RUBBER SOUL remains a milestone in The Beatles' recording careers. It ushered in their most celebrated and sophisticated musical phase that is unrivalled to this day.

In the 20 months since The Beatles landed in America to the time the band recorded this album, rock 'n' roll had undergone a revolution, sparked by The Beatles themselves. The British invasion inspired Bob Dylan to go electric, while The Beatles converted the L.A. folk quartet, The Byrds, to replace their acoustic guitars with electric music. Add to this the whiff of American grass and you get the influences which shaped the late-1965 Beatles.

Above all, the Beatle's songwriting takes a big leap forward with RUBBER SOUL. For the first time John, Paul and George avoid the cliched boy-meets-girl songs and address introspective themes. Though RUBBER SOUL was widely viewed as Just Another Beatles Album in late-1965, some listners took notice of the words with as much care as they did Dylan albums. Some started to use the word "poetry" to describe Beatles music.

The album opens superbly with the funky Drive My Car which features a sharp vocal by Paul and a gorgeous bass influenced by Motown. John's Norwegian Wood is one of the record's highlights and introduces the sitar to Western ears. It obliquely tells of an affair John once had. You Won't See Me could've easily been a single. Paul's song, it is simply structured but strong. Nowhere Man was actually pulled as a single in the U.S. and is the first Beatles song not to talk about love or girls. John looks in the mirror and finds himself lost in a lyric that was one of his best (Dylan covered it many years later). George's Think For Yourself also steers away from the love song and features Paul playing the distinctive fuzz bass. The Word preceeds All You Need Is Love and discusses love not in boy-girl terms but universally (at a time when the Anti-War Movement was growing). Michelle closes side 1 in style. Love it or hate it, it is a fine love song with another great bass line.

Side 2 opens and closes with two disposable songs, What Goes On? and Run For Your Life. RUBBER SOUL would have been far better with the double-sided single, We Can Work It Out and Day Tripper, taking their place. However, the rest of side 2 shines with Girl and I'm Looking Through You -- John and Paul's complex views about women which are light-years away from She Loves You -- and In My Life which the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation recently named as the best song of all time. In My Life is a milestone in Lennon's career, featuring a nostalgic but bittersweet lyric. Lennon has never been this candid with his audience. Word is merely a leftover from the Help! sessions, though George's If I Needed Someone features the chiming Rickenbacker put to good use.

Today, RUBBER SOUL remains fresh. Amazingly, it was rush-recorded in two weeks with most of the songs written in the studio. John and Paul are at the height of their powers, while George is keeping pace with two songs instead of his customary one (or none). The album's acoustic sound allow's the band's maturing lyrics to be heard, while the arrangements are simple, yet intelligent. Few Beatles albums can rival RUBBER SOUL in songwriting. The sound of the album sounds unified which will pave the way for their next two albums, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper. RUBBER SOUL is The Beatles' first masterpiece.

BEATLES FOR SALE was recorded in time for the Christmas market amid a merry-go-round of a world tour, TV appearances and BBC radio shows. As a result, The Beatles barely had time to write anything new and relied heavily on rock and roll staples from their Cavern Club days. The result is regarded as their weakest album, though a few gems still make it a listenable album.

Like A Hard Day's Night, Lennon dominates the album, writing the first three songs. The strongest is the confessional I'm A Loser, featuring a strong dose of Bob Dylan. Baby's In Black is another highlight and even more cynical. Every Little Thing features a fine melody and I Don't Want To Spoil The Party is a detour into country.

Paul offers I'll Follow The Sun, a decent ballad, but an oldie from the Liverpool days and What You're Doing, which fails to live up to Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. Overall, McCartney keeps a low profile on this album.

Their only true collaboration, Eight Days A Week, is one of Beatlemania's less-deserving number ones.

The cover songs are hit and miss. Words of Love and Rock and Roll Music are the better ones, while Mr. Moonlight and Honey Don't are the worst. A better, heavier album would have replaced the latter (along with Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey) with their single at the time, I Feel Fine and She's A Woman, plus Leave My Kitten Alone (found on Anthology 1).

And like A Hard Day's Night, the original stereo mixes are missing, replaced by the servicable mono mix found on this CD. I still prefer the stereo mixes to the mono, and pray that Apple issues them one day.

