FIRST REACTION: The Beatles - Past Masters (Vol. 1) 

WE CHECKIN OUT THE HITS! (Recorded Before Rubber Soul🙏🏾) Love Me Do (Single Version) (4:12) From Me to You (6:31) Thank You Girl (8:03) She Loves You* (10:03) I'll Get You (12:12) I Want to Hold Your Hand (14:27) This Boy (15:58) Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand (18:02) Sie Liebt Dich (19:24) Long Tall Sally (20:52) I Call Your Name (22:18) Slow Down (24:05) Matchbox (25:50) I Feel Fine (27:33) She's a Woman (28:53) Bad Boy (30:26) Yes It Is (32:03) I'm Down (34:07)

You know its a good day when darius uploads

'This boy' is golden

'Yes It Is' is such a hidden gem

I love how every time he hears something he loves, he makes a face and grunts like he just smelled spoiled milk.

They did I Want to Hold Your Hand in German because the Germans gave the Beatles their start in being famous.

Sorry, "I Feel Fine" and "She's a Woman" was from the Beatles For Sale era! :)

life is happier with your beatles reacts

Love your take on things. I'm a 53 year old Iowa farm boy who had his life changed by hearing these songs. Made me into a musician for 40+ years. Great to see some younger people digging it. Feel like we could light one and chill. There's still hope in the world.

The Beatles cut their teeth as musicians in Hamburg, Germany, playing 8 hours per day, usually from 6pm- 2:00am. They had huge fans in Germany, so they sang those two songs in German to please those fans. From Germany, they went back to England and got their record deal in 1962. Then, they started touring all over Europe. It took them almost another two years to break in America, which happened in late 1963, right after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I think America needed the infectious humor and cheek of The Beatles at that poignant moment of time to bring everything from black and white and gray back to color!

Darius, I had to comment. I was 8 years young when The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan and it changed my life...kicked me in a young girl's butt and I was never the same. I love all genres of music and listen to "all" of it. To discover someone of your age not only in a discovery phase of their music is a thrill for me. Your commentary and perceptions are well.....let an old lady say it, "REFRESHING." Keep it up Darius. I cannot wait for the next journey you take us on.

This Boy is one of the greatest Beatles songs ever!!!!!!!!

I Want to Hold Your Hand is what started Beatlemania in the US.

Fun fact: when Paul showed his dad this song when they were working on it, his dad wanted it to be, “yes yes yes”, instead of the “yeah yeah yeah”. This shows me where the younger generation were back then. They were beginning to break away from the older generation and made a revolutionary change to culture.

I was 10 in December of 1963. I Want to Hold Your Hand just hit the airwaves and it was like a light switch had been turned on. Here in the US, no one knew the Beatles existed until then. Soon after, came She Loves You and a fast flurry of other new Beatles songs. We couldn't get enough. Some of the songs on this album were 100% sensational... then and now. Some were more an early introduction to their unique sound and were great at the time but don't hold up quite as well now. Sidenote: The Beatles honed their skills playing clubs in Hamburg, Germany from 1960-62. It wasn't until 1963 when they became a sensation. Having had a following in Germany, they recorded their two biggest hits in German for their earliest of fans there.

There’s something so pure in the joy of watching a new Beatles fan emerge track by track 😊 Keep posting Darius, you’re reminding us all of the first times we heard these beauties!! ❤

As to the sound of She Loves You, the reason was because back then, stereo mixing was pretty much just a novelty, so they just panned the vocals to one stereo channel and all of the instruments on the other! For a less "shitty" sound, try listening to it (or indeed the ENTIRE Beatles catalog until Abbey Road) in mono, or listen to the new remix on the 2023 edition of the Red Album (it is... Chef's kiss!)!

Yay! You're back! :D (Still waiting for your "Help!" movie reaction)

Watch “I’m down” live at Shea Stadium 1965.

Check out Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" for the original. Paul learned how to do this scream-woo from Little Richard. GOAT.

