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Rating: The four guys with the ridiculous haircuts and on-stage movements release another album – less amateurish than “Please, Please Me”. The progress is evident and deserves a pass, even if it isn’t “A Hard Day’s Night” or “Help!”.
1. Original Tracks
“It Won’t Be Long”, by Lennon, was even appreciated by the great Leonard Bernstein for the complex initial chord progression. However, the complexity of chords doesn't determine the depth of a song. And this pleasant song, despite the compositional creativity, doesn't have much depth.
“All My Loving”, by Paul. Lennon adored it and would have liked to write it. I've never particularly liked it.
“All I Have Got To Do”, a beautiful ballad by John, underrated by the author himself. Here Lennon creates a wonderful melody. Ringo does a great job accompanying, and the backing vocals in the change are beautiful. Too bad about the lyrics.
“Not a Second Time”, by John, isn't exceptional, but it isn’t a trivial song, and for me, it has a beautiful piano solo, which is a shame not to hear in some of their masterpieces. A critic appreciated the chord progression and compared it to those in Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde”.
“Don’t Bother Me” is by Harrison. The beginning seems like it’s going to be a trivial song. Then the song picks up and gains its strength, with a nice change. Nothing extraordinary, but not to be dismissed.
There are two bad songs. The first is “Hold Me Tight” by Paul. It was supposed to be included in “Please, Please Me”. And you can tell.
“Little Child”, by John, can challenge the previous song in a contest of awfulness.
2. Covers
“Please Mr. Postman”, a splendid cover of a group called “Marvelettes”, sung greatly by John. It might be a trivial song, but I adore it and prefer it much more to “Twist and Shout”.
“You Really Got a Hold on Me” and “Devil in Her Heart” don't reach the beauty of the previous one, but are very pleasant.
“Till There Was You” is an excellent slow song by Paul, but, for my tastes, far below “A Taste of Honey” from the previous album.
“Money”, what the Beatles wanted. John sings excellently, and the song listens well.
“Roll Over Beethoven” is a Chuck Berry piece. Great song, but sung very poorly by George, who can't stamp it as he should, and therefore fails to reach the listener. This song should have been John's.
You might wonder why, when talking about Chuck Berry, they didn’t do a cover of “Johnny B. Goode”. But maybe the guitar work on that song was far above their skills at the time.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
06 Till There Was You (02:17)
There were bells on a hill
But I never heard them ringing
No, I never heard them at all
Till there was you
There were birds in the sky
But I never saw them winging
No, I never saw them at all
Till there was you
Then there was music and wonderful roses
They tell me in in sweet fragrant meadows
Of dawn and dew
There was love all around
But I never heard it singing
No I never heard it at all
Till there was you
Then there was music and wonderful roses
They tell me in sweet fragrant meadows
Of dawn and dew
There was love all around
But I never heard it singing
No I never heard it at all
Till there was you
Till there was you
08 Roll Over Beethoven (02:48)
Well gonna write a little letter
Gonna mail it to my local D.J.
It's a rockin' little record
I want my jockey to play
Roll over Beethoven
I gotta hear it again today
You know my temperature's risin'
And the jukebox's blowin' a fuse
My hearts beatin' rhythm
And my soul keeps a-singing the blues
Roll over Beethoven
And tell Tchaikovsky the news
I got a rockin' pneumonia
I need a shot of rhythm and blues
I think I caught an arthritis
Sittin' down by the rhythm review
Roll over Beethoven
We're rockin' in two by two
Well if you fell you like it
Well get your lover and reel and rock it
Roll it over and move on up
Just a trifle further and reel and rock it
Roll it over
Roll over Beethoven
A rockin' in two by two , oh
Well early in the mornin'
I'm a givin' you the warnin'
Don't you step on my blue suede showes
Hey diddle diddle
I'm a-playin' my fiddle
Ain't got nothing to lose
Roll over Beethoven
And tell Tchaikovsky the news
You know she winks like a glow worm
Dance like a spinnin' top
She got a crazy partner
Oughta see 'em reel an rock
Long as she's got a dime
The music will never stop
Roll over Beethoven
Roll over Beethoven
Roll over Beethoven
Roll over Beethoven
Roll over Beethoven
And dig these rhythm and blues
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Other reviews
By RingoStarfish
The Beatles themselves were defining the Merseybeat trend, although everything in these songs suggests how much they wished to escape any definition.
In just over half an hour, you can go from listening to the pop perfection of the McCartney-like 'All My Loving' to the rage of father-to-be Lennon.
By popoloitaliano
For me, their best album is 'With The Beatles': the real Beatles, sparse, with some unbeatable songs like 'Don’t Bother Me' by George Harrison.
A kick-ass album with all the trimmings.
By claudio carpentieri
The history of rock would have had different evolutions without that July 6, 1957.
‘With the Beatles’ was the first songbook ... so to speak...
