01 - The Beatles - Meet The Beatles! - 1964

Side One

I Want to Hold Your Hand

I Saw Her Standing There

This Boy

It Won't Be Long

All I've Got To Do

All My Loving

Side Two

Don't Bother Me

Little Child

Till There Was You

Hold Me Tight

I Wanna Be Your Man

Not A Second Time

DISCOVERY; The teenage girls who looked after my sister and I in the afternoons (for money) when Mother was working had this album and a handful of others. Albums by Herman's Hermits, The Animals, The Kinks and a few by The Beatles. It wasn't until the girls brought home an album by The Monkees that I realised fully which band I liked the best. As I was getting old enough at 10 years old to be left alone and wouldn't be spending so much time at their house any more I decided to save up my money allowance (I remember it taking over 6 months) so I could buy this album and start putting together a record library of my own. I was full of grandiose notions.

We got money for being good and helpful and there were some set chores we had like rinsing and drying the dishes after they were washed. Ma would wash the dishes in super hot water then they went into a sink full of cold water. Whichever one of us on duty that night, standing on a stool, would pull the dish from the cold water, dry it with a dish towel, put it in the cupboard. Glasses and silverware first, dishes second, greasy pots last. Once trained up we did the washing too...

WHEN & WHERE; It was 1970, the year The Beatles broke up. I bought this album at the Target Store in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.

We had one of these to play the Disney records and other oddities in the house. I promptly moved it into my room so I could enjoy my Beatles record in private and that's where it stayed. What were the oddities? Johnny Cash, Kitty Wells, Al Dexter, Three Fat Dutchmen, Doris Day. None of that was going to get played as long as I had a Beatles record!

My room at the time was the green room. It was green. It was my parents old bedroom. They built a new one and since I was the oldest (the older sisters had moved on) I got the new room first. A little bigger than the room I shared with my sister Julie. It was green, had a lovely dark wooden floor, a window north and a window looking onto the front entry way. Before they built the garage this room would have got the morning sun but that was before my time. Now the view was all stucco and a screen door which caught in a high wind as I was being herded through on my way somewhere important, aged 4, which is how I got a scar on my lip. The north window was al right though. No traumatic memories there.

I got in trouble for playing my new album after I was told to go to bed. I thought it would be like reading under the covers with a flashlight only with sound. It didn't work.

HIGHLIGHTS; The whole thing is bloody marvellous except for Till There Was You which is just a bit cringe-worthy.

STATUS; If you want these songs in this running order you've got to get Meet The Beatles or assemble the songs on a playlist (probably the easiest solution). I have it on CD but it's quite defective.