Thursday, 28 August 2014

"Twist and Shout" - The Beatles' Classic That Nearly Wasn't Recorded

Composer: Phil Medley and Bert Berns (under the pseudonym Bert Russell)

 John Lennon rhythm guitar ('58 Rickenbacker 325 guitar), Lead Vocal
Paul McCartney bass ('61 Hofner 500/1 bass), Backing Vocal
George Harrison lead guitar ('57 Gretsch Duo Jet guitar), Backing Vocal
Ringo Starr drums (Mahogany Duroplastic Custom Premier kit)

George Martin: Producer
Norman Smith: Engineer
Richard Langham: Second Engineer

Recorded: 11 February 1963, Abbey Road Studio Two (Takes 1-2)
Recording Medium: Two Track

Mixing:
  • Mono: 25 February 1963, Abbey Road Studio 1 (from Take 1)
    • George Martin: Producer
    • Norman Smith: Engineer
    • A.B.Lincoln: Second Engineer
  • Stereo: 25 February 1963, Abbey Road Studio 1 (from Take 1)
    • George Martin: Producer
    • Norman Smith: Engineer
    • A.B.Lincoln: Second Engineer

 UK Release: 22 March 1963 (LP: Please, Please Me, Parlophone PMC 1202 [mono], PCS 3042 [stereo])
US Release: 22 July 1963 (LP: Introducing The Beatles, Vee Jay VJLP 1062 [mono], SR 1062 [stereo])

Running Time:
  • Mono Mix: 2:35
  • Stereo Mix: 2:37
  • US Mono Mix: 2:36
  • US Stereo Mix: 2:36

 Chart Action:
  • US Release: 2 March 1964 (A Single / There's A Place) Tollie 9001
    • Entered the top 40 on 21 March 1964. Stayed in top 40 for nine weeks, reaching No.2 for four weeks.

Available on:

And also on the following compilations:
The Beatles had had one minor hit single in Love Me Do, and a massive number one hit single in it's follow up, Please Please Me. George Martin wanted to release an album as quickly as possible. Such was Martin's urgency that he called them in from their February 1963 tour with Helen Shapiro, and pressed ahead with making the record, despite the effect that a heavy cold was having on John Lennon's voice.

They already had the A and B sides of the two singles, so they needed to record another 10 tracks to make up the 14 that was the standard number of tracks on a UK album at that time. Thus, at 10:00am on Monday 11th February 1963, the Beatles traipsed into Abbey Road Studio 2 to begin work on their début album. Nearly 13 hours later, they were done.
George Martin: The first LP was recorded in one day. We needed to have things quickly. I was very concious about that with 'Please Please Me' being a number-one single. If I had an album to follow it very sharply, I would have a big album sale. I knew darn well we couldn't record an album of original songs. So the obvious thing to do was to record all the stuff they did in their live act. I'd already been to see them at the Cavern, so I knew their repertoire by this time. I just got them down to the studio and said, "Right, we're going to record 'Roll Over Beethoven,' we're going to record 'Money,' we're going to record 'Chains,' and so on. It was rather like a performance actually. We started at ten in the morning, no, eleven, in deference to their long beauty sleep, and I think we finished about ten at night. We a break for lunch and a break for tea and we recorded 10 songs. Norman Smith was at the controls, and he got a good balance. It was knocked off like a live performance.

(Source: The Beatles: An Oral History David Pritchard & Alan Lysaght, Hyperion, 1998 (pp117-118))

Martin's recollections are obviously a little hazy: The Beatles did not record either Roll Over Beethoven or Money on that day, although both tracks appeared on their second album. Studio documentation shows that the session did indeed begin at 10:00am. Studio documentation also shows that they recorded 11 songs.

The Beatles' remarkable performance of Twist and Shout was released as the
lead track on an EP (Parlophone GEP 8882) on 12 July 1963, along with A Taste
of Honey, Do You Want To Know A Secret and There's A Place
In addition to Martin, Smith and The Beatles themselves, journalist and fellow Liverpudlian Alan Smith was also present. He had been invited to cover the session for the NME, and wrote about it in the 17 July 1963 edition, in an article entitled The 'Twist And Shout' Battle Hots Up! (And How The NME Helped).

They had recorded two songs in the morning, rehearsed through their lunch hour, and recorded another three songs in the afternoon. The evening session began with The Beatles attempting to record the final Lennon / McCartney original of the session, Paul McCartney's Hold Me Tight.

Asked about the song in 1987, McCartney recalled:
I can't remember much about that one. Certain songs were just 'work' songs, you haven't got much memory of them. That's one of them... I remember the name of the tune. Some of them... I wouldn't call them fillers but they were 'work' songs. You just knew that you had a song that would work, a good melody. 'Hold Me Tight' never really had that much of an effect on me.

(Source: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions Mark Lewisohn, Hamlyn, 1988 (p10))
Of the 13 takes of Hold Me Tight recorded by The Beatles, only takes 6 and 9 were complete, and neither of them were performed satisfactorily. Nevertheless, it was decided that takes 9 and 13 could be edited together to create a master version, but this was never done.

By 10:00pm, The Beatles had rattled through four more tracks and fulfilled their quota for 10 songs. But by then, someone - probably George Martin - had decided that Hold Me Tight wasn't up to scratch and asked for a replacement. So they took a break, and The Beatles, George Martin, Norman Smith and Alan Smith went down to the Abbey Road canteen for refreshments, and discussed what the final song might be.

The 17 July 1963 issue of the NME, containing
Alan Smith's article, The 'Twist And Shout' Battle
Hots Up! (And How The NME Helped) 
Alan Smith described what happened next:
At about 10pm we all retired to the studio canteen for coffee and biscuits, where the Beatles and recording manager George Martin began an earnest discussion about a suitable number for the last track.
A lot of material was considered, but there were some friendly arguments about a final choice. 'Twist And Shout' — a number I'd heard them do on a radio programme a few days before — hadn't been mentioned.
"What about 'Twist And Shout'?" I asked group member George Harrison, who was sitting nearby. "I heard it on the radio the other day and it was pretty good."
"That's an idea!" said George. He mentioned it to Paul, John and Ringo. They nodded in agreement. "Make it nice and loud!" shouted someone over the canteen noise of cups and saucers.
Well, off they went back to the studio — and recorded it in two takes!
(Source: Alan Smith, The 'Twist And Shout' Battle Hots Up! (And How The NME Helped), NME, 17 July 1963
Thanks to Dylan Crawfoot for sourcing the text of this article.)
The radio broadcast that Smith remembered was The Talent Spot, recorded Tuesday 27 November 1962 and broadcast at 5:00pm on Tuesday 4 December 1962, just a day short of 10 weeks previously to the recording session (not quite the "few days" that Smith mentioned in his article). The Beatles had performed Love Me Do, P.S. I Love You and Twist and Shout.

