Once again, it's just amazing to see how tacky and amateurish the music industry was back then. Or at least, the pop music industry.

My guess is the labels saw pop music as a fad that would disappear quickly and they wanted to make the most money they could before it did. Let's just rip off the kids!

There was absolutely no focus on legitimacy, accuracy or historical legacy.

The Beatles' early years no doubt hold the record (see what I did there) for flooding the market with product, goofy repackaging of songs and error-laden releases. But those types of gaffes were widespread.

Not to mention lunch boxes, stuffed toys, figurines, etc. And cartoons.

Well next up is Rubber Soul and this is bound to be a bit polarizing, but when looking at The US Capitol releases this is by far the best one and some even argue it is better than the UK version (I'll get to why later).

I've ripped on Capitol deservedly so for many of the Beatles album hack jobs they released and the laziness of some of it. But I'll give credit where it is due and this is one case where they got it right. At least for what they intended. This was the last album that Dave Dexter of Capitol was responsible for as he was forced out in early 1966 (mostly due to Beatles VI and just conflicts with John, George Martin and Brian Epstein).

You have to remember a few things in context here - if you grew up on the Beatles in the US as their albums came out or even before they unified the worldwide catalogue then this is the Rubber Soul that you knew. And those people did not know anything about missing songs. It was a 12 song masterpiece if you just look at it for what it was. And it was the best selling Beatles album to date (including UK releases) by a factor of 2x. Fans absolutely loved this album.

Consider this as well. When Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys talks about how amazing Rubber Soul was and the fact that that album specifically inspired their incredible album Pet Sounds ("Wouldn't It Be Nice", "God Only Knows", "Caroline, No" and "Sloop John B" plus others) he is talking about the US Capitol release, not the UK release. No higher praise could probably be made then it's impact on other artists.

Personally like many I came to know the Beatles and their albums later and had the same initial reaction to the missing songs. But the more I look at this album and read reviews and dig into the history the more I understand these perspectives.

Ok so why is it considered to be so good?

Consider the time period and context. In The Beatles history it really signifies a new era of creativity and direction for the band. Gone are the simple boy/girl love story songs and simple catch phrase tunes that represented so much of their catalogue to date. These are much more introspective songs and deeper lyrics and meaning than previously.

The Beatles in this time period were heavily influenced by one man - Bob Dylan. They spent a lot of time with Bob in this period from late 1964 through 1965. It wad during this time that Bob Dylan himself transitioned from acoustic folk music to electric folk rock music. He released two album n 1965 that put folk rock front and center especially in America namely Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. Both are landmark albums in his catalogue.

His songs "Mr. Tambourine Man" "Maggie's Farm" "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" "Subterranean Homesick Blues" on that first album really helped define the folk rock era. And his next album contained the massive hit "Like A Rolling Stone" which clocked in over 6 minutes which was unheard of for a single at the time.

The Beatles were heavily influenced by him and those songs. In fact they were determined with their next album to include no cover songs. All originals. He also introduced them to pot. John has called Rubber Soul their pot album and Revolver their acid album. Ringo said pot made them very creative in this time period but not very efficient. What would happen is they would be stoned out of their minds and very creative. But Ringo said they would listen to the playback the next day and realize it sounded terrible and they would have to record it again while straight.

While it was a formula that worked it made them spend a lot more time in the studio. Instead of working out songs on their own, or together outside the studio (they sometimes rented rehearsal space) they did everything in EMI Studio 2 for months and basically kicked out any other artists. They were under huge pressure to deliver by December and so anything The Beatles wanted or needed they got. No other EMI artist meant as much as The Beatles of course and EMI wanted their second album of the year.

Not everything they recorded in this era was folk rock oriented but many were. And a few from the B side of the UK version of Help! had been as well. But those were not on the US release of Help!

When it came time for Dave Dexter at Capitol to pick the tracks for the US version of Rubber Soul you have to also take into account what was popular on US radio. Not only was there Dylan in the folk rock genre but several others had hit it big that year. The electric overdubbed version of "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel that was their first massive #1 hit was that year. Also the Byrds songs "Turn Turn Turn" and their cover of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" had been huge hits. And The Mamas and the Papas "Go Where You Want To Go" and "California Dreamin" were all in 1965.

Dave Dexter for all his faults was a trendy A&R exec. He followed what was hot. And for Rubber Soul he followed a formula that had worked (at least in terms of selling millions of records). He wanted to include songs from that B side of Help! along with songs from Rubber Soul and hit singles. While the UK versions did not include singles usually the US sold albums by promoting their singles.

With the popularity of the folk rock sounds he chose to keep 10 of the 14 tracks on the UK Rubber Soul and put the 2 folk rock genre songs from the UK Help! album on there. He specifically removed "Drive My Car" and "What Goes On" because they did not fit this sound and were more rock and country respectively. He also held back "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone" not because they didn't fit (they were folk rock) but because he wanted those songs to be an A/B singles to sell the next Beatles album in the US.

The replacement songs from the B side of the UK Help! were "I've Just Seen A Face" and "It's Only Love" which he chose to open the A and B ides of the US release respectively. As a result those songs have a much bigger prominence in US Beatles fans minds then they did as filler on the UK Help! album. And they both set the tone for what would be a complete folk rock album.

I had doubts myself but over the last week or two I've listened to the US Capitol version of Rubber Soul straight through multiple times. It's a fantastic album when you don't consider what is "missing". Taken as it is, it really is maybe the first concept album (certainly moreso than the UK version with some songs not fitting that genre especially the Ringo country tinged track "What Goes On" and "Drive My Car"). On the downside though I think in some ways it made US audiences think The Beatles had completely morphed into a folk rock band. The next album in the US would dissuade that though as the rock tracks and pop hits would be huge players again.

But either way it was the right album at the right time for the US market. And it was HUGE both as an influence for others and for fans.





In the packaging, labelling and cover art at least this time Capitol did not mess it up. The Beatles had gotten more demanding and won out on retaining the name and cover art at least. There was of course at least one small issue. The orange color of the title on the UK version somehow became either brown or puke green on US different printings of it. The font however was retained and became the style influence for the psychedelic era of music.

The title itself came from Paul and was a bit of a pun. Some said it was about rubber soled shoes but in reality he had heard a quote from an American talking about british rock/r&b music and particularly their new "rivals" the Rolling Stones and called it "plastic soul" music implying white british artists couldn't do justice to black soul music. Whether it was some offence at that or simply a fun play on it Paul came up with the term "Rubber Soul" as his counter to it. He can heard on the end of demo tracks on anthology 2 yelling out the phrase "plastic soul" at the end of some numbers cheekily.

The cover photo which was basically an accident they adopted was also very apropos of the folk rock era. When the photographer set up meeting to look over possible cover photos he accidentally tilted the small screen they used to project the slides onto (it was the size of an album over for context) and it elongated their faces. The Beatles loved that and asked if he could reproduce that look for the cover.

The US cover with the brownish logo



UK cover with the orange logo



This was what the original unaltered photo looked like:



Capitol also left the back cover the same as the UK with the exception of the different song listing.

Excellent write-up! I'm such a huge fan of rock and roll like "Drive My Car" that I've never given the American version a shot. I'll have to go back and listen to it.

It's also amazing from a music history perspective to see The Beatles lead the psychedelic charge from growing their hair long to this album cover to Revolver.

So I've been mentioning Capitol records all along and their decisions regarding Beatles records. But in reality that was all one man - Dave Dexter Jr. And he is quite a polarizing figure in Beatles lore. I wasn't intending to devote any time to him but I read so much about him I feel compelled especially since Rubber Soul was the last album he had control on for the US market.

