Hear the Beatles Tell All – British Charly Records Re-Issue

Posted on February 27, 2014 by beatlesblogger

With the Beatles 50th anniversary of the arrival in the US now well under way, it was intriguing to come across a re-issued example of one of the earliest efforts to cash in on that US success.

Hear the Beatles Tell All was an interview disc which consisted of two lengthy conversations between the Beatles and Los Angeles radio disc jockeys. On Side One Dave Hull interviews John Lennon, while Side Two was titled “Jim Steck interviews John, Paul, George, Ringo”. No Beatles music was included on this interview album, rather a quite odd but jazzy percussion backing edited and scored by Lou Adler, and played by then top LA session drummer named Hal Blaine.

Originally released in September, 1964 on the Vee-Jay Records label, what we have here is a 1981 re-issue by the British record label Charly Records:

Charly Records have faithfully reproduced the cover. If you have the original Vee-Jay release the label will look like this:

But if it is a fake, you might have this:

Beatles Launch Official “U.S. Albums” Website

Posted on January 22, 2014 by beatlesblogger

The 50th year has kicked off with a bang – the big release of the Beatles The U.S. Albums in a 13 album box set, and as individual titles on CD or digital download. Yesterday the Beatles official website unveiled a new interactive page dedicated to the release (just click on the image below to go there):

Meanwhile on YouTube, this guy was amonst the very first to get a copy of the box set and upload an “unboxing” video showing the contents in detail:

All These Years – Tune In – Extended Special Edition Unboxing

Posted on December 22, 2013 by beatlesblogger

We’ve finally secured a copy of Mark Lewisohn’s Extended Special Edition of The Beatles: All These Years Vol.1: Tune In. The box-set book has been out of stock in Australia for a few weeks, but new supplies have arrived.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is an unboxing of this treasure of packaging and the fine art of book-binding. The set comes in shrink-wrap. Here’s the front and side of the main outer box:

And the rear:

The base of the box (still in its shrink-wrap) carries some interesting information:

Sean Garrehy designed the box set. He’s Art Director at LBBG (Little Brown Book Group) – the UK publishers. Mike Wykes is the owner of Handmade Press, an art and design studio based in Leicester in the UK. As you’ll see later the hand-written design elements of the box set are in Lewisohn’s own writing.

Using a razor blade to carefully remove the shrink-wrap from the base of the box you can slide it up and off:

This reveals the two hardback volumes (together totalling 1728 pages) making up the extended text of All These Years Vol.1: Tune In. These sit inside an inner, three-sided cardboard holder:

So far, so good. This is an impressively packaged and presented item. Here are the three sides of the inner holder. First the right-hand side:

The left side:

And the rear panel:

When you remove the two books there’s more detail on the inside of the holder. On the right-hand side is a map of Liverpool:

On the rear panel just the word “Why?”:

And on the left a pic and short bio of Mark Lewisohn:

The books themselves are great. Very understated, but oozing quality and all the hallmarks of the bookmakers art. Lewisohn’s website says that they’re printed on New Langely Antique Wove woodfree paper, with red-and-white head and tail bands and red ribbon marker. The covers are very textured, deeply embossed and look good. One comes in dark grey, the other in red:

Inside there are more photo sections than in the standard editions (and hence more photos) – and many of the photos are laid out in a different way. Here are a couple of examples:

For a comparison between this special edition and the standard UK release here they are standing side-by-side:

Now that we have it we can’t wait for the holiday season to begin so that we can start ploughing through this baby! All the reviews so far agree: this is the definitive Beatles biography, bar none. And it’s beautiful to boot.

See also the UK and US standard editions compared.

The Beatles in America – New Limited Edition Book

Posted on November 16, 2013 by beatlesblogger

We’re a bit slow in discovering this. There’s a new book released in conjunction with the Smithsonian and Grammy Museums to celebrate the 50th anniversary next year of the Beatles conquering America.

It features articles by Ringo Starr, Smokey Robinson, Brian Wilson, Lester Bangs and Mikal Gilmore amongst others, plus previously unpublished photos.

With the price of just US$9.99 (plus postage) it seems like a bargain and worth getting.

The book being described as a “Limited Edition”. You can order The Beatles in America online direct for the Smithsonian store.

