sábado 28 de enero de 2012

· "Revolver" - The Beatles USA 1966

The original US LP release of Revolver, the band's tenth on Capitol Records and twelfth US album, marked the last time Capitol would release an altered UK Beatles album for the US market. As three of its tracks—"I'm Only Sleeping", "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Doctor Robert"—had been used for the earlier Yesterday... And Today Capitol compilation, they were simply removed in the US version, yielding an 11 track album instead of the UK version's 14 and shortening the time to 28:20. The album's 30 April 1987 release on CD in USA standardised the track listing to the original UK version. Having been available only as an import in the US in the past, the 14 track UK version of the album was also issued domestically in the US on LP and cassette on 21 July 1987. The CD was remastered in 2009. The US version has never been available on that format.


01- Taxman
02- Eleanor Rigby
03- Love You To
04- Here, There and Everywhere
05- Yellow Submarine
06- She Said, She Said
07- Good Day Sunshine
08- For No One
09- I Want To Tell You
10- Got To Get You Into My Life
11- Tomorrow Never Knows

· "Yesterday... And Today" - The Beatles USA 1966

Yesterday and Today (rendered as "Yesterday… And Today" on the record label and in most published discographies) is the tenth Capitol release by the The Beatles and the twelfth overall U.S. release. It was issued only in the United States and Canada. The album is remembered primarily for the controversy surrounding its original cover image, the "butcher cover" featuring the band dressed in white smocks and covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of meat. Probably this is the reason why it’ll never be released officially on CD format. This album saw the release of all of the tracks from the previous two British releases that were not included on their American counterparts: Help! ("Act Naturally" and "Yesterday") and Rubber Soul ("Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "If I Needed Someone", and "What Goes On"). The recent single "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out" was also included, as were three tracks from the upcoming LP, Revolver: "I'm Only Sleeping", "Doctor Robert", and "And Your Bird Can Sing", issued here in preliminary mixes. This cutting up of their albums irritated the Beatles, who felt they had "put a lot of work into the sequencing" of the British versions. In fact, “Revolver” and this album were to be the last examples of this practice. Released in June 1966, a short time before what would be their last tour, this album's controversial cover marked the first time that the Beatles' judgment was severely criticized by the media and the public. Nevertheless, the album reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard charts by July 30, 1966 and was certified gold soon after. Apart from the so-called butcher cover, this album is of interest to collectors for the appearance of unique mixes tracks unavailable elsewhere. Because of Capitol Records' haste to release new product, mono and stereo pre-mixes of "Dr. Robert", "And Your Bird Can Sing", and "I'm Only Sleeping" were made for the US and sent by Martin specifically for this album; also the stereo mixes of "Day Tripper" (mixed October 26,1965) and "We Can Work It Out" featured here (both mixed on November 10, 1965 and then scrapped on August 09, 1966 from Abbey Road vaults) differ from the UK official stereo mixes which were done sometime later that year (November 10, 1966) specifically for the British compilation Oldies… But Goldies, so these included here (I mean officially only here) are the original 1965 mixes which were later discarded for all later releases.


01- Drive My Car
02- I'm Only Sleeping
03- Nowhere Man
04- Dr. Robert
05- Yesterday
06- Act Naturally
07-And Your Bird Can Sing
08- If I Needed Someone
09- We Can Work It Out
10- What Goes On?
11- Day Tripper

· "Rubber Soul" - The Beatles USA 1965

Rubber Soul, the ninth Capitol Records album and eleventh official US release (T-2442 & ST-2442), came out in the United States three days after the British release, and began its 59-week long chart run on Christmas Day. It topped the charts for six weeks from 8 January 1966, before dropping back. The album sold 1.2 million copies within nine days of its release, and to date has sold over six million copies in America. Like other pre-Sgt. Pepper Beatles albums, Rubber Soul differed markedly in its US and UK configurations; indeed, through peculiarities of sequencing, the US Rubber Soul was deliberately reconfigured to appear a "folk rock" album to angle The Beatles into that emerging and lucrative American genre during 1965, thanks to the addition of "I've Just Seen a Face" and "It's Only Love" (leftovers from the UK Help!) and the deletion of some of the more upbeat tracks ("Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "If I Needed Someone", and "What Goes On"). The tracks missing on the US version would later surface on the Yesterday and Today collection (with "Nowhere Man" and "What Goes On" being released on a single in the meantime). The track variation resulted in a shorter album length, clocking in at 29:59. In addition, the stereo mix sent to the US from England has what are commonly called "a false start" at the beginning of "I'm Looking Through You." The track is also slightly shorter at the end. The false starts are on every American stereo copy of the album from 1965 to 1990 and are also on the CD boxed set, The Capitol Albums Vol. 2. The US version of "The Word" is also recognisably different because it has Lennon's double-tracked vocals, an extra falsetto harmony on the left channel during the last two refrains, maracas panning to the right channel during the instrumental break and then back to the left channel and the fade is a little longer. Also, on the US mono LP of this album, the version of "Michelle" has louder percussion and the fade-out runs ten seconds longer.


