The Best Beatles Albums Part 4

 Please Please Me - Released 3/22/1963

This was their first album, their first number one album, and one of the turning points of the modern musical era.  But it wasn't a sure thing.  Contrary to popular myth, the famous audition of the Beatles, when producer George Martin read them the riot act about their limited quality, and Harrison joked about his tie, wasn't really an audition.  Beatles manager Brian Epstein had already secured a tentative record contract a couple months earlier, following his initial meeting with Martin on Feb 13, 1962.  At the time of their first meeting, Martin produced for Parlophone, a subsidiary of EMI Records.  His main focus was on classical music, as well as novelty and comedy songs (he worked with such luminaries as Peter Sellers, Spike Mulligan and Peter Ustinov). For that first recording session on June 6, Martin, who was looking to move into the mainstream, was just seeing what they were made of and who could do what.  It was then that Martin concluded drummer Pete Best wasn't good enough for the recording studio.  That led to the band firing him and replacing him with drummer Richard Starkey - better known throughout the Liverpool music scene as Ringo Starr.  But Martin was still hesitant.  There was pushback from EMI's higher ups about the band's name.  They believed the act should have a front man for the audience to connect to:  John Lennon and the Beatles.  Paul McCartney and the Beatles.  That was typically how it was done.  But Martin was convinced the idea of just 'four lads having fun' would connect, with each being his own personality.  On the other side, however, he wasn't happy with their push to write their own songs.  He felt the standard procedure of having professional song writers write specifically for them would do the trick if they wanted to be more than a novelty rock and roll act.  Or at least let a pro writer help in the composition.  Lennon and McCartney had written over 100 songs together by that time, and felt at least some were worthy of consideration.  Martin listened to most of those, but felt they were lacking at best.  Nonetheless, he trusted them enough to record their first single, written by them, named Love Me Do.  Released on October 5, 1962, it made it to #17 on the UK charts.  No bad, but it wasn't enough to inspire confidence.  Martin went back to the suggestion of professional song writers.  John and Paul requested another chance.  They wanted to record a love ballad they wrote called Please Please Me.  Martin had already heard it, and told them it wasn't that good.  But this time they put it to a more upbeat, fast paced tempo, per Martin's suggestion.  They played a demo for him of this revised version.  According to those who were there, when the song was done, Martin pointed to them and said 'you have your first hit.'  The song went to #2, and that was enough to warrant a full length LP.  Primary recording for the album took place over one day.  By the end of the day, they had to do extra takes of Twist and Shout because Lennon's voice was in tatters.  They actually had to break and send him to the cafeteria to get milk of magnesia and cough syrup to loosen his vocal chords.  Hence the raspiness of his singing on that song. Released on March 22, 1963, the Please Please Me album quickly went to #1 on the charts, their first of many. A year later, it would produce two #1 hits, a top 5 hit, two top 10 hits and one top 20 hit on the US charts. That's more than an impressive amount of chart toppers from one album. In the meantime, the amazing number of professional sounding music from the songwriting partnership of two amateur, untrained young men immediately caught the UK music world's attention. Beatlemania had begun.  

