How Capitol Records Punked Beatles Vinyl Collectors

Did you know U.S. Beatles albums from 1963 to 1966 are vastly different from their U.K. counterparts? In this video, I uncover how Capitol Records reshaped the Beatles' discography for American audiences with shortened versions of albums, shuffled songlists and reworked (inferior) album covers. This video shows the difference between the UK versions, now the standard for downloads and CDs, and why these changes happened and who is to blame. Learn why the American music industry doubted the Beatles initially -- and how to spot the key differences between U.S. and U.K. vinyl versions today, then see how songs were shuffled across albums with a detailed visual presentation.

I've been a seasoned Beatles fan for decades, having grown up on the UK standardized versions of their studio albums. This has confused me for years. So I did this to understand better.

Robert’s Record Corner plays vinyl records and talks about them every other Monday, at least.

Discussed:

The Beatles
John Lennon
Capitol Records
Dave Dexter Jr
Mrs Mills
British Invasion
Vinyl Records
Vinyl Collecting

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FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Robert's Record Corner (RRC) uses this material for critical, educational and commentary purposes only -- all with the goal of promoting music knowledge and appreciation. RRC believes that this constitutes a “fair use” of the copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, which provides allowance for "fair use" for purposes such as news reporting, criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

[gretschviking]

Part 2 of my response:


8. Yes. Both "Bad Boy" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" were recorded specifically for the North American market. Why? Because Capitol requested them for "Beatles VI". EMI London and the Beatles also sent Capitol the yet-to-be-released "You Like Me Too Much" and "Tell Me What You See" for inclusion on that album. Again, we got stuff before the UK. I love that. So, if the US releases were such a thorn in their side, why did the Beatles say yes to Capitol's request? Also, a nice touch is how conveniently "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" rounded off the UK "Help!" LP. Had Capitol not requested those two songs, what would have been in it's place? "That Means Alot"? "Wait"? "If You Got Trouble"? "I'm Down"? "Yes It Is"?

9. Yup. The US "Help!" is a soundtrack. More so than the US "A Hard Day's Night" as everything, including the stupid instrumentals, actually appear in the movie. Comes with a nice gate fold cover. What was screwed up is EMI London sent only stereo dubs, so, Capitol had to create a fold down mono version from those tapes. Same thing happened with the tapes EMI sent of the "With The Beatles" and "Please Please Me" albums. No one knows why they did that, so, until blame for that stupidity is found, it all falls on EMI London.

10. Many people prefer the US "Rubber Soul" to the UK (I'm not one of them). They like the more "folk" feel of the American version. Whatever floats their boat-

11. "Yesterday...And Today" is the best of the US albums.Three songs slated for the upcoming "Revolver" album find their way alternate mix form. Once again, I love when we get things before everyone else. So, I ask again, why did the Beatles / EMI allow this? In 1964, they told Capitol to cool it with the amount of releases they were churning out in such a short period. Yet, they sent early rough mixes of songs for albums they didn't want to exist? In September, 1965, "Yesterday" / Act Naturally" were released as a US single and reached #1. Yes. By June, 1966, they were many months old. Just like the UK EPs "The Beatles No. 1", "The Beatles Million Sellers", "Yesterday" (Parlophone felt left out with the title being a huge hit in America and other countries), "Nowhere Man" (Ditto). They all contained songs which were many months old. 

12. To this day, many original US fans still have no clue about the UK releases. So, saying "the version of "Revolver" you know and love is the UK" is incorrect. I didn't find out about the British releases until 1978 and what an eye opening experience it was. However, the US albums outsold every UK release and the Beatles sure as hell never turned down the royalties as a protest against Capitol taking of which, the Beatles and EMI enabled.

13. The US "Sgt. Pepper" lacks the dog whistle and inner groove nonsense after "A Day In The Life". Ask Parlophone, after years of selling so well in the UK, why the US "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Hey Jude" albums released in England in 1976 and 1979, respectively.

14. The track listings on the US Stones albums make more sense? How? Every one of their American albums through early 1966 were released in mono and "electronically reprocessed stereo" (the Stones in both formats sound horrible). Capitol never did that with the Beatles. The London Records Stones albums were altered so they could be loaded up with singles which were not included on the UK LPs. Same practice utilized by Capitol, Decca, MGM, Epic etc etc etc etc. The only reason both versions have been available is because the Stones love money more than the Beatles and saw the opportunity to cash in (which I'm happy they did). Since 2004, the latter has been catching up re-releasing the American albums.

15. Capitol didn't do a service to us collectors? You're joking, right? With all those picture sleeves, label variations, mono and stereo pressings, cover alterations, the BUTCHER COVER etc? Sorry. I wholeheartedly disagree. Thankfully, many regions of the world had their own versions of the albums and singles. I LOVE finding all different types of stuff! If everything were uniform, collecting would be snoozer central.