Many people just blatantly blame him for all of the mish mash of US albums and the marketing of them as well as the remixing with added reverb and forced duophonic stereo sound. And he certainly was the decision maker on all things Beatles in the US market. To his defense the Beatles sold millions of records and a few of those (like the last one, Rubber Soul) were actually good and positively received. But it's certainly debatable whether it was anything intelligent on his part or just dumb luck as anything with Beatles slapped on it likely would have sold millions. He certainly liked to take a lot of credit for it.

Dexter was brought up and heavily involved in both jazz and classic American standards. He had worked at Capitol since the late 40s and signed such acts as Count Basie, Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra among others. So he had a good reputation. And he hated rock and roll. Like despised it.

When EMI acquired a majority stake in Capitol records he became the person assigned to screen EMIs artists in the UK to determine which ones should be also released in the US. He rejected the vast majority of them as he did not think they were suitable for the US and the ones they did release received little support or marketing from Capitol.

He infamously rejected The Beatles in 1963 outright and internal memos later released showed he had little appreciation for them and preferred other much less unsuccessful groups like Freddie and the Dreamers who he did sign. He also rejected the Hollies, Manfred Mann, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Animals, the Yardbirds, Herman's Hermits and the Dave Clark Five among others.

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Dexter groused, "When I heard Lennon playing the harmonica on this record, I thought it was the worst thing I'd ever heard. So I nixed it. I didn't want any part of the Beatles." Probably the record was "Love Me Do," though Dexter could not remember the title in this conversation. In a mid-1980s interview for the radio documentary From Britain With Love, he elaborated, "I didn't care for it at all because of the harmonica sound. I didn't care for the harmonica because I had grown up listening to the old blues records and blues harmonica players, and I simply didn't…I nixed the record instantly."

Dexter offers: "Freddie & the Dreamers, in my opinion, have a most attractive rock sound and might make it big over here, although the first record we issued sold hardly any copies. Freddie's second record comes out next week on Capitol." The Dreamers would indeed have a couple hits for Capitol's Tower subsidiarythough not until early-to-mid-1965, and then with singles ("I'm Telling You Now" and "You Were Made for Me") that had already been big British hits in mid-to-late 1963.

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Freddie and the Dreamers did have some modest hits later in 1965. For an even worse example consider that he did sign a fat housewife named Mrs. Mills who sang party singalong numbers on a saloon-bar-like piano to Capitol around that time instead.




That is the reason that Vee-Jay records ended up getting the rights to the first Beatles album. And to his credit perhaps those first few Beatles singles notoriously failed in the US. He still tried to claim credit for "discovering" the Beatles in later interviews he claimed to immediately change his mind upon hearing "I Want To Hold Your Hand" but he claims he heard it before it was even recorded in another interview (so maybe he messed up the date).

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He claimed: "Today it is obvious that Capitol never would have reacquired the Beatles had I not been in London last August, nor would Capitol have gotten Frank Ifield, who although dormant today, sold a lot of singles and albums for us in a brief period of time." This is not the usual way the story of Capitol's decision to issue Beatles product has been portrayed. If Dexter was in London in August 1963, he wouldn't have been able to hear "I Want to Hold Your Hand"the song he remembered in his interview with Chuck Haddix as grabbing his attentionwhich hadn't been recorded yet. Maybe he's simply misremembering the month (albeit only a year after his visit), but he also fails to mention that although Frank Ifield did have low-charting singles for Capitol in late 1963, the label had missed out on his big US hit, "I Remember You," which had gone to Vee Jay in 1962.

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But according to Brian Epstein and George Martin he acquiesced only after they visited the US and implored his boss Livingston to instruct him to release the next single and record. He also claimed to have decided to market them extensively with full page ads but again that was all after the fact and seems like trying to just ride the Beatlemania that followed.

So what followed of course was all of the albums and their packaging, marketing and song selection that I have talked about so far. And he battled with Epstein, The Beatles, and Geroge Martin over many of those decisions. His defense if of course that they were selling millions of those albums he "engineered"

He seemed to start drawing their ire particularly around the Something New album as he took to putting his name on the back label as "Produced in England by George Martin and in the USA with the assistance of Dave Dexter, Jr.". Later he even took producing credit directly on Help! as ""Produced in England by George Martin and in the USA by Dave Dexter Jr."

This was particularly egregious considering that Martin was an integral part of the recording process. Since the first album Martin had been in studio and often helped craft what they had into full fledged songs. He made many suggestions on the intros and framing them into hit records. He was a musician himself and very successful producer. Whereas Dexter was just an A&R business man and did nothing but select songs (and then remix some against their wishes really with added echo, reverb and/or mixing duophonic stereo versions from mono masters. But he took credit as a producer of their music.

He also liked to take credit for those mixes saying that John and Paul specifically called him during their 1964 US tour to praise him for the albums mix. That is something The Beatles never confirmed nor Epstein, Martin or anyone else really.

Quote:

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"They got so big-headed," complained Dexter in his interview with Chuck Haddix. "They were so thrilled with the first few records and the first couple of albums we issued, and they called and thanked me. This was way back when…right after we got 'em. And they thought that our sound was better on Capitol than on Parlophone.

"A couple years later, why, they went around complaining that Capitol's sound wasn't nearly as good as the British sound. And that was printed in all the music publications and…I don't even like to talk about the Beatles. To me, it was just an unhappy…" he trails off.

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John in particular started to loathe him and blasted the US albums publicly which drew Dexters ire as they were selling millions of records. The relationship grew more snd more acrimonious with each album. But it was hard to get rid of Dexter given the success they were having.

Eventually of course The Beatles gained enough power and influence to get their way more often that not although Dexter still limited releases to 11 or 12 songs. And packaged up those extraneous singles with leftover tracks for additional releases. But the Beatles, Martin and Epstein wanted him gone and eventually they got their way.


I'm personally torn on him. He did do what was kind of necessary for the US market even if I don't like the US versions as much for the most part. But a few were at least really good records (Rubber Soul and the Beatles Second Record).

In 1966 shortly after the release of Rubber Soul he was reassigned to a job he said had no title. He stayed with Capitol for 8 more years before moving to other things including writing for Rolling Stone and Billboard at times. Which brings me to this unforgivable act:

In the aftermath of John Lennon's 1980 murder, Dave Dexter Jr., a former Capitol Records executive, penned a critical "remembrance" of Lennon for Billboard magazine. This piece, which was largely negative and dismissive, drew criticism from various publications, including Rolling Stone magazine. Dexter's long-standing animosity towards the Beatles and his past conflicts with the band, particularly regarding their Capitol Records releases, contributed to the harsh tone of his tribute. Billboard later apologized for it of course as fans flooded them with hate mail and cancellations.



Lord knows John was not easy for many people to get along with. But Dexter was especially vicious concerning John and took shots at him repeatedly. It seems to me his own ego was huge and he demanded credit when he had little actual added value. I mean know your place too - your just a record company executive not the talent.

Anyway for albums going forward Dexter had no involvement and The Beatles exerted more control which would start to align the releases with the UK ones. But Capitol still had some leftover tracks from rubber Soul and some singles so they were not quite down making mish mash records. Next up is Yesterday and Today a completely unique US creation.

Just went by a display of Beatles vinyl in Barnes and noble.

Very cool with the context I now have to check those out. Tempting to start collecting those us capitol releases.

Ok next up on the Beatles US album chronology is an interesting one Yesterday and Today. I could see panning this album but also I would understand if people love this album.

