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Please Please Me Remastered

A huge part of what set The Beatles apart from most other groups in the early 1960s was that they were songwriters. Eight of the fourteen songs included on their debut 1963 album{, Please Please Me} were written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. This article takes a track by track look at those 8 McCartney/Lennon (as they were known then) originals.

“I Saw Her Standing There” – This was the first track on The Beatles first album. This song was written by McCartney but Lennon did help McCartney out with some of the lyrics by replacing the line “never been a beauty queen” with “you know what I mean.” It’s “1, 2, 3, 4″ intro was referenced with the intro of Revolver (a very different feeling although it’s the same words.)

“Misery” – The final original song recorded for Please Please Me, but it was the second one on Pleas Please Me’s tracklisting. It was written by Lennon/McCartney to be sang by pop star Helen Shapiro but it was turned down.

“Ask Me Why” – This John original was initially released as the other side to the “Please Please Me” single which was The Beatles first big hit in the UK.

“Please Please Me” – Their debut album’s namesake is also considered to be the best song on Please Please Me by a majority of music critics. This song is the one that really made The Beatles huge stars in Great Britain. Over a year later “I Want to Hold Your Hand” would perform the same function in in America.

“Love Me Do” – This was the band’s very first single and because of that it’s certainly very historically important. That being said, I think the song is among their worst and I think it receives more attention than it deserves.

“P.S. I Love You” – This is the b-side to “Love Me Do.” In some ways I actually prefer it, but that’s probably mostly because I haven’t heard it nearly as many times.

“Do You Want To Know A Secret?” – Certainly this song is way too “cute” but that doesn’t stop it from being extremely memorable.

“There’s A Place” – I think this song stands out on the debut because of it’s introspective lyrics. It’s an early hint that The Beatles would not always sing about how much they loved a young lady.

With the release of the new Remastered Beatles CD Box Sets all of these songs and many more can be heard in wonderfully remastered stereo and mono mixes.

Technorati Tags: 1960s, Classic Rock, Music, The Beatles

The Beatles Remastered Box Set

The Beatles last five albums were 1967’s Magical Mystery Tour, 1968’s The White Album, 1969’s Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road, and 1970’s Let It Be. Below you can read short reviews of each of them.

All five of these albums are contained in the Remastered Beatles Stereo Box Set but just Magical Mystery Tour and The White Album are included in the Remastered Beatles in Mono CD Box Set.

Magical Mystery Tour (1967) – Possibly their most underrated album and that’s probably because it is not really an album from a purist’s POV so some people have a difficult time giving it real respect for the excellent songs it contains. It’s The Beatles at their most purposefully psychedelic before they started to pull it back a little bit and as a huge fan of trippy music, that makes it right up my alley.

The White Album (1968) – My all time favorite album by anyone. No, it doesn’t flow as well as Abbey Road or Sgt. Pepper and you could make an argument that it’s not as consistently great as Rubber Soul or Revolver but I enjoy listening to it repeatedly for the fantastic variety of styles that it brings to my ears. This 30 song album is a real sprawling masterpiece.

Yellow Submarine (1969) – This “album” isn’t really much of a Beatles album as it contains only four new songss that weren’t previously released on other albums. Yet “Hey Bulldog” and “It’s All Too Much” alone make it worth buying.

Abbey Road (1969) – This 17 track album is the favorite of lots of Beatles fans and for many very good reasons. The most clear is the wonderful “suite” of side two put together by Paul McCartney and George Martin. And of course there is the classic Stand alone tracks like “Something,” “Come Together,” and “Oh! Darling.” This album is also the “smoothest” and most “modern” sounding production of their career.

Let It Be (1970) – The last LP released but Abbey Road was, in fact, the last album that was recorded. It is a tad uneven by Fab Four standard but it does still contains some classic tracks like “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road.”

Technorati Tags: 1960s, Classic Rock, Music, The Beatles

The Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set

The Beatles aren’t a “just the hits” type of band. You can’t purchase just Beatles 1 and be done with it. In actuality, strongly believe many of their best tracks were not their number one hits but were their more experimental songs like “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

If you really want to understand The Beatles music you must hear their LPs from start to finish rather than just hearing a song here and a song there. I believe that The Beatles recorded many of the most important rock albums of all time and even their not so great albums (such as Beatles for Sale) have some really good tracks.

This is why I think it’s such a great idea to Purchase The Beatles in Stereo Box Set. The set contains every LP (and every non-album song with the inclusion of the Past Masters double CD set) that The Beatles recorded and released during the 60s.

It includes{ pretty much} all of their releases except for Live at the BBC CDs and the three Anthology sets. This seems right to me since those newer releases are not a part of the band’s “official catalog”. They are kind of like the “extra features” on a DVD while the original releases are the feature film.

There are some more Beatles CDs that aren’t included, for example there’s 1999 release of a CD called Yellow Submarine Songtrack that’s entirely different from the original Yellow Submarine album. It is actually far better and definitely worth a listen for it’s alternate mixes (it’s not just remastered, it’s Remixed.) Let It Be… Naked and Love are also not included.

Along with The Beatles Stereo Box, I also recommend that you Order The Beatles Remastered Mono Box Set which features the original mono mixes for all of The Beatles songs up through Yellow Submarine. It’s hard to underStand in the context of today, but when John, Paul, George, & Ringo were recording they considered the mono version to be of far more importance when compared to the stereo mixes up until up until around ‘68. Let It Be & Abbey Road were recorded and mixed just in stereo.

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