I'm so glad that you loved She Loves You! This was the first time The Beatles actively disagreed with producer George Martin and told him "don't worry the fans will love it" in reply to some criticisms from him. Martin didn't like Love Me Do (except for the harmonica), made them rewrite Please Please Me (correctly) and told them to write a sequel to Please Please Me, hence all the harmonica on From Me To You. The Beatles called songs they were forced to write by the record company "work songs" and From Me To You was arguably the first. She Loves You was the first hit single they picked as the single. You mentioned with Maxwell's leaden Hammer (John hated it and avoided being in the studio) that they might have been asked to produce certain songs and that is true. The amazing thing is that many of them were still wonderful songs. For example the original title of HELP! was Eight Arms to Hold You but when they changed the title to HELP! Lennon went home after a days filming and came back the next morning with HELP! That's just ridiculous!! Love your really thoughtful reactions to the Beatles catalogue Darius... ;)

"I Feel Fine" was a really big deal when it came out, because it was so different than anything else they'd put out to that point, and no other bands sounded like that either. It was also the first recorded song which includes guitar feedback. That was a radical sound to the ears of '60s listeners. You can absolutely hear a new and brilliant crispness to the sound, as the engineers were exploring novel ways to record in the studio. The Beatles dropping that single was a real turning point!

Love Me Do (single version) does have Ringo on drums. A week after it was recorded, they tackled the song again, with producer George Martin deciding to use session drummer Andy White, and giving Ringo a tambourine (note that there is no tambourine in the single version); this latter version ended up being included on the _Please Please Me_ album. From Me to You/Thank You Girl was recorded about a month after the _Please Please Me_ album. She Loves You/I'll Get You was recorded as they were starting their sessions for the _With the Beatles_ album, and I Want to Hold Your Hand/This Boy was recorded shortly after those sessions were completed. The point you make about the Beatles "improving their hooks", etc., over their first five singles is right on the money, as the Beatles performed those five A-side songs together as a "medley" in a UK TV special in 1964! The general purpose of _Past Masters_ is to complete the Beatles discography on CD (though it was also released as a vinyl LP), by gathering every track NOT originally included in some album. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand/Sie Liebt Dich was released as a single in (at the time West) Germany, and for the sake of that completeness, is included in _Past Masters._ In the UK it was common to release "highlights" of an album, four of its songs (or some other "mini-collection"), as an "EP" (Extended Play), a 7-inch 45 rpm record with two songs on each side. It was with their first of these that their _Please Please Me_ album track "Twist and Shout" became a huge hit, leading its EP to chart as well as a regular single! EPs, at least those by the Beatles (though they were probably not alone in this), were generally a set of songs already released, usually on an LP. In the spring of 1964 it was decided to release an EP of ORIGINAL recordings, and thus was created the _Long Tall Sally_ EP, with that track plus I Call Your Name, Slow Down, and Matchbox (of which the only original COMPOSITION was ICYN), released in June of '64. The first two of these recorded, the title track and ICYN, had seen an "early release " in the U.S. on the American album collection _The Beatles' Second Album_ in April. No corresponding EP was released in the U.S. The other two tracks were included in the next album put together by their main U.S. record company, Capitol Records, who also issued Slow Down/Matchbox as a regular single in late August. BTW on all other occasions when you hear the Beatles perform "Long Tall Sally" (in concert or on the BBC), Paul sings Little Richard's original lyric in the second verse, "I saw Uncle John/With bald-headed Sally...", but in THIS recording, he just sings, "...with Long Tall Sally". I Feel Fine/She's a Woman was recorded during the _Beatles For Sale_ sessions. In the actual release chronology, Yes It Is should be next, but that's not the order used on _Past Masters._ What it *_does_* have next, Bad Boy, is one of two "cover" songs the Beatles knocked off one day in spring 1965 during the extended _Help!_ sessions, to satisfy Capitol Records' request for two more songs to give them enough to release another 11-track album in the U.S. market (in this case, _Beatles VI)._ The other song, "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", was included on side two of the _Help!_ album, but "Bad Boy" was not, and in fact, it became a song available in the U.S. but NOT the UK for over a year until it was included in a UK-only greatest hits album at the end of 1966 as a "bonus track". Yes It Is was the B-side of the Ticket to Ride single, recorded in early 1965. Like Can't Buy Me Love before it, TtR was the "advance single" for their forthcoming summer movie, in this case _Help!_ But while CBML's single B-side, You Can't Do That, was included on side two of the movie tie-in album, YII was not. But the initial plan for YII was to include it IN the movie itself, with its lyric "Please don't wear red tonight" being a satirical comment on how the cultists in the movie kept dousing Ringo with red paint! With this planned inclusion in mind, Capitol Records in the U.S. even put on BOTH sides of the single's label a notice about each song being from the forthcoming movie, whose working title at the time of the single's April release was _Eight Arms to Hold You_ (four Beatles, two arms each, = eight arms). Ultimately, the plan to include YII in the movie was dropped (and it didn't even make side TWO of the album, thus its inclusion in _Past Masters),_ and of course, the movie's final title became _Help!_ Capitol Records, however, never took these changes into account for many years, and even into the early 80s was still pressing the single stating that BOTH songs were from _Eight Arms to Hold You!_ (That title, BTW, ended up being the title of a SONG in the movie _The Goonies_ decades later!) Finally, I'm Down was recorded to be the B-side of the "Help!" single.

