The Beatles’ first album.
We maybe tend to forget, or did not even know, that The Beatles did something bands and performers seem not to do these days. They served an apprenticeship.
With Peter Best at the drums, John, Paul and George and maybe Stuart Sutcliffe played for hour after hour in Hamburg. True they did performances in Liverpool too, at The Cavern, but it was in Germany they became a true band of accomplished musicians.
Modern performers have it easy. They use technology to correct their singing, have synthesisers to recreate sounds, maybe even use AI to create songs. Not The Beatles. They played and they played and they learned a craft.
They did have original songs, but they needed a huge repertoire, for their sanity, for variety. They were a covers band.
So, when it came to record their first album, recorded in one long day, this is what they had. Some original songs, lots of covers, the best of their stage act chosen for variety.
It was in some ways a live recording. Yes, they had multiple takes, probably edits, definitely rehearsals and overdubs, but it does give an idea of what the band, by then including Ringo, would have been playing.
It starts with Paul’s exuberant I Saw Her Standing There and finishes with John’s raucous Twist And Shout. George gets a sing as does Ringo. Fourteen tracks including six covers. Lots of harmonies, lots of shared lead vocals.
And it has that iconic cover, much reproduced and copied.
Actually, the covers tracks are the weakest. Anna (Go To Him), Boys, Baby It’s You, but they don’t outstay their welcome. At just over 30 minutes, the album zips along.
