Video: 'Meet the Beatles! (Full Album)' (12 clips)

(Monday, January 20, 1964) — Meet the Beatles!, a studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, was released today as their second album in the United States, the group’s first American album to be issued by Capitol Records.

It would top the popular album chart on Feb. 15, 1964, and remain at number one for eleven weeks before being replaced by The Beatles’ Second Album.

Video: 'Meet The Beatles - Capitol Records' Masterstroke Album'

The cover featured Robert Freeman’s iconic portrait of the Beatles used in the United Kingdom for With the Beatles, with a blue tint added to the original stark black-and-white photograph.

Despite the “first album” claim on the Meet the Beatles! cover, ten days prior to its release, Vee-Jay Records of Chicago beat Capitol to the punch with the release on Jan. 10, 1964 of The Beatles’ American debut album Introducing… The Beatles, which had been delayed for release for various reasons since the previous summer.