This Boy finally found international recognition! It is now on the 1962-1966 "Red" album.

Just FYI Paul sings Love Me Do and he co-leads on I want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You. Help was the first album The Beatles wrote and recorded high. It did make a difference. A bunch of the old rockers are covers: Long Tall Sally, Bad Boy, Matchbox, Slow Down. The German songs were just a curiosity they tried once and figured they would put them on this collection.

Just remember, the sound quality was never meant for headphones. You could probably record something on your phone microphone that sounds better than the equipment they had back then.

With the exception of Love Me Do the singles were not supposed to be on albums because they didn’t want to charge fans twice for the same song. So they decided that singles would be independent of the albums. Long Tall Sally, Slow Down, Matchbox and Bad Boy are covers. The Beatles spent 2 years in Hamburg, Germany honing their craft in clubs playing up to 8 hour shows. Ringo was in another band and eventually sat in when Pete didn’t show and they decided he was the one… their time in Hamburg was the inspiration fir the German versions of She Loves You and I Wanna Hold Your Hand. They are both throwaways…

Ayy dropped this at the right time 🍃🍃🍃

I love how quickly you’ve gone from ‘yeah, I quite like the Beatles’ to someone who trawls the internet to make sure he’s pairing singles to b-sides correctly. It’s brilliant to be on this journey with you!

Thanks, this is great! You can never go wrong with the Beatles, as you have found. They were always trying new things & did it all so well. Thanks so much for doing this, I love them all!

Past Masters Volume 2 is a superior album in my opinion. Each song is a hit. Nice review of Volume 1

Long Tall Sally is my personal favourite cover of the Beatles. The past masters liner notes state that the whole track was recorded in a single take - which given that vocal is truly stunning.

Love your videos! Just wanted to mention that if songs instrumentals that are on this album compared to their original album sound different it’d because of the mix of the album rather than it being played differently. It’s the 5:37 same recording mixed differently

I’m Down is one my favorite early Beatles’ songs. Very underrated, IMO.

The U.S. releases of Beatles catalog was a year behind. We didn't find out about them until early 1964, so they released the "With the Beatles" album as "Meet the Beatles" and they added "Hold Your Hand", "Saw Her Standing There" and "This Boy" and removed most of the cover tunes, to be released later. Our "Meet the Beatles" album was a TON OF BRICKS to the side of the head! it was so awesome!! MTB was my first introduction to the Lads, back in the late 60's (listening to my older siblings albums), and it is a part of my DNA by now.

Bad Boy is a cover but it is brilliant, the playing is incredibly tight and it’s one of the greatest vocal performances by John.

I don’t usually cry at all but the first time I heard yes it is I was so close to tears for some reason

I see Darius comes thru with an upload, my day is made! So, The Beatles didn’t want to add the singles on their albums because a lot of artists at the time were known to release an album with the single, and just fill the rest with filler to make an album. The Beatles wanted the Singles and the Albums to both stand alone on their own.

I love This Boy

Holy fuck I can't wait for Vol. 2. Vol. 2 has some BANGERS.

Really love this channel bro, Big respect for doing things right. Much love from the UK ✌🤙

Cannot wait for you to listen to revolver oh lord 🍃🍃

8 out of 10 classic "rock n roll" style songs from the Beatles are covers, the one that it isn't a cover, it's "I'm down" and as expected, it is an original Beatles song, no wonder why it's the best.