[IainRobertson-hm]

Robert, you're a diamond. Love your work. I'll be in touch x

[mattharwood]

I was a kid growing up in the U.S. when the Capitol Albums came out. I still have our well worn Vee-Jay single and some Capitol singles. I'm not as down on the Capitol Albums. The first full Beatle's album my parents bought was Revolver in Mono (on Capitol of course). I got The Beatles Second Album as a young teen. It ROCKS! I just got the new Mono repress of Meet The Beatles. It cranks. Its a blast! I appreciate that they were put together for kids to play loudly and dance to on their crappy record players and AM radio (Rock did not make FM until the 70's). These records had to crank. They were not being played on sound systems like we have now. We didn't have access to the UK versions until I was an adult. The first time I heard them was when the CDs came out. I was 27. So I guess you had to be there to get the context.

[bryandavidson]

I come from the Uk, and what you are saying is very true. As a collector, and I don't have many capital albums, you have opened my eyes up. Great video

[jtlynn]

The building in Chicago where Vee-Jay was based is now a combination coffee shop and coworking space. The coffee shop has a ton of memorabilia including album covers on the wall, and yes-- "Introducing" is there.

[essexboy]

Im from England so i obviously grew up listening to the uk versions, but by the early 80s my local indie record strore (pop in records) was selling the us versions, so being a fan i bought these, i loved the US take on the track listings, the echo, etc...and i still play regularly YESTERDAY AND TODAY. But in hindsight they should have kept to the same versions as the UK. Great channel by the way.

[iain-northpole]

'Yesterday and Today' kinda works for me. (possibly some of the mixes are different as well).

[graemeking]

Dude...
This story has been told SO MANY TIMES.

[TooMuchBrass]

I discovered this back in the 80s when I got the US versions on cassette. I didn't know there was a difference until the local record store started selling UK versions on cassette. I was confused at first, but discovered quickly what was going on. At the time I found this quite odd. I also noticed that Sgt. Pepper was the first standard album. I always thought about doing a video on this. Now I don't have to. Thank you for the information. Most people don't notice this unless your a true fan.

[TheAerovons]

"Wait" and " I've Just Seen a Face" actually fit Rubber Soul much better than they do "Help"...

[bh]

Please compare Beatles UK albums with Australia's Beatles albums.

[LarryGonzalez]

I like the AHDN United Artists soundtrack. The mono version is the only time the longer version of I'll Cry Instead was officially released and I enjoy George Martin's instrumentals.

[ChristopherLightfoot-zukb]

For me growing up in the 70s in the UK and being a second generation Beatles fan, I remember buying a book (which I still have) all about the Beatles discography. Chapter 1 was all the UK releases, Chapter 2 was all the US releases and chapter 3 was international releases and recording oddities such as the high hat intro on All My Loving that only appeared on a Germany release of With The Beatles. I was totally amazed and being only familiar with the UK discography, wanted to have as many foreign versions as possible. This was pre CD era and of course pre internet so one could on, y hope to find such copies in any second hand record store. Import prices were mostly up to double the amount of a UK album so that was out of my budget.
Fast forward to today and having just recently bought individually the reissued US Capitol albums on vinyl, I must say…the word Novelty comes to mind. They are nice to have and the art work looks great and they sound pretty much the same as my UK mono albums. Within 25 minutes the album is finished as opposed to the UK albums averaging 10 minutes longer. Are they worth having? I guess it’s take it or leave it but I’m glad I have them nevertheless.

[kennedyland]

I just bought the new Capitol/Apple release of the mono version of 1964's, Meet the Beatles. In 1964 I was 14 years old and had no knowledge about how Capitol handled the Beatles albums, Frankly, it's all rather academic because in the mid-6o's none of it mattered. Along with millions of other kids, I just bought the albums for one singular reason - they were records by the Beatles - and that was all we needed. Frankly, nobody cared about song placement, repetition of songs from one album to another, quantity of songs per album or anything like that. All of this is after-the-fact. Yes, Capitol made a lot of money doing it their own way but so what? Nobody forced us to buy the records, For me, Meet the Beatles (their first, second, whatever album) was pure joy. Remember the context - just a few weeks prior to its release, President Kennedy had been murdered. We were in a deep funk. We needed a release, we needed something to pull us out of that funk. The Beatles delivered it, Flawed album? It's all perspective. For those of us who were alive and there when the Beatles entered our lives, those records were magic.

