The Merseybeats' only original album, recorded in mid-1964 with
John Gustafson in their lineup in place of co-founder
Billy Kinsley on bass, is a strange hybrid of originals that move between solid harmony-based Liverpool pop/rock ("Milkman," "Really Mystified") and
Bo Diddley-influenced rockers ("Funny Face"), juxtaposed with an odd selection of covers, ranging from "Bring It On Home to Me" and "He Will Break Your Heart" (which do work) to an odd selection of show tunes. The better of the latter is a reasonably successful rendition of "Hello Young Lovers" done with rockabilly guitar and some way too busy percussion; much less successful is a soft a cappella rendition of "The Girl That I Marry." The ballad "Lavender Blue" offers a
Gustafson arrangement that isn't terribly interesting, and
Gustafson's "Jumpin' Jonah" is even more of a ripoff of "Long Tall Sally" (especially as done by
the Beatles) than
the Beatles' "I'm Down" was. The resulting album, with the
Beatlesque single side included, was neither fish nor fowl, and insufficiently strong in any direction other than what their singles already pointed toward to gain the band a wider audience.