Pop Goes the 60s is dedicated to reviewing and presenting 60s music, both rare and popular, praised and scorned, under appreciated and underrated. This channel will offer regular commentary on the Beatles as well as other groups, both acclaimed and obscure. Album reviews, band histories, vinyl discographies, Albums That Never Were, and song samples, will all be part of a larger focus.
Pop Goes the 60s will not be limited to just music, but will also examine film, television, pop culture from that same fabled era.
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Another good episode although LP is definitely unworthy. Used to own it (vinyl) + now on cd through us albums box. Looking forward to more like this!
Thanks for another thoughtful and insightful review.
Excellent episode Matt! My Dad left this on my nightstand when I was a young boy. I woke up the next day and was so thrilled to find it! The cover is so striking and eye catching. I fell in love with it! You brought up all of the excellent insights about it; IE extremely short length, repeat songs from AHDN, etc. But it remains a sentimental favorite of mine. Cheers 🍻 😊
Changing an artists art is a travesty. $$$$$$.
Hands down Ringo's best album.
I'd be interested most in hearing the demos or rehearsal tapes for 'The Beatles' (White Album).
I played Something New when it was out and afterwards, but probably because the cover was cool! haha! Even as a kid of 9, I realized that this album was cannibalizing other Beatles releases. I think that's important too. If a little kid like me noticed it, I would have to assume that everyone noticed it too. I don't think Beatlemania was slowing down by this album, I just think people realized that the market was being flooded with repackaged songs, and sub par singles and they just didn't go out and buy every single thing. I 100% blame Capitol for devaluing their own releases. Rock music was not taken seriously yet as an "industry", and Capital was just trying to capitalize on what they thought of as a fad at the time. The Beatles were an anomaly, but they (Capital) didn't realize that yet. It was still only 1964!! The Beatles had only just been on Ed Sullivan a few months earlier.
Thanks for the deep dive Matt! Although this is probably my least favorite Capitol album (along with the Early Beatles) its is still a fun listen. I think this album would have hit #1 had a A Hard Day’s Night not have been blocking it as that one was #1 for 14 weeks and Something New I believe was #2 for 9 weeks so I think it would have had a chance…..great video!
Horrible drummer
I think I'll Cry Instead on Something New, and A Hard Day's Night (US version) are actually 2 different Takes. Takes. I'm basing that from memory from knowing and singing along with these songs as a young teen. I'm 60 now. But I can still remember that there was a pause in the vocal or just pronunciation of a few words were different. I don't think it was just a Mix issue. Actually a few of the same songs on both those albums are actually different Takes. I don't have either album now. And of course I don't know or remember every nook and cranny of their songs as I did as a young teenager. Great Channel Matt!
'Something New' was my first personally-owned Beatles albums... so naturally I have an especial fondness for it. But to state that 'Slowdown' was not a good cover song? It's one of my all-time favorite of ALL Beatles recordings... even after all these decades! I guess you hadda been there...
I used to love playing "I Feel Fine" through an old CRT Osiliscope,The intro was awsome!
Did The small faces. Record Maggie Mae. With Rod Stewart ?
I think it's a great, not flawless, album. Still easily one of the best post-Beatles releases. The 'Apple Jam' disc, however, should have been called "bonus disc" or left for a special edition only. I've always seen the album as a double album with a bonus disc for fans, but not really a triple album.
Cash cow for Capitol Records
I'm 70, and this is the first time I've heard of "Something New . . ." and I consider myself a true Beatles fan, if not a completist collector. But then I'm in Australia where censorship was rife, and even the record companies themselves rationed out to us what they deemed we should receive, and may The Lord make us truly thankful, LOL. We didn't even get the UK pressings either. All we got were the cheaply done Australian pressings that were much quieter and less strident than the UK pressings. In 1980 EMI released "The Beatles Box Set" which contained pretty much all the Beatles albums we could immediately call to mind. But after mulling through the offerings we realised that it didn't contain the Magical Mystery Tour album, and of course the posthumously released Hey Jude album that had all the Beatles singles on it that originally didn't appear on any Beatles albums at the times they were released. Quite a good album, actually, as you may imagine. The Box Set did contain The Beatles Rarities album which I really loved, in spite of the two songs sung in German! Rain was on that album in glorious mono too. At a flea market one Sunday about a year after the box set's release, there was a lady selling her complete set of Beatles albums which were all UK pressings. I just didn't have enough cash on me to buy them all, and so I reluctantly settled for just the two I didn't already possess. When I got home I played the Magical Mystery Tour album on my stereo, then just for comparison I played one of the ones from the box set, and I had to turn the volume up to literally twice the level to achieve the same sound level in my living room. That's how shitty the Australian pressings really were, and gave me a new, greater level of contempt for the suits who rule the music industry. I've downloaded hundreds of albums, and scores of complete discographies, and slept all the sounder, knowing I was screwing some dudes in suits who had screwed the artists who recorded the albums out of all but 50c of the cost of the albums when they were released!
