Most can call it from memory: the image of the Beatles disembarking from their plane on a cold February day in New York. Less visible in the old black-and-white film footage, but perhaps more important, is a young girl clutching a copy of the Beatles' just-released second album, Meet the Beatles!, as if the world depended on it. And, to her and millions of other young people, it did. Meet the Beatles! wasn't simply an album; it gave the intangible yearnings of youth a voice and a face (actually, four voices and four faces), and it created a parallel world where escape was only a turntable away. Today, Meet the Beatles! is a collectible in danger of becoming forgotten, if not for the diligence of Beatles fans around the world. Compact discs have replaced vinyl, and the decision to release the original U.K. versions of the Beatles' albums in favor of their U.S. counterparts has rendered albums like Meet the Beatles! and The Beatles' Second Album obsolete. But nothing could make the music on these LPs obsolete. Далее...