Alan Smith recalled the incident slightly differently when interviewed about it fifty years later:
They were sitting in a little room to the side of the studio, and they said "What are we going to do for the last number?" And I said "I thought I heard you guys do 'La Bamba' a few weeks ago on the radio?". And Paul McCartney looked a bit blank, and he said, "No, you mean 'Twist and Shout'". So they said "Alright, let's go and do it", and they just went and did it. And I looked down from the control room, and John Lennon did it. He wasn't well - he had a really bad cold, and he was drinking milk and having throat sweets, and just did it in one glorious take.

(Source:Alan Smith, interviewed by Jo Whiley, 12 Hours To Please Me, BBC Radio 2, 11 February 2013)

Zubes
Norman Smith also remembered the occasion.
"Someone suggested they do 'Twist and Shout', the old Isley Brothers' number, with John taking the lead vocal. But by this time all their throats were tired and sore - it was 12 hours since we had started working. John's, in particular, was almost completely gone so we really had to get it right first time, the Beatles on the studio floor and us in the control room. John sucked a couple more Zubes, had a bit of a gargle with milk and away we went."

(Source: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions Mark Lewisohn, Hamlyn, 1988 (p26))
The original Top Notes version of Twist and Shout, produced by Phil Spector.

Twist and Shout was written by Phil Medley and Bert Russell, a pseudonym for songwriter Bert Berns. It was originally released in America in August 1961 by the Top Notes on the Atlantic label (45-2115), produced by a little known producer named Phil Spector. The single did not chart.

Berns felt that Spector had failed to capture the energy generated by the Top Notes' live performances, and decided to make a new recording of the song, with himself producing.

The new version, released in the UK by the Cincinnati group, The Isley Brothers in July 1962 on the StateSide label (SS 112), reached the lofty position of number 42 on the UK chart. In Revolution in the Head, critic Ian MacDonald says of the Isley Brothers version "the bass is looser and the conception more spontaneously chaotic, with saxes and trumpets joining in on what is basically a party record with Latin overtones".


The Isley Brothers version of Twist and Shout, produced by songwriter Bert Berns.
Despite it's low chart placing, The Isley Brothers version of Twist and Shout attracted the attention of The Beatles, who were always on the lookout for obscure records to add to their act - this was their way of setting themselves apart from the other bands that vied for audience attention at the Cavern and in Hamburg. It was added to their act around August 1962. But where the Isleys had created a party record for American high school proms, the Beatles turned it into something far more feral - a record for late nights in Liverpool's sweat dripping Cavern and the strip clubs of the Hamburg Reeperbahn. Where the Isley Brothers version twisted at the hip, The Beatles twisted very firmly at the groin.

They didn't play the song every night, but it was one of a rotating number of songs. It was certainly part of their set when they supported Frank Ifield in Peterborough on 2 December 1962. Reviewer Lyndon Whittaker of the Peterbourgh Standard said:
"The exciting Beatles" rock group quite frankly failed to excite me. The drummer apparently thought that his job was to lead, not to provide rhythm. He made far too much noise and in their final number "Twist and Shout" it sounded as though everyone was trying to make more noise than the others. In a more mellow mood, their "A Taste of Honey" was much better and "Love Me Do" was tolerable.

(Source: Lyndon Whittaker, The Peterbourgh Standard, 7 December 1962, quoted in The Beatles Live, Mark Lewisohn, Henry Holt & Co, 1986 (p118),
also in Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years, Mark Lewisohn, Crown Archetype, 2013 (p816))

So in Abbey Road Studio Two, with Lennon stripped to the waist, and with the others treating the control room staff as their audience, The Beatles went for it.The song was completed in one take. As Alan Smith said in his NME article, a second take was made, but Lennon had given his all, and though the performance was complete, his voice had gone. Lennon's performance is arguably one of the most stunning rock and roll achievements of all time. In the control room, Martin, the two Smiths and Langham were stunned. Going by McCartney's triumphant "Hey" at the end, The Beatles perhaps surprised even themselves.

So it seems that Twist and Shout, one of the all time great recordings, might not have happened at all if The Beatles had been able to nail Hold Me Tight - certainly one of the lesser songs in the Lennon/McCartney canon.


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Sunday, 10 August 2014

Ringo's Custom Premier Drum Kit

Fifty-year-old Slovak born photographer Dezo Hoffman took this photo of Ringo with his Premier kit in Abbey Road Studio 3 on
4 September 1962, during the session that produced Love Me Do. This was Starr's first session in Abbey Road.
This was the first drum kit that Ringo Starr played with The Beatles. Although Starr is more traditionally associated with Ludwig drum kits, the original kit he owned when he joined The Beatles was this mahogany coloured Duroplastic kit. It was this Premier kit, not a Ludwig, that provided the driving beat behind The Beatles' earliest recordings, including their first 3 singles and all of their first album. This is the drum kit that put the beat into Merseybeat.

Purchased by Starr around July 1960 from Hessay's music store in Liverpool, it was a custom combination of Premier's 58 and 54 drum kits. The four-piece kit consisted of:
  • 20"x17" bass drum
  • 12"x8" rack tom mounted on a non-standard Rogers Swiv-O-Matic tom-tom holder
  • 16"x16" floor tom
  • 14"x4" Royal Ace wood shell snare drum
  • Premier Zyn hi-hat cymbal and stand
  • Premier Zyn crash cymbal and stand
  • Premier Zyn ride cymbal and stand
The 54 kit was one of the least expensive of Premier's range, retailing at £125 - around £2500 or $4200 in todays money.

I'd seen one in this finish at a music show and told Ringo it looked magnificent.

Bernard Michaelson, manager of Hessay's Music Store, Liverpool, interviewed by Andy Babiuk 17 March 2002, in Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments from Stage to Studio (p70)
Ringo plays his Premier kit at ABC TV's Teddington Studios for
Thank Your Lucky Stars on 17 February 1963.
The Beatles "bug" logo features on the drum head.
While playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Ringo had put the initials RS on the front of the kick drum, replacing them with his name by the time he joined The Beatles. This was replaced with The Beatles new "bug" logo for their tour with Helen Shapiro in February 1963. The logo was designed by Liverpool signwriter Tex O'Hara, based on sketches made by McCartney. O'Hara's brother Brian was guitarist in The Fourmost, another Liverpool band managed by Brian Epstein.

We played around with different ideas to find out which ones they liked. I did about five to ten drawings - which I've still got - and showed them to the group. They settled on one logo, which was put on a piece of linen and stretched across the front of the drum. 

Tex O'Hara, interviewed by Andy Babiuk, 19 August 1996, in Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments from Stage to Studio (p82)
Starr continued to use the Premier kit until April 1963, when he and Brian Epstein traded it in for a new Ludwig Downbeat kit at Drum City, 114 Shaftesbury Avenue, London.





