Expert: Elizabeth - 1/24/2010

Question
I'm wondering what kind of progress or differences in style or other features The Beatles made between the albums "Please Please Me" and "With the Beatles".

Answer
Not much, actually.

You're asking for a comparison between the Beatles' first two albums.  At this point, they were still working their way through the repertoire they played in clubs like the Cavern.  If they wrote a brand new song, it was put out as a single.  Six out of fourteen of both of the first albums are cover songs.

There are some things overall that I can think of in terms of differences, however.

Doubletracked vocals begin to appear on "With the Beatles."  That's one vocalist singing along with his own prerecorded vocal.  On "Please Please Me," which was mainly recorded in one day, all the harmonies were done live.  For example, on "Misery," that's John and Paul.  On "All My Loving," it's Paul and Paul.

George Harrison's first composition, "Don't Bother Me," appeared on "With the Beatles."

There's less echo on "With the Beatles."  I have a feeling that the group, excited to be recording their first album, put the nifty studio trick on just because they could.  (Think "A Taste of Honey.")  There's little to no echo at all on the next album.

More songs on "With the Beatles" have keyboards featured (not used that much in the club act).  The use of keyboard instruments increased more and more throughout the Beatles' time together.  Actually, the fact that they didn't have to perform live in the studio allowed them to explore more options in instrumentation, starting with their first album.  (Celesta on "Baby It's You?"  Definitely not in the live act.)  "Til There Was You" on "With the Beatles" is played with nylon string acoustic guitars.  When they did this song live, it was always with electric guitars, because they didn't want to bring an acoustic along for one song.


Anyway, that's all I can think of off the top of my head.  Let me know if you have any other questions.