There would be one more change in the lineup before they hit it big

The song that really started it all

Rubber Soul - Released 12/3/1965

Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, Revolver, even The White Album, are usually named their best, their greatest, their landmark albums.  But the first sweeping break from their previous sound, and clear evidence that the four were quickly outgrowing their Mop Top image, was Rubber Soul.  Rumor has it that the name was taken from the tendency that black musicians had of disparaging the Rolling Stones, saying they had 'plastic soul.'  Rubber Soul being a dig at their friendly rivals, and in some ways saying they themselves were not much better.  Just the playful ambiguity of the title showed something new was happening.  And it was.  By the time of its release in late 1965, the British Invasion was in full swing and dominating the American music charts. More than just a doorway for British musical acts, the British invasion toppled the near monopoly on global cultural output that the United States had enjoyed since the end of WWII.  In addition, the fruits of the emerging counter-culture were already beginning to show.  Controversy raged when the Queen of England presented each of the Beatles with MBEs (Member of the British Empire).  Some believed the awards were appropriate because they saw the Beatles as national heroes.  Others were not amused, and some even threatened to return theirs in protest.  But 1965 had seen the Beatles take Rock and Roll and move it for the first time to the stadium level.  No longer confined to auditoriums and state fairs, Rock and Roll was quickly becoming the default soundtrack for the last half of the century.  And the Beatles were in the driver's seat.  Though the movie Help! was fairly well received, and the music from the soundtrack album successful as always (it produced three number one hits: Ticket to Ride, Help!, and the barrier breaking Yesterday), the Beatles were itching to expand and grow.  The emergence of groups like The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Mammas and the Pappas, and Jefferson Airplane, to name only a few, showed that the dominance the Beatles enjoyed in this musical revolution was gaining membership.  And the four were keen on staying ahead of the pack.  George Martin's use of strings on Yesterday opened a massive door in the world of contemporary music, and Rubber Soul witnessed more new and exotic instruments entering the studio.  From Baroque piano to more classical instruments to the Indian sitar - brought by George Harrison as his interest in Indian culture and religion grew - an emerging attitude of 'anything if it works' broadened the limits of the genre.  In addition, the increasing demand the Beatles had for new sounds began pushing the limits of recording technology available in those days.  It was here that George Martin and the EMI recording staff became essential for the Beatles' artistic and creative development.  As an album, Rubber Soul had a quieter, more adult sound to it.  The songs themselves were a signification departure from the standard Beatles fare: Some were classical love ballads, others experimental (Norwegian Wood), and Lennon was beginning to branch out and write more introspective and meaningful songs with In My Life and Nowhere Man.  Though other albums get the attention, many fans at that time admit that when Rubber Soul was released, it was like a hit in the face.  Was this the Beatles?  Something big had happened in the music world, and things were about to change. 

As they pushed the boundaries of popular music, their producer
George Martin (center, standing) quickly became the 'Fifth Beatle'

Abbey Road - Released 9/26/1969

The most famous crosswalk on the planet

The entire Abbey Road project was merely salvaging their reputation after the Get Back fiasco.  McCartney looked at what happened over the previous couple years and realized the Beatles were being left behind.  They may have taught the music world how to play, but their students were quickly overtaking the masters.  He desperately didn't want the less than positively embraced White Album to be their last release.  Get Back, at that point, had been shelved indefinitely.   He called up George Martin, who was prepared to move on after the debacle of the Get Back project, and asked if he would produce again.  Martin said only if he's allowed to actually produce and be in the driver's seat, like the old days.  John was still hesitant, and the album was a compromise.  For Lennon, who was tired of the emphasis on endless studio production, Side A would have a set of individual songs, no tricks or fancies.  For Side B, featuring a strung out medley of multiple short songs and song ideas, McCartney would be able to produce to his heart's content.  The noteworthy part of the whole thing is that it was George Harrison, long the bridesmaid of the band's songwriters, who provided the most successful singles from the album.  Here Comes the Sun has emerged in recent years as one of the Beatles' most successful and recognizable songs.  And Something (released as a Side A alongside Come Together, also released as a Side A) went to #1 and was named by none other than Frank Sinatra as one of the most beautiful love songs he ever heard.  Upon release, Abbey Road was widely praised, though with restraint.  A technically fine album, perhaps their best overall, some great songs, some fun Beatles tricks.  But merely one of many great albums being released by that time.  It healed the wounds of previous years and brought back respect on a level they hadn't seen since Sgt. Pepper.  It also reminded everyone that what was being done in the world of music by 1969 was, as often as not, first done by them.  But that was the extent of its influence.  As Harrison said, they knew by then it was over, that this was their swansong.  And so it was.  Even the album's final official song title illustrated the fact: The End.  When they left the room on August 20, 1969, after working on overdubs for Lennon's I Want You (She's So Heavy), it was the last time the four would be in a recording studio together. 

By the late 60s, they knew the end was getting near