On this day in music history: November 22, 1963 - “With The Beatles”, the second album by The Beatles is released in the UK. Produced by George Martin, it is recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London from July - October 1963. Issued as the follow up to their hugely successful debut album “Please Please Me”, it features eight original songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, along with covers of six other songs. Though no singles are released from it in the UK, it contains several tracks that become classics in the band’s catalog such as “All My Loving”, “It Won’t Be Long”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Please Mr. Postman” and “I Wanna Be Your Man”. It is also the band’s first album to be recorded (in part) on a four track multi-track tape machine, having been previously restricted to recording on the studios’ two-track recorder. The LP’s iconic cover photo is taken by Robert Freeman and shot in a similar style to the band’s photographer friend Astrid Kirchherr. It receives a then record breaking advance order of over 500,000 copies in the UK, becoming the second album ever to sell over a million copies in the United Kingdom (by September of 1965). The album is not issued in the US until February of 1987. Capitol Records takes nine of the UK LP’s songs, pairing them with three others (“I Want To Hold Your Hand”, “I Saw Her Standing There”, and “This Boy”) using the “half shadow” cover photo for US compilation “Meet The Beatles!” in January of 1964. “With The Beatles” is remastered and reissued on CD in 2009, issuing both the mono and stereo versions of the album. The stereo version is reissued on vinyl in 2012, with the mono LP following in 2014. “With The Beatles” spends twenty one weeks at number one on the UK album chart, unseating their debut “Please Please Me” from the top of the chart.
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