With the Beatles

With the Beatles is the second studio album by The Beatles, released in November 1963 on Parlophone, arriving the same month as John F. Kennedy's assassination and during the absolute peak of early British Beatlemania, and produced by George Martin. The album continues the Lennon-McCartney-led formula of the debut, mixing eight original compositions with six covers of American R&B and Motown material including 'Money (That's What I Want)' (Berry Gordy/Janie Bradford) and 'Please Mister Postman' (William Garrett/Robert Bateman). George Harrison's debut as a Beatles composer appears here with 'Don't Bother Me', the first album track not written by Lennon or McCartney, a modest but historically significant milestone in the band's creative hierarchy. With the Beatles sold over 500,000 advance copies in the UK, a then-unprecedented figure, and was followed within months by Meet the Beatles!, which introduced the band to North America. The cover-to-original ratio would continue shifting decisively in Lennon and McCartney's favor over the next two years as their confidence as songwriters outpaced the need to rely on outside material.