The Premier kit was used on the following Beatles recordings:

  • Love Me Do (Single Version) (Past Masters)
  • How Do You Do It (Anthology 1)
  • P.S. I Love You (Please Please Me)
  • Please Please Me (Please Please Me)
  • Ask Me Why (Please Please Me)
  • There's A Place (Please Please Me)
  • I Saw Her Standing There (Please Please Me)
  • A Taste of Honey (Please Please Me)
  • Do You Want To Know A Secret (Please Please Me)
  • Misery (Please Please Me)
  • Anna (Go To Him) (Please Please Me)
  • Boys (Please Please Me)
  • Chains (Please Please Me)
  • Baby It's You (Please Please Me)
  • Twist and Shout (Please Please Me)
  • From Me To You (Past Masters)
  • Thank You Girl (Past Masters)
  • One After 909 (Anthology 1)




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Sunday, 5 January 2014

The Beatles' US Capitol Albums: An Overview

After The Beatles finally broke the US market in the closing days of December 1963, their music was repackaged by Capitol for the American audience. Although they did not like this butchering of their work, neither The Beatles nor George Martin had any control over Capitol’s releases. Indeed, they were complicit (albeit reluctantly) in their release, on several occasions recording or mixing songs specifically at Capitol’s request in order to flesh out forthcoming albums.

Regardless of The Beatles’ feelings on the matter, there are two historically accurate points to make about Capitol’s releases:

1) Capitol’s late embrace of The Beatles combined with their large output of material between 1963 and 1966 meant that they were able to release 10 albums in the 31 months between January 1964 (Meet The Beatles) and August 1966 (Revolver), compared with only 5 released during the same period in the UK. During this period, United Artists also released the soundtrack to A Hard Day's Night.

2) The Capitol albums were how The Beatles were heard in America until their catalogue was formalised to the UK releases in 1987. America was, and remains, The Beatles’ biggest market.

This article does not seek to criticize or demonize Capitol’s treatment of The Beatles’ early catalogue. Rather it intends to document the differences from their UK output, and place it within a historical context.
The original picture sleeve for Capitol's first Beatles
single, "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
(Capitol 5112, 26 December 1963)

The track that opened up the American market to The Beatles was I Want To Hold Your Hand, released 17 days ahead of schedule on 26 December 1963, due to huge radio airplay and subsequent demand. There had been 3 US singles and an album prior to this, but none of them had been released on Capitol, and none of them had made any impact.

Capitol went on to release 13 uniquely American albums of The Beatles’ music, as follows:

The content of the albums was determined by several factors:

First and foremost was the difference between UK and US royalty payment calculations. In the UK, payments were made on a per disc basis, with each publisher receiving a pro-rata payment on royalties based on album sales. In the US, on the other hand, payments were made on a per song basis. Therefore, in the US, each extra song on an album cost the record company money. In order to reduce costs, US albums consisted of fewer songs as a matter of cost.

Dave Dexter Jr.
A second factor was a cultural one. Parlophone, the Beatles' record label in the UK, routinely left singles off albums, so that fans were not being asked to purchase the same recording on two different formats. In the US, it was believed that an album which contained hit singles would sell more than an album which did not. Therefore, singles were routinely included on albums. Related to this was the decline of the EP in the US. The Beatles released two EPs of non-album material in the UK, neither of which was released in the US.

In understanding the difference between The Beatles UK and US releases, it is important to understand a couple of technical terms. These are mixing and mastering. Mixing is the process of combining all of the individual sounds that make up a recording into one mono or stereo recording. Almost all of the music recorded by The Beatles was mixed by George Martin, or in later years, The Beatles themselves, at EMI's Abbey Road studios, in London. This includes all of the music released in the US. Mastering is the process of taking the finished set of recordings and preparing them for release. This means that all of the tracks on a record are of a similar volume, and have a similar frequency response across the audio spectrum. Sometimes reverb may be added as well. Mastering was done separately at Parlophone in the UK and at Capitol in the US.

The Beatles albums up to and including Rubber Soul were compiled for Capitol under the direction of A&R man, Dave Dexter Jr. Dexter felt that George Martin's mixes were too British, dry and lacking in excitement, so in many cases he mastered the tracks supplied to him by Parlophone to beef up the high end of the sound, and added reverb, giving the songs a more American sound. Dexter's sonic decisions have come in for much criticism over the years, not least by The Beatles themselves, but those decisions were made for sound commercial reasons at the time. Dexter's job was to sell The Beatles to America. If that meant making them more palatable to American tastes, then so be it. History tells us that it worked. Whether they would have been as successful in the US without Dexter's mastering decisions can never be known.

A third factor was that some tracks were not available for Capitol to use. Because they had opted not to release The Beatles’ early singles, Epstein had licensed them to a small label called VeeJay, who released them with very limited success, and in the case of the She Loves You single, a label called Swan.

This was all part of Capitol’s marketing strategy to sell as much content to the fans as possible, and there can be no argument that the strategy worked

As was common practice in the 1960s, the albums were released in both mono and stereo formats. Stereo was still a secondary consideration in the UK, and because of Capitol's rushed release schedule, sometimes only a mono mix was available. Similarly, where Capitol wanted to include a UK single on an album, there was usually no stereo mix at all. Where this was the case, a fake stereo mix - known as a "duophonic" mix -  was created from the mono mix by running it through two channels, boosting the bass in one channel and the treble in the other, and running the two channels slightly out of sync. Sometimes reverb was added as well.

The reverse was also true. Rather than use the true mono mixes supplied by Parlophone, Capitol created fake mono mixes - known as fold-downs, or Type B mono - from the stereo mixes by combining the left and right channels together, in the belief that it would create a punchier sound.

Each time tweaks were made to the sound, a new copy had to be made, meaning that Capitol's US master tapes were second, third or even fourth generation copies of Parlophone's UK masters.

The demand from the US for new material from The Beatles was such that producer George Martin often had to mix tracks from albums that they were still working on. These would be immediately dispatched to Capitol, where they would be released on an album within a few weeks. Martin would often create newer, better mixes for release in the UK. For this reason, the US albums contained 25 songs where the mixes differed from their UK equivalent. These are:

  • You Can't Do That (mono)
  • Long Tall Sally (mono)
  • Long Tall Sally (stereo)
  • I Call Your Name (mono)
  • I Call Your Name (stereo)
  • And I Love Her (mono)
  • I'll Cry Instead (mono)
  • Any Time At All (mono)
  • When I Get Home (mono)
  • I'll Be Back (mono)
  • I'll Be Back (stereo)
  • Komm, Gibb Mir Deine Hand (stereo)
  • I Feel Fine (mono)
  • She's A Woman (mono)
  • Day Tripper (stereo)
  • We Can Work It Out (stereo)
  • The Word (stereo)
  • Michelle (mono)
  • I'm Looking Through You (stereo)
  • I'm Only Sleeping (mono)
  • I'm Only Sleeping (stereo)
  • And Your Bird Can Sing (mono)
  • And Your Bird Can Sing (stereo)
  • Dr. Robert (mono)
  • Dr. Robert (stereo)

Additionally, the US A Hard Day's Night and Help! soundtrack albums contained a number of orchestral tracks that were not released in the UK. These were:

  • I Should Have Known Better
  • And I Love Her
  • Ringo's Theme (This Boy)
  • A Hard Day's Night
  • Help! (intro)
  • From Me to You Fantasy
  • In the Tyrol
  • Another Hard Day's Night
  • Medley: The Bitter End /You Can't Do That
  • The Chase


The first eight of The Beatles' US albums - those compiled by Dave Dexter - were remastered and released on CD in two box sets:
The image used in the promotion of The Beatles' US Albums box set

A complete set of The Beatles' US albums (excluding Magical Mystery Tour, which was incorporated into the core catalogue in 1987, but adding the 1964 documentary album, The Beatles Story) is also available. While maintaining the original tracklistings, in order to provide the best possible sound quality, these versions of the albums dispense with Dexter's fake mono and stereo masters, which were often copies of copies of the UK master tapes. Dexter's work has instead been recreated digitally using the true mono and stereo masters released in 2009 as a basis.[1]

A Guide to the Mono and Stereo Editions of The Beatles US Albums

The information below is taken from:


Meet The Beatles

Meet The Beatles was released in mono (T-2047) and stereo (ST-2047) versions by Capitol on 20 January 1964. It featured the same artwork as The Beatles’ contemporary UK album, With the Beatles: Robert Freeman’s striking black and white half shadowed faces.

