FrozenMetalHead

from www.billboard.com


Capitol Boxes Up Early Beatles Albums

The Beatles' first four U.S. albums -- "Meet the Beatles," "The Beatles Second Album," "Something New" and "Beatles '65" -- will be bundled together in the boxed set "The Capitol Albums Volume 1," due Nov. 16. All were originally released in 1964 as Beatlemania swept the United States.

"In the '60s, American record labels often chose to reformat British records to suit the needs of the U.S. market," says Capitol president Andy Slater. "In America, singles were generally included on current albums, where in the U.K. albums and singles were most often separate releases. Higher music publishing costs in the U.S. also made it impractical to include as many songs on American albums. In addition, in the case of the Beatles, some of the recordings on the American albums were given more echo than the British versions, to 'Americanize' their sound."

The albums, which have been remastered from the original tapes, include stereo and mono versions of each song. Each album is housed in a miniature replica of its original album cover, while the box will feature a 48-page booklet chronicling the Beatles' unprecedented 1964.

"Meet the Beatles" (originally issued Jan. 20, 1964, in the United States) begins with what was at the time the group's latest single, "I Want To Hold Your Hand," and its U.S. and U.K. B-sides, "I Saw Her Standing There" and "This Boy." The bulk of the remaining tracks were taken from the U.K. version of the album "With the Beatles."

"The Beatles Second Album" (April 10, 1964) is a grabbag of such tracks as the "She Loves You" single and its B-side "I'll Get You," additional songs from "With the Beatles," cuts from the "Long Tall Sally" EP and a German version of "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

"Something New" (July 20, 1964) includes eight songs from the soundtrack to the Beatles' first film, "A Hard Day's Night," although not the title track or "Can't Buy Me Love." The album was denied the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Top LPs chart by the movie's proper soundtrack, issued by United Artists.

"Beatles '65" (Dec. 15, 1964) boasts the "I Feel Fine"/"She's a Woman" single, the "A Hard Day's Night" leftover "(I'll Be Back)" and eight songs from the U.K. album "Beatles for Sale," including three particularly dark John Lennon tunes, "No Reply," "I'm a Loser" and "Baby's in Black."

It is unknown if Capitol plans to re-release additional titles such as "Beatles VI" or "Yesterday ... and Today."

Here is the track list for "The Capitol Albums Vol. 1"

"Meet the Beatles":
"I Want To Hold Your Hand"
"I Saw Her Standing There"
"This Boy"
"It Won't Be Long"
"All I've Got To Do"
"All My Loving"
"Don't Bother Me"
"Little Child"
"Till There Was You"
"Hold Me Tight"
"I Wanna Be Your Man"
"Not a Second Time"

"The Beatles Second Album":
"Roll Over Beethoven"
"Thank You Girl"
"You Really Got a Hold on Me"
"Devil in Her Heart"
"Money"
"You Can't Do That"
"Long Tall Sally"
"I Call Your Name"
"Please Mr. Postman"
"I'll Get You"
"She Loves You"

"Something New":
"I'll Cry Instead"
"Things We Said Today"
"Any Time At All"
"When I Get Home"
"Slow Down"
"Matchbox"
"Tell Me Why"
"And I Love Her"
"I'm Happy Just To Dance With You"
"If I Fell"
"Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand"

"Beatles '65":
"No Reply"
"I'm a Loser"
"Baby's in Black
"Rock and Roll Music"
"I'll Follow the Sun"
"Mr. Moonlight"
"Honey Don't"
"I'll Be Back"
"She's a Woman"
"I Feel Fine"
"Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby"

wendersfan

"In the '60s, American record labels often chose to reformat British records to suit the needs of the U.S. market,"

Translation:

In the '60s, American record labels often chose to reformat British records in order to maximize revenues and gouge teenagers.

FrozenMetalHead

Don't know if this is final artwork - just what Amazon has up. They have this listed for $63....way more than I was expecting this to be, seeing as how, songwise, it's nothing new - just repackaging.

nazz

This is more than repackaging. This is finally remastered from the original tapes. That should be a huge improvement over the existing CD releases.

P.E.

I have heard that there will be a few of the fake "duophonic" stereo songs - just as there were on the original albums (there are only 7 or so, if I remember correctly). I'm still excited for this - I got into the Beatles in the late '90s by collecting their records, actually, so it will be nice to have them as I knew them, and in mono and stereo.

Rypro 525

yes, even though i am not the biggest fan of the early stuff, i'll gladly buy these and boxes of the good albums "sgt pepper, revolver, rubber soul, ect.

nazz

Hollowgen

they're all good albums.

milo bloom

I was going to ask if there was any overlap on these and the new ones. My Beatles CD collection is kinda lacking and I need to fill it out. As in, I own "1's" and some solo McCartney stuff.

Are those two disc red and blue case CD sets "best of's" ?

whaaat

Yup. The CD Singles and EPs boxsets are also really good collections.

If these CDs aren't too badly futzed with (noise reduction, compression), I'll probably pick them up for nostalgic reasons. They're being mastered by Ted Jensen from tube playback (many of the mastering problems with the current Beatles catalog stem from the fact that they were tube-recorded, but solid state mastered) so I've got some hope for them sounding all right.

