#130 Meet the Beatles! by The Beatles

The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time

2025 Album Rank

130

2011 Album Rank

95

Total Points

467

Year Released

1964

Billboard 200 Chart Peak

1

Weeks at #1

11

RIAA Sales Certification

5,000,000 (Multi Platinum)

Meet the Beatles! Album Details

Released by Capitol Records in the United States on January 20, 1964, Meet the Beatles! was the first official Beatles album tailored for the American market. While technically a reconfiguration of the UK album With the Beatles, this release emphasized the band's original compositions over cover songs, aiming to present The Beatles as serious songwriters rather than just pop sensations. Arriving just before the band's historic appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the album became the launching pad for Beatlemania in America.

Opening with the euphoric I Want to Hold Your Hand, followed by the dynamic I Saw Her Standing There and the infectious It Won't Be Long, Meet the Beatles! showcases the band's early blend of rock and roll energy, melodic brilliance, and tight vocal harmonies. The mixture of exuberant rockers and polished pop marked a defining introduction of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership to American audiences, establishing them as the future of pop music.

Other albums by The Beatles on the chart: Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, and The Beatles (White Album)

Interesting Facts About Meet the Beatles!

• Although Meet the Beatles! was the group's first major US release on Capitol Records, their actual first American LP was Introducing... The Beatles, released just days earlier by Vee-Jay Records with far less promotional muscle behind it.
• I Want to Hold Your Hand had already become a massive hit in the US by the time the album was released, helping it rocket to No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
• Capitol Records made deliberate changes to the UK album's tracklist, omitting many of the cover songs found on With the Beatles to emphasize Lennon and McCartney's songwriting talents.
• Producer George Martin was not happy with the Capitol Records version of the album and disliked the added reverb that Capitol's engineers applied to make the sound "bigger" for the American market.
• Meet the Beatles! was certified gold just 11 days after its release, a staggering accomplishment at the time.
• The iconic cover photo was taken by photographer Robert Freeman and slightly modified from the UK With the Beatles cover for the American audience, keeping the half-lit, moody aesthetic that would define much of the Beatles' early image.
• Capitol's marketing slogan for the album was "The First Album by England's Phenomenal Pop Combo," despite it technically being their second American album.
• Though Capitol was initially hesitant to sign The Beatles, they eventually committed under pressure from EMI and the growing buzz of Beatlemania brewing in the UK and Europe.
• Several US versions of Beatles albums, including Meet the Beatles!, have since been criticized for their reconfiguration and remastering, but they remain culturally significant as many Americans first heard the band in this format.
• Meet the Beatles! served as a crucial bridge between the band's Liverpool club days and their eventual evolution into full-scale studio innovators.
• The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001 for its cultural and historical significance.

Meet the Beatles! Tracklist

1. I Want to Hold Your Hand - Reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
2. I Saw Her Standing There - Reached #14 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
3. This Boy
4. It Won't Be Long
5. All I've Got to Do
6. All My Loving
7. Don't Bother Me
8. Little Child
9. Till There Was You
10. Hold Me Tight
11. I Wanna Be Your Man
12. Not a Second Time