Jazz; rock’n’roll; blues; music hall; guitar instrumentals; tin pan alley; rockabilly; dance band; soul; bolero; skiffle; trad; R&B; country; old-time; Broadway; doo-wop; folk; high school pop; Motown – the Beatles’ early influences are so wide-ranging that the Beatles Beginnings series of discs could quite easily pass for an introduction to the history of twentieth century popular music. The first disc in the series Quarrymen One investigates skiffle and the other music that the individual members of the group grew up listening to before rock’n’roll burst on to the scene.
The Beatles established a repertoire of over 600 tunes, allowing them to tailor their set to the occasion for jazz clubs, strip clubs, folk clubs, working men’s clubs, church dances and rock’n’roll joints. Almost all of the songs they learned were released in the UK and from 1957 onwards, they avidly followed the weekly music charts and kept up to date with the records that did not make the hit parade. Before naming the Beatles in the summer of 1960, they were the Quarrymen. Quarrymen Two looks at the band’s rock’n’roll influences.
For the first six years of their career, the Beatles were essentially a covers band. When they were captured live on tape in two sets at the Star Club in Hamburg in December 1962, they played thirty-two songs, only two of which were their own compositions. Going into 1961, Silver Beatles sees the group broadening out their repertoire to include some of the Latin-influenced ‘uptown R&B’ numbers currently in vogue, along with more rock’n’roll, rockabilly and some gospel-style numbers.
This is an excellent compilation of songs…if you have volumes one and two and enjoyed them, this one is even better.
Ernie Sutton British Beatles Fan Club Magazine
By 1963, they had established an impressive repertoire of over 600 songs; their enthusiasm for popular music of all genres enabled them to play to a wide range of audiences, but in 1961-1962 they were mainly performing at the famous Cavern Club, when they were broadening out to include Latin-influenced songs, uptown R&B and dance craze numbers along with more rock’n’roll, rockabilly and easy listening items.
The 5th CD covers the period between Ringo Starr joining the group and the start of Beatlemania in early 1963. It brings together pop, R&B and early soul records that the Beatles had in their live set in 1962. Star Club gives us an accurate picture of what they would have sounded like if we’d been there at the time.
Late ‘62 through to mid ‘63, the Beatles’ live set and their recordings consisted mainly of cover versions of contemporary black American pop. A set list from a ten-song show in April ‘63 contained only four of their own songs. Yet by the end of the year, the Fab Four were making history with their own songs. CD 6 contains a mixture of songs taken from their 1963 live set and songs they recorded same year, along with other music that influenced their own compositions at this crucial time.
A must for Beatles devotees and for any fan of early sixties pop interested in finding out more about what inspired the group and what shaped their musical sensibility.
Alerting all Beatles fans! In fact, alerting anyone with even just a passing interest in music of Twentieth century popular music, for here’s a terrific series of albums they may well want to check out… superbly researched booklets, each volume will delve into the music that inspired, influenced and shaped the Beatles individually and collectively…here’s the very stuff that changed the world and forged the greatest band of all time. As the music rings out … you can almost hear the Beatles metamorphosing inside your ears as they listened, learned and immersed themselves, letting these songs open doors and fire their imagination: there was to be no looking back – an absolute gas. Colin Hall (curator of John Lennon’s house Mendips)
The “Beginnings”series strikes again with another spectacular collection of original recordings that in this case inspired or influenced The Beatles… the accompanying booklet has extremely thorough and welcome annotation. I applaud whomever performed the extensive research that resulted in these fascinating choices. Their other series, “How Britain Got the Blues”, is every bit as good (if not better, as each set of this 4-part series is a 2-CD extravaganza of great cuts). Bravo to History of RnB Records for these releases and the outstanding music scholarship that accompanies them. William Stout
Available as slimline CD set with annotated 48 page book. Each individual CD has 4 page insert.
Produced as CD-R (professionally manufactured recordable CD printed for short run)
All CDs are guaranteed error free and will always be replaced if any problems are encountered.
Please advise if you require the printed inlays that can be inserted into CD jewel cases.
