With The Beatles (DBM-011)
It Won’t Be Long, All I’ve Got To Do, All My Loving, Don’t Bother Me, Little Child, Till There Was You, Please Mister Postman, Roll Over Beethoven, Hold Me Tight, You Really Got A Hold On Me, I Wanna Be Your Man, Devil In Her Heart, Not A Second Time, Money
The first compact disc release of The Beatles’ second full length album was on February 26th, 1987 by EMI/Parolphone (CDP 7 46436 2). With The Beatles, along with the first four albums, were issued in mono on recommendation of George Martin, who felt mono better captured the spirit of the original sessions. In 1996 a copy of the stereo With The Beatles (SMO 83568) was produced in Germany which claimed, “This is a VERY LIMITED COLLECTOR’S EDITION (500 copies) of the original STEREO Version of the WITH THE BEATLES album; reprinted here with its original GERMAN COVER. These STEREO-mixes were NOT ISSUED ON CD BEFORE as EMI chose to release the CD-versions of the first four BEATLES-albums only in mono.” This release was criticized for having audible distortion on the first four tracks especially on “It Won’t Be Long” and “All My Loving.” Fabulous Sound Lab (fs-1002) released the stereo in 2000 which was praised for its clarity. Mirror Spock (PCS 3045) issued a copy from the MFSL edition in 2001 and two anonymous copies of the MFSL were released in 2000 and in 2003.
Millennium Remasters issued two versions of the stereo album. Millenium Remasters (PMC 1206-MFSL 1-102) came out in 2002 and contains copies of botu the mono and the stereo, and Millenium Red Collection (EAS 70131/EAS 80551) is a copy of the Japanese stereo edition from the late seventies. Dr. Ebbett issued the stereo With The Beatles three previous times. First is the UK stereo (MFSL-1-102) in 2000 from the MFSL vinyl edition. Second is the original Parlophone (PCS 3045) in 2003 and the U.K. blue box (PCS 3045) in 2006. The current DBM series is a copy of the 2006 version of the blue box stereo edition and like the others is a flawless transfer. The stereo seperation on this album is very wide with the vocals on one side and the bass on the other which is a bit annoying under the headphones, but it does capture the warmth of the analogue nicely and is a pleasent listen. The artwork is inspired by the MFSL covers with the vinyl artwork reduced in size to fit in the middle of the cover. (GS)
