REVIEW: The Beatles remastered 1963-66

Should you buy the mono and stereo box sets?

Chris Vinnicombe, Mon 7 Sep 2009, 11:41 am BST

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

9 September 2009 sees The Beatles' studio back catalogue re-released in remastered mono and stereo form across two CD box sets: The Beatles In Mono, and The Beatles Box Set: Remastered In Stereo.

In the first of a two-part review (read part two here) we look in detail at the new mono and stereo versions of The Beatles recorded output from 1963's Please Please Me to 1966's Revolver.

With The Beatles In Mono set to be a limited release, and the new stereo albums the new 'standard' versions that people will be buying in record stores and perhaps eventually digitally, it raises some interesting questions:

How do the first four albums – available on CD in stereo for the first time – sound? Are Apple/Parlophone right to make the new mono versions available only as part of a limited edition box set? Should fans who already own these albums buy them again? Are these the best-sounding Beatles releases to date?

Read on to find out...

A hard day's work

When The Beatles began their recording career with Parlophone, four-track recording facilities at EMI Studios – later renamed Abbey Road – were reserved for orchestral and easy listening music. It seems incredible today, but beat groups were recorded on a twin-track tape machine with instruments sent to one track and vocals another.

Mono and stereophonic mixes could be made at a later date. However, for most of the '60s only the most well-heeled music fans could afford expensive stereo equipment, and up until Let It Be and Abbey Road, mono mixes were given priority. The Beatles themselves would rarely attend George Martin's stereo mix sessions. Put simply, mono was king.

Often referred to as the product of a single day's recording, 10 of Please Please Me's 14 tracks were committed to tape in just 9 hours 45 minutes at Abbey Road on 11 February 1963.

For the LP's release on 22 March these tracks were augmented by the four songs recorded previously for the first two Beatles singles; Love Me Do, PS I Love You, Please Please Me and Ask Me Why. Love Me Do and PS I Love You famously feature sessioneer Andy White on drums, with Ringo Starr relegated to tambourine and maracas respectively.

Although it is rarely afforded the same level of acclaim and significance as their later long players, for this writer, Please Please Me has always been a thing of alien beauty. Lennon's voice in particular – remarkably singing through a heavy cold on the day – underpinned by McCartney's ambitious, mobile bass lines and that truly wonderful snare drum sound, is still astonishing.

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