THE BEATLES – WITH THE BEATLES LP – Nr MINT UK STEREO 1976  LENNON McCARTNEY

With The Beatles
(Parlophone Records  1976  PCS3045  STEREO)
Matrix No’s: YEX 110-3 / YEX 111-4 – UK Pressing
Silver/Black Parlophone Labels with 2 EMI logos

Front Laminated Sleeve in Nr MINT/Excellent+ condition
– some light rubbing and one thumbnail crease to laminate near opening edge – back cover has some light rubbing and a little discolouration
EMI Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they became widely regarded as the foremost and most influential act of the rock era. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock and roll, the Beatles later experimented with several musical styles, ranging from pop ballads and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock, often incorporating classical elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways. In 1963 their enormous popularity first emerged as “Beatlemania”, and as the group’s music grew in sophistication in subsequent years, led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, they came to be perceived as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the counterculture of the 1960s.

The Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding their popularity in the United Kingdom after their first hit, “Love Me Do”, in late 1962. They acquired the nickname “the Fab Four” as Beatlemania grew in Britain the next year, and by early 1964 became international stars, leading the “British Invasion” of the United States pop market. From 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (commonly known as the White Album, 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). After their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers of varying lengths. McCartney and Starr, the surviving members, remain musically active. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001.

The Beatles are the best-selling band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act. According to the RIAA, the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazine’s list of the all-time most successful “Hot 100” artists; as of 2017, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart with twenty. They have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and all four were inducted individually from 1994 to 2015. They were also collectively included in Time magazine’s compilation of the twentieth century’s 100 most influential people.

With the Beatles is the second studio album by the English rock group the Beatles. It was released on 22 November 1963, on Parlophone, and was recorded four months after the band’s debut Please Please Me. The album features eight original compositions (seven by Lennon–McCartney and “Don’t Bother Me”, George Harrison’s first recorded solo composition and his first released on a Beatles album) and six covers (mostly of Motown and R&B hits). Most of the songs from the album were released in the United States by Capitol Records as the Meet the Beatles! LP on 20 January 1964, and the remaining that were not, featured on their next US album, The Beatles’ Second Album.

The album was also released in November 1963 by Capitol Records in Canada, with a slight change to the title: Beatlemania! With the Beatles. This release has the distinction of being the first LP of Beatles material released in North America, pre-dating the Capitol US Meet the Beatles! and the Vee Jay Records Introducing … the Beatles LPs by two months. The cover photograph was taken by the fashion photographer, Robert Freeman, and it has been mimicked by several music groups over the years.

The LP had advance orders of a half million and sold another half million by September 1965, making it the second album to sell a million copies in the United Kingdom, after the soundtrack to the 1958 film South Pacific. With the Beatles remained at the top of the charts for 21 weeks, displacing Please Please Me, so that the Beatles occupied the top spot for 51 consecutive weeks. It even reached number 11 in the “singles charts” (because at the time UK charts counted all records sold, regardless of format). EMI Australia did not receive the cover art, and used a caricature of the band in a similar style to the black-and-white photograph on other releases. The Beatles were unaware of this until fans showed them the cover during their only Australian tour, and informed the EMI publicity staff that they were not pleased with the substitution.

On 26 February 1987, With the Beatles was officially released on compact disc (in mono only, catalogue number CDP 7 46436 2). Having been available only as an import in the US in the past, the album was also issued domestically in the US on LP and cassette on 21 July 1987. Along with the rest of the Beatles’ canon, it was re-released on CD in newly re-mastered stereo and mono versions on 9 September 2009.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 420 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted.

Personnel

The Beatles

• George Harrison – lead, harmony and backing vocals; lead and acoustic guitars; handclaps; nylon-string acoustic guitar on “Till There Was You”
• John Lennon – lead, harmony and backing vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; harmonica and handclaps; nylon-string acoustic guitar on “Till There Was You”; Hammond organ on “I Wanna Be Your Man” and tambourine on “Don’t Bother Me”
• Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and backing vocals; bass guitar and handclaps; piano on “Little Child” and claves on “Don’t Bother Me”
• Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine, maracas, handclaps; lead vocals on “I Wanna Be Your Man” and Arabian loose-skin bongo on “Till There Was You” and “Don’t Bother Me”

Production

• Robert Freeman – cover photograph
• George Martin – arrangement, production and mixing; piano on “You Really Got a Hold on Me”, “Not a Second Time” and “Money (That’s What I Want)”
• Norman Smith – engineering and mixing