With the Beatles

With their second album The Beatles continued with their tradition of mostly-covers-and-a-few-originals. They could pull some great material – Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and a few girl groups – and delivered some even greater originals.

This was before Bob Dylan started to influence John Lennon and Paul McCartney got into a one-upmanship with Brian Wilson, so their originals are very simplistic little pop-rockers. That doesn’t make them any less influential or even any less fantastic than the later psychedelic Beatles. In fact, I think this is pound for pound just as great as any of the post-Rubber Soul albums.

From the opening “It Won’t Be Long,” which aimed squarely at a teenage girls heart, to the closing “Money (That’s What I Want),” an oddly out-of-character song giving the later Beatles penchant for ranting against materialism, With the Beatles flies by at too quick a pace. You’ll want to hear more of the songs. Especially the singles recorded around the era that weren’t included on the disc. Imagine how much more wonderful this album would have if “I Want to Hold Your Hand” or “She Loves You” were placed on the album. But for the purity of their innocent good time rockers you can’t do any better than their second album. It’s almost impossible to believe that this was just their second album. DOWNLOAD: “Hold Me Tight”