The album contained 12 songs, instead of the 14 on With The Beatles:

Side One
1. I Want to Hold Your Hand
2. I Saw Her Standing There
3. This Boy
4. It Won't Be Long
5. All I've Got to Do
6. All My Loving

Side Two
1. Don't Bother Me
2. Little Child
3. Till There Was You
4. Hold Me Tight
5. I Wanna Be Your Man
6. Not a Second Time


Musically, it kicked off with The Beatles recent hit single, I Want To Hold Your Hand, and its B-side, I Saw Her Standing There. The single’s UK B-side, This Boy, was the third track. Thereafter, it contains all of the Beatles originals from With The Beatles, in the same order as they appear on the UK album, along with the album’s only cover, Till There Was You.

The stereo versions of I Want To Hold Your Hand and This Boy were duophonic (fake stereo) versions created from the UK mono mixes, as stereo versions of these tracks had not been made available to Capitol (although stereo versions of both songs had been made at Abbey Road in October 1963, neither had yet been released in the UK). The remaining stereo tracks are the same mixes as the stereo version of With The Beatles.

The mono album was created using fake mono fold downs of the stereo mixes, except for I Want To Hold Your Hand and This Boy, which used the genuine mono mixes.

I Want to Hold Your Hand
Mono: as per UK single from mono mix of 21 October 1963
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 21 October 1963

I Saw Her Standing There
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 25 February 1963

This Boy
Mono: as per UK single from mono mix of 21 October 1963
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 21 October 1963

It Won't Be Long
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

All I've Got to Do
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

All My Loving
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

Don't Bother Me
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

Little Child
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

Till There Was You
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

Hold Me Tight
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

I Wanna Be Your Man
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

Not a Second Time
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963


The Beatles’ Second Album

The Beatles' Second Album was released in mono (T-2080) and stereo (ST-2080) by Capitol on 10 April 1964, just over 2½ months after its predecessor. The artwork was compiled from a collection of publicity photographs.

Side One
1. Roll Over Beethoven
2. Thank You Girl
3. You Really Got a Hold on Me
4. Devil in Her Heart
5. Money (That's What I Want)
6. You Can't Do That

Side Two
1. Long Tall Sally
2. I Call Your Name
3. Please Mister Postman
4. I'll Get You
5. She Loves You



This album has been called the best pure rock’n’roll album The Beatles ever released. In reality, it is Capitol’s first cut and paste job of The Beatles’ material. Side one contains 4 of the remaining 5 cover tracks from With The Beatles, plus the B-sides of the singles From Me To You and Can’t Buy Me Love. Side two contains two tracks from the forthcoming UK Long Tall Sally EP, the remaining cover from With The Beatles, and both sides of The Beatles’ single, She Loves You.

Like its predecessor, the mono version of The Beatles’ Second Album is a hodge-podge of UK mono mixes and fold-down mono. She Loves You and I'll Get You are the UK mono mixes. You Can't Do That, I Call Your Name and Long Tall Sally are also genuine mono, but are different mixes from the UK mono versions, prepared by George Martin specifically for the US. The rest of the songs are folddowns.

The songs on the stereo album have significantly more echo than those on the mono album or the British versions of the songs. Thank-You Girl is a US exclusive stereo mix, as only the mono mix was available in the UK, although it was brought into the core catalogue when it was released on Past Masters in 2009. I Call Your Name and Long Tall Sally are also genuine stereo, prepared by George Martin specifically for the US. Neither of these mixes are part of the core catalogue - the 1976's Rock and Roll Music used alternative stereo mixes, as did 1988's Past Masters.

Roll Over Beethoven
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

Thank You Girl
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 13 March 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 13 March 1963

You Really Got a Hold on Me
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

Devil in Her Heart
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

Money (That's What I Want)
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 30 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 30 October 1963

You Can't Do That
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 26 February1964
Stereo: fake stereo from US exclusive mono mix of 26 February1964

Long Tall Sally
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 10 March 1964
Stereo: US exclusive stereo mix of 10 March 1964

I Call Your Name
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 4 March 1964
Stereo: US exclusive stereo mix of 10 March 1964

Please Mister Postman
Mono: fake mono from UK stereo mix of 29 October 1963
Stereo: as per stereo mix of 29 October 1963

I'll Get You
Mono: as per UK single from mono mix of 4 July 1963
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 4 July 1963

She Loves You
Mono: as per UK single from mono mix of 4 July 1963
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 4 July 1963



A Hard Day's Night [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

The soundtrack album to The Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, was released in mono (UA 6366) and stereo (UAS 6366) by United Artists on 26 June 1964. The album was reissued by Capitol on 17 August 1980 (SW-11921) after EMI acquired United Artists Records.

Side one
1. A Hard Day's Night
2. Tell Me Why
3. I'll Cry Instead
4. I Should Have Known Better (Instrumental)
5. I'm Happy Just to Dance with You
6. And I Love Her (Instrumental)

Side two
1. I Should Have Known Better
2. If I Fell
3. And I Love Her
4. Ringo's Theme (This Boy) (Instrumental)
5. Can't Buy Me Love
6. A Hard Day's Night (Instrumental)
As this album was not released by Capitol, it was not compiled by Dave Dexter. It consists of the seven songs from side 1 of the UK album, plus a US exclusive extended version of I'll Cry Instead. Interspersed with these are four orchestral versions of Beatles songs, scored by George Martin, taken from the film's soundtrack.

All of the tracks on the mono version of the album are in genuine mono, and are the same as the UK mono release, with the exception of I'll Cry Instead, which includes an extra verse, and And I Love Her; an earlier mono mix, distinguishable by McCartney's vocal, which is mostly single tracked.

While the stereo version of the album contains genuine stereo mixes of George Martin's instrumental tracks, The Beatles' songs are in fake stereo. Most of the songs would get a genuine stereo release on the band's next Capitol album, Something New, but I Should Have Known Better and Can't Buy Me Love would not be released in stereo in the US until 1970's Hey Jude, and A Hard Day's Night itself remained unreleased in stereo until 1982's Reel Music.