It's a true mish-mash of stuff from many sources, but it has more "hit" songs than probably any other album to date certainly. It also contains a true cross section of styles a s result including early psychedelic stuff, folk rock songs, one country tinged song and a true pop ballad.

Dave Dexter may have been gone but the next man up at Capitol would create perhaps the most cobbled together album in their catalogue. It wasn't like he had much choice though. With the Beatles recording less there was only so much to choose from. There were 4 leftover tracks from the UK Rubber Soul two of which Dexter had deemed for release as a new single to promote the album. And there were 4 previously released singles including the recent double A side mega hit "We Can Work It Out"/"Day Tripper" and "Yesterday"/"Act Naturally" which were the final unreleased (in the US) tracks from the B side of the UK Help! album. Beyond that though they needed 3 more tracks to make an album.

The new guy at Capitol tasked with creating Beatles releases for the US market was Bill Miller (who would also be credited on the back cover of this album but not as a producer simply as "Prepared for release in the USA by Bill Miller). He at least learned from his predecessor maybe not to infuriate the talent or their management.

He could have opted to take even more singles as Capitol had just received the masters for "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" forthcoming single. He could have put those plus the b-side of the "Help" single which called "I'm Down" and be done with it. But The Beatles were still not keen on packaging singles onto albums especially before the single was released. Again Bill seemed to acquiesce to their wishes so instead he asked them for 3 songs from the forthcoming Revolver album that they were working on. This was more palatable to The Beatles and management and they had 6 songs completed for it. So they sent them three songs knowing the remaining 11 would then make up the US release of Revolver.

Although this worked pretty well for the this interim album it had the negative effect of robbing Revolver of some tunes - as in particular all 3 were Lennon tunes. In their studio sessions they had completed more John tunes at that point. So it created an imbalance both in this record of extra Lennon tunes and in the US release of Revolver being more heavily McCartney tunes. Usually their albums were pretty much 50/50 on John/Paul lead songs.

What they end up with though was a pretty good album overall and with 6 charted singles after they released "Nowhere Man"/"What Goes On" prior to the albums release.

In a typical bit of US marketing they had a clever marketing name Yesterday and Today which alluded to one of the Beatles most loved tunes and a #1 hit (and the most covered song in recording history) but also indicated that this had new material which was certainly true but somewhat limited (only 5 songs were not part of singles). Because of that it is considered a true album release and not a compilation.

As a side note songs from the B side of the UK album Help! now appeared on 3 different Capitol US albums: Beatles, VI, Rubber Soul and Yesterday and Today. And this album contained songs from Help!, Rubber Soul and Revolver.




The real controversy with this album though was brought about by The Beatles themselves. Feeling emboldened perhaps by getting more creative control of US releases going forward (even though they were helpless to stop this stopgap release) they insisted on supplying the cover art this time and not letting Capitol just use some old photos or a montage as they previously did.

The photo session enlisted by the Beatles included them messing around with various props (not unlike the Beatles '65 cover, same photographer in fact). They had light bulbs, a birdcage on George's head at one point, a hammer and nails which George was faking hammering into Johns head, and various other comical and absurd situations.

The one that the band liked the most was photos in which they had white butcher coats on and had props of dismembered babies and blood draped over them. They insisted on this image, particularly John, for the cover despite the objection of Bill Miller and Capitol and this time they got their way.

It was an epic disaster as record stores refused to display or even sell the controversial album with that cover. American audiences were not entertained by it. And so Capitol ended up having to recall the release and replace the cover. The meaning behind the picture is not clear either depending on who you ask. there are many that felt that the cover had some meaning about Capitols "butchering" of previous Beatles albums and the Beatles were using this as a taunt. But the Beatles themselves claim that no, it was a form of protest over the Vietnam war. Personally I think that is some reframing of the narrative after the fact. Or maybe both are somewhat true.

Regardless it had to be replaced. The image selected instead is terrible. Literally it is just the boys sitting around, on and in a steamer trunk. A very boring photo. I would have preferred they keep the original personally as opposed to this timid image. This picture had been taken in another session with the same photographer just in the offices of Brian Epstein on a casual visit.

Capitol for their part did not want to waste the money they had spent printing the album (750K of them) and so for the first run they simply pasted the new cover over the original cover. Fans quickly figured this out and many would peel the new cover off it with very mixed results. It often left it looking very weathered or worse. But they had the original cover that way.

Fans ate it up as usual as Yesterday and Today quickly rose to #1 and stayed there for 6 weeks. It did not reach Rubber Soul levels but sold at least twice as many as Beatles VI had despite the "butcher cover" controversy and the fact that about half the songs were previously released as singles. The release of Revolver only 2 months later cut into it's longevity and as its sales dipped Revolver moved into the #1 spot.

Original album cover that was recalled -quality is poor as they tried to bury this version



Replacement cover:





example of a tarnished version with the replacement cover removed

Yeah, that was an exceptionally bad choice by the lads. (Sister and I did not buy this album, though I like some of the songs)

Wasn't Epstein still alive? How in the world did he not persuade them not to do this?

OldArmy71 said:

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Yeah, that was an exceptionally bad choice by the lads. (Sister and I did not buy this album, though I like some of the songs)

Wasn't Epstein still alive? How in the world did he not persuade them not to do this?

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Yes he was still alive until August of 1967 (after Sgt. Pepper). And I'm not going to bag on Epstein much but in a lot of cases he simply did what The Beatles wanted him to do and he was the bad guy when they had to kick others out of their reserved studio time for example. Whatever the Beatles wanted they got especially in this time period. And in this case specifically I read that Epstein objected to it but The Beatles particularly John insisted.

George Martin objected as well:

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I don't think I ever quarrelled with them musically at all. The only time I ever really came to blows with them was over something quite different, which was a record sleeve. It was one that was never issued here. They were dressed up as butchers, and it came out in America. It was their idea of a joke.

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Next up is Revolver and this is really the last of the UK full LPs to be modified in the US market. It's also the simplest to understand and review I suppose. Very little was changed and the artwork and title were exactly the same.

It's still a very interesting album though so a little about it's development.

This album was the most time together as a band recording this album and camaraderie was at it's peak. Whereas they had spent about 80 hours in the studio recording Rubber Soul they spent over 220 hours recording Revolver. By contrast they recorded most of Please Please Me in one 10 hour session.

Following the huge success of Rubber Soul they had some intentions. First, they no longer wanted to tour and so recording became the sole focus. They took an extended break from anything after the last tour and album and came back to the studio refreshed and with no plans to hit the road anytime soon. Their only tour before Revolver was released was in June/July after the recording wrapped. They spent months writing and recording this time and then did a brief 13 date International tour of Japan, Germany and The Philippines.

Second they wanted to do something new and as they spent time in the studio they came up with a lot of new ideas for recording and used their young engineers ideas as well. Their previous engineer had moved up to be a producer. That timing was probably perfect because he might have been reluctant to do the things the Beatles were thinking of. And the replacement was a 19 year old whiz kid named Geoff Emerick loved "tinkering with the controls of the mixing board and coming up with new sonic innovations," as he states in his book "Here, There And Everywhere." "Fortunately, The Beatles were utterly receptive to the idea of breaking all of the rules by the time I started engineering for them."

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From wiki but it has a lot of detail I'd rather not have to summarize:

A key production technique they used was automatic double tracking (ADT), which EMI technical engineer Ken Townsend invented. This technique employed two linked tape recorders to automatically create a doubled vocal track. The standard method had been to double the vocal by singing the same piece twice onto a multitrack tape, a task Lennon particularly disliked. The Beatles were delighted with the invention, and used it extensively on Revolver. ADT soon became a standard pop production technique, and led to related developments such as the artificial chorus effect.