Love that you used "fervour" and "turntness" in the same description

darius, if I were a billionaire, I'd pay to fly you out to vegas so you can experience the Cirque De Sole LOVE show. You should check up the album from that show at the end of this. It's a beatles mashup album and it's super fuckin cool.

The Beatles never put their singles on Albums , said it was ripping fans off gotta love them for that.

So glad that you think/thought She Loves You is peak media, I thought I was the only one. Mad fucking respect man!

If there’s screaming it ain’t George.

John played that freak out momment on I'm Down with his Elbow..enjoy

The album version of Love Me Do slaps bc Ringo is slappin the fuck outta the TAMBOURINE. That's what's missing from the single, and why the drums sound more distant.

"Yes It Is" is such an underrated brilliant song but John, in his negative times post-Beatles breakup, later tried to say it was a disastrous attempt to re-write "This Boy." Amazing

I just binged all your reactions and loved them!! I know you done all the albums, but will you keep uploading Beatles content? I would love to see you reacting to more of their stuff and there is so much content out there, music videos, interviews, documentaries, outtakes/bloopers, Help! the movie.. it would be fun to watch, and I would gladly subscribe to your patreon to watch the whole thing🙌

There are some really underrated singles from this time period...

Ringo did the drums on the single version of "Love me do"

That first one didn't sound like the Beatles oddly , oh and why do you not look at the camera directly but instead look askance and talk to an empty space ? Curious ! 🐨

YEEEEAAAY!!! You re back!!!! I'm so happy! 😄😄😄😄😄😄

Many of these were singles and the b-sides. A lot of others were released on additional albums by Capitol in the US....cash grabs, yes. Beatles Second Album (wasn't their second), Something New, Beatles '65, Yesterday and Today, Hey Jude, etc.

Past Masters II is nothing but gems.

Glad to see you back!

What's great about Past Masters is that they include all releases not on the original (UK) albums in two CDs so you get all the single and EP tracks that don't appear elsewhere without having to buy multiple rarities albums. That's what makes them unique

Broo new video let’s goo!

You think Paul is screamin crazy in "I'm Down," just wait to hear his batshit howling at the end of "Hey Jude," which is comin up on PM 2! Love the react, dude, can't wait for yer next one(s)!

I DIDNT EXPECT THIS BUT I AM SO HAPPYYYYY THANK YOU

Waiting for the Revolver reaction! 🙂

You should absolutely react to Close to the Edge by Yes, incredible prog rock album

“Sie Liebt Dich kinda slaps” 😂

Are you reacting to Volume 2? A lot of their best and most famous songs are in Volume 2!

“Them chords is nasty” - Absolutely loving your channel 💯 Please consider doing the Beach Boys discography at some point, I think you’ll be blown away!

I highly recommend you watch/listen to a couple of live performances from these eras, to understand the vibes of the times and Beatles music in that context, as a live band. One I personally love is their gig on a Swedish TV show called Drop In, in early 1963, while they were still not very well known anywhere but Britain and Hamburg, Germany. You get to see to effect of their music and presence on a young audience, but before the screaming took over and overwhelmed the music: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dYpVNpXCAls.html Also, I think you'd love the episode of Carpool Karaoke that featured Paul McCartney, revisiting old haunts in Liverpool and rounding off the day surprising the locals with an informal juke-box style concert in a pub. It's only about 20 minutes or so long, IIRC. See a real live Beatle in his home environment, where it all began.

Yes it is one of my personal favs

I’m sure someone already said this, but the Beatles were huge in Germany in their early years, so I think they released those to give their German fans some music they can understand… someone that’s more of a Beatles nerd correct me I’m wrong please

Early stuff electrical and loud and a mighty new sound very original and were all humble and funny....simply Electrical... love my Beatles 🪲🪲🪲🪲🍏 the most colorful, imaginative creative band on the planet 🌍🌎

The Beatles put out 4 singles and 2 albums a year. I am not sure when that ended. Great reactions... very open and cool... Spark one up 🫠

Wooo so happy you also loved Yes it Is!! I’ve always connected to that one deeply and always find myself returning to it…its building up in the chorus to the crescendo is so powerful