If With The Beatles launched Beatlemania, then A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (the movie and this soundtrack) sealed it worldwide. The first album featuring entirely original songs, AHDN marks a big step forward for The Beatles and rock and roll in a time when singers and bands sang other people's compositions. This is the pinnacle of mid-60s British pop before the psychedelic era.

John Lennon dominates this album, starting with the strong opener, the self-titled AHDN, I Should Have Known Better featuring a jaunty harmonica, If I Fell and I'll Be Back (two of his sweetest ballads), the rockers Anytime At All and When I Get Home, the Wilson Pickett-inspired You Can't Do That and I'll Cry Instead, which features John's first confessional lyric (a la Dylan) expressing self-doubt.

Paul offers the million-selling hit, Can't Buy Me Love, and the strong ballads, And I Love Her and the underrated Things We Said Today. Otherwise, Paul takes a low profile.

The only weakness are the boy-meets-girl lyrics which were the standard of the day. Only I'll Cry Instead suggests any maturity in the songwriting, as Dylan's full influence hadn't yet touched the band.

Musically, the album's one great advance is George's introduction of the 12-string Rickbacker, whose jangly sound would be picked up by a folk quartet from L.A. later known as The Byrds. The Their success in turn would help push The Beatles in a different direction.

A final note: I still prefer listening to my Parlophone vinyl in stereo than to this mono CD. The stereo mixes are no better or worse than Help! and Rubber Soul, yet they remain officially locked in the EMI vaults. George Martin mistakenly believed that stereo mixes were never made in 1964, but this is not so. Perhaps one day Apple will have the good sense to re-issue this great album in stereo.

Like the first two albums, NOW! is largely made up of blues and soul covers which seldom surpass the original versions. By early 1965 when this record hit the stores, this formula was starting to run dry and NOW! remains a less-than-convincing album.

Bo Diddley's Mona, Chuck Berry's You Can't Catch Me and Solomon Burke's Everybody Needs Somebody To Love are the better interpretations. The best cover is Little Red Rooster, due to Brian Jones' brilliant slide guitar.

The best Jagger-Richards number is easily Heart of Stone, a mid-tempo "anti-love song" that again features some fine slide from Mr. Jones.

Beyond that, there isn't much to recommend this collection of songs, again limited to a measly 12 tracks. I'd rather listen to Otis Redding than the Stones sing soul. The album begs more original compositions which the Stones won't deliver until their next album.

As the Stones' second album, 12 x 5 is another collection of blues and soul covers with a few originals thrown in. This time, however, the album was recorded at the famed Chess Studios in Chicago, shrine of the electric blues where Muddy Waters and countless of the Stones' heroes recorded their "sides". The sound is more polished with a heavier bottom end, which was what the Stones wanted.

The album kicks off with a strong cover of Chuck Berry's Around and Around then dovetails into the moody Confessin' The Blues, featuring some fine harp playing. The album then dips into Empty Heart, a one-liner that goes nowhere, and follows with the inferior version of Time Is On My Side (the organ version, not the guitar). Side one closes with their current single at the time, Good Times Bad Times & It's All Over Now -- the album's highlight even if the latter is a Womack cover.

Side 2 is a patchy affair with If You Need Me being the only strong tune. Susie Q is too short, too fast, while Under The Boardwalk must rank along with My Girl (Flowers album) as the worst cover by the Stones.

Again, ABKCO has issued the shorter US version of the longer UK album, yet is charging full price. No bonus tracks. While there are some fine moments on this album, it is a patchwork affair and suggests that the Stones were already running out of material for their albums and relying too heavily on borrowed tunes.

The American debut of The Rolling Stones was part of the British Invasion, the wave of UK bands who hit the U.S. in the wake of the Beatles early-1964 breakthrough. Only a handful of bands would mature and survive, and the best of them were The Rolling Stones.

Still, there was no guarantee from listening to this fine album that the Stones would be around. Eric Burdon of the Animals was a better vocalist than Mick Jagger, the Yardbirds' Eric Clapton then later Jeff Beck and Jimmy Paige had the better guitar attack, and few British bands (beyond The Beatles) wrote their own songs. That means the London blues bands largely recorded blues songs to fill their albums, and how long could they keep that up?

What the Stones did have were attitude. Jagger's lewd, sneering vocals and Keith Richards' Chuck Berry-influenced guitar were the bedrock of this band from day one. A third key ingredient was Brian Jones' slide guitar, perhaps the best slide playing east of the Mississippi Delta.