The Bloody Beetroots and Paul McCartney – Vinyl Single

Posted on November 10, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Remember this post about Paul McCartney and Youth teaming up with Italian dance punk performer Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo (a.k.a. The Bloody Beetroots)?

Well, our limited edition and numbered copy of the vinyl single “Out of Sight” has just arrived:

Things to note on the rear cover are the song and recording credits…..

….the Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo (SBCR) logo and the McCartney signature…..

……and the hand-written limited edition number:

The single is taken from the Bloody Beetroot CD Hide, released in September:

George Harrison – Early Takes Clear Vinyl Ltd. Ed.

Posted on November 9, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Ain’t the Internet marvelous? It just keeps on revealing stuff you never knew.

Like the fact that George Harrison’s Early Takes Vol. 1 (released on CD and vinyl LP in May last year) has been issued in a limited edition, “translucent green” clear vinyl version as well.

At beatlesblogger.com we like to think we keep pretty close tabs on what is happening release-wise in the Beatles world, but this was news to us:

Apparently this came out at the same time (or just after) the original, black vinyl release. It’s a limited edition LP, pressed on 180 gram clear vinyl and issued by Universal Music. Only 500 copies were pressed.

There are a couple of copies for sale on Ebay at the moment – but (predictably) they are pretty expensive.

However, a quick trawl around the web found that Universal Music itself is still selling copies at their official UK vinyl site. In fact they are even on sale at the moment, reduced from £24.99 to £17.49.

If you, like us, are George Harrison completists you’d best be quick.

Mark Lewisohn “Tune In” Book Competition – We Have a Winner

Posted on November 9, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Thanks to everyone who entered our Mark Lewisohn The Beatles: All These Years Volume One: Tune In competition.

We asked the question: “How old was Paul McCartney when John Lennon invited him to join his group The Quarry Men?” The correct answer was that Paul was fifteen years old.

Our winner is John from Roebling, New Jersey in the United States.

Congratulations John. The US publishers Crown Archetype will be sending a copy of the book your way very soon. Enjoy!

The next date to watch out for is November 14 and the release of the extended special edition of the book.

More soon…..

The Beatles: Tune In – US and UK Edition Comparison…and a Competition!

Posted on November 2, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Part One of Mark Lewisohn’s new biography of the Beatles is now out in two separate hard cover editions – one for the United States market, and one for the UK.

So, how are they similar – and how do they differ?

Here are some photos to show you in a direct side-by-side comparison. The UK edition is 946 pages. It appears on the left. The US edition is 932 pages and it appears on the right:

The book spines with their dust jackets on:

And without:

There’s an interesting and as-yet unexplained design element about the spines. On both dust-jackets you can see the word “All”. My guess is that Volume 2 will have the the word “These”, and Volume 3 will have the word “Years”. When they are eventually lined up on our bookshelves they will collectively read “All These Years”.

The UK edition gets fancy end papers, front and rear. The front ones show pictures of a youthful John and Paul:

The rear has George and Ringo. It is a nice additional design touch:

The US edition has plain end papers. Here are the title pages. First, the UK edition:

And the US:

You’ll be pleased to know that despite the design and layout differences the contents are exactly the same. Both have the same text and chapters, and both have three sections with pages of historic photographs – some of which have never been previously published.

In the UK The Beatles: All These Years Volume One: Tune In is published by Little Brown. In the Unites States the book is published by Crown Archetype.

Now, the people at Crown Archetype have kindly given Beatles Blog a US edition of the book to give away to a lucky reader. All you need to do is answer this simple question:

How old was Paul McCartney when John Lennon invited him to join his group The Quarry Men?

The first correct answer to reach beatlesblogger @ gmail . com will win a US copy of Mark Lewisohn’s book – kindly provided by publishers Crown Archetype.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery – Part 3

Posted on October 20, 2013 by beatlesblogger

A couple of posts ago we featured some of the album covers which blatantly copied or where perhaps inspired by the Beatles Let It Be. That followed this fairly similar copy from back in 2010 of the cover for their compilation The Beatles Number 1.

Now it’s time for the White Album.

Released in 1968, its cover was a simple and stark contrast to the visual complexity of the Sgt Pepper LP which (at least in Britain) immediately preceded it:

Since that austere, one-colour look with absolutely minimal text there has been more than a few followers to have worked the same theme. Here, in no particular order, are just some of the many: