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Four scousers who changed the world (© Cat's/Corbis KIPA)

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The stereo version of Baby It's You has an even more elongated fade but as the LP enters the home straight, it's impossible not to feel huge admiration for this group of musicians. Countless rehearsals and performances and a super-size helping of talent oiled the gears of a thrilling pop machine.

Beatlemania

Like their debut, With The Beatles – released on 22 November 1963 – not only showcases Lennon and McCartney's own increasingly ambitious compositions, but also their incredible ability to stamp their authority over other people's to the extent that The Beatles' version became the definitive.

The Marvelettes' Please Mister Postman and The Miracles' You Really Got A Hold On Me are both bettered here with Lennon contributing spine-tingling vocal performances to both.

Like Please Please Me, With The Beatles was recorded entirely using twin-track tape machines, although even more capacity was wrung out of the limited technology this time around. The recording notes packaged with the stereo remaster are revealing:

"The need for more tracks was particularly apparent during the recording of Money. Overdubbing using twin-track machines was achieved by copying the first recording to another tape while at the same time adding more instruments or vocals. Money required this process to be repeated yet again onto a third tape."

Perhaps the sheer weight of parts is the reason that Money – the album's closing salvo – is the first track in which we hear the new stereo masters exceed their mono counterparts. Previously mired in a dense mono mix, the fantastically raunchy guitar riff that mirrors the piano intro snarls through the left channel.

With those two-track machines literally hitting saturation point, not for the last time The Beatles had reached a "we're gonna need a bigger boat" moment. It was pivotal that before With The Beatles was completed, the band would record both sides of the I Want To Hold Your Hand single on a four-track tape machine. From here on in, there would be no going back to two-track.

Two discs in then, and mono wins for sheer visceral thrills and impact and overall sound. It's interesting to hear the extra separation and detail in the stereo versions, but in a direct A/B test, out of 28 songs, we only prefer one – Money – in its stereo incarnation.

In some cases – most notably Little Child on With The Beatles – the stereo versions are so hollow they are tough to listen to on headphones compared to their mono counterparts.