The album opens with a stunning remake of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away. The Bo Diddley beat makes this song move. It is fantastic. The remaining covers are performed fast and furious: Route 66, I Just Want To Make Love To You, Carol (great guitar), and the hilarious Walking The Dog. The Stones' versions are light years from the earthy, dark originals by Muddy Waters et al, but have an energy that remains infectious 40 years on. I'm A King Bee features the nastiest slide guitar from 1964.

Of the originals, only Tell Me is worth mentioning. This slow ballad echoes early-60s soul more than Chicago blues, and features some fine vocal work.

The remaining songs, however, fail to measure up. Can I Get A Witness is the poorest offering on this album, and left me scrambling for the far superior Marvin Gaye original. Little By Little and You Can Make It If You Try are unconvincing British imitations of American vocals.

Overall, this is a solid set of black American blues & soul performed by a white British band. I would have awarded NEWEST four stars, but there are only 12 and no bonus tracks. At least Apple/Parlophone issued the Beatles catalogue at their original 14 songs. ABKCO - in all their wisdom and greed - have stuck us with these second-rate American incarnations at full price. No wonder CD burning is rampant.

HELP! marks a modest improvement over the middling Beatles For Sale, redeemed by two classic songs: John's confessional Help! and Paul's instant standard, Yesterday.

The first half of the album (side 1) features the film's songs. On the whole they are good, catchy tunes, in particular the driving You're Gonna Lose That Girl and Another Girl. Another stand-out is You've Got To Hide Your Love Away which was obviously inspired by Mr. Zimmerman, featuring Lennon's Dylanesque nasal vocal and introspective lyrics. The title song is Lennon's most revealing songwriting to date, but in 1965 was considered just another fast rock and roll song. (Tina Turner's slow, anguished cover versions years later was probably how Lennon would've re-recorded it.)

Ticket To Ride is a tour-de-force of jangling guitars and commanding drums (arranged by Paul), but the stereo mix on the CD falls flat with the percussion segregated to one channel. I'd rather blast the original mono found on my vinyl "1962-66" compilation or the original Capitol 45 - that mix leaps out of the speakers like a lion.

Unfortunately, side 2 is a hodge-podge of second-rate compositions and cover versions. It's Only Love and I've Just Seen A Face have fine melodies, but little else. Tell Me What You See and You Like Me Too Much sound like B-sides that strayed onto a long-player (the flipside to Ticket To Ride, Yes It Is, is superior). However, Act Naturally is charming under Ringo's delivery and Dizzy Miss Lizzie rocks.

The spotlight, of course, shines on Yesterday, Paul's first major song. Until this point John dominated the Beatles' songwriting. He composed and sang the majority of the original songs on With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night and Beatles For Sale, plus many singles. Now, Paul fully emerges as John's rival with Yesterday -- the most-covered song of all time.

By 1965 rock and roll was undergoing a revolution unleashed by two forces: The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Whereas the moptops were considered revolutionary in 1964, they were now facing stiff competition from the likes of the Rolling Stones and the Byrds (who lifted the Rickenbacker sound from the Beatles). To remain relevant, the Beatles had to evolve. On HELP! they do - sort of. However, tied down by the demands of relentless touring, the Beatles would not really mature until that autumn with the groundbreaking Rubber Soul. For the time being, the Beatles were still riding the crest of Beatlemania, still smiling for the cameras, but through an ever-growing haze of pot smoke and cyncism.

WITH THE BEATLES is the first of the two great albums from the Beatlemania period (the other being A Hard Day's Night). The band takes a leap from its debut album, Please Please Me, and has established its sound: tight, three-part harmonies, George's finger-picking guitar solos, Paul's balladry, John's shouting vocals, and Ringo's steady backbeat and cymbal wash. Altogether, this album is the soundtrack to 1963 Britain and 1964 across the ocean.

The album has energy and drive from the very first note. It Won't Be Long is a driving opener with exciting back-and-forth vocals between Lennon and the other Beatles. All I've Got To Do is a slower, soulful version of the same song, but just as effective. If you could pull a single off the album, then All My Loving would be the best candidate. Paul's number features a fine Chet Atkins-style solo from George. Little Child picks up the tempo with some fine harmonica playing by John. Don't Bother Me is a decent song, but more importantly marks George's songwriting debut. Till There Was You is the first cover of the album and solidifies Paul's reputation as the band's balladeer. Please Please Me must be one the best Motown covers ever with its drop-dead "WAIT!" intro and tremendous vocals.