The same fake stereo master tape was used when the album was reissued by Capitol in 1980.

A Hard Day's Night
Mono: mono mix of 23 April 1964
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 23 April 1964

Tell Me Why
Mono: mono mix of 3 March 1964
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 3 March 1964

I'll Cry Instead
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 4 June 1964.
Stereo: fake stereo from US exclusive mono mix of 4 June 1964

I'm Happy Just to Dance with You
Mono: mono mix of 3 March 1964
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 3 March 1964

I Should Have Known Better
Mono: mono mix of 3 March 1964
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 3 March 1964

If I Fell
Mono: mono mix of 3 March 1964
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 3 March 1964

And I Love Her
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 3 March 1964
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 3 March 1964

Can't Buy Me Love
Mono: mono mix of 26 February 1964
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 26 February 1964



Something New

The Beatles' third Capitol album, Something New, was released in mono (T-2108) and stereo (ST-2108) on 20 July 1964, just over three months since it's predecessor, and only one month after United Artists released the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack.

Side One
1. I'll Cry Instead
2. Things We Said Today
3. Any Time at All
4. When I Get Home
5. Slow Down
6. Matchbox

Side Two
1. Tell Me Why
2. And I Love Her
3. I'm Happy Just to Dance with You
4. If I Fell
5. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
It wasn't quite as new as it's title suggested. By this time Capitol were struggling to find new material to release. Five of Something New's eleven songs had already been released the previous month on the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack. Of the remaining six, three were taken from the UK version of A Hard Day's Night , two from the Long Tall Sally EP, and the last, somewhat inexplicably, was the German language version of I Want To Hold Your Hand.

The mono version of the album uses the same mono tracks previously released by United Artists, including the extended version of I'll Cry Instead and the US version of And I Love Her. Any Time At All and When I Get Home were mixed in mono specifically for Capitol by George Martin. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand used a mono mix created by Martin for the German market, but which was unreleased in the UK until 1978's Rarities. The remaining mono mixes were identical to the UK releases.

The stereo version of Something New was the first US Beatles album to be released entirely in true stereo. The mixes were identical to the songs used on the UK version of A Hard Day's Night, with the exception of Matchbox and Slow Down, mixed into stereo specifically for Capitol by Martin. These remained unreleased in the UK until 1976's Rock and Roll Music. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand used a stereo mix created by Martin for the German market and was unreleased in the UK until 1988's Past Masters.

This created an anomaly. I'll Cry Instead was created by editing two different takes together. George Martin had mixed the mono version of I'll Cry Instead on 4 June 1964, and sent it off to Capitol and United Artists the day after. The stereo mix was created on 22 June, and sent off to Capitol very soon after - probably the following day. It wasn't until after this - probably while compiling the mono and stereo versions of the UK version of A Hard Day's Night - that it was discovered that a mistake had been made while editing the stereo mix, and a verse had been inadvertently left out when the two takes were edited together. With the album release imminent, Martin chose to edit the extra verse out of the mono mix instead of remixing a longer stereo version. It was too late to change the US releases, but the UK mixes are both the shorter version. The longer mono mix appears on the US A Hard Day's Night (in both mono and fake stereo versions), and on the mono version of Something New, while the stereo version of Something New contains the shorter stereo mix.

I'll Cry Instead
Mono: US Exclusive mono mix of 4 June 1964.
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

Things We Said Today
Mono: mono mix of 4 June 1964.
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

Any Time at All
Mono:  US exclusive mono mix of 22 June 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

When I Get Home
Mono:  US exclusive mono mix of 22 June 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

Slow Down
Mono: mono mix of 4 June 1964.
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

Matchbox
Mono: mono mix of 4 June 1964.
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

Tell Me Why
Mono: mono mix of 3 March 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

And I Love Her
Mono:  US exclusive mono mix of 3 March 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

I'm Happy Just to Dance with You
Mono: mono mix of 3 March 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

If I Fell
Mono: mono mix of 3 March 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
Mono: mono mix of 10 March 1964.
Stereo: stereo mix of 12 March 1964



Beatles '65

Beatles '65 was released in mono (T-2228) and stereo (ST-2228) by Capitol on 15 December 1964.

Side One
1. No Reply
2. I'm a Loser
3. Baby's in Black
4. Rock and Roll Music
5. I'll Follow the Sun
6. Mr. Moonlight

Side Two
1. Honey Don't
2. I'll Be Back
3. She's a Woman
4. I Feel Fine
5. Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby



It was Capitol's version of the UK Beatles For Sale album, compiled, as usual, by Dave Dexter Jr. Side one followed the same track listing as side one of the UK album, missing only the final song, to cut the side down to the standard six tracks. Side two was a mish-mash, using two more songs from Beatles For Sale, the final song from the UK version of A Hard Day's Night, and the two sides of The Beatles' latest single.

All the tracks taken from Beatles For Sale used the same mixes as the UK in both mono and stereo versions of the album. I'll Be Back, the one remaining unreleased song from A Hard Day's Night, had received a US mono mix by George Martin while mixing that album, but wasn't released until now. He had also created US specific mono mixes of both sides of The Beatles' latest single, I Feel Fine and She's A Woman.

The UK stereo mix of I'll Be Back was used on the stereo version of the album, but as I Feel Fine and She's A Woman were intended for single release, no stereo mixes had been prepared. Dexter created fake stereo versions of both, but in what is arguably the only time his work was actually detrimental to the Beatles' sound, he drenched both tracks in reverb.

No Reply
Mono: mono mix of 16 October 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 4 November 1964

I'm a Loser
Mono: mono mix of 26 October 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 4 November 1964

Baby's in Black
Mono: mono mix of 26 October 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 4 November 1964

Rock and Roll Music
Mono: mono mix of 26 October 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 4 November 1964

I'll Follow the Sun
Mono: mono mix of 21 October 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 4 November 1964

Mr. Moonlight
Mono: mono mix of 27 October 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 27 October 1964

Honey Don't
Mono: mono mix of 21 October 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 4 November 1964

I'll Be Back
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 22 June 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

She's a Woman
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 21 October 1964
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 21 October 1964

I Feel Fine
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 21 October 1964
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 21 October 1964

Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby
Mono: mono mix of 21 October 1964
Stereo: stereo mix of 4 November 1964



The Early Beatles

The Early Beatles was released by Capitol in Mono (T-2309) and stereo (ST-2309) on 22 March 1965. The artwork was a picture previously used on the rear cover of The Beatles most recent UK album, Beatles For Sale.

Side One
1. Love Me Do
2. Twist and Shout
3. Anna (Go to Him)
4. Chains
5. Boys
6. Ask Me Why

Side Two
1. Please Please Me 
2. P.S. I Love You
3. Baby It's You
4. A Taste of Honey
5. Do You Want to Know a Secret
But this was not a new Beatles album as such. It was simply Capitol's repackaging of The Beatles' two year old UK debut album, Please Please Me . All of the tracks had been released previously in the US by Chicago-based independent label, VeeJay, who had acquired the rights to 16 of The Beatles early recordings after Capitol declined to release them. These were the fourteen songs on the Please Please Me album, along with From Me To You, and its B side, Thank You Girl. Following a legal dispute (during which Capitol cheekily released I Saw Her Standing There on Meet The Beatles, and Thank You Girl on The Beatles' Second Album), Capitol regained ownership on 15 October 1964.

