I Saw Her Standing There/Misery/Anna (Go to Him) /Chains/Boys /Ask Me Why/Please Please Me/Love Me Do/PS. I Love You/Baby It's You/Do You Want to Know a Secret/A Taste of Honey/There's a Place/Twist and Shout

An album that was rushed out to co-incide with the success of Please Please Me and Love Me Do, so the real question is how does it stand as an album? The immediate problem of course is how to review an album of songs that you know so well and even more difficult how to try and erase from your mind all the later output and try to hear this as if it is the day of release. First thing to remember is this was released in 1963. I was 11 years old and I would love to be able to say that it entirely changed my world, that I had a blast of light. Sadly I would be lying - I can't even remember it coming out. I can vaguely remember the furore and the newsreel clips but somehow I was totally divorced from it all. Early Beatles albums seemed to be a collection of rock/pop songs and certainly there was a formula to most of these tracks. Not a single track weighed in at over three minutes and three of them were less than two minutes. It did showcase the emergence of Lennon and McCartney as  songwriters with eight of the 14 tracks being penned by the soon to be legendary duo. The opening track "I Saw Her Standing There" immediately shows the band's intent - good solid guitar driven rock/rhythm and blues and "Misery" features the almost guttural harmonies of Lennon/McCartney with lush chorus and cascading keyboard work from George Martin. You are beginning to see the kind of stir that this album would create, remaining at the top of the album charts for 30 weeks until it was replaced by With The Beatles. This in itself was an amazing achievement as at the time the album charts seemed to be dominated by film soundtracks and crooners. Now they weren't getting a look in as four lads from Liverpool began their journey towards world music domination. Suddenly music was being overtaken by a new sound, by four young people who could write their own material. The music world was changing forever. Some of the material on this album sounds a little like filler material from an album brought out quickly to co-incide with the band's success. There is a delightful feeling to many of the early Beatles songs. They may have been rather formulaic but songs like "Ask Me Why," "PS I Love You,"  "Do You Want to Know a Secret"  and There's A Place began to show the brilliance of the John/Paul songwriting partnership. The only surprise is that the final track Twist and Shout wasn't written by Lennon and McCartney. It really sounds as if it should be. Overall Please Please Me was an excellent starting point - a real springboard for success and a number of beautifully structured songs.

It Won't Be Long/All I've Got to Do/All My Loving/Don't Bother Me/Little Child/Till There Was You/Please Mr. Postman/Roll Over Beethoven/Hold Me Tight/You've Really Got a Hold on Me/I Wanna Be Your Man/Devil in Her Heart/Not a Second Time/Money

A Hard Day's Night/I Should Have Known Better/If I Fell/I'm Happy Just to Dance with You/And I Love Her/Tell Me Why/Can't Buy Me Love/Any Time at All/I'll Cry Instead/Things We Said Today/When I Get Home/You Can't Do That/I'll Be Back

Two steps forward - firstly this was the soundtrack to the Beatles first film and secondly it was the first all self-penned album. Weighing in at under 31 minutes, it would never break any endurance records, however. Indeed only the first seven tracks are featured in hte original film. The second side of the original vinyl features new Lennon/McCartney compositions. So was it a progression after the huge success of the first two albums or were they simply going through the motions. To me the answer is probably a little of each. Sticking with riginal songs gives it a tighter feel and there are plenty of accepted Beatles classics here that would find their way onto greatest hits and best of compilations throughout the world. The album contains some of the Beatles' best slow numbers with the likes of "If I Fell" and possibly their most slushy song of all time "And I Love Her." Elsewhere there were solid gold hits like "A Hard Day's Night" and "Can't Buy Me Love". Somehow you had a feeling that the songwriting was taking on a new lease of life without straying too far from the tried and tested songs of the previous year. You still felt there was much more to come - as indeed there was.