The second half of the album opens with the spotlight on George doing a wonderful Roll Over Beethoven. However, now we run into some lesser songs: Hold Me Tight (sounds incomplete and out of key) and I Wanna be Your Man (little more than a chant). To compensate, The Beatles produce a pair of fine Motown covers, Devil In Her Heart and You Really Got A Hold On Me. The call-and-response vocals on the latter, I must admit, outshine the Smokey Robinson & The Miracles original (sorry). Not A Second Time features a fine melody and the first of John's "anti-love songs". The last Motown cover is the best, Money, which features one of the all-time Lennon vocals. Compare it to the Plastic Ono Band album of 1970 or even Cobain's vocals and you''ll hear a direct progression.

WITH THE BEATLES is the first great Beatles. A unified style runs through its 14 tracks, both covers and originals, led by John Lennon who was firmly in command of his band, its sound and vision. More so than the debut album, WITH THE BEATLES is the sound of America rock and soul (Chuck Berry, Motown), but filtered through four kids growing up in a major British seaport after World War Two. The Beatles created something familiar yet altogether new, and injected bland early-sixties pop with a good shot of rock. Even today, the album still bursts with energy.

The only weakness of this album -- and this period -- are the lyrics. They remain in the innocent girl-meets-boy vein, common for its time, and don't reflect the influence of Bob Dylan. Dylan along with the 12-string Rickenbacher, will enter the Beatles' orbit in the coming year, and the results will be history.

PLEASE PLEASE ME was a formulaic release in 1963. Band scores a hit single, record company orders a quick album built around that song. We all know by now that The Beatles recorded their debut in a day. However, this is no rush job. The performances are vibrant. Their singing -- The Beatles' greatest strength next to their songwriting -- shine on almost every track. The band (playing live in the studio) is exciting and focussed. This is a band on a mission.

I Saw Her Standing There still rocks with Paul's exciting "1, 2, 3, four!" count-in, and Twist and Shouts demands to be played LOUD on every sound system in the world. Though the singles, Please Please Me, Ask Me Why, Misery and P.S. I Love You are good tunes, other Lennon/McCartney originals, There's A Place and even Love Me Do are weaker efforts that only hint at something better. Do You Want To Know A Secret? is merely a ditty that George tries to sing in his thick Scouse accent.

Half the album is awarded to cover versions. The best are the window-rattling Twist and Shout and the genteel Taste of Honey. However, there were better choices in the Beatles' live repetoire besides Chains and Boys. Why not Too Much Monkey Business or Soldier of Love?

Taken for what it is, this is a good album announcing the talents of a band that in three short years will produce the greatest album of all time, Revolver.

If Gimme Shelter (also made by the Maysles brothers) marks the end of the 60s, then this film signals the start.

True, it's set in February 1964, but the heart and soul of this decade (at least musically) began on this fateful week when the Beatles landed in America. The Maysles were both fortunate and wise enough to capture the Fab Four both onstage and behind the scenes: sparring with the press, catching trains and planes, trapped in hotel rooms, posing for cameras and playing their music to thousands of screaming fans.

Like D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back), the Maysles are pioneers in documentary filmmaking. Cinema verite (capturing life as it happens from a detached distance without using narration) was born in the early sixties, largely on the shoulders of these two New York filmmakers.

For decades, the entire film has been incredibly hard to find. I recall 50-minute versions of this film floating around on VHS (legit or not). However, it wasn't until the recent release of this film in its entirety that I could appreciate it as a real movie and not just a TV special about The Beatles.

The FIRST U.S. VISIT towers above the pile of exploitive dreck that has The Beatles slapped on its cover. Why? The close access and the way it's shot (handheld in glorious black and white). Each of the Beatles' personalities shines forth that is true, honest and charming. By comparison A HARD DAY'S NIGHT is a thinly fictionalized version of this footage.

The special features in which Albert Maysles guides us through a treasure trove of outtakes is a sweet bonus. My favourite moment is the family watching the Ed Sullivan Show live in their living room. The kids can't sit still. That scene alone tells you what Beatlemania was all about -- 41 years later and counting.