No catalog has ever been as exhaustively analyzed as The Beatles’ output of albums. And yet, even within the relatively small batch of albums that they released, some LPs have failed to receive the attention they deserve.
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These three Beatles albums will rarely be named among the group’s finest efforts. We explore the reasons why below. And we also explain why you should check them out if you’ve been holding back till now.
‘With The Beatles’ (1963)
The Beatles’ UK debut Please Please Me features a fantastic track listing. It also owns the great story about it being recorded, for the most part, in a single night. By contrast, With The Beatles couldn’t possibly have garnered that same kind of attention. But don’t think for a moment that the group was enduring some kind of sophomore slump with this release in 1963. If anything, it displayed just how quickly they were progressing as writers and musicians. Songs like “It Won’t Be Long” and “All My Loving” pushed all the pleasure buttons like the early hit singles. The group also once again flexed their muscles on cover material, as on their searing take on the Motown staple “Money (That’s What I Want)”. They were also starting to branch out in terms of the types of material they were releasing, with “Not A Second Time” standing out as one of their first great weepers.
‘Beatles For Sale’ (1964)
When it came to Beatles For Sale, the Fab Four might have been feeling the effects of their hectic schedule. In 1964 alone, in addition to two albums and a handful of massive hit singles, they also released their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night. The accompanying album for the film also marked the first time that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the entirety of the material on an LP. They couldn’t pull that off on Beatles For Sale. But the originals that did make the cut show just how fast the pair were developing as writers. Songs like “I’m A Loser”, “I’ll Follow The Sun”, “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”, and “What You’re Doing” suggest that relationships weren’t always easy to maintain in the Beatles’ fishbowl. Even the surging opener “No Reply” contains that bluesy edge that makes this album so subtly fascinating.
‘Help!’ (1965)
The Beatles were the first to admit that their second feature film (Help!) didn’t hold a candle to their first (A Hard Day’s Night). It sometimes feels like folks believe the same about the music on the Help! album without really diving into the record. Help! acts as a crucial fulcrum between the relative innocence and simplicity of the early records and the adult themes and complexity of all that was to come. The title track certainly sounded like the bouncy Beatles hits of yore. But the upbeat music partially cloaked John Lennon’s personal malaise. Paul McCartney started the classical/rock hybrid craze with the beauteous “Yesterday”. And Help! also deserves notice as the album where George Harrison started to find his stride as a writer, especially when it came to the fetching ballad “I Need You”.
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