The band's most experimental work during the sessions was channelled into the first song they attempted, "Tomorrow Never Knows". Lennon sang his vocal for the song through the twin revolving speakers inside a Leslie cabinet, which was designed for use with a Hammond organ. The effect was employed throughout the initial take of the song but only during the second half of the remake. According to author Andy Babiuk, "Tomorrow Never Knows" marked the first time that a vocal was recorded using a microphone wired into the input of a Leslie speaker. Much of the backing track for the song consists of a series of prepared tape loops, an idea that originated with McCartney. The Beatles each prepared loops at home, and a selection of these sounds were then added to the musical backing of "Tomorrow Never Knows". The process was carried out live, with multiple tape recorders running simultaneously, and some of the longer loops extending out of the control room and down the corridor.

The inclusion of reversed tape sounds marked the first pop release to use this technique, although the Beatles had first used it in some of the tape loops and the overdubbed guitar solo on "Tomorrow Never Knows". The backwards (or backmasked) guitar solo on "I'm Only Sleeping" was similarly unprecedented in pop music, in that Harrison deliberately composed and recorded his guitar parts with a view to how the notes would sound when the tape direction was corrected. Experimentation with backwards sounds was a key aspect of the Revolver sessions. The band's interest in the tones that resulted from varying tape speed (or varispeeding) extended to recording a basic track at a faster tempo than they intended the song to sound on disc.


A Fairchild 670 stereo compressor. Fairchild's mono equivalent, the 660, was used extensively during the Revolver sessions and contributed to the robust sounds captured on the album.
During the sessions, Emerick recorded McCartney's bass guitar amplifier via a loudspeaker, which Townsend had reconfigured to serve as a microphone, in order to give the bass more prominence than on previous Beatles releases. Although this particular technique was used only on the two songs selected for the May 1966 single an enhanced bass sound was a feature of much of the album. Emerick also ensured a greater presence for Starr's bass drum, by inserting an item of clothing inside the structure, to dampen the sound, and then moving the microphone to just 3 inches from the drumhead and compressing the signal through a Fairchild limiter. MacDonald writes that, despite EMI Studios being technically inferior to many recording facilities in the United States, Starr's drumming on the album soon led to studios there "being torn apart and put back together again", as engineers sought to replicate the innovative sounds achieved by the Beatles. The preference for close-miking instruments extended to the orchestral strings used on "Eleanor Rigby", to achieve McCartney's request for a "really biting" sound, and the horns on "Got to Get You into My Life". This was another break from convention, and the cause for alarm among the classically trained string players.

According to authors Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, ADT, backwards recording and close-miked drums were among the nine techniques that the Revolver sessions introduced into the recording world for the first time. Ryan and Kehew quote Emerick as saying: "I know for a fact that, from the day it came out, Revolver changed the way that everyone else made records."

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The time spent in the studio and techniques they developed would pay huge dividends with the next project of course, the epic Sgt. Pepper album.

They toured for the last time 18 shows in the US and Toronto in August-September just after Revolver was released.

The only modification to Revolver from the UK version is of course the exclusion of the 3 tracks that had been put on the Yesterday and Today album in the US namely "Doctor Robert" "I'm Only Sleeping" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" all with psychedelic elements although not as much as his other two tracks.

As they were all Lennon tracks this did make the US version much more McCartney centric with 5 Paul tracks, 3 George, 2 John and 1 Ringo. By the order of the tracks the more trippy Lennon tracks closed each side of the LP "She Said, She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows". The McCartney tunes were the more straightforward pop tunes and so there is not as much of the psychedelic elements as the UK version. Harrisons "Love You To" had some of the first Indian sounds introduced in American pop songs while his other two songs were more rock oriented.

This lead to some perspective that Lennon was less involved and perhaps on his way out which wasn't yet true, but was prophetic of course. It was the most collaborative period for the Beatles and by far the most mature and personal song writing.

The Beatles were about to unleash an album that would change pop and rock music and recording forever. There were people who thought the previous Rubber Soul more folk rock focus was their direction but this album would show that was but one period for The Beatles. They were about to experiment and define all new genres, style, techniques and sounds.

But in this case for sure - listen to the UK version. It is much better and more balanced. Unlike Rubber Soul the displaced songs are not replaced by anything so it is a net negative.

The album intentionally lacked singles to promote it as much with only "Eleanor Rigby"/"Yellow Submarine" released in the US as a double A side that went to #11 and #2 respectively. But still it went over 5x platinum which made it the second most sales to Rubber Soul. the album went to #1 displacing Yesterday and Today and stayed there for 6 weeks.



As for the album artwork this one always struck me as odd. But I wasn't there at the time. Apparently it was very well received. The album cover was designed by Klaus Voormann, a musician and producer they had become close with back in Hamburg in the early 60s. In fact he lived in their London flat with George and Ringo for a while after John and Paul moved in with girlfriends. He combined Aubrey Beardsley inspired line drawing (an English innovative illustrator in the late 1800s ) with photo collages and won the 1967 Grammy Award for Best Album Cover. It included a lot of hidden easter eggs and fans poured over it in detail which was easier with the larger vinyl cover size. For me on CD I could never see much detail.





The band name The Beatles did not appear on the front cover again but was in small print on the back along with a photo of of the lads in a dark room with sunglasses on and the song listing.




Despite all that Capitol still managed to screw some things up in the marketing. The title Revolver had nothing to do with a gun but with the changing or turning of their music both literally as an album on a record player and figuratively as they changed directions or revolved. Capitol apparently thought it did refer to a gun though. They prepared in-store posters that included the bold legend "BANG!" to promote the release of the album, with the ad being featured also in Billboard magazine. At the bottom of the poster they informed the public that the album included both sides of their latest single, using an artist's early rendition of a "Yellow Submarine" which was quite unlike the friendly animated sub we're all used to seeing from the 1968 movie. So they missed the mark again.

It was nearly 10 months until The Beatles would release their next album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band in June of 1967.

I'm not really going to spend much time talking about it as this thread was about differences in the UK vs US chronology of Beatles albums and Sgt. Pepper was really the first identical album in both markets. But it is worth mentioning since it is such a landmark album. The level of creativity is out of this world. They took the technology and ideas from Revolver and went even further creating a rich layered sound incorporating many atmospheric noises and more instruments like trumpets and french horn, harpsichord, violins, violas, cellos, and Indian sitar and tamboura plus a lot of percussion instruments besides drums. And it was of course really one of the first true and fully realized concept albums meant to be one piece of art. So much so that they released no singles from it in the UK or the US. And they spent the longest time in the studio creating it with over 700 hours of studio time devoted to it.

As it was 10 months since Revolver they did release three singles in the interim but none were intended for Sgt. Peppers although they shared the same feel in a lot of ways including of course the double A side single "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" released in February of 1967. All three of those singles would go to #1 in the US.

Just one week after the recording on Sgt. Pepper wrapped The Beatles reconvened in studio to record a track called "Magical Mystery Tour". Paul had written some of it including the intro and bridge but most would just be worked out in studio over several days. He also at that point had a concept for their next film but not much more. It was to be a magical experimental surreal comedic musical.

So they left the studio after that with plans to return when they had music for the film. In the interim their manger Brian Epstein died of an overdose in early August. So that delayed things a bit. They started recording the remaining songs in late August through September before and after the film shoot.

The film shot was mostly just improvised on set as Paul only had some basic ideas, sketches and concepts and they also wanted the other actors to feel free to experiment. They filmed 10 hours of scenes much of which was cut to what ended being a 52 minute film intended for TV on the BBC.