The Early Beatles was simply a means of keeping The Beatles' early material commercially available, now that VeeJay could no longer distribute it. Nevertheless, this album, compiled again by Dave Dexter Jr., stuck to Capitol's now standard eleven songs per album, rendering three of The Beatles' early recordings commercially unavailable in the US. From Me To You was eventually released in stereo on 1973's 1962-1966 album, and in mono on 1988's Past Masters. Misery and There's A Place were released in stereo on 1980's Rarities and in mono when Please Please Me was released on CD in 1987.

The mono version of the album was simply a fake mono version of the stereo version of the album, which used the same UK stereo mixes as Please Please Me. Interestingly, Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You had never been mixed into true stereo. They were already in fake stereo on Please Please Me, so the versions of these two tracks on the mono The Early Beatles were fake mono mixes of fake stereo mixes of the original UK mono mixes. The true mono and stereo mixes of Please Please Me came from different takes, so the mono performance remained unavailable in the US until 1987's CD release of Please Please Me, along with the true mono mixes of the other tracks on Please Please Me.

Love Me Do
Mono: fake mono from fake stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 11 September 1962 (made 25 February 1963 by Parlophone)

Twist and Shout
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: stereo mix of 25 February 1963

Anna (Go to Him)
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: stereo mix of 25 February 1963

Chains
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: stereo mix of 25 February 1963

Boys
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: stereo mix of 25 February 1963

Ask Me Why
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: stereo mix of 25 February 1963

Please Please Me
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: from stereo mix of 25 February 1963

P.S. I Love You
Mono: fake mono from fake stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 11 September 1962 (made 25 February 1963 by Parlophone)

Baby It's You
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: stereo mix of 25 February 1963

A Taste of Honey
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: stereo mix of 25 February 1963

Do You Want to Know a Secret
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 25 February 1963
Stereo: stereo mix of 25 February 1963



Beatles VI

Beatles VI was released by Capitol in mono (T-2358) and stereo (ST-2358) on 14 June 1965.

Side One
1. Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
2. Eight Days a Week
3. You Like Me Too Much
4. Bad Boy
5. I Don't Want to Spoil the Party
6. Words of Love

Side Two
1. What You're Doing
2. Yes It Is
3. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
4. Tell Me What You See
5. Every Little Thing
Capitol were finding it hard to keep up the momentum of their 1964 Beatles releases. The Early Beatles had plugged a gap, but with The Beatles busy working on their second feature film, new material was not forthcoming. Nevertheless they still had six tracks left over from Beatles For Sale, and Yes It Is, the B-side of The Beatles' recent single. Parlophone were able to supply You Like Me Too Much and Tell Me What You See - both rejects from the film soundtrack - but beyond that had no further new material available. Thus it was at Capitol's request that The Beatles went to Abbey Road on the evening of 10th May 1965, after a hard day's filming, to record their first songs specifically for the American market. For speed, they chose to perform two songs they knew well from their Hamburg days, Larry Williams' Bad Boy and Dizzy Miss Lizzy. For The Beatles, the pressure was beginning to show. Two of the songs from the Help! sessions were rejected as not good enough, and Dizzy Miss Lizzy was used to pad out the UK version of the album.

The mono version of Beatles VI used the same mixes as those that had been on the mono version of Beatles for Sale, that would appear later in the year on the UK mono version of Help!, or in the case of Bad Boy, would eventually be released on the mono version of 1966's A Collection of Beatles Oldies.

The stereo version of the album used the same stereo mixes as the UK as well, with the exception of Yes It Is, for which Capitol did not have a stereo mix, as it had been released as a single. Although the song had already been mixed into stereo back in the UK, Capitol chose to create a fake stereo version instead.

Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!
Mono: from mono mix of 26 October 1964
Stereo: from stereo mix of 26 October 1964

Eight Days a Week
Mono: from mono mix of 27 October 1964
Stereo: from stereo mix of 27 October 1964

You Like Me Too Much
Mono: from mono mix of 18 February 1965
Stereo: from stereo mix of 23 February 1965

Bad Boy
Mono: from mono mix of 10 May 1965
Stereo: from stereo mix of 10 May 1965

I Don't Want to Spoil the Party
Mono: from mono mix of 26 October 1964
Stereo: from stereo mix of 4 November 1964

Words of Love
Mono: from mono mix of 26 October 1964
Stereo: from stereo mix of 4 November 1964

What You're Doing
Mono: from mono mix of 21 October 1964
Stereo: from stereo mix of 4 November 1964

Yes It Is
Mono: from mono mix of 28 February 1965
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 28 February 1965

Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Mono: from mono mix of 10 May 1965
Stereo: from stereo mix of 10 May 1965

Tell Me What You See
Mono: from mono mix of 20 February 1965
Stereo: from stereo mix of 23 February 1965

Every Little Thing
Mono: from mono mix of 27 October 1964
Stereo: from stereo mix of 27 October 1964




Help! Original Soundtrack

Help!, the soundtrack to The Beatles' second feature film, was released by Capitol in mono (MAS-2386) and stereo (SMAS-2386) on 13 August 1965.

Side One
1. Help! (preceded by an uncredited instrumental intro)
2. The Night Before
3. From Me to You Fantasy (instrumental)
4. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
5. I Need You
6. In the Tyrol (instrumental)

Side Two
1. Another Girl
2. Another Hard Day's Night (instrumental)
3. Ticket to Ride
4. Medley: The Bitter End /You Can't Do That (instrumental)
5. You're Going to Lose That Girl
6. The Chase (instrumental)

It featured the seven songs from the film, as featured on side one of the UK version of the album, interspersed with instrumental orchestral pieces from the soundtrack, written by Ken Thorne and conducted by George Martin. These instrumental pieces - notably the unnamed James Bond style intro to Help! and Another Hard Day's Night - inadvertently pointed in a new musical direction for The Beatles, featuring one of the first uses of a sitar on a pop album

The stereo version of the album used true stereo for all of the songs, except Ticket To Ride, which was a fake stereo mix created from the monophonic single.

The mono version of the album was simply a fake mono fold down of the stereo album, including the fake stereo Ticket To Ride.

Help!
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 23 February 1965
Stereo: from stereo mix of 18 June 1965

The Night Before
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 23 February 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 23 February 1965

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 23 February 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 23 February 1965

I Need You
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 23 February 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 23 February 1965

Another Girl
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 23 February 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 23 February 1965

Ticket to Ride
Mono: fake mono from fake stereo from mono mix of 18 February 1965
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 18 February 1965

You're Going to Lose That Girl
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 23 February 1965
Stereo: from stereo mix of 23 February 1965




Rubber Soul

The US version of Rubber Soul was released by Capitol in mono (T-2442) and stereo (ST-2442) on 6 December 1965.

