Of the first half of the Beatles' albums (pre-Rubber Soul era), I think this album is the fastest and funnest (that's not a word) of them. It's incredibly short (though no Beatles album, except for the White Album or Abbey Road qualifies as long), but this tightness is what makes it work.

The Beatles were an excellent band; however, this is their worst release. It is by no means a "bad" album, but the rest of their work was far superior. This album does have standouts: "It Won't Be Long", "All My Loving", "Don't Bother Me" (the first George song), and "Money (That's What I Want)." If you want a better release of the same Beatles era, I would recommend "Please Please Me" or "A Hard Day's Night."

Steve appreciate your fine review of Meet the Beatles. Agree with you that as an aging Beatle fan I wish we had the orginal US printing of this and other Beatle album. What I did was take the CD's and create a mix of the songs as they orginally appeared in 1963/64/65. I like you have listened to these albums so many times as a kid they are imprinted in my brain to be heard in a specific order. Nor to hear "This Boy" as the third song on Meet the Beatles puts me off. I would doubt if there are many of us out there that would make this a good finanical project for a record company to rerelease these albums in their US format. Just thought to write. By the way have you seen the newly released Concert for Bangladesh" on DVD. Just a joy to see after so many years.