They returned to the studio to finish the songs and add a lot of overdubbed noises and other instruments and sometimes double tracked audios played at different speeds. Meanwhile the film was edited and added a lot of psychedelic elements in post production and including the songs as they were finished.

The result from a musical standpoint was a 6 song double EP for the UK release called Magical Mystery Tour. EPs were a more popular thing in the UK but not very popular in the US. With just one or two songs per side of 4-5 minutes in length.

One bit of irony in all this is that despite the Beatles and UK generally bashing the idea of the US mis-mash albums the Parlophone did much the same thing with EPs in the UK. In fact over the course of their career they released more than a dozen 4 songs EPs in the UK. Some were collections of 4 previously released singles and some were a subset of 4 tracks from an album which they tended to release after album sales waned a bit.

This however would be the first ever double EP but The Beatles did not want it to be released as a single EP at 33 1/3 rpm which was possible but would be lower quality. And they did not have enough songs for a full blown LP. On previous soundtrack related releases in the UK the A side was from the movie soundtrack and the B side was just 7 other songs. But in this case they had no other songs ready and the film was set to be released in December. So this was the compromise.

Faced with this dilemma in the US at Capitol they decided to take a different approach. They packed these 6 soundtrack songs plus 5 singles into an album. Which is pretty much what the Beatles did for A Hard Day's Night and Help! but the difference is they were already released singles. So they were once again offended at the US/Capitol decision.

To me I see both Parlophone EPs and the way Capitol spun singles into more albums with fewer tracks as money making marketing just different for the respective markets. And Parlophone also released I AM The Walrus as a B side on the Hello, Goodbye single so they were also doing some American marketing there. EPs were falling out of favor even there and were pretty much a things of the past. It was the last Beatles EP released in the UK.

So anyway the songlist was now set for the EP in the UK and the LP in the US. In a way the US release was much more balanced because while the MMT songs were definitely more Paul centric (3 of 6 songs were his, 1 George, 1 John, and one instrumental) the songs added to the B side of the album in the US included 3 John tracks and 2 Paul making the album much more balanced and very much like most UK releases (including their film based releases).

The Beatles of course bashed the US version once again. But the US version was a smash success buoyed by the singles selling 6x platinum and going to #1 on the album chart again. The fact that the film was resoundingly panned did not help the British EP release that lacked those hit singles. It was panned so much that the film was not aired in the US until PBS finally showed it in 2012, 45 years after its release in the UK.

The ultimate comeuppance if you will on this, which probably had John spinning in his grave, was that when The Beatles finally unified their standard album releases universally they used the US album version of Magical Mystery Tour which is the only album with that distinction. All others are the UK versions.




The cover art for the UK double EP was used but again modified for the US album release by putting it in a frame with other graphics and including the song names around it. But this cover was also used for the universal release when they settled the official catalogue worldwide.

US version



The UK version

Quote:

---

By the order of the tracks the more trippy Lennon tracks closed each side of the LP "She Said, She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows".

---

My sister bought Revolver and I listened to it quite a bit. I thought Taxman was interesting, a really "topical" song unlike anything the lads had done. I didn't know who Heath et.al. were, of course, and only barely knew anything about income tax.

You alluded to the idea of skipping tracks a while back, but to me the songs on this record were arranged in a way that you could easily skip those two Lennon tracks, which everyone I knew did. (At the time I still had no idea, nor did I care, which individual Beatle wrote or was singing lead on any of the songs except for the obvious sitar stuff.) It makes me think that they put those two tracks there for a reason.

I didn't know anyone who liked them.

I did a rewatch of Mad Men last month and I remember the show using "Tomorrow Never Knows," which I wrote about on the Mad Men thread at the time, because it flabbergasted me.

Out of all the Beatles songs to pay for, the showrunners chose that one, which no one in my experience had listened to more than once! In fact, I remember in the Mad Men thread that I mistook it for one of George's Indian crap songs.

I realize now that people more in the know about music think this is a great and boundary breaking song, but I was not alone at the time in thinking it a waste of space. I still don't like it.

Two thoughts:

On Sgt. Pepper's, which I loved immediately and bought, I have always thought that it would have been even better if it had included Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields. I believe those were recorded at about the same time as the other songs on the album and may in fact have been intended to be included on it but the record company wanted to release some singles because the album was taking so long.

On MMT, which I think I bought over Christmas after 1st semester fish year, I happened upon some actual music commentary somewhere and boy that movie got panned big time.

The songs were good, though.

I always hated that Revolver cover. Hated Draw the Line too .

Did not know it won't Grammy for the cover, so I guess maybe that was the "fashion" of the time.

Love the back cover though. Looks like it could have been taken during the Hey Bulldog video shoot.

Aust Ag said:

---

I always hated that Revolver cover. Hated Draw the Line too .

Did not know it won't Grammy for the cover, so I guess maybe that was the "fashion" of the time.

Love the back cover though. Looks like it could have been taken during the Hey Bulldog video shoot.

---

Hey Bulldog wasn't recorded until probably 3 years after that picture was taken.

OldArmy71 said:

---

Two thoughts:

On Sgt. Pepper's, which I loved immediately and bought, I have always thought that it would have been even better if it had included Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields. I believe those were recorded at about the same time as the other songs on the album and may in fact have been intended to be included on it but the record company wanted to release some singles because the album was taking so long.

On MMT, which I think I bought over Christmas after 1st semester fish year, I happened upon some actual music commentary somewhere and boy that movie got panned big time.

The songs were good, though.

---

Yeah me too. Always thought as incredible as Sgt. Pepper is if it had those two songs it would have been unbelievable.

Those songs were recorded in the same period of studio sessions for the Sgt. Pepper album but they were done much earlier and released just because they were finished early and there was pressure for a new Beatles single. The double A side single was recorded in December and January of 1967 and released in February while recording for the album also started in December (with When I'm Sixty-Four") and concluded in April (with "A Day In The Life") and the album was released in June.

George Martin has said that pulling those songs from the album for the single was "the biggest mistake of my professional life". In his judgment, "Strawberry Fields Forever", which he and the band spent an unprecedented 55 hours of studio time recording, "set the agenda for the whole album".

I don't know what songs I would pull though and they are longer songs than most of the albums songs at 3+ and 4+ minutes. Only 2 on the album are longer than 3:30 "A Day in the Life" and "Within You, Without You" both over 5 minutes. You might have to drop 3 songs to fit those two but then it would have 12 instead of 13.

I'm always amazed when I hear "Tomorrow Never Knows". It's the trippiest song I've ever heard, yet it was on the first big acid album that kicked off the LSD era.

Quote:

---

Only 2 on the album are longer than 3:30 "A Day in the Life" and "Within You, Without You" both over 5 minutes.

---

I'm pretty sure you can guess which one I think could drop off the face of the earth and never be missed!

Seriously, George's Indian stuff is such a beating.

He wrote some good early songs and his later ones are good. I hear that sitar and it's time to leap up and move the stylus.

Is there any discussion here of Paul's death in a car crash and his replacement with a doppelgnger that is arguably more talented?

Google it.

What follows Magical Mystery Tour of course was The White Album, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be as far as US and UK full "albums" which were all the same. So I've covered all the albums in the OP graphic that are different in the UK and US markets as released.

But I wanted to include one more Capitol US album release because it was a huge album when released in the US and I think it is interesting.

