's in the very top of my considerable repertoire. It's the easiest Beatles song to play on guitar. I must uncover the mysterious beginning of my Beatlemania, there's a lotion for that. No there isn't. It's INCURABLE.
I think it boils down to The Grass Is Always Greener… I grew up with the American Beatles albums, being 14 in 1964. But in 1970 I discovered some of the British pressings and immediately thought how Capitol ripped us off with the usual 11 tracks vs 14. Also how Capitol essentially destroyed the flow of the British ones and their superior sound quality. Plus the UK albums had laminated front covers. However, Capitol did include most of the singles on their LP's and their most outstanding decision was turning Magical Mystery Tour into a full blown album. Hats off to the blokes at Capitol Tower.
I have an original pressing of this album. I found it in my families record collection back in the seventies. No one remembered who brought it or how I got there. Interesting enough, I found it with an original copy of the United artists A Hard Days Night.
I grew up with the US Capital records and have a fondness for the punchy vibe and reverb. But I haven't done a large comparison of pressing and versions on LP/CD. Andrew, which do you think sound best? Did the Wally Traugott cuts offer anything special? Thanks, Jason (Spy Vibe)
My First Rock and Roll Album…. when I was a kid…. this album made us love Music…and Rock and Roll….I just got a original pressed in the 1960s…in Mono…it was unbelievable I had this album in my hand after 55 years later!!!
Meet The Beatles is the Greatest Rock and Roll Album of all time!!!! ….that Cover is Iconic!!!
Tollie. The greatest Beatles label of all time.
So canadian version is better than US?
Apple/Capitol should re-release Meet the Beatles in early 2024 for the 60th anniversary! Add in the amazing Live at Washington Colosseum as Disc 2. Put it in a nice gatefold to celebrate Beatlemania and the band conquering America—yeah yeah yeah! The documentary Beatles First US Visit could be re-released at the same time.
Great summary! – my older sister bought this album right after it came out in early '64, and after a few spins she let me, just three and a half, play it TO DEATH on my little portable record player. I was hooked on the Beatles for life, and still own the beat-up copy, which crackles and pops all the way through from all those times with the harsh needle (and operator)! A minor note – our copy was purchased in the San Francisco area, with the "6" on the lower right corner indicating the LA plant source, as you point out, BUT the "BEATLES" lettering is tan, not dark green. I believe that dark green color came out on later copies of the album.
Hello from Barcelona. Congratulations and a big THANK YOU for sharing all this superinteresting information for Beatle freaks like myself. I wanted to ask you if you have an opinion about half speed mastering. Will it be the next nugget for Beatles fans?
I was born in October 1963 and am the youngest of 10 kids. My older sibs all became Beatles fans when they played on the Ed Sullivan Show, February 9th, 1964. So, I grew up in a Beatlemania household. By the time I was around 6 years old, I started listening to my sibs Beatle albums, and becoming fascinated with them and music in general (a life-long passion). Meet The Beatles was my first Beatle "bonding" experience, and it really kicked in when I "discovered" girls (!!) around 1971. Tracks like "This Boy" and "If I Fell" (from the "Something New" album) were the soundtrack music of my ardor (passion, indeed). So I used to sit in the living room, in Dad's big leather chair (next to the stereo and bookcase) and listen to them for hours. I would read the liner notes and gaze upon my heroes! John Lennon was my first hero, but I loved all of them. I credit Ringo as my inspiration for becoming a drummer — along with my brother Rick (coincidentally, the two Richards led me to drumming) — and songs like their version of "Slow Down" just about made me want to climb the walls with excitement! God, that song is a barn-burner! Meet the Beatles launched my love of music, drumming, and art (I am a writer also). By the way, the Capitol album "The Beatles' Story" was also very instrumental in my early fandom. Just hearing the sound of the screaming Beatles fans — in the first 3 minutes of the album — blew my mind. Also, the interview with the two female fans, there in the early part of side 1, really made it real. I was just really interested in what was going on, because I was so young at this point and did not know much about the world or anything — but I knew the Beatles rocked! Awesome album. Also, you should check out The Smithereens tribute album to Meet The Beatles, called "Meet The Smithereens"! They play all the songs from the album, on vintage instruments/equipment and it is amazing! I love that tribute album and that band! Great stuff!
At the time of release in the U.S, most people only had mono record players. I first heard the song on a car radio (AM) in a 1951 Ford. ROCK music made a quantum leap that day.
Capitol mixes were the worst!! Cutting songs and sticking them on other albums were NOT the way the Beatles intended the albums. I NEVER listen to those – only the originals. The only good Capitol release was Magical Mystery Tour.
There was also a way to tell which coast the record itself came from by the numeral one on the label. One had just a "stick" while the other had a left sided "flag" on the top of the "stick". Mine is an east coast copy with the brown lettering on the front cover and the "stick" number one on the label.
Every American Beatles album is a Butchered Album. The American Vee Jay Introducing & Capitol Meet have the preferred cover art.
10:40 Fun fact, since in Chile With The Beatles was released first in 1964, Please Please Me when released later that year and the band still being a brand new group it was named "Otro de Los Beatles" (Another One From The Beatles) with a similar cover style with black and white pictures.
The tracklist of all the albums were the same of the UK versions, only the first 4 having original names, the most remarkable was Beatles for Sale renamed as "Los Beatles Cantan para Usted" (The Beatles Sings for You).
The only two original Capitol albums released here were the The Beatles Story and Hey Jude, but renamed as "Compatible" when released on cassette, because being one of the first Beatles albums released on stereo here, when it cmae out on vinyl neither the cover or the disc labels had the album name printed on them, however the cover only said "Mono-Stereo Compatible".
i’d love to see you do a full video on the 2014 US box.