Great reaction again.. Yessir.. Yo, you gotta react to Bob Dylan..next.. Bob turned the BEATLES onto WEED.. true story...!!! p.s. it may double your subscriptions ..lol

Long Tall Sally, I Call Your Name, Slow Down and Matchbox were an EP. I Feel Fine / She‘s A Woman was the Beatles For Sale Single. Bad Boy wasn‘t a single but a song that was at first only released in the US till late 1966 (on "A Collection of Beatles Oldies"). I think you might have to listen to either the live bootleg from Hamburg or at least one of the two BBC compilations so that you see how the early Beatles sounded live. The Hollywood Bowl could show you then the Beatles at their live peak. Oh and when you get to Let It Be, you have to listen to Let It Be…. Naked too, it is much better and how the album was intended to be before Phil Spector came with his Wall of Sound… Looking forward to the next reactions!

18:40 "re: beatles in German". They have loads of fans in Germany too and essentially got their start in Hamburg. They hung around with so called exies (existentialists), who wore black, were into Nietzsche. One of them, Klaus Voormann, did art for some Beatles Albums and shows up later in John's life to play Bass.

The Beatles tried not to release singles onto albums so they didn’t rip off people who bought the singles

The american versions of the beatles albums they mixed up all the singles with the albums, and it's kinda strange, but their version of With The Beatles is called Meet The Beatles and it has I Want To Hold Your Hand and This Boy on it in place of most of the covers.I grew up listening to my dads copy of that, so I just think it's soo much better.

can wait for " past master vol 2 "

Still diggin' taking this journey with you 😊

Just found your channel and am hooked! I’m loving your breakdowns/analysis and deep dives, and I always loving hearing new reflections and thoughts on the best band of all time. Keep kicking ass! 😃♥️

Come on Darius, where's the next review? Your next video is the only one I'm eager to see on YT

You are definitely one of my absolute fave reactors today-especially your great Beatle reviews-you are spot on with your reactions-very smart and honest looks at my favourite group! Thanks so much-keep it up!!

Do Vol 2. please!!! 🙌

Once you’re through all of the albums you should do Love. Maybe even come back to it after doing some other stuff for a while. But Love is a fun reimagining of the Beatles catalogue and has some great mashups.

Until the Beatles, harmonica was frowned upon in pop music. It was only found in blues and folk music.

Your knowledge of the Beatles' music is impressive!

I love when you sing 😅

I always pause what im doing to see your reactions to the beatles.

There is no such thing as a weak drumming track by Ringo Starr on ANY Beatles track EVER!!!

Now we get to see you react after you've heard it at least once.

Past Masters Vol. 2!!! It has a great song selection for the most part and some of my favorites are on it!

Hey man, I don’t know if anybody told you this but here’s a few pieces of information. Pass masters is not just a collection of singles. It is also a collection of EP’s which the Beatles put out in England but not in the states . The first one of these is the group of songs, including an after long, tall Sally, which originally was written by the great little Richard. Little Richard said, the only person that could sing his songs properly other than himself was Paul McCartney, and he was a great admirer of Paul as was Paul of him they were friends. OKthe reason they did the German things was they started out in Germany. Those were recorded for the German fans as always is saying we love you because a lot of people thought the Beatles were a German band because they started playing in Germany. Great contact keep up the good work please excuse my misspellings and AutoCorrect mistakes.

I’m looking forward to the Past Master 2 reaction. Rain will blow you away.

Why you hating on German?

“Naaaahh, you the big dog Ringo, don’t ever call yo’self the little dog, naaah”. 🤣 🤣 I love it ! And it was the expression on your face while you were saying that. Priceless. Great video, again, Darius. Thanks. 👍

I'm Down was the B side of Help! It was the song, save one, it took me the longest time to find, combing through Beatles singles in every record store that presented itself to me. You Know My Name, Look Up the Number was also challenging. It's the B side of Let It Be or The Long and Winding Road. The only single I never found was From Me to You. But my brother had The Red Album compilation and I was at least able to record it off of there. The singles were getting hard to find in the 70s and 80s. The only reason I knew I'm Down even existed was because I remembered it from The Beatles cartoon show when I was little. It got very little airplay.

Day Tripper is peak Beatles! Those guitars are rockin Edit: oh shit wrong disc 😂

Bro i need a Revolver react