The Beatles' Please Please Me album was rush-released by Parlophone on 22nd March, 1963 to capitalise on the enormous success of the title track which had been the group's second single and their first no. 1 in the majority of UK charts. Ten of the album's fourteen tracks were recorded in just one day - 11th February, 1963. These included a mixture of stage favourites and "Lennon-McCartney originals". The four remaining songs had been committed to tape in 1962 having formed the B-side of their debut release and both sides of their second single. A slightly later recording of 'Love Me Do' to that previously released, was selected for the album. This version would also appear on a subsequent EP and later still on an American # 1 single in 1964.
With The Beatles carried on where Please Please Me had left off, melding more Lennon-McCartney originals with further highlights from their stage set. It also included the song-writing debut of their twenty-year old, Lead Guitarist, George Harrison. While the majority of their debut album had been completed in one day, The Beatles had to record their second release in-between other engagements that included, concert tours, numerous radio and TV performances (including the prestigious Sunday Night At The London Palladium) and their first international tour to Sweden. It was around this time that the term "Beatlemania" was first coined and this was very much in evidence when they took part in that year's Royal Variety Performance in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. If that wasn't enough they also had to write, record and promote three new 45's all of which reached the no.1 spot in the UK charts.
Released on 10th July, 1964, the Beatles third album in less than eighteen months was timed to coincide with the cinema opening of their first movie. Since the release of With The Beatles, the previous November, their UK success had started to spread around the world. Their first US single via Capitol Records - "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There" had topped the US charts for seven weeks, leading to their former US distributor reissuing 'She Loves You' and 'Love Me Do' both of which also reached the # 1 spot. In fact such was the group's popularity that in the first week of April, 1964 they held all top five positions in the Billboard chart with a further seven titles it's Hot Hundred.
Beatles For Sale was released on 4th December, 1964 - just 21 weeks after A Hard Day's Night. It was The Beatles’ fourth album release in less than two years. The album had been recorded in seven days, scattered between August and October, when the band’s schedule was crammed with stage performances in the UK, Canada and the US, as well as radio and television work. Given the lack of time, it was not surprising that the group reverted to the 1963 formula of eight original songs and six covers. The album hit the UK number one spot and retained that position for eleven of the 46 weeks that it spent in the Top Twenty.
Released on 6th August, 1965, and eight months after Beatles For Sale, the recordings for Help! had actually started in earnest in mid February just one month after the guys had completed a season of 'Another Beatles Christmas Show' at London's Hammersmith Odeon. Within days of the final February session, they were off to the Bahamas to film scenes for the movie, which like 'A Hard Day's Night' was directed by Richard Lester. Like A Hard Day's Night, Help! contained the songs from the film on side one of the album with the other side devoted to other new recordings including two covers. Unlike A Hard Day's Night, the two singles released prior to and alongside the album had exclusive B-sides. Help! also marked the return of George Harrison as a songwriter. George contributed one song to each side of the album.
Rubber Soul was another album for Christmas - released on 3rd December, 1965 just two weeks after final mixing had taken place. Following the release of their previous album The Beatles had undertaken a momentous tour of the USA and Canada including a record breaking appearance at New York's famous Shea Stadium. The album consisted of eleven songs by John and Paul, two by George and another with the unique writing credit of Lennon-McCartney-Starkey. The inclusion of a sitar on the song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) also illustrated George's growing interest in Indian music and culture.
The Beatles' seventh album was released in early August 1966. Following the release of Rubber Soul the group had embarked on what was to be their final UK concert tour and following a lengthy break, they returned to Abbey Road to record continually for three months. The first recordings released from these sessions, engineered by Geoff Emerick, was the single "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" and those tracks gave an indication of what was to come. Prior to the album's release, the band had set off on a short tour of Western Germany, prior to flying to Japan then the Philippines and finally to the USA for what turned out to be their final gigs, the last of which took place on 29th August 1966 at Candlestick Park, San Francisco
Revolver had only just been completed in time prior to the band flying off on yet another tour. Now that touring was behind them more time could be spent writing and recording. Between November 1966 and April, 1967, they spent over 400 hours in the studio - a far cry from the Please Please Me days. Of course the music was more complex and now that touring was over, there was no need to consider what could be reproduced in front of a live audience. In the studio The Beatles encouraged George Martin to achieve "the impossible" and in turn, George and the engineers would find innovative ways of realising this despite still using only four-track equipment. For the fourth time in the UK, no single was lifted from the album and this also held true in the US. The album was also not banded, encouraging the listener to play it all the way through, pausing only to turn the disc over.
The Beatles devised, wrote and directed a television film called Magical Mystery Tour which was broadcast on BBC Television at Christmas, 1967 Even before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, had hit the shops, the idea of the programme had been born and work had commenced on the title track. It was decided that the soundtrack for the programme would be released on two seven inch discs which would be packaged with a booklet in a gatefold sleeve. The booklet contained stills from the show along with a comic strip telling the story. A lyric sheet was also stapled into the centrespread of the booklet. The EP was a runaway success and reached no. 2 in the UK singles chart, held off the top spot by their own single... "Hello, Goodbye".
Beatles or "The White album" as it became better known was released on 22nd November, 1968 on the fifth anniversary of their second album, With The Beatles. A total of 34 new tracks were released in 1968 and 30 were contained on this one double-LP. The colourful artwork that had adorned Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour albums was absent here. The double wallet merely had words The BEATLES embossed on the front cover. Early copies also had a individual number stamped on the front. Inside the package along with the two discs wrapped in black inner sleeves were four individual photographs of the band and a folded poster containing a photo-collage with the lyrics to the songs on the reverse.
Released in Britain on 17th January, 1969 (and a few days earlier in the US), Yellow Submarine was the soundtrack to an animated feature film which had received its UK premiere some six months earlier. The original LP release contained the Beatles tracks on side one with a newly recorded orchestral score composed and arranged by George Martin occupying side two of the disc. Of the Beatles tracks, four were brand new songs.
First issued on 26th September, 1969 Abbey Road was the final Beatles album to be recorded but not their last to be released. Let It Be, though mainly recorded in January, 1969 was finally released in May, 1970 alongside the film of the same name. Following the 'live' nature of the "Let It Be" recordings, for Abbey Road, The Beatles returned to the North London studios to create carefully crafted recordings with ambitious musical arrangements. Interestingly, 12 of the songs that appeared on the finished album were played during the filmed rehearsals and sessions for "Let It Be" back in January. For the first time on a Beatles album, the front cover contained neither the group's name nor the album title just the iconic photograph taken on the crosswalk near the entrance to the studios in London NW8 in August 1969.
The final Beatles album was first released on 8th May, 1970, just prior to the launch of the cinema film of the same name. Rehearsals and recording sessions for the album had taken place in January, 1969 first At Twickenham Film Studios and later in the basement and on the roof of their Apple headquarters in London's Savile Row. A single comprising of "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down" was released in April, 1969 but as The Beatles focussed their energies on a new album mainly recorded at Abbey Road, The "Get Back" album as it was then called remained unreleased. Once Abbey Road had been issued and the completion of the documentary film now imminent, it was noticed that rehearsals of George's song "I Me Mine" featured prominently in the film but had not been recorded in the studio. This was remedied on 3rd January, 1970 when George, Paul and Ringo performed it without John who was in Denmark. A second single from the album, which was now titled Let It Be appeared on 6th March.