In the next installment to the popular Beatles album breakdown series, author, producer and mixer Jerry Hammackis back to discuss the making of The Beatles’ second album, “With The Beatles”.
Jerry devoted nearly 12 years of his life to research every detail of the Beatles recording process in constructing his five-book series, “The Beatles Recording Reference Manuals”. For the books, he analyzed over 5700 Beatles recordings, from original mono and stereo vinyl to outtakes and remixes, as well as extensive photo, video and original archival research. He’s talked to the engineers, producers and assistant engineers who worked with the band to learn about their recording process, band chemistry and studio workflow.
The books cover the entire Beatles career, reconstructing the creation of each song in their catalogue from first take to final remix along with detailing the technical profile of each and every classic Beatles recording session from 1961 to 1970. The books are considered essential reading if you want to know how The Beatles created the most influential music of all time and they grace the bookshelves of a number of the world’s top producers and mixers.
Today, Jerry Hammack is with us to give us a breakdown of The Beatles’ album “With The Beatles”. He will give us some of the background on the gear used in the studio and by the band, the clever two-track recording process, as well as go through the album song by song and tell us about how each individual track was created, including backing tracks, overdubs, edits and more.
“With The Beatles”, recorded between July and November, 1963 and released in the same year as their first album, “Please Please Me” is the kind of sophomore effort bands dream of creating. Following in the pattern of “Please Please Me”, it included both original and cover songs, and gave each Beatle a piece of the spotlight.
In this period, the band became a global phenomenon with the birth of Beatlemania. Eventually the adoration of fans drove the band off the live stage and into the studio, but for now they were still climbing and striving to arrive at, in Lennon’s words, “the toppermost of the poppermost”.
Lennon and McCartney’s growing sophistication as songwriters was on full display during the era, as was the band’s role as global influencers, introducing the UK to US Motown and girl group hits, and, in the long run, re-introducing the US to its own musical heritage.
We had a great time sitting down with Jerry to learn all about this amazing album. Producers, mixers and fans will come away with new insights into each of the album’s classic songs.
Check out today’s video to learn how this amazing album was recorded!