[bandcouver]

Not to mention the titles for some of the US albums were pretty unimaginative: 'Second Album', 'Something New', '65', the sound quality suffered in some cases, especially with the stereo versions. You may already know this, but, Capitol In Canada had been releasing Beatles singles since early 1963, and then released the first North American Beatles album in late November 1963 called 'Beatlemania! With The Beatles' with the same 14 tracks as the original UK 'WTB' version. Capitol in Canada also released 2 other albums in 1964: 'Twist & Shout'-also with 14 tracks, but, replaced 'I Saw Her Standing There' & 'Misery' with 'From Me To You' & 'She Loves You' and: the rather sad and dubious 'Long Tall Sally' album, ( with the same cover art as the US 'Second Album' ), with only 12 tracks
, ( most US Beatles albums, between 1964 and 1966, had only 11 tracks on them with the exception of 'Meet The Beatles', 'A Hard Day's Night Soundtrack' and 'Rubber Soul' ). The 'Long Tall Sally' album included the 2 songs missing from the 'Twist & Shout' album and, unfortunately, 4 songs already released on the 'Beatlemania!' album along with the b-side of 'She Loves You' ( 'I'll Get You' ) and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. The third and final Canadian Beatles album was a mess. But by then, Capitol in the US told Capitol of Canada to 'cease and desist' releasing any more Beatles albums. Capitol in the US did do something right with making 'Magical Mystery Tour' an album, ( as opposed to a double ep set in the UK ) with the film's songs on one side and the singles on the B-side. Even though the fake stereo on the last 3 tracks on side 2 were annoying. Thankfully, that was corrected when the album was released on CD. Before that, you had to shell out for the German version of the album to get the proper stereo versions of "Penny Lane', 'Baby You're A Rich Man' and 'All You Need Is Love'.

[douglaslangdon]

I dunno....some of the Stones London albums were so slapdashedly assembled that Flowers contained three songs that had already appeared on other studio albums : "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" (on Between the Buttons) and "Lady Jane" (Aftermath); while other songs ( "I Can't Be Satisfied", "Sad Day", "Long Long While", "Who's Driving Your Plane" and "What to Do") never received an American album release in the 1960s

[david_g_barron]

The US Albums shows that Capitol cared more about commerce than artistic vision, and it is strange that Apple Corps have just released the 1964 Mono US Albums Box Set on Vinyl, considering that they have spent most of their time since 1987 stating that the Canon is the UK Albums, US Magical Mystery Tour with Past/Mono Masters making up the rest.

There is also another reason why Dave Dexter Jr decided to dishonour John Lennon in December 1980, and must have known about John Lennon’s radio interview with Dennis Elsas in September 1974 where John was dissing the US Albums, and it would have been by that stage that the UK Albums would have been readily available in US Record Stores as Imports.

What is not mentioned is that The Beatles signed a nine year contract in January 1967 for nine years with EMI which basically stopped Capitol from slicing and dicing the UK Albums forever, so every album from Sgt Pepper onwards would be released the same way globally. This was a game changer not just for The Beatles, but for all other artists as once The Beatles got control over what would be released globally, then many other artists demanded and got the same thing, and that is why from 1967 onwards with a few exceptions the UK Albums by many different artists were considered canon.

Rolling Stones, well ABKCO have really been clever in their use of the back catalogue, in that it is now led by Jody Klein, son of Allen in making both the UK and USA Canon giving it a best of both worlds scenario in having both the UK and US Albums available globally, and it looks like Jody Klein is more honest than his father was in terms of righting a wrong in the 1964-67 UK Albums being really difficult to buy anywhere brand new for decades until 2002.

The Who and The Kinks, well their UK Studio Albums are now considered canon as all of their albums have been released with bonus tracks on CD, in the case of The Who, the UK Version of My Generation being released on CD in 2002 as a deluxe version, then Super Deluxe a decade later. Waiting For A Quick One to be given the Deluxe and Super Deluxe of this to come out.

The Kinks UK Studio Albums have all been released with bonus tracks, then as Deluxe Versions, and in the case of their 1966 album Face to Face, Reprise in the US released it as Pye in the UK had released it at the time, which must have made it the first US Album to have the same track listing as the UK.

However something must have changed radically at Capitol from 1966 onwards as within a few years they signed Quicksilver Messenger Service, Steve Miller and The Band, so there must have been a realisation that Artistic Vision had to come in hand in hand with Commerce, and the possibility that younger executives and A&R people were hired to allow artists who would have hated their material being treated in the same way as The Beatles did in the US.

[tuckertastictk]

I grew up listening to cassette copies of my dads capitol vinyl, so I have a soft spot for those albums. Aside from Revolver, which my dad had the UK version on cd.

[Cove-od]

I did not like Dexter's formula on the song Thank You Girl. The single version is fine. Not a great tune like Come Together in 1969, but just a simple tune in 1963 or 1964 in the US and Canada.

[mitlab]

What happened to The Early Beatles LP?