The release
Capitol Records had rejected The Beatles’ initial EMI singles – ‘Love Me Do’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘From Me To You’, and ‘She Loves You’. However, their undeniable popularity in the UK, their growing international profile, and the strong performance of the Vee-Jay and Swan singles in America, meant that the label could no longer ignore the band.
Capitol decided to release ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ as a single, with ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ on the b-side. It put in place a considerable promotional campaign to ensure its success, and began work on an album.
The label’s executive Dave Dexter, who had previously rejected The Beatles, oversaw their US releases from 1963 to 1966. He compiled the US albums and often remastered the songs, believing it made them more palatable to US listeners. One of Dexter’s most notable changes was the addition of considerable reverb to the songs.
Capitol decided to retain the eye-catching photograph of The Beatles, taken by Robert Freeman in Bournemouth in August 1963. A blue tint was added to the half-shadow portraits, and the title Meet The Beatles! was chosen.
Capitol had originally planned to issue Meet The Beatles! in February 1964, but – as with the ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ single – moved the release forward in response to public demand. A press release dated 13 January stated that the company had received advance orders of 240,000 for the album.
Although the official release date was 20 January 1964, some stores received copies a week early and put them on sale immediately.
Meet The Beatles! made its debut on the Billboard Top LPs chart at number 92 on 1 February. The following week it had climbed to number three, and on 15 February – aided by the band’s epochal first Ed Sullivan Show appearance – it reached number one. Four of the five songs performed on the show also appeared on the album.
The album remained at the top spot for eleven consecutive weeks before being replaced by The Beatles’ Second Album on 2 May. Overall, Meet The Beatles! spent 71 weeks on the Billboard chart, including 17 in the top five and 21 in the top ten. The magazine’s 28 March issue stated that the album had sold 3,650,000 copies, with the single at 3,400,000.
The album was certified gold by the RIAA on 3 February 1964, and 5× platinum on 26 December 1991.
Reissues
Meet The Beatles! was released on compact disc for the first time in 2004, in mono and stereo, in the box set The Capitol Albums, Volume 1. The release retained the original US mixes.
In 2014 the album was included in the box set The US Albums, and as a standalone release. Unlike the 2004 version, the 2014 edition contained the UK mono and stereo mixes.
Sleeve notes
The back cover of Meet The Beatles! featured sleeve notes unique to the release. Across the top of the cover, in large bold lettering, were the words:You’ve read about them in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times. Here’s the big beat sound of that fantastic, phenomenal foursome: Meet the Beatles!
The rest of the rear cover was in two columns, with a Dezo Hoffmann photograph of The Beatles taking up the entire lower right quadrant. The song titles were listed above it, followed by an introduction to the band and their individual roles, adapted from Tony Barrow’s notes for With The Beatles:
The Beatles all hail from Liverpool, a seaport city which, because its sailing men bring in the latest hit singles from America, is the hippest pop music spot in England. They wear “pudding basin” haircuts that date back to ancient England, and suits with collarless jackets which they’ve made the newest rage. John Lennon plays rhythm guitar and harmonica, George Harrison lead guitar, Paul McCartney electric bass guitar, Ringo Starr drums, and all four of the boys sing. They also work piano, Hammond organ, tambourine, mouth organ, Arabian bongoes and claves into their act. That’s John doing the lead vocal in It Won’t Be Long and All I’ve Got To Do and the double-track solo in Not A Second Time. Paul does the lead vocal in All My Loving and Hold Me Tight, and the solo in Till There Was You. Ringo is soloist in I Wanna Be Your Man and George in Don’t Bother Me, double-tracked.
The left-hand column contained sleeve notes unique to Meet The Beatles!. Although uncredited, they were written by Lawrence Rory Guy, an actor and writer who used the stage and pen name Angus Scrimm.
A year ago the Beatles were known only to patrons of Liverpool pubs. Today there isn’t a Britisher who doesn’t know their names, and their fame has spread quickly around the worldSaid one American visitor to England: “Only a hermit could be unaware of the Beatles, and he’d have to be beyond the range of television, newspapers, radio, records and rioting fans.”
Said another: “They’re the biggest, hottest property in the history of English show business.”
The foursome – John Lennon, 23, George Harrison, 20, Ringo Starr, 23, and Paul McCartney, 21 – write, play and sing a powerhouse music filled with zest and uninhibited good humor that make listening a sensation-filled joy. It isn’t rhythm and blues. It’s not exactly rock ‘n’ roll. It’s their own special sound, or, as group leader Lennon puts it, “Our music is just – well, our music.”
Whatever it is, the Beatles’ robust, roaring sound has stimulated a reaction the English themselves describe as “Beatlemania.”
Consider these manifestations:
In Newcastle, England, four thousand fans stood all night in pouring rain to get tickets for a Beatles appearance.
In Portsmouth, the queue started 90 hours before the box office opened. Teenagers brought food, drink, blankets and transistor radios, and two determined 16-year-old girls spent four nights outside to hold their place in the queue.
In Carlisle, frantic schoolgirls battled police for four hours in a do-or-die effort to gain admission to a sold-out show.
In Dublin, Ireland, the Beatles’ first visit set off a mob free-for-all resulting in unnumbered broken limbs.
At London Airport, reporter Anne Butler had her gloved hand kissed repeatedly by youngsters who saw it accidentally brush against the back of a Beatle.
Similar wild enthusiasm has greeted the Beatles in such disparate places as Sweden (where frenzied girls swarmed up onto stage), Germany, Finland and France, and the acclaim recently brought them one of the highest of all entertainment honors: an appearance before Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and Lord Snowdon at the Royal Variety Performance in London.
And their records? In America, a total sale of a million discs calls for celebrations, gold records, trade news headlines and delirious self-congratulations. A recent Beatles recording had an advance order of a million copies in the United Kingdom three weeks before release. And simultaneously the Beatles occupied positions 1 and 2 in the hit singles charts and 1 and 2 in the album charts – a phenomenal achievement anywhere.
Now the Beatles are getting ready for a royal welcome in America. Ed Sullivan signed them for three appearances in rapid succession on his Sunday night TV show, They are shortly to film in England a feature length United Artists movie for worldwide release.
And here is their first Capitol record – twelve of their most sensational songs in their wildest Beatlemaniac style!
Initial copies of Meet The Beatles! omitted a producer credit. New back liners were printed in February 1964 and added the line “Produced by GEORGE MARTIN” to the bottom left corner.