Between Abbey Road and Let It Be of course the Beatles had basically broken up. Let it Be was recorded first actually in what was called the Get Back sessions for an intended album and film including the infamous rooftop concert. It ended up getting delayed and even after Abbey Road was released there were more delays. John had left effectively in September but ut was not made public or official yet.

One of the big reasons was there was a new head man at Apple Records which was created after Brian Epstein died for managing business affairs and it had a disastrous period, losing money left and right in '67 and '68 and apparently even Esptein had managed things poorly. John even publicly declared he would be broke within a year. Klein was an entertainment business guy renowned for negotiating top contracts for artists heard and decided to jump in offering his services. He was ruthtless and cutthroat and 3 of The Beatles loved what they heard. Paul wanted to go with people representing the Eastman family as he was now dating Linda and they were also pitching the group. But the other 3 voted for Allen Klein.

He came in and cleaned house firing people left and right. It ruffled some feathers as many were longtime people around the Beatles. He convinced John to hold off on announcing he was leaving the band until he got business straightened out so he waited. But nothing was happening with the band recording. Meanwhile he negotiated a new record contract for the Beatles with a record $0.69 per album rate in the US and a deal for one compilation album per year.

Then they set about finishing Let It Be by getting Phil Spector to come in and lay over the orchestral stuff on several songs. Phil Spector's additions to "Let It Be" involved orchestral and choir overdubs on several tracks, most notably "Across the Universe", "The Long and Winding Road", and "I Me Mine". He also included background studio chatter and removed "Don't Let Me Down" from the album. These changes, particularly the orchestral additions, were controversial and led to Paul McCartney's displeasure with the final product.

During that delay Allen Klein wanted to put out another album to start making The Beatles some money as the new chief at Apple. So this album was not concocted by anyone at Capitol in the US like the other releases. He got an Apple records associate to designate 10 songs that had not yet been on a Capitol records album in the US and so the new album which at the time was to be called The Beatles Again was created.

Then, after the first pressing of the album had taken place, a decision was made to change the name from the somewhat sarcastic original title to simply Hey Jude which, given the song's first appearance in stereo, was considered the highlight of the album. This is why the first pressings identify the album as "The Beatles Again" on the label while the cover spine calls it Hey Jude. Actually many songs on the album were then remixed in proper stereo format (not the lazy duophonic stereo of the past).

Why it was only 10 songs and not 11 or 12 is probably mostly due to Hey Jude being more than 7 minutes long but there was still room each side being only 16 or 17 minutes long. There were some songs left off that I think would have made it even better.

Seven other tracks they could have used (never on a Capitol records release) were:

"Misery"
"There's A Place"
"From Me To You"
these three were all on the early failed singles Vee-Jay released.

"Sie Liebt Dich" - the German language version of "She Loves You"

"A Hard Day's Night" - the only track off the United Artists soundtrack album that was never released by Capitol

I think I would have really liked adding these two as the best options - B sides from other recent singles
"I'm Down" - B side single with "Help!"
"The Inner Light" - B side single with "Lady Madonna"

As it is the album had 10 tracks spanning from A Hard Days night to recent singles and 5 years so a true compilation.



The album cover was from the last photo shoot the Beatles ever did together in August 22, 1969 at John's Tittenhurst estate. And it was 2 days after their last studio recording session for Abbey Road. After that the only time they were all 4 together again was business meetings (which were usually not pleasant) as Paul was consistently outvoted 3:1 leaving him to officially announce his departure before John who really had been out for months.






The covers were switched as the back photo was originally the front and there was even a version where they had the original album title on it. I used that photo for my fan made next Beatles album I posted about earlier I called Beatles Next which was not far off from this one.



The album was a huge success in the US selling over 3.3M copies just a few months prior to Let It Be release. It went to #2 on the albums chart in the US where it stayed behind Simon & Garfunlkel's album "Bridge Over Troubled Water" for for weeks and in the top 10 for 11 weeks even with "Abbey "Road" and McCartney's first solo album also in the top 10.

The reason this album was never included on the worldwide unified album catalogue is because all of these songs and others from singles and the US Capitol releases that were not on albums in the UK were included on the Past Masters 1 and 2 (and box set) releases in 1990. But they did still release this as a compilation in the UK in 2014 as part of the unified US Capitol release box set.

Hard to believe you could manage the Beatles and still lose them money.

Them breaking up was a hard pill to swallow..

Zombie Jon Snow said:

---

What follows Magical Mystery Tour of course was The White Album, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be as far as US and UK full "albums" which were all the same. So I've covered all the albums in the OP graphic that are different in the UK and US markets as released.

But I wanted to include one more Capitol US album release because it was a huge album when released in the US and I think it is interesting.

Between Abbey Road and Let It Be of course the Beatles had basically broken up. Let it Be was recorded first actually in what was called the Get Back sessions for an intended album and film including the infamous rooftop concert. It ended up getting delayed and even after Abbey Road was released there were more delays. John had left effectively in September but ut was not made public or official yet.

One of the big reasons was there was a new head man at Apple Records which was created after Brian Epstein died for managing business affairs and it had a disastrous period, losing money left and right in '67 and '68 and apparently even Esptein had managed things poorly. John even publicly declared he would be broke within a year. Klein was an entertainment business guy renowned for negotiating top contracts for artists heard and decided to jump in offering his services. He was ruthtless and cutthroat and 3 of The Beatles loved what they heard. Paul wanted to go with people representing the Eastman family as he was now dating Linda and they were also pitching the group. But the other 3 voted for Allen Klein.

He came in and cleaned house firing people left and right. It ruffled some feathers as many were longtime people around the Beatles. He convinced John to hold off on announcing he was leaving the band until he got business straightened out so he waited. But nothing was happening with the band recording. Meanwhile he negotiated a new record contract for the Beatles with a record $0.69 per album rate in the US and a deal for one compilation album per year.

Then they set about finishing Let It Be by getting Phil Spector to come in and lay over the orchestral stuff on several songs. Phil Spector's additions to "Let It Be" involved orchestral and choir overdubs on several tracks, most notably "Across the Universe", "The Long and Winding Road", and "I Me Mine". He also included background studio chatter and removed "Don't Let Me Down" from the album. These changes, particularly the orchestral additions, were controversial and led to Paul McCartney's displeasure with the final product.

During that delay Allen Klein wanted to put out another album to start making The Beatles some money as the new chief at Apple. So this album was not concocted by anyone at Capitol in the US like the other releases. He got an Apple records associate to designate 10 songs that had not yet been on a Capitol records album in the US and so the new album which at the time was to be called The Beatles Again was created.

Then, after the first pressing of the album had taken place, a decision was made to change the name from the somewhat sarcastic original title to simply Hey Jude which, given the song's first appearance in stereo, was considered the highlight of the album. This is why the first pressings identify the album as "The Beatles Again" on the label while the cover spine calls it Hey Jude. Actually many songs on the album were then remixed in proper stereo format (not the lazy duophonic stereo of the past).

Why it was only 10 songs and not 11 or 12 is probably mostly due to Hey Jude being more than 7 minutes long but there was still room each side being only 16 or 17 minutes long. There were some songs left off that I think would have made it even better.

Seven other tracks they could have used (never on a Capitol records release) were:

"Misery"
"There's A Place"
"From Me To You"
these three were all on the early failed singles Vee-Jay released.

"Sie Liebt Dich" - the German language version of "She Loves You"

"A Hard Day's Night" - the only track off the United Artists soundtrack album that was never released by Capitol

I think I would have really liked adding these two as the best options - B sides from other recent singles
"I'm Down" - B side single with "Help!"
"The Inner Light" - B side single with "Lady Madonna"

As it is the album had 10 tracks spanning from A Hard Days night to recent singles and 5 years so a true compilation.



The album cover was from the last photo shoot the Beatles ever did together in August 22, 1969 at John's Tittenhurst estate. And it was 2 days after their last studio recording session for Abbey Road. After that the only time they were all 4 together again was business meetings (which were usually not pleasant) as Paul was consistently outvoted 3:1 leaving him to officially announce his departure before John who really had been out for months.






The covers were switched as the back photo was originally the front and there was even a version where they had the original album title on it. I used that photo for my fan made next Beatles album I posted about earlier I called Beatles Next which was not far off from this one.



The album was a huge success in the US selling over 3.3M copies just a few months prior to Let It Be release. It went to #2 on the albums chart in the US where it stayed behind Simon & Garfunlkel's album "Bridge Over Troubled Water" for for weeks and in the top 10 for 11 weeks even with "Abbey "Road" and McCartney's first solo album also in the top 10.

The reason this album was never included on the worldwide unified album catalogue is because all of these songs and others from singles and the US Capitol releases that were not on albums in the UK were included on the Past Masters 1 and 2 (and box set) releases in 1990. But they did still release this as a compilation in the UK in 2014 as part of the unified US Capitol release box set.

---

I got that on Cassette and listened to it over and over.

Consolidation post

Vee-Jay Records

January 10, 1964



Capitol Records

January 20, 1964



April 1964


United Artists
June 1964



Capitol Records
July 1964



November 1964



December 1964




March 1965



June 1965




August 1965




December 1965




June 1966




August 1966




June 1967




November 1967




November 1968



January 1969





October 1969




February 1970




May 1970

It's kinda crazy that between January 1964 and December 1965 there were 9 Beatles albums released in the US in 24 months and really a 10th that was a compilation of that first album on Capitol.

Introducing The Beatles - Vee-Jay Records
Meet The Beatles
The Beatles Second Album
A Hard Day's Night - United Artists
Something New
Beatles '65
The Early Beatles - compilation that was mostly from Introducing The Beatles
Beatles VI
Help
Rubber Soul


Plus both Vee-Jay and Capitol release biography/interview albums

Songs Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles by Vee-Jay
The Beatles Story - a double album by Capitol

All together thats 12 albums in 24 months and really the best was yet to come.

After 1965 the pace slowed considerably with only one regular album release per year and an extra album in most years (except 1968) of the soundtrack or compilation type in the US.

1966
Yesterday and Today
Revolver

1967
Sgt. Peppers
Magical Mystery Tour

1968
The White album - double album

1969
Yellow Submarine
Abbey Road

1970
Hey Jude
Let It Be

Alright it is time to stir up some controversy and rank the albums UK vs US. I expect a few people to be completely offended. But unless you've listened to these US Capitol versions as released you really can't judge them just on the basis of them being different than what you have come to know as the UK albums. Conversely if you grew up with the US versions you might be biased toward them.

I spent this time as I was posting each album (basically daily) listening to each of them in their entirely and usually more than once all the way through. Doesn't make a professional critic but I've at least got a basis for that other than they are different.

I'll get this out of the way off the top - as originally released taken as a whole the US Capitol versions combined are better than the UK versions. The US versions mish-mash nature lose something on an individual album basis, except for a few notable exceptions, but COMBINED they contain all of the songs on the 12 UK albums + double EP (MMT) + another 30ish songs that are nowhere on the UK albums. So I think the 18 US versions are "better" collectively. In other words if you had thosse at the time you had a better collection without having to resort to singles.

In the US Capitol albums (including the 2 or 3 compilations) you get everything that was released on the UK versions plus:

Thank You Girl
She Loves You
I'll Get You
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Saw Her Standing There
This Boy
Long Tall Sally
I Call Your Name
Slow Down
Matchbox
I Feel Fine
She's A Woman
Komm, gib mir deine Hand
Bad Boy
Yes It Is
We Can Work It Out
Day Tripper
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
All You Need Is Love
Baby, You're A Rich Man
Hello, Goodbye
Paperback Writer
Rain
Revolution - single version
Hey Jude
Lady Madonna
Old Brown Shoe
Don't Let Me Down
The Ballad of John and Yoko

plus 9 orchestral versions of songs on the Help! and A Hard Day's Night soundtracks

That's a huge list.

In the UK you would have had to buy another 20+ singles, and an EP and you still would not get all of those as a few were never released there at the time.

Not until 1988 finally with the release of Past Masters 1 and 2 did the UK get all of those songs and a few others that were different versions of previously released songs. And of course the catalogue unification that mde the US version of MMT the standard.

One irony of the UK vs US differences is that the Beatles and UK (Parlaphone) railed against the US versions inclusion of singles initially but they came around on the idea as after Sgt. Pepper they started releasing singles that were on The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be just like the US had been doing. They also came around on the idea of a big of a compilation going with the US version of Magical Mystery Tour which packaged the 7 soundtrack songs with other hit singles.



Ok got that out of the way. I'll do a separate post probably tomorrow rating the US vs UK and the combined versions by album. I've been compiling this list and ranking them as I listened to them. Should be fun. Of course it's my rating you may disagree of course. But mostly it's to compare US vs UK versions where applicable. All Beatles albums are great imo - just a matter of which are better.

Listening to the 2023 Remix of the Red Album. Imagine between that the the Blue Album there are 74 legitimate hits( or hit quality) and probably as many great songs not on them, out of 213 total recorded (per google).

Great early songs missing from the Red Album alone include , Any Time at All, I'm a Loser, The Night Before...All Kicka$$,.

I have most of the original studio albums both UK and US. All I need is:

UK

• With the Beatles
• Yellow Submarine

US

• Yesterday and Today
• Meet the Beatles
• Introducing the Beatles
• Yellow Submarine

Years ago I was fresh out of college and had just started my first "adult" job working in insurance. I had the opportunity to buy an original First State Butcher Cover of Yesterday and Today. The problem was that it $2500 and I just didn't have that kind of spare cash laying around. It was in pretty good shape too. No markings or writings, average wear for the age, vinyl was free from scratched, etc.

I sometime wish I had tried to get a quick loan or found a way to come up with the money. It just seemed so frivolous at the time. I mean $2500 for a single record IS frivolous even today.

Seems like from what I've seen that those are only valued in the $600-$1200 range today so probably not worth it from an investment point of view. But from a nostalgic point of view it would depend on what it meant to you I guess.

It's pretty cool. I'd love to find one.

I saw a reddit thread where someone found one (in decent shape) in a vinyl used record store in NJ for $30 like 3 years ago. The store obviously had no clue what they had.

My wife will hate this - so I have not brought it up yet - but I'm thinking about making an album cover collage of the Us Capitol releases in my office/man cave for one wall. I know I railed on the covers from the US versions in many cases but I think they are so interesting from how bad they are and people these days do not know them so it would grab your attention. I would want both the butcher cover and the steamer cover of Y&T.

Apparently I'm not done with this thread yet - lol..... i keep finding interesting (at least to me) things on my deep dive.

So... The Beatles, their management and Parlophone their record company certainly took every opportunity to diss the US releases but they were not immune to putting out subpar content just to make a buck either. Even during the initial run from 1963 through 1970 they put out several compilations (and 13 EPs) packaging up songs/singles into marketable products for a quick buck. They just seemed to avoid putting singles on albums - effectively releasing 4 singles and 2 album per year which later became 1 album per year.

But right off the bat in 1964 there was a cash grab titled "The Beatles' First" implying it was their first record or content that predated With The Beatles. Technically it was a Tony Sheridan recording with The Beatles as the backing band and vocalists (even lead vocals on a few tracks) recorded in Germany from 1961 and 1962. 8 of the dongs were with the Beatles but 4 were just Sheridan and another backing band.