No Reply/I'm a Loser/Baby's in Black/Rock and Roll Music/I'll Follow the Sun/Mr. Moonlight/Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey/Eight Days a Week/
Words of Love/Honey Don't/Every Little Thing/I Don't Want to Spoil the Party/What You're Doing/Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby

Help!/The Night Before/You've Got to Hide Your Love Away/I Need You/Another Girl/You're Going to Lose That Girl/Ticket to Ride/Act Naturally/It's Only Love/You Like Me Too Much/Tell Me What You See/I've Just Seen a Face/Yesterday/Dizzy Miss Lizzy

Drive My Car/Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)/You Won't See Me/
Nowhere Man/Think for Yourself/The Word/Michelle/What Goes On/Girl/I'm Looking Through You/In My Life/Wait/ If I Needed Someone/Run for Your Life

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help from My Friends/
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds/Getting Better/Fixing a Hole/She's Leaving Home/Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!/Within You Without You" (George Harrison)/When I'm Sixty-Four/Lovely Rita/Good Morning Good Morning/
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)/A Day in the Life

Magical Mystery Tour / The Fool On The Hill / Flying / Blue Jay Way / Your Mother Should Know / I Am The Walrus / Hello Goodbye / Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane / Baby You're A Rich Man / All You Need Is Love

So the film wasn't exactly great, but the album is certainly well above average. This is a stylish set of songs that seems to incorporate the different aspects of the Fab Four's music. While George gives vent to his pyschedelic side on Blue Jay Way, there are distinctive differences in the songs written by Paul and John, although most are credited to both. Your Mother Should know and Penny Lane are undoubtedly McCartney numbers whilst I Am a Walrus and Strawberry Fields Forever are full of Lennonesque music and lyrics. Sergeant Pepper was a hard act to follow and perhaps that's why Magical Mystery Tour sounds more like a group of random songs stitched together. The delightful things is that however random they were there are some classic Beatles songs here. Many have already been mentioned but The Fool on the Hill, Hello Goodbye and All You Need is Love are all brilliantly written short pieces.

Back in the U.S.S.R/Dear Prudence/Glass Onion/Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da/
Wild Honey Pie/The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill/While My Guitar Gently Weeps/Happiness Is a Warm Gun/Martha My Dear/I'm So Tired/Blackbird/Piggies/Rocky Raccoon/Don't Pass Me By/Why Don't We Do It in the Road?/I Will/Julia/Birthday/Yer Blues/Mother Nature's Son/Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey/Sexy Sadie/Helter Skelter/Long, Long, Long/Revolution 1/Honey Pie/Savoy Truffle/Cry Baby Cry/Revolution 9/Good Night

So this is where they were travelling to. Suddenly in music terms the Beatles become somewhat outrageous, veering off in new musical directions. Many claim this to be the group's finest work. I still find it very hard to take in one sitting. There are plenty of highlights but also some very average material. More than ever the psychedelic nature of the group is at the fore, but it is the fact that just two years later they were to break up that almost dominates the songs. There is a certain angst here that is hard to hide. Originally the album was destined to be called A Dolls House which somehow seems entirely inappropriate. It ended up just being called The Beatles and then became known ever after as The White Album due to its colour. All the original LPS were numbered. I am the proud owner of number 160,194 which is of no relevance whatsoever. Really the double album is all over the place and whether you see that as a plus or a minus is down to individual taste. I can see both points of view and I guess I am somewhere in the middle. There are wonderful songs here - Back in the USSR is an out and out rocker, While My Guitar Gently Weeps is arguably the best song George Harrison ever wrote, Martha My Dear is a typically fun McCartney song and I Will is one of McCartney's most endearing ballads. Even the John Lennon song Good Night which he wrote for dear old Ringo to sing has a subtle beauty to it. Elsewhere there's quite a bit of dross with the likes of Why Don't We Do It in the Road and the dreadful Revolution 9 which is a wasted eight minutes of experimentation that hold the dubious distinction of the longest Beatles song to appear anywhere. The White Album is flawed - simply because Lennon and McCartney seem to be desperate to throw off the mantel of classic songwriters and move into a more experimental field that somehow sums up the internal problems that were going on at the time.