01- I've Just Seen A Face
02- Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
03- You Won't See Me
04- Think For Yourself
05- The Word
06- Michelle
07- It's Only Love
08- Girl
09- I'm Looking Through You
10- In My Life
11- Wait
12- Run For Your Life

· "Help!" - The Beatles USA 1965

The North American version, the band's eighth Capitol Records album and tenth overall, includes the songs in the film plus selections from the orchestral score composed by Ken Thorne and performed by the George Martin Orchestra, which contains one of the first uses of the Indian sitar on a pop album. "Ticket to Ride" is the only song on the American release in duophonic stereo (also known as "fake stereo") reprocessed from the mono mix. This American release was a true soundtrack album, mixing the first seven songs with orchestral material from the film. Of the other seven songs that were on the British release, two were released on the US version of the next Beatles album, Rubber Soul, two were back-to-back on the next US single and then appeared on Yesterday and Today, and three had already been on Beatles VI. This album is available on CD as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 box set. This set also includes the mono version of the American release, which is purely a stereo-to-mono fold-down mix, including the "fake stereo" duophonic "Ticket To Ride" folded down to mono again, despite Capitol already having the mono mixes for the single releases of both that song and "Help!". The American version of Help! reached the number one spot on the Billboard album charts for nine weeks starting on 11 September 1965.


01- James Bond Theme (Instrumental) + Help!
02- The Night Before
03- From Me To You Fantasy (Instrumental)
04- You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
05- I Need You
06- In The Tyrol (Instrumental)
07- Another Girl
08- Another Hard Day's Night (Instrumental)
09- Ticket To Ride
10- The Bitter End/You Can't Do That (Instumental)
11-You're Gonna Lose That Girl
12- The Chase (Instrumental)

· "Beatles VI" - The Beatles USA 1965

Beatles VI is The Beatles' seventh Capitol Records release in the United States (including The Beatles' Story). It was the ninth album released into that market in less than one and a half years (Vee-Jay Records and United Artists Records also released one album each during that period). The LP was released in both mono and stereo versions, and includes two tracks recorded specifically for the North American market: "Bad Boy" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", both covers of Larry Williams songs, and both recorded on Williams' birthday (10 May 1965), marking perhaps the only time that the Beatles recorded material especially for North America. "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" was soon included on the British release of the Help! album, but "Bad Boy" was not released in the United Kingdom or anywhere else around the world until the 1966 A Collection of Beatles Oldies. Beatles VI also included the remaining six tracks left off Beatles '65 from the UK Beatles for Sale, "Yes It Is" (the B-side to the single "Ticket to Ride") features on a "duophonic" stereo remix from the original mono track and with additional echo and reverb, plus two other tracks from the forthcoming UK release of Help!: "You Like Me Too Much" and "Tell Me What You See". As on Beatles for Sale, the "Kansas City"/"Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey" medley was originally listed only as "Kansas City". After attorneys for Venice Music notified Capitol of its error, the record label was corrected, although the album cover was not. Beatles VI reached number one in Billboard for six weeks, beginning on 10 July 1965. This LP was also released in New Zealand in stereo in time for Christmas 1966. The pressing plates were obtained from EMI (UK) and are identical to their export only release. The title on the record label reads Beatles IV, and the catalogue number is PCSM 6042. This album is available on CD as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 box set in both stereo and mono mixes.


01- Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey
02- Eight Days A Week
03- You Like Me Too Much
04- Bad Boy
05- I Don't Want To Spoil The Party
06- Words Of Love
07- What You're Doing
08- Yes It Is
09- Dizzy Miss Lizzy
10- Tell Me What You See
11- Every Little Thing

· "The Early Beatles" - The Beatles USA 1965

The Early Beatles is The Beatles' sixth release on Capitol Records, and their eighth album for the American market. The album resembles more of an early compilation because all of the tracks had previously been featured on the early 1964 Vee-Jay release Introducing... The Beatles. The front cover photo for this album is the same as the back cover photo for the British LP Beatles For Sale. Vee-Jay had gained American rights to the tracks before the group became popular in America (because Capitol, the US division of EMI which owns The Beatles' record label Parlophone, had refused to release the group's records), and their releases had initially failed to chart. But after the group became popular, Vee-Jay, still having the rights to the early material, were able to re-release them in America and this time the records sold in the millions. Capitol tried to stop Vee Jay from releasing the tracks, but were not successful. In October 1964, Vee-Jay's license to distribute the Beatles recordings they possessed expired, so Capitol were finally able to get the American distribution rights for the album. Though Vee-Jay had compiled four Beatles albums in the space of just fifteen months from these sessions (all of which charted), when released on Capitol, the album still sold, but its highest chart position was only number 43, thus making it the only original Capitol or United Artists released Beatles album not to reach numbers 1 or 2 (with the exception of the Capitol documentary album, The Beatles' Story which peaked at number 7). Capitol did little to promote the album since the label merely viewed it as a replacement for the Vee-Jay LP, rather than a "new" Beatles album. The Early Beatles sold one million copies by late 1973 and was certified Gold by the RIAA on 8 January 1974. It was released in both mono and stereo versions. As no stereo masters of "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" exist, Capitol used EMI's duophonic mixes of both songs. There was also some added echo and reverb to "Twist And Shout". This album is available on compact disc as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 box set, in both mono and stereo, although the mono album mix appears to be strictly a stereo-to-mono fold-down; the song "Please Please Me" features the lyric slip-up and layering in the last verse, as issued on the stereo release and on the original stereo UK album Please Please Me. The album includes eleven of the fourteen tracks from the group's first British LP Please Please Me. Tracks not included are: "I Saw Her Standing There" (issued on Meet the Beatles!), "Misery" and "There's a Place". The latter two tracks, first issued by Capitol in 1965 on "Starline" singles, would finally get a Capitol LP release in 1980 in the American version of the Rarities album. Two other tracks originally released by Vee-Jay in America but also not included in this album were "From Me to You" (which wasn't released on an LP in America until 1973 on the compilation 1962–1966) and "Thank You Girl" (which Capitol had already released on the LP The Beatles' Second Album).


01- Love Me Do
02- Twist And Shout
03- Anna (Go To Him)
04- Chains
05- Boys
06- Ask Me Why
07- Please Please Me
08- P.S. I Love You
09- Baby, It's You
10- A Taste Of Honey
11- Do You Want To Know A Secret

domingo 22 de enero de 2012

· "Beatles 65" - The Beatles USA 1964

Beatles '65 is The Beatles' fifth Capitol release, but seventh American album. It was released in mono and stereo versions. Beatles '65 includes eight of the fourteen songs from Beatles for Sale (omitting "Eight Days a Week", "Words of Love", "Every Little Thing", "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party", "What You're Doing", and the "Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey" medley, all of which showed up later in Beatles VI). It picked up "I'll Be Back" from the UK A Hard Day's Night and also includes the single "I Feel Fine"/"She's a Woman". These latter two songs were remixed into "duophonic" [fake] stereo and drenched in reverb by Capitol Records' executive Dave Dexter, Jr. to cover up the use of the mono mixes sent from England. The mono versions of both "I Feel Fine" and "She's A Woman" were also remixed with added echo and reverb for the single and mono album release. The stereo version of "Mr. Moonlight" has a longer fadeout than the UK versions. In the US the album was a blockbuster hit, and jumped from number 98 straight to number one, making the biggest jump to the top position in the history of the Billboard Album Charts up to that time. It remained at number 1 for nine straight weeks, starting on 9 January 1965. In what may be testament to the overwhelming market appeal of the Beatles, several albums were released and promoted in America during 1965 sporting a similar title. These included Sinatra '65 by Frank Sinatra and Ellington '65 by Duke Ellington on Reprise Records, Trio '65 by jazz pianist Bill Evans on Verve Records, and Brasil '65 by Sérgio Mendes on the Beatles' own Capitol label. This album was also issued in Germany on the Odeon label. On 16 November 2004, this album was released on CD for the first time as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 box set.

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01- No Reply
02- I'm a Loser
03- Baby's in Black
04- Rock and Roll Music
05- I'll Follow the Sun
06- Mr. Moonlight
07- Honey Don't
08- I'll Be Back
09- She's a Woman
10- I Feel Fine
11- Everybody's Trying to Be my Baby