It was first released in Germany and later the UK in 1967. You can see the track listing on the back. The cover is highly misleading of course emphasizing Th eBeatles with Sheridan and Guests in much smaller print. This would later be re-released mutliple times with different covers and liner notes. This was Polydor who had the rights so they were definitely trying to ride the Beatlemania train.

In 1966 after they stopped touring in August The Beatles took an extended break and did not return to the studio until November. Epstein soon informed Parlophone that there would be no new music and certainly not an album before Christmas. This was due to the plan that took shape for the Sgt. Pepper album and the determination that they would need months to complete it.

In the meantime Parlophone wanted something to market for the Christmas season. So they put out their own compilation of all previously released A and B side singles in the UK and called it A Collection of Beatles Oldies. It was actually a damn good album with 16 songs covering their career to that point. It more or less served as the first Beatles Greatest Hits type of collection. It was the first time the song "Bad Boy" was released in the UK as it had been recorded specifically for Beatles VI in the US.

The tracks are:

Side one
1. "She Loves You"
2. "From Me to You"
3. "We Can Work It Out"
4. "Help!"
5. "Michelle"
6. "Yesterday"
7. "I Feel Fine"
8. "Yellow Submarine"

Side two
1. "Can't Buy Me Love"
2. "Bad Boy"
3. "Day Tripper"
4. "A Hard Day's Night"
5. "Ticket to Ride"
6. "Paperback Writer"
7. "Eleanor Rigby"
8. "I Want to Hold Your Hand"

The Beatles were not involved with it at all. Epstein enlisted an artists to design the cover and the only photo of the band was on the back. It became (ironically) the first "evidence" of the death of Paul (rumor) fan fixtion caused by both the extended delay and rampant fantasies. The cover depicted a car heading right at the head of the large figure (said to be Paul) which led to the story that he was beheaded in a car accident and replaced in the band necessitating extra time before the next album. the back image Paul is far back from the band and surrounded by smoke (like an apparition because he was dead of course). Even "OLDIES" was the mean PMDIES (as the letters that follow OL are PM respectively and Paul's initials.

And again in 1970 faced with no new product to sell for Christmas Parlophone and Capitol in the US put out a special Christmas release called:

From Then to You in the UK
The Beatles Christmas Album in the US

This was a garbage repackaging of some recordings that had been sent to members of the Beatles fan club between 1963 and 1969 in the UK (although only 4 of them had been released in the US). Each one was 4-7ish minutes in length and initially on a so called flexi-disc which was a smaller flexible vinyl product usually for promotional material only.

But the 7 collected editions were released as a full blown vinyl LP in 1970. It was repackaged a few more times in the UK under different names.


Original cover art for the UK version:



And a repackaged version





Front and back cover art for the US version:




It contained:

1963: The Beatles Christmas Record
The first Christmas recording from the Beatles featured several renditions of the traditional carol "Good King Wenceslas" and individual messages from the four, ending with a closing chorus of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ringo". This offering, as well as 1964's, was scripted by Beatles' press officer Tony Barrow, who had instigated the Christmas message programme.

Released in the US in 1964



1964: Another Beatles Christmas Record
The song "Jingle Bells" is sung, followed by individual messages to the fans. John Lennon mocks the script by making it obvious he's reading from a prepared text and the others make several mistakes too.

This one was never sent to US fans



1965: The Beatles Third Christmas Record
Several off-key, a cappella versions of "Yesterday" are dispersed throughout the record, alongside Lennon's "Happy Christmas to Ya List'nas", "Auld Lang Syne" (which briefly morphs into an impression of Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction"), then begin singing the Four Tops' "It's the Same Old Song" (but stop after George tells them they can't continue because the song is copyrighted), and an original poem titled "Christmas Comes But Once a Year".

Members of the Beatles US fan-club did not receive this (or any) Christmas flexi-disc in 1965. Rather, they received a black and white postcard, with a photo of the Fab Four and the message "Season's Greetings Paul, Ringo, George, John." The Beatle Bulletin, the publication of the US fan-club, explained in its April 1966 edition that the tape arrived too late to prepare the record in time for Christmas.



1966: Pantomime: Everywhere It's Christmas
Recorded between sessions for "Strawberry Fields Forever", for the 1966 offering, the usual greetings and thanks gave way to a 'Pantomime'-themed collection of original songs and comic skits. The songs include "Everywhere It's Christmas", "Orowayna", and "Please Don't Bring Your Banjo Back". McCartney plays the piano. The sketches performed include "Podgy the Bear and Jasper" and "Felpin Mansions."

Once again, the US fan-club members did not get a flexi-disc. Instead, they received a postcard with the message on one side and a short version of The Beatle Bulletin on the other, with enough room for a mailing label and postage.



1967: Christmas Time Is Here Again!
An elaborate production, Christmas Time Is Here Again! was developed around the concept of several groups auditioning for a BBC radio show. The title song, "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", serves as a refrain throughout the record.The Beatles portray a multitude of characters, including game show contestants, aspiring musicians ("Plenty of Jam Jars", by the Ravellers), and actors in a radio drama ("Theatre Hour"). At the end Lennon reads a poem, "When Christmas Time Is Over." This offering was likely a deliberate homage to/continuation of the broadly similar "Craig Torso" specials produced for BBC Radio 1 that same year by the Beatles' friends and collaborators the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and also shares much in common with their then-unreleased track "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", recorded six months previously.

While UK fans received a flexi-disc in an elaborate sleeve, North American fans received a postcard similar to that of 1966. The cover sleeve was designed by John Lennon, Julian Lennon (Lennon's first son) and Ringo Starr.



1968: The Beatles 1968 Christmas Record
The first Beatles Christmas fan-club disc to be recorded by the individual Beatles separately, the 1968 offering is a collage of odd noises, musical snippets and individual messages. McCartney's song "Happy Christmas, Happy New Year" is featured, along with Lennon's poems "Jock and Yono" and "Once Upon a Pool Table". Also notable is a rendition of "Nowhere Man" by the ukulele-playing Tiny Tim, which Harrison recorded in New York. Also included is a sped-up snippet of the Beatles' own "Helter Skelter" and a brief snippet of Perrey & Kingsley's "Baroque Hoedown", which was used three years later in Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Yer Blues" and "Birthday" are also heard in the background for part of the message. The dialogue and songs for the flexi-disc were organised and edited together by DJ and friend of the Beatles, Kenny Everett.

This one was sent to US fan club members in 1968 although in a different mailer and sleeve.



1969: The Beatles Seventh Christmas Record
The final Beatles Christmas offering was also recorded separately, as the band had effectively split by this point. It features an extensive visit with Lennon and his wife Yoko at their Tittenhurst Park estate, where they play "what will Santa bring me?" games. George Harrison and Ringo Starr appear only briefly, the latter to publicise his recent film, The Magic Christian. McCartney sings his original ad-lib, "This is to Wish You a Merry, Merry Christmas." Starting at 1:30, at the tail-end of Starr's song, the guitar solos from "The End" are heard, followed by Ono interviewing Lennon.
This one was released in the US in identical sleeves but had a different flex-disc label hand drawn with The Beatles faces by Ringo on one side and stick figure Beatles on the flip side drawn by his son.

I owned an album with the fan club christmas messages. The first few were funny, then they started getting strange.

Not done yet?

My brother you haven't even gotten to the picture disks yet that were released during that time period. I wouldn't even try and document the 7in/45s