I hardly consider this release definitive, but I've got my blue and red LP boxes to hold me over. At least they seem to be making some strides towards an eventual UK remaster job (mono/stereo, right playback equipment). While I'm not crazy about duophonic mixes, or hearing the Beatles' material drenched in reverb, this release marks a major paradigm shift in how Capitol/EMI is treating their back catalog.

nightmaster

I bought all the Beatles albums when I switched from vinyl to CD and of course have picked up various pieces like the Anthology releases in the years since. It would be nice to finally hear the older stuff cleaned up and not sounding like mud.
And yes, I agree with wendersfan....when they were released in the US splintered and shortened it was to sell more product. Anything thats in decent shape from that era be it American or British is highly collectible,and Lord knows they made enough of 'em. The British albums have always been the proper ones to own.

whaaat

For those on the fence about this release, a kind soul over at the Steve Hoffman boards posted this thread showing the sonic differences between the original UK mixes and the "Dexterized" Capitol versions.

[Wiggum]That's a lot of echo and compression, boys.[/Wiggum]

RichardW

From www.billboard.com
"It is unknown if Capitol plans to re-release additional titles such as "Beatles VI" or "Yesterday ... and Today."

Uh, why else would they call this "The Capitol Albums Vol. 1"?

Gunshy

[grudge]
Which is why, even after all these years and as much as I love Beatle music, I will have to pass these by
[/grudge]

-Gunshy

Captain Harlock

Eventhough I'm a huge Beatle fan and having the UK releases for so long, I really have to ask what's the point of releasing these now (other than EMI trying to get people to buy them again)?

The only reason I can see owning them is for the nostalgia. Alot of people remember buying Meet The Beatles and in 1964 and would like to own that album.

Personally I like the UK versions much better.

Eplicon

Capitol seems to be back in the business of repackaging Beatles albums over and over and over and over knowing there are people out there willing to buy. Long ago, I felt that once the original UK albums were released on CD, it would have been the last say on the matter. But nooooo.. The worst offense was probably releasing the 1962-66 album, because it would have fit on one disc with an hour's worth or so of music. They decided it was "correct" to adhere to the original 2-LP format and made it 2 CDs, thus more than doubling the price.

I wish they'd just do a remaster proper of all the UK albums with the mono/stereo/fake stereo tracks instead of this gimmick.

whaaat

I agree with you. But the fact is, people have been asking for the US albums on CD for quite a while, and there's a pretty big bootleg market of vinyl-sourced CDRs. You can call it cynical, or a ripoff, but they're simply meeting a demand.
I agree that the UK catalogue is the official version, and it needs to be remastered with care, but I think that Apple/EMI is taking baby steps towards how the eventual UK remastering should be done. Mono/stereo, without any compression or noise reduction. That being said, I probably won't be picking this one up, as I have a complete set of UK mono's and stereo's...if I want to listen to the Beatles, that's what I'm going to listen to...

FrozenMetalHead

Here's a new pic of the boxset. The description at DDCD mentions that it has a 60 page hardback book included.

FrozenMetalHead

Also - I just found this article that's for this release...I've just started reading it, but it's a very interesting read and gives a good bit of history about the original American releases included in this box set. Just thought I'd share.

http://www.whatgoeson.com/story.20041020.html

milo bloom

Would the UK versions be available in places like Tower (where I've picked up many an import CD)?

tks

wendersfan

I disagree almost 100% with the conclusions presented in that article. It reads as if it were written, not by a Beatles historian, but rather by a Capitol apologist.

FrozenMetalHead

I think I'll probably grab these - mainly for the historical significance. Born in 1975, my first experiences with The Beatles were mostly hits compilations or the later albums (which were the same for American and UK) on cassette. With the exception of "Hey Jude" and "Yesterday and Today", I never picked up any of the American versions. So the UK albums is how I've pretty much grown to love their music.

While I understand the arguements that the sound was done improperly or the true intentions of The Beatles on the albums were beat to hell - I like that these are being released. As the reviewer in that article (who btw assisted Capitol in developing this box set) noted, the majority of Americans first heard and grew to love The Beatles through these releases. I'm interested in hearing these like the rest of the country did at that time.

I also like the point he makes about how these are being presented - in a box set vs individually - so that the general consumer isn't confused by the UK vs American releases.

So from a historical perspective, I think these make sense. Granted, I think the UK albums need the remastering first. But they will come...I think we can expect new Beatles releases every Christmas for awhile.

Buford T Pusser

I admit to not playing my Beatles disc for quite some time.

Were the Past Masters discs responsible for mopping up any discrepancies of the UK VS US releases?

Bobou2

I obtained the promo sampler that includes 8 songs Mono/stereo.
The best sounding songs were "Roll over Beethoven, If I Fell and Things we said Today" The worst was "She's A Woman" just as bad as I remember hearing on my sisters record player in 65.
I am a very big Beatles fan but I will not shell out the big bucks this set costs. I'm glad the albums will be sold solo cause Beatles 65 is a train wreck sonicaly. I will pick up the other 3 because that is how I first heard them. As long as you buy it with the mind set of "these are not the best mixes" you won't be that disapointed.

Marvin

The Past Masters discs contained tracks not found on the UK albums (LP or CD). I don't think it had anything to do with whether or not they were on the American LPs. Some of the songs on Past Masters were on the American LPs but some others weren't (unless you count compilation albums like the called "Hey Jude").