Meet the Beatles! was The Beatles first "official" album in America, released on January 20 1964 by Capitol Records, the sister company within EMI to their British label, Parlophone. Just ten days earlier Chicago's Vee-Jay Records released Introducing... The Beatles, which had been delayed for release from the previous summer.¹ In 2004 this album was released for the first time on CD as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 box set.

The album opens with the December 1963 Capitol single "I Want To Hold Your Hand" / "I Saw Her Standing There", and the b-side "This Boy" from the original November 1963 Parlophone version of "I Want To Hold Your Hand." It contains many of the tracks from With the Beatles and shares the same cover photograph. However, the track listing deletes "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "Devil In Her Heart", "Money", "Please Mister Postman" and "Roll Over Beethoven", which would all see release on the next Capitol album The Beatles' Second Album.² The latter two tracks would also see release on the EP Four By The Beatles.³

Track listing

• All tracks written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except where noted. See also: Lennon-McCartney

Side one

1. "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
2. "I Saw Her Standing There"
3. "This Boy"
4. "It Won't Be Long"
5. "All I've Got To Do"
6. "All My Loving"

Side two

1. "Don't Bother Me" (Harrison)
2. "Little Child"
3. "Till There Was You" (Willson)
4. "Hold Me Tight"
5. "I Wanna Be Your Man"
6. "Not a Second Time"

External links

• The Beatles Discography 1962-1970: Meet the Beatles page
• Bruce Spizer's The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part One: Beatlemania and the Singles website
• Bruce Spizer's The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part Two: The Albums website
• WhatGoesOn.com - Beatles Capitol Albums Vol. 1 now two weeks away article

See also

• With the Beatles
• Introducing... The Beatles
• Four By The Beatles EP
• The Beatles' Second Album
• The Capitol Albums, Volume 1

Notes

Note 1: Spizer, Bruce (2000). The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part Two: The Albums, p. 4. New Orleans, Lousiana: 498 Productions. ISBN 0-9662649-2-4
Note 2: Spizer, Bruce (2000). The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part Two: The Albums, p. 5. New Orleans, Lousiana: 498 Productions. ISBN 0-9662649-2-4
Note 3: Spizer, Bruce (2000). The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part One: Beatlemania and the Singles, p. 41-2. New Orleans, Lousiana: 498 Productions. ISBN 0-9662649-1-6