The following article appeared in New Musical Express on November 15, 1963, page 3
"Police Constables" John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr may have disguised themselves as officers of the law to escape fans at Birmingham on Sunday, but it wouldn't take a detective to forecast the reaction to their second LP!-writes Alan Smith.
"With The Beatles" advance orders already hover on the brink of 300,000, and it's a cert that they'll be more than doubled before the last copy is sold!
The new album is almost a complete contrast to their first album, "Please Please Me". This was recorded in one day-and frankly, the group weren't as happy with it as they might have been.
I'm not saying they disliked it. It was simply that they would have liked more time to polish up their arrangements, particularly on the self-penned numbers.
It's a tribute to their talent that this one session has already produced two numbers which have found a place in the Top Thirty-the "Twist and Shout" classic and "I Saw Her Standing There", the lead track on the "Beatles Vol.1" EP, which entered the NME Chart this week.
The highlight of "With The Beatles"? To my mind, "All My Loving". This Lennon-McCartney original has an instantly recognisable melody line, taken at mid-tempo. Incidentally, several of the songs featured on the LP were hardly written before The Beatles entered the studio. George told me: "In some cases we'd just got the general idea for a number. For instance, the middle bit might be missing! Our recording manager, George Martin, would pop out for a drink or something, and in the meantime we'd finish it off. "When he came back we'd have added words and a bit more tune. And so on!"
Not all the Lennon-McCartney tunes featured are new. One example is "Hold Me Tight", which they were singing at The Cavern Club in Liverpool some time ago. It's a gripping rock track, although the melody seems to go slightly "off" at one point. But I'm not sure whether this is the group's fault, or due to a "warp" in my advance copy!
Remember "Boys", the number with which Ringo made his debut on the "Please Please Me" album? It turned out to be so successful that there was almost a demand for him to record another vocal. John and Paul obliged by writing one for him-"I Wanna Be Your Man", now waxed by The Rolling Stones as a single and in the chart at No.21!
No mention of this terrific album could go by without including Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven". It's an out-and-out rocker which The Beatles have been performing for a long time. Geoge makes one of his rare vocal appearances on this one.
Another track is "Little Child". Paul McCartney plays piano, dubbed on after he and John had recorded the vocal.
Most of the material on "With The Beatles" is wild and up-tempo, with one really distinct contrast. This is "Till There Was You," the Peggy Lee hit which Paul has been using in the group's stage act for several months. Perhaps the "plug" for it came when he sang the number in last week's Royal Command Show.
If there are any Beatle-haters left in Britian, I doubt if they'll remain unmoved after hearing "With The Beatles". It's a knock-out.