Had a scratchy copy and loved it of course! I liked your comment about how Beatles fans would buy anything put in front of them and even today. Guilty as charged! I respectfully disagree with one thing. Slow Down is a banger! The Young Rascals did it justice as well. Great review as always thanks! The American releases were always trying to get blood out of a stone so to speak! Wish that focus would have also been on The Who and the Kinks! Cheers!
The Beatles' practise of giving the mono releases something different . . some would say: something extra . . was all John's idea. He didn't want people who were so poor . . and in Britain there were millions of poor people . . that they couldn't afford a stereo for their homes, and had to listen to their records on a "suitcase record player" in which the body of the "suitcase" contained the electric motor and turntable, and the speaker, only one, was built into the lid. John wanted poor people to feel kinda special, in that the Beatles were looking out for them and their interests. Of course it also gave completist collectors more product to buy. But I don't think John had that capitalist thought in mind.
Curious, what's your source for that? All the Beatles LPs through the White Album were recorded only in mono, it was the industry standard in the UK until late in the decade. Stereo mixes were made at EMI but were a very small slice of the UK market. Stereo was the standard in the US, so Capital generally made their own stereo mixes for US release up until Sgt. Pepper.
Kind of like The Left Banke, but with talent.
An amzing period. I was 13
re: picture sleeve...when i was an active collector [30 years] i noticed that the picture/artwork was usually of high quality, was largely under the control by EMI/CAPITOL for the US and UK products however i saw many foreign sleeves that showed a lack of quality as if EMI has no input or simple did not care...i feel this could be a topic for you to make a video on the future...i am not even talking about bootlegs but legitimate releases with bad photos such as their eyes are closed or they making a weird face, typically george, or sub par drawings...one that stands out is a release tied to the tour of Australia and it showed the beatles on the bed of a ugly truck on the tarmac arriving there - just a dreadful sleeve...i wish i could show you what i collected but everything was sold years ago...
Great Lennon vocal on Slow Down, though. Obliterates the original.
Thanks for the great review.
Something New was the very first album I owned. I was 9 when it came out.
Praise YESHUA
Another interesting show.
You're using the "movie release date" for the U.K., in regard to this U.S. LP. The U.S. film release date was August 11th.
Thank you for that correction.
What a awesome video Matt have a wonderful day also happy first day of June ❤😊
Thanks, same to you!
matt, i disagree that "slow down" is sub par - yeah the production is godawful (no low end and the backing instrumental is absurdly low in the mix) but lennon's vocal is among his most energetic and searing, and harrison's solo is hot. i've always loved the performance, but martin's production demonstrates his worst habits of the period
His vocal is really good, but I find the riff repetitive and, you're right, the production is lacking.
I have several Sergio Mendez and Brasil'66 albums
Personally think the best thing about the Something New Something New album is the cover color photo of the group. Think the light set up behind and around Ringo is very '60s cool looking. Wonder if the reason Capitol decided to use the color black on much of the front cover, was to match the color of the suits/pants the Beatles were wearing in the photo. I'm sure you've talked about these other Beatles albums, but don't remember any of your episodes talking specifically about a Beatles Greatest Hits album, issued by EMI in Europe I think in late 1966, which has never been released in the U.S., which has a cool color drawing of the group for its front cover, and also the Beatles Rarities album, which Capitol put out here in 1981, but hasn't been issued on CD. Most if not all of Rarities tracks later were released on the Anthology CDs.
Yes, those black suits do look great with the black border!
Swell
Great review Matt. I was 9 when this came out and I loved it, save for Matchbox and the German version of I want to Hold Your hand. My favorites were Things we said today and I'll Cry Instead. Love the cover too, though I never understood why the tracks listed on the front did not match the actual playing order of the album. Capital put out the singles because until the late 60's , singles were still a very popular format...and more accessible if you could not afford the album.
