The Beatles' Second Album
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| The Beatles' Second Album | ||||
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| 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 |
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| Genre | Rock and roll | |||
| Length | 27:30 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| Professional reviews | ||||
| The Beatles American chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Beatles' Second Album | ||||
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The Beatles' Second Album is the The Beatles' second Capitol Records album, and their third album released in the United States including 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 US, knocking off Meet the Beatles!, the first time an artist replaced itself at number one on the US 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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] Track listing
All tracks written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except where noted. See also: Lennon/McCartney.
- Side one
- "Roll Over, Beethoven" (Chuck Berry)
- "Thank You Girl"
- "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" (Smokey Robinson)
- "Devil in Her Heart" (Richard Drapkin]
- "Money (That's What I Want)" (Janie Bradford, Berry Gordy, Jr.)
- "You Can't Do That"
- Side two
- "Long Tall Sally" (Robert Blackwell, Enotris Johnson, Little Richard)
- "I Call Your Name"
- "Please Mr. Postman" (Robert Bateman, Georgia Dobbins, Garrett, Fred Gorman, Brian Holland)
- "I'll Get You"
- "She Loves You"
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Eder 2009.
- ^ Cross 2005, pp. 551–552.
[edit] References
- Cross, Craig (2005). The Beatles: Day-by-Day, Song-by-Song, Record-by-Record. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc.. ISBN 0-595-34663-4.
- Eder, Bruce (2009). "Review of The Beatles' Second Album". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:6s320r3ac48i~T1. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
| 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 |
