Maps of Music

The Beatles' Second Album (1964)

Where the lyrics of The Beatles' Second Album take you, and where it was really made.

Despite its title, this is the third Beatles LP released in the United States, because Vee-Jay had issued Introducing... The Beatles three months earlier.

Key places

Abbey Road Studios, London (1964)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — The album's source tracks are linked to Abbey Road Studios, the EMI studio in London. The sessions behind these tracks date back to March 1963, and the specific studio room is not named. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Album story

Overview

• The Beatles' Second Album: second Capitol Records album by the Beatles
• Third Beatles album released in the US, after Introducing... The Beatles from Vee-Jay
• Released 10 April 1964 by Capitol Records, catalogue number ST 2080
• Replaced Meet the Beatles! at number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart
• Mostly leftover tracks from the UK album With the Beatles and the Long Tall Sally EP
• Mainly rock and roll and R&B covers, rounded out with Lennon-McCartney B-sides and the hit single "She Loves You"

Background

• Popularity of Meet the Beatles! in early 1964 led Capitol to compile a follow-up quickly
• A backlog of about 25 songs issued by EMI in Britain and elsewhere from 1962 had not yet been issued by Capitol
• First album of the group's work assembled by Capitol exclusively for the US market
• Meet the Beatles! was a reconfigured, shorter version of the EMI LP With the Beatles
• Vee-Jay released Introducing... The Beatles in January 1964 because Capitol initially lacked interest in marketing the Beatles
• Introducing... comprised most of the EMI debut Please Please Me

Recording

• Capitol's engineers, headed by Dave Dexter Jr., added considerable echo and reverb to give a live-performance atmosphere
• Tracks taken from various UK releases and recording sessions dating back to March 1963
• Five remaining cover versions from With the Beatles were included, among them Roll Over Beethoven and Money
• Capitol mix of "Thank You Girl" has three extra harmonica riffs by John Lennon
• Stereo version of "Money" also underwent a two-to-one stereo-to-mono mixdown
• "I'll Get You" and "She Loves You" were never mixed in stereo, so Duophonic versions were made

Cover

• The same cover art was used for The Beatles' Long Tall Sally issued by Capitol Records of Canada
• A Japanese Odeon album with the same title and similar cover art contained different songs in 1964
• The 2004 CD issue came as a miniature cardboard replica of the original sleeve in The Capitol Albums, Volume 1

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960
• Grew out of Lennon's earlier band the Quarrymen
• Built its reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg
• Starr officially joined in 1962

Members

• John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr

Career

• Manager Brian Epstein shaped them into a professional act
• Producer George Martin developed their recordings after they signed with EMI
• First hit Love Me Do came in late 1962
• By early 1964 they were international stars
• Part of the British Invasion of the US pop market
• Retired from live performance in 1966
• Turned to more sophisticated studio albums: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album and Abbey Road
• Founded Apple Corps in 1968
• Broke up in 1970

Around this album

• Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together
• On 20 September 1969, six days before release, Lennon told McCartney, Starr and manager Allen Klein that he wanted a divorce from the group
• No public announcement of the split came until McCartney announced he was leaving in April 1970

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Among critics, the album is regarded as the band's purest rock and roll album
• Praised for its soulful takes on contemporary black music hits and original material
• Robert Christgau wrote in 1969 that it disproves the idea that the Beatles succeeded artistically only from Rubber Soul and Revolver
• Christgau credited the ebullient performing style, with covers touched with soul but free of the sodden seriousness of other white imitators
• Bruce Eder of AllMusic called it probably the best pure rock & roll album the group ever issued
• Eder noted it avoids the pop ballads favored by Paul McCartney that slowed the group's other early albums
• Jeff Slate, writing for Guitar World in 2014, said it was arguably the band's first great rock and roll record after the over-compressed Dexter tracks had been removed
• Darryl Sterdan of the Toronto Sun wrote that the hodgepodge holds together thanks to rockers such as Money, Roll Over Beethoven and Long Tall Sally

Reappraisal

• Christgau included the album in his basic rock library of 25 albums for Stereo Review in 1969
• Christgau later included it in a more comprehensive library of essential 1950s and 1960s recordings for Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981)
• In 2020, Christgau voted for the album in his Rolling Stone ballot for the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Records

• Debuted at number 16 on the Billboard Top LPs for the week ending April 25, 1964
• Peaked at number one the following week, replacing Meet the Beatles!, which had held the top spot for eleven weeks
• Remained atop the chart for five consecutive weeks and stayed in the top 200 until May 1965
• Sold 1,668,435 copies by 31 December 1964
• Sold 2,051,486 copies by the end of the decade
• Certified Gold by the RIAA on 13 April 1964 and 2× Platinum on 10 January 1997

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album's Capitol mix of "Thank You Girl" includes three additional harmonica riffs by John Lennon, two during the bridge and one at the end.
• Second Album was one of the first four rock albums purchased by future music critic Robert Christgau.
• A Japanese Odeon album with the same title and similar cover art contained different songs, released in 1964.
• The Canadian market received a slightly different track listing under the title The Beatles' Long Tall Sally, with similar cover art.
• The stereo version of "Money" underwent the same two-to-one stereo-to-mono mixdown as "Thank You Girl", creating another alternative mono mix.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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