With the Beatles (1963)

With the Beatles is the second studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released in the United Kingdom on 22 November 1963 on Parlophone, eight months after the release of the band's debut album, Please Please Me. Produced by George Martin, the album features eight original compositions (seven by Lennon–McCartney and "Don't Bother Me", George Harrison's first recorded solo composition) and six covers (mostly of rock and roll and Motown R&B hits). The sessions also yielded the non-album single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" backed by "This Boy". The cover photograph was taken by the fashion photographer Robert Freeman and has since been mimicked by several music groups. A different cover was used for the Australian release of the album, which the Beatles were displeased with.

In the United States, the album's tracks were unevenly split over the group's first two albums released on Capitol Records: Meet the Beatles! and The Beatles' Second Album. It was also released in Canada under the name Beatlemania! With the Beatles. The album was ranked number 420 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, and was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2010). It was also voted number 275 in the third edition of English writer Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).

Recording

In 1963, musical groups were typically required to release more than one LP a year. As such, the Beatles' producer George Martin and manager Brian Epstein planned for the band to release two LPs and four singles every year. Shortly after recording the non-album single "She Loves You" on 1 July 1963, the Beatles returned to London's EMI Studios only four months after the release of Please Please Me. Unlike their debut, the bulk of whose tracks (10 of the 14, excluding previously issued singles) were recorded in one day, With the Beatles was recorded over seven sessions across three months. On 18 July, the group tracked four covers: the Miracles' "You Really Got a Hold on Me", Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)", the Donays' "Devil in His Heart", albeit retitled "Devil in Her Heart", and Meredith Willson's "Till There Was You", although this recording was deemed unsatisfactory.

The Beatles reconvened at the studio on the morning of 30 July, recording a cover of the Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" and beginning work on the first new Lennon–McCartney song, "It Won't Be Long". Following a break to record a BBC radio session for Saturday Club, they returned in the late-afternoon, recording overdubs on "Money", a remake of "Till There Was You" and a cover of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven". The session ended with finishing touches on "It Won't Be Long" and recording Paul McCartney's "All My Loving", which Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn described as "by far his best, most complex piece of songwriting yet." "She Loves You", backed by "I'll Get You", was issued as a single on 23 August and was the group's first single to sell over a million copies in Britain alone.