Editing With the Beatles (section)

==Packaging==
Impressed with [[Robert Freeman (photographer)|Robert Freeman]]'s black-and-white pictures of [[John Coltrane]], Epstein invited the photographer to create the cover image.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Canton |first=Naomi |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/14/showbiz/beatles-exhibition/ |title=Beatles fans eye rare display of Fabs photos |website=[[CNN]] |date=14 March 2013 |access-date=31 July 2016 |archive-date=18 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818042752/http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/14/showbiz/beatles-exhibition/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Harrison later said that, whereas the cover of ''Please Please Me'' had been "crap", their second LP was "the beginning of us being actively involved in the Beatles' artwork{{nbsp}}... the first one where we thought, 'Hey, let's get artistic.'"{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=107}} The group asked Freeman to take inspiration from pictures their friend [[Astrid Kirchherr]] had taken [[The Beatles in Hamburg|in Hamburg]] between 1960 and 1962, featuring the band members in half-shadow and not smiling.<ref>{{cite book |last=Carlin |first=Peter Ames |title=Paul McCartney: A Life |year=2009 |publisher=Touchstone |isbn=978-1-4165-6209-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W8R4LS2LYxYC |page=91|access-date=31 July 2016|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413223557/https://books.google.com/books?id=W8R4LS2LYxYC|url-status=live}}</ref> To achieve this result, on 22 August 1963, Freeman photographed them in a dark corridor of the Palace Court Hotel in [[Bournemouth]], where the band were playing a summer residency at the local Gaumont Cinema.{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=104}} To fit the square format of the cover, he put Starr in the bottom right corner, "since he was the last to join the group. He was also the shortest".<ref>{{cite book |first=Mark |last=Lewisohn |title=The Complete Beatles Chronicle |year=1996 |publisher=Chancellor Press |isbn=0-7607-0327-2}}</ref> McCartney described the result as "very moody", adding: "people think he must have worked at [it] forever and ever. But it was an hour. He sat down, took a couple of rolls, and he had it."{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=104}} 

The original concept was to paint the picture from edge to edge, with no bleeding, title or artist credit – a concept that went against music industry practice and was immediately vetoed by EMI. The first album to carry an edge-to-edge cover was the Rolling Stones' [[The Rolling Stones (album)|self-titled debut]], released five months later.<ref name="Harris/Mojo" /> EMI also objected to the fact that the Beatles were not smiling; it was only after George Martin intervened, as head of Parlophone, that the cover portrait was approved.<ref name="Harris/Mojo" /> Freeman was paid £75 for his work, which was three times the fee first offered by EMI.{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=104}}

Music critic [[John Harris (critic)|John Harris]] finds the cover most reminiscent of the photos Kirchherr took in Hamburg of Lennon, Harrison and [[Stuart Sutcliffe]] using the "half-lit technique" and says that, together with songs such as "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Money (That's What I Want)", ''With the Beatles'' thereby represents "a canny repackaging of their early '60s incarnation: Hamburg shorn of [[Preludin|Prellies]] and leather, and sold to their public as a mixture of accomplished rock 'n' roll and art-house cool". Harris also sees the LP cover as a "watershed" design that encouraged other acts to eschew "the more cartoonish aspects of pop photography" and continued to exert an influence in the 1970s on covers such as those for [[Lou Reed]]'s ''[[Transformer (Lou Reed album)|Transformer]]'' (1972), [[Patti Smith]]'s ''[[Horses (album)|Horses]]'' (1975) and various [[punk rock]] albums.<ref name="Harris/Mojo">{{cite book |first=John |last=Harris |chapter=Snapper's Delight |title=[[Mojo (magazine)#Special editions|Mojo Special Limited Edition]]: 1000 Days of Beatlemania (The Early Years – April 1, 1962 to December 31, 1964) |year=2002 |publisher=Emap |location=London |page=59}}</ref>

EMI Australia did not receive the cover art (there were union restrictions on importing negatives for printing<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rowboatsyndicate.com/2015/05/cover-art-down-under.html|title=Cover Art Down Under|first1=The|last1=Doc|first2=the|last2=Guv}}</ref>) and used different shots of the band in a similar style to the black-and-white photograph on other releases. The Beatles were unaware of this until fans showed them the cover during their only Australian tour, and informed the EMI publicity staff that they were not pleased with the substitution.{{sfn|Baker|Dilernia|1985}}

The same photo with a blue tint was used for the cover of the US release ''Meet The Beatles!''