Side One
1. I've Just Seen a Face
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Think for Yourself
5. The Word
6. Michelle

Side Two
1. It's Only Love
2. Girl
3. I'm Looking Through You
4. In My Life
5. Wait
6. Run for Your Life


This is the only one of Dave Dexter's US Beatles compilations which general consensus says equals or betters it's UK version. Dexter still had five songs left over from side two of the UK Help!  album, and he used two of them here, with I've Just Seen A Face kicking off side one, and It's Only Love doing the same on side two. He also chose to drop four of the songs from the UK version of Rubber Soul , taking the track count to 12. The album had a more acoustic feel than the UK version, and place The Beatles within the American "folk-rock" movement. The album's influence on Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys was such that he created his masterpiece, Pet Sounds , in order to better it.

The mono version of the album used the same mono mixes as were released in the UK, except for Michelle, which used an earlier mix.

The stereo version of the album used the same stereo mixes as the UK, except for The Word, which again used an earlier mix. Although I'm Looking Through You used the same mix as the UK, it includes a false start. As was his custom, Dexter also added a layer of reverb to the stereo version of the album, but erroneously sent a version without reverb to the pressing plant in LA. So there were two versions of the stereo album released - one with reverb (the "East Coast" version) and one without.

Perhaps because of this error, Rubber Soul was Dave Dexter Jr.'s final work on The Beatles albums.

I've Just Seen a Face
Mono: mono mix of 18 June 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 18 June 1965

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Mono: mono mix of 25 October 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 26 October 1965

You Won't See Me
Mono: mono mix of 15 November 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 15 November 1965

Think for Yourself
Mono: mono mix of 9 November 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 9 November 1965

The Word
Mono: mono mix of 11 November 1965
Stereo: US exclusive stereo mix of 11 November 1965

Michelle
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 9 November 1965
Stereo: from stereo mix of 9 November 1965

It's Only Love
Mono: mono mix of 18 June 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 18 June 1965

Girl
Mono: mono mix of 15 November 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 15 November 1965

I'm Looking Through You
Mono: mono mix of 15 November 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 15 November 1965 (but includes false start)

In My Life
Mono: mono mix of 25 October 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 26 October 1965

Wait
Mono: mono mix of 15 November 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 15 November 1965

Run for Your Life
Mono: mono mix of 9 November 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 10 November 1965



Yesterday and Today

Yesterday And Today was issued by Capitol in mono (T-2553) and stereo (ST-2553) on 15 June 1966, with artwork from a photo by Bob Whitaker. The photo showed The Beatles dressed as butchers, surrounded by raw meat and dismembered dolls, and many retailers refused point blank to stock it. The album was quickly withdrawn, and reissued hurriedly on 20 June 1966, with a much safer photo, also by Whitaker.

Side One
1. Drive My Car
2. I'm Only Sleeping
3. Nowhere Man
4. Doctor Robert
5. Yesterday
6. Act Naturally

Side Two
1. And Your Bird Can Sing
2. If I Needed Someone
3. We Can Work It Out
4. What Goes On
5. Day Tripper



 After a brief UK tour to promote Rubber Soul, The Beatles had taken three months off - their longest break since their days as The Quarrymen back in Liverpool - then started work on a new album. Rubber Soul had been a rushed album, recorded quickly in October and November 1965, and released in time for Christmas. The Beatles were determined to take their time over the next album. But as in the previous year, Capitol wanted to release new Beatles material, and with The Beatles spending longer than ever in the studio, there was little forthcoming. There were some singles kicking about that had not yet been released on an album: Yesterday / Act Naturally had been released in September 1965, We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper in December 1965, Nowhere Man / What Goes On in February 1966 and Paperback Writer / Rain in May 1966. Also awaiting an album release was I'm Down, the B-side of Help! back in July 1965. These nine songs, along with the remaining two unreleased tracks from Rubber Soul, Drive My Car and If I Needed Someone, could have been compiled into an eleven track album.

Yesterday and Today (or "Yesterday"...and Today, to give it it's correct title) was compiled by Bill Miller. Deciding that there was little value in releasing an album containing nine songs that fans already owned, Miller opted to drop Paperback Writer, Rain and I'm Down. This left him three songs short, so he contacted George Martin and asked if there was any new material that he could have. Martin agreed, and mixed three tracks from The Beatles work-in-progress into mono and stereo for Miller.

The mono version of Yesterday and Today used the same mono mixes as the UK, with the exception of the three new tracks mixed at Capitol's request, I'm Only Sleeping, Doctor Robert and And Your Bird Can Sing. These would all receive new mono mixes before their UK release. A fake mono version of Drive My Car was also created, even though a true mono mix was available.

The stereo version of the album again uses mostly the UK stereo mixes. Despite being released only as a mono single, We Can Work It Out and Day Tripper had been mixed into stereo during the Rubber Soul sessions, in case The Beatles did not manage enough new material during the hurried recording of that album, and these stereo mixes were supplied to Capitol. New stereo mixes of these two songs would be prepared for their UK stereo release, on 1966's A Collection Of Beatles Oldies. Martin had created true stereo mixes of I'm Only Sleeping, Doctor Robert and And Your Bird Can Sing a week after the mono versions, but by the time they arrived in the US, Miller had already created fake stereo versions. Some, but not all, later reissues of the album (post 1973) used the US exclusive stereo mixes. Stereo 2 below refers to the reissued album.

Drive My Car
Mono: fake mono from stereo mix of 26 October 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 26 October 1965

I'm Only Sleeping
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 12 May 1966
Stereo 1: fake stereo from mono mix of 12 May 1966
Stereo 2: US exclusive stereo mix of 20 May 1966
Nowhere Man
Mono: mono mix of 25 October 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 26 October 1965

Doctor Robert
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 12 May 1966
Stereo 1: fake stereo from mono mix of 12 May 1966
Stereo 2: US exclusive stereo mix of 20 May 1966

Yesterday
Mono: mono mix of 17 June 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 18 June 1965

Act Naturally
Mono: mono mix of 18 June 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 18 June 1965

And Your Bird Can Sing
Mono: US exclusive mono mix of 12 May 1966
Stereo 1: fake stereo from mono mix of 12 May 1966
Stereo 2: US exclusive stereo mix of 20 May 1966

If I Needed Someone
Mono: mono mix of 25 October 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 26 October 1965

We Can Work It Out
Mono: mono mix of 29 October 1965
Stereo: US exclusive stereo mix of 10 November 1965

What Goes On
Mono: mono mix of 9 November 1965
Stereo: stereo mix of 9 November 1965

Day Tripper
Mono: mono mix of 29 October 1965
Stereo: US exclusive stereo mix of 26 October 1965



Revolver

Revolver was issued by Capitol in mono (T-2576) and stereo (ST-2576) on 8 August 1966. Artwork was from a black and white drawing and photo collage by The Beatles' old friend from their Hamburg days, Klaus Voormann.

