As soon as "Meet the Beatles" started flying out of the record store bins in early 1964, the "suits" at Capitol Records finally realized what flaming idiots they had been to reject their parent British company EMI's first Beatles album "Please Please Me". So they quickly decided to put out another album, and they decided to call it the "Second Album" in a ridiculous fit of denial of the fact that it would actually be the Beatles' third album - as if any Beatles album that's not on Capitol isn't really a Beatles album.
But in the late 1980s, the British record company (EMI, Parlophone, Apple) got the last laugh with their international release of the CD versions of the Beatles catalog, which expelled all the U.S. Capitol versions. And since there is no British equivalent to the USA "Second Album", that knocked it into virtual obscurity.
That's a shame, because the USA "Second Album" is a truly unique artistic statement all its own. It's the only Beatles album focused squarely on cover versions of other artists.
The album starts with a bang - Chuck Berry's seminal "Roll Over Beethoven", one of only two cover songs ever to begin a major label Beatles album ("Kansas City" on Beatles VI is the other). By 1964, Chuck Berry had been marginalized in the US as just another 1950's guy stuck between blues and rock, who had not yet been been conferred his rightful place in history as "The Father of Rock and Roll".
But the Beatles knew it, and the song itself is all about rock music's place in history, which was still being freshly written with every new Beatles release. It indeed goes all the way back a century and a half to Ludwig Van Beethoven. (His last piano sonata even includes a passage interpreted by some pianists as the beginning of rock.) Chuck Berry wanted Beethoven to "Tell Tchaikovsky the news", as the first step in passing the legacy along to the present.
Interestingly, all the covers here are from black American artists. Three are from Motown (Got a Hold on Me, Mr. Postman and Money), one was a very obscure Motown wannabe girl group from Detroit, the Donays (Devil in His Heart), and one from Little Richard (Long Tall Sally). In the early sixties, Motown was still in relative infancy, not yet the powerhouse label/genre it would become, while Little Richard's persona was not clear then at all. The Beatles did their part to change that.
So in all, six of the eleven songs are cover versions. But one of the other Lennon/McCartney compositions, "You Can't Do That", was stolen from the upcoming "Hard Days Night" album, and so does not really belong here. It should be replaced with more cover songs. The Beatles had a huge repertoire of cover songs from their old Hamburg days to choose from. Possibly the best choice would be Little Willie John's "Leave My Kitten Alone", which practically jumps off the disc as the best and most finished track on "Anthology 1".
Two other worthwhile picks would be "Slow Down" and "Matchbox" (both on the flip side of the "Long Tall Sally" / "I Call Your Name" EP), even though they were not recorded until two months later. That would make this album 9 out of 13 cover songs (and 8 of the first 9). In our revisionist scenario, the album could either be postponed for two more months or the recording session moved up. "Slow Down" and "Matchbox" were the beginning of The Beatles rockabilly phase, so they would also be at home on "Beatles For Sale".
Of the four remaining Beatles penned songs, three have always languished in relative obscurity. One of them, "I Call Your Name", is actually more associated with The Mamas and the Papas, so here it sounds like a cover of a cover.
The album's only truly famous Beatles composition is saved for last - "She Loves You". Its iconic "yeah, yeah, yeah" chorus fittingly ends the album with its revolutionary resounding coda, rather than the kind of wimpy fade-out which was customary for the time.
1 - Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry)
2 - Thank You Girl
3 - You Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson)
4 - Devil in Her Heart (Richard Dopkin)
5 - Money (Berry Gordy)
6 - Leave My Kitten Alone (Titas Turner) - from "Anthology 1"
7 - Slow Down (Larry Williams) - replacing "You Can't Do That"
8 - Matchbox (Carl Perkins) - added from EP with "Slow Down"
9 - Long Tall Sally (Little Richard)
10 - I Call Your Name
11 - Please Mister Postman (Brian Holland et al)
12 - I'll Get You
13 - She Loves You
(all songs Lennon / McCartney except as indicated)
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