The Beatles

Beatles VI - Capitol 1965

Tracks: 1. Kansas City / 2. Eight Days a Week / 3. You Like Me Too Much / 4. Bad Boy / 5. I Don't Want to Spoil the Party / 6. Words of Love / 7. What You're Doing / 8. Yes It Is / 9. Dizzy Miss Lizzie / 10. Tell Me What You See / 11. Every Little Thing

Comments:

"Beatles VI" from June 1965 was the sixth Capitol Beatles album; excluding the ”The Beatles Story” which was a kind of biography. Six songs were originally released on the European "Beatles for Sale"; The other songs from this album had Capitol released on the predecessor "Beatles 65". Three songs are taken from the at that point still unreleased "Help" album, while the unconventional ballad "Yes it is" was the B-side for "Ticket to Ride". The last song "Bad Boy" also comes from Help sessions, during which the group recorded another Larry Williams cover song, "Dizzy Miss Lizzy". Like all Beatles albums, "Beatles VI" is also characterized by the group's superior musicality spiced with energy and creativity.

Vocally Lennon once again is on top. His two cover songs "Bad Boy" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy". Are delivered with an energetic force that surely must surprise people who know him best from his solo era and songs like "Imagine" and "Woman". McCartney's handling of "Kansas City" is almost as convincing. The last cover song is Buddy Holly's "Words of Love", performed beautifully sounding almost like a Beatles song. "Eight Days a Week" is the album's only true hitsong with great vocal collaboration between Lennon and McCartney.

Two relatively lesser-known Beatles songs are "Ever Little Thing" and "What You're Doing" - both among my personal favorites from this period. The two ”new” "Help" songs "Tell Me What You See" and "You Like Me Too Much" are on the ”Help” album hardly among those you would bring forward first on that amazing album, but here at "Beatles VI" they are better off and, to a lesser extent, stand in the shadow of other, and better songs. Always fun listening to Beatles songs in new contexts. And as a European, it's especially nice to hear "Bad Boy" and "Yes it is" as album tracks.

Also interesting that the American audience was given the opportunity to hear and buy the songs of Beatles that were not yet released in Europe.

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