Side One
1. Taxman
2. Eleanor Rigby
3. Love You To
4. Here, There And Everywhere
5. Yellow Submarine
6. She Said, She Said

Side Two
1. Good Day Sunshine
2. For No One
3. I Want To Tell You
4. Got To Get You Into My Life
5. Tomorrow Never Knows
Both mono and stereo versions of the album were the same as their UK equivalents, although missing the three songs already released on Yesterday and Today.

This was the last occasion on which a UK and US album would differ. The Beatles recording contract with EMI expired after it's release, and while they were happy to sign a new contract, effective from 27 January 1967, they insisted that their albums were released worldwide in the way in which they intended.

Taxman
Mono: from mono mix of 21 June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 21 June 1966

Eleanor Rigby
Mono: from mono mix of 22 June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 22 June 1966

Love You To
Mono: from mono mix of 13 April 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 21 June 1966

Here, There and Everywhere
Mono: from mono mix of 21 June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 21 June 1966

Yellow Submarine
Mono: from mono mix of 3 June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 21 June 1966

She Said She Said
Mono: from mono mix of 22 June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 22 June 1966

Good Day Sunshine
Mono: from mono mix of 22 June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 22 June 1966

For No One
Mono: from mono mix of 21 June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 21 June 1966

I Want to Tell You
Mono: from mono mix of 3 June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 21 June 1966

Got to Get You into My Life
Mono: from mono mix of 20th June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 22 June 1966

Tomorrow Never Knows
Mono: from mono mix of 6 June 1966
Stereo: from stereo mix of 22 June 1966



Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour was released by Capitol in mono (MAL-2835) and stereo (SMAL-2835) on 27 November 1967.

Side 1
1. Magical Mystery Tour
2. The Fool on the Hill
3. Flying
4. Blue Jay Way
5. Your Mother Should Know
6. I Am the Walrus

Side 2
1. Hello, Goodbye
2. Strawberry Fields Forever
3. Penny Lane
4. Baby, You're a Rich Man
5. All You Need Is Love
The soundtrack to The Beatles third film, Magical Mystery Tour, had been released in the UK as a mono and stereo double EP set. However, the EP was not a popular format in the US, so Capitol decided to add The Beatles 1967 singles and release an album instead. The album was compiled by Voyle Gilmore.

The mono version of the album used the same mono mixes as the UK singles and mono EP, although a slightly longer version of I Am The Walrus had appeared as the B-side to Hello Goodbye in the US. This had then been edited in the US to match the UK version before being released on the album.

The stereo version of the album used the same stereo mixes as the UK stereo Magical Mystery Tour EP, again with the exception of I Am The Walrus, which used an earlier stereo mix. Strawberry Fields Forever had been mixed to stereo for inclusion on Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but had been issued as a single. It made its stereo debut here. This version would later appear on 1973's 1967-1970 album. Hello Goodbye was also mixed to stereo specifically for the American market, and would also not appear in the UK until 1973's 1967-1970 album. No stereo mixes of Penny Lane, Baby, You're A Rich Man or All You Need Is Love were available, so Capitol created fake stereo versions of these tracks.

The stereo Magical Mystery Tour LP was released in the UK in 1976. Newer stereo mixes were used for both I Am The Walrus and Strawberry Fields Forever. This has been the standard version since then, including the CD releases of the album.

Magical Mystery Tour
Mono: mono mix of 7 November 1967
Stereo: stereo mix of 7 November 1967

The Fool on the Hill
Mono: mono mix of 25 October 1967
Stereo: stereo mix of 1 November 1967

Flying
Mono: mono mix of 28 September 1967
Stereo: stereo mix of 7 November 1967

Blue Jay Way
Mono: mono mix of 7 November 1967
Stereo: stereo mix of 7 November 1967

Your Mother Should Know
Mono: mono mix of 2 October 1967
Stereo: stereo mix  of 6 November 1967

I Am the Walrus
Mono: mono mix of 29 September 1967
Stereo: US exclusive stereo mix of 6 November 1967

Hello, Goodbye
Mono: mono mix of 6 November 1967
Stereo: stereo mix of 6 November 1967

Strawberry Fields Forever
Mono: mono mix of 22 December 1966
Stereo: US exclusive stereo mix of 29 December 1966

Penny Lane
Mono: mono mix of 25 January 1967
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 25 January 1967

Baby, You're a Rich Man
Mono: mono mix of 11 May 1967
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 11 May 1967

All You Need Is Love
Mono: mono mix of 26 June 1967
Stereo: fake stereo from mono mix of 26 June 1967




Hey Jude

Hey Jude was released by Capitol in stereo only (SW-385) on 26 February 1970.

Side 1
1. Can't Buy Me Love
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. Paperback Writer
4. Rain
5. Lady Madonna
6. Revolution

Side 2
1. Hey Jude
2. Old Brown Shoe
3. Don't Let Me Down
4. The Ballad of John and Yoko


Although a US release, Hey Jude album was not compiled by Capitol, but by Allan Steckler of Bell Sounds, New York, working directly for Apple, The Beatles' own record label, under the direction of Allan Klien, The Beatles' manager.

Steckler chose to include songs which had so far not been released on an album by Capitol. As a consequence of The Beatles' 1967 contract with EMI forbidding Capitol from carving up their albums, there was plenty to choose from. Their 1967 output had already been compiled into the Magical Mystery Tour album, but there had been no such compilation since. There were also a number of earlier tracks which had fallen by the wayside.

By this criteria, Steckler could have made a double album by including:

  • Misery
  • There's a Place
  • From Me to You
  • Sie Liebt Dich
  • A Hard Day's Night
  • I'm Down
  • The Inner Light
  • Across The Universe (Our World mix)
  • Get Back (single mix)
As most of the earlier tracks were singles they had been mixed and released in mono only, so they were mixed to stereo for this album at the beginning of December 1969. In 1969, Capitol had started to release singles in stereo, so stereo mixes were already available for Old Brown Shoe, Don't Let Me Down and The Ballad Of John And Yoko. The original 1964 stereo mixes were used for the two tracks from A Hard Day's Night, Can't Buy Me Love and I Should Have Known Better. Paperback Writer used the same stereo mix that had previously appeared in the UK on A Collection Of Beatles Oldies, but due to an error, the left and right channels were reversed.

At the time of release, all of the 1969 mixes were US exclusives, but they have since become the standard stereo mixes for these tracks, and have been released, for example, on Past Masters.

Can't Buy Me Love
Stereo: stereo mix of 26 February 1964

I Should Have Known Better
Stereo: stereo mix of 22 June 1964

Paperback Writer
Stereo: stereo mix of 31 October 1966

Rain
Stereo: stereo mix of 2 December 1969

Lady Madonna
Stereo: stereo mix of 2 December 1969

Revolution
Stereo: stereo mix of 5 December 1969

Hey Jude
Stereo: stereo mix of 5 December 1969

Old Brown Shoe
Stereo: stereo mix of 18 April 1969

Don't Let Me Down
Stereo: stereo mix of 7 April 1969

The Ballad of John and Yoko
Stereo: stereo mix of 14 April 1969



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