Capital tried to capitalise!!.....No pun intended!
I think this all was more of a case of "strike while the iron's hot." At this time in history, the Beatles hadn't proven themselves as an entity that might be still around the following year. United Artists played the; "well the movies ours, so we'll take the soundtrack album too...and by the way, don't put the actual song 'A Hard Day's Night' on whatever album you put out" card.
I;ve had a few copies of the Cryan Shames album, ashame they dissappeared
Being a 14 year old with limited funds in the Summer of '64, I agree with you that the cover for Something New (x2) was key. It was much more eye-catching than the HDN soundtrack cover by far. Since the Ed Sullivan show was in B&W, seeing the Fab 4 in action and in technicolor was definitely a major factor. Also remember that the Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five and many other "Mersey Beat" bands were starting to flood the record bins and airwaves after the Beatles hit the shore and kiddos like myself had to choose which LP to hand over our hard-earned moola for. This collection of tunes still contains the excitement and enthusiasm that the "2nd Album" had in spades so I've never considered it a step down, despite the obvious filler. By the way, "Slow Down" became a staple of every garage band so it's hard to downplay its influence. Nice review, Matt.
Thank you, Rollie!
Don't agree on the covers here Matt. Matchbox is solid and especially Slow Down has a great Lennon vocal.
I'm glad you like that Association album, it was so under-rated, the last with the warner/Seven-Arts label
do you know why they "chloroformed " Apple?
Another superb American Beatles album review! Thanks so much for doing these. I'm 60 and I grew up listening to all the American albums. I love em! Great job Matt!!!
Thank you! Plenty more to come.
This was the record that introduced me to the Beatles at an early age. It was my mother's record and she would play for me as little kid. I have a very early memory of enjoying the intro to Slow Down. The beat and bass riff kind of matched the record spinning in the player. I am glad you mentioned the alternative mixes for this record. And I Love Her alternative mix is a fav of mine.
I have a very soft spot for Something New. My father had a reel to reel tape of all Beatles music starting with Meet The Beatles, followed by Something New, Beatles '65 and then Beatles VI all on one side of the tape. I loved Something New and the running order. Slow Down to my ears has an amazing energy about it and Lennon's vocal is so raw and energetic. You can hear the group and George Martin are having a ball with it.
SOMETHING NEW...this is when American teens were more interested in albums, rather than singles ... thus that's why those singles didn't chart well. WE WERE ALL OVERWHELMED!... YOU HAD TO BE THERE!
I like the Ed Sullivan Pic on the cover
Anytime At All is one of my favorite songs, I also think Slow Down is one of their best cover songs, good video.
Matt, Capital could smell the greenbacks in 64-65 (haha), release it all, who's knows when the bubble will burst, right? Those Capital only LPs sold like $6.8M copies in the period 62-65 alone, plus the money from the all the singles. I find it hilarious that the Beatles had such great disdain for the Capital product, yet the 1970 release of the Hey Jude compilation had them selling out for the cash baby! Cheers!
"Komm Gib Mer Deine Hand" featured the identical instrument backing track from the master tape as "I Want to Hold Your Hand". George Martin just had them sing new vocals in German in a Paris studio. However, "Sie Liebt Dich" was an entirely new recording, since Parlophone had erased the original master tracks with the separate instrumental backing on "She Loves You" in order to recycle the tape for other uses. This had been normal studio practice up to that time but Parlophone never did such a thing again!
Thanks for that info. I didn't realize the She Loves You version was a complete re-record.
Hi Matt! Yes....diabolical is the exact word. Although Something New obviously has some great songs......as an overall album it's flat and a blatant money-grab by Capitol.
Back in the day, I picked up the German release of this album, mostly because the U.S. version of A Hard Day's Night was unavailable at the time, and although I had the Parlophone version of A Hard Day's Night, it meant I didn't have the long version of I'll Cry Instead from the U.A. soundtrack, but it WAS featured on the German Something New. One of the great joys of collecting imports was the little bonuses like that. Or the version of All My Loving with the hi hat intro, or the extended coda version of And I Love Her. It added to the mystique of buying foreign pressings.
Yes, those little variations are great nuggets!