Beatlemania

THC was in seventh grade and it was either home room or geography because he remembers Mr Levy was teaching.  He noticed that the girl in front of him was fiddling with something at her desk as the teacher droned on and then realized it was a small transistor radio.  Suddenly she screamed which caught my attention as well as Mr Levy's who asked her what was going on.  "The Beatles have landed!!" she exclaimed.  THC did not have a clue what she was talking about.

Now that "phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust" (see, The Clash; 1980) we are left with the real Beatlemania that hit the U.S. in early 1964.  With the retrospectives of the Ed Sullivan Show and the big hits - She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand, being covered by everyone, THC looks at a couple of other early Beatles tunes to highlight the remarkable ability of Lennon and McCartney to crank out high-quality, melodic pop, song after song after song.  The two we'll feature below were never singles but are great examples of the duo's songwriting skills early in their career.

Both tunes were on With The Beatles, released in the UK on November 22, 1963.  Leading off the album was It Won't Be Long, recorded on July 30, 1963.  A simple, but catchy, guitar riff and call and response vocals.  Watch the boys lip-syncing it.

And for those of you still harboring thoughts of singing like The Beatles don't forget the two guys in a bar in Bologna, Italy. 

The second cut on With The Beatles was All I've Got To Do, recorded on September 11.   With a slinky beat, tight harmonies and an outstanding vocal by Lennon (listen to the part starting at about 1:28).  When THC put together a couple of CD's with his favorite Beatles songs a couple of years ago, he was surprised that almost all of those for the early Beatles (1964-66) featured Lennon vocals.  After that, Lennon preferred to have his voice distorted on most of the later Beatles recording and McCartney and Harrison vocals become more frequent on the favorites list.