Tag Archives: The Capitol Albums

Beatles 1964 US Albums in Mono – More

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The Beatles Official site now has all the details about the November 22 release of the 8LP The Beatles 1964 US Albums in Mono box set, as well as the six LPs available individually.

There’s also a very interesting “behind the scenes” video doing the rounds with mastering engineer Kevin Reeves who cut the records at Nashville’s East Iris Studios, and Pat Kraus, Senior VP Recording Studios & Archives at UMG:

Details are also emerging of some stores getting an “exclusive” blue vinyl version of Meet The Beatles. So far these include Target in the US, Sunrise Records in Canada, HMV in the UK, the jpc chain in Germany, and FNAC stores in Belgium and France. Gotta admit it looks kind of cool:

And Andrew, over at the very good Parlogram YouTube channel, has made this handy introduction/explainer as to what these latest releases from Apple are all about:

The Beatles 1964 Capitol Albums to be Reissued on Vinyl

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Looks like the The Beatles camp is getting set to announce the vinyl re-issue of six US LP’s from released between January, 1964 and March, 1965 on Capitol and United Artists Records. They are Meet The Beatles, Something New, The Beatles’ Second Album, Beatles ’65, A Hard Days’ Night (Original Soundtrack), and The Early Beatles.

The official website briefly had pages published depicting pack shots of each album, but these have have since been taken down.

As you can see, each album comes with a replica inner sleeve from the time, and a sheet or booklet replicating the original tape box. It’s not yet known if the albums will only be available separately or if there’ll also be a box set containing all six LPs on the cards.

Speaking of those images of the tape boxes, before the pages were taken down each album had this Mastering Note text attached:

These albums were cut for vinyl from the original master tapes using a completely analog signal path and with constant reference to first generation pressings of the original albums. They were made using a Studer A80 master recorder with analog preview & program paths, and an Neumann VMS70 cutting lathe originally installed in Capitol Studios in 1971. This specific all-analog cutting technique allows faithful representation of the full musical range and dynamics present on the original tapes.

So, fully analogue AAA pressings is very welcome news. As to whether they’re the original Capitol Mono or Stereo mixes the images seem to confirm Mono as the albums above all show catalogue numbers starting with the “T” prefix – meaning Mono.

These releases tie in well with the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Beatles conquering America and the rumoured The Beatles: The First U.S. Tour re-issue of the famous Mayles brothers’ film – also expected to be announced soon.

UPDATE: It looks like an image of the box set (to be called The Beatles 1964 US Albums In Mono) has also been leaked. This confirms rumours that the box contains a bonus double disc in the form of The Beatles’ Story:

(click on images to see larger versions)

The discs will be on 180-gram vinyl cut from the original mono master tapes and will have a global release on November 22. They’ll feature faithfully replicated artwork and new four-panel inserts with essays written by American Beatle historian and author Bruce Spizer.

Some Fans Angry About The New U.S. Albums Set

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While it’s always great to have some new Beatles product, some fans are only just starting to realise that the new The U.S. Albums set is making them purchase a lot of content they probably already own.

The plea for more information by Beatlesblog reader Alex in the comments section of this post is typical of the confusion buyers face over which versions are being used on The U.S. Albums:

Can anyone out there confirm if these cds are indeed the original mixes released by Capitol. Many folks insist that only the original lp covers have been included in this box set. Further, all the mixes are from other sources, hence don’t sound at all like the original unique Capitol releases. So many stories and I simply will not be able to verify this myself without committing to this purchase. It just should not be so difficult to get this information. All of the marketing sites that I’ve seen are very vague about this issue. Any help on this would be great!

Well, to answer Alex’s query the best description we can find so far detailing exactly what the tracks are (and how they were chosen) is on the very well-informed and researched Beatles Rarity site. Happy Nat writes:

“The new set will not be using the original Capitol master tapes. Apple has cited in a press release that this would not have created the best possible listening experience due to some fidelity limitations with the Capitol mixes. These include mixes made from second, third or even fourth generation tapes and many of the songs being in a duophonic mix instead of “true” stereo (duophonic, otherwise known as “fake” or “rechannelled” stereo is a means of simulating stereo from a mono source). For this reason and with a few exceptions that I will get to in a minute, the remasters that were issued in 2009 of the British mixes will be used and enhanced with a touch of additional echo to give them a more “Americanized” sound.”

And Beatles Rarity goes on to give specific information about the methodology used to select the source of these recordings:

  1. If Capitol’s original mix on a stereo album was a duophonic mix – the true stereo UK mix remastered in 2009 was used instead (e.g. “Ticket To Ride” but lots of others that were for the most part a & b sides of singles)
  2. If Capitol’s original mix on a mono album was a “Type B” mono (i.e. reduced to mono from stereo mix) – the original UK mono mix was used instead. This would cover tracks on the mono Meet The Beatles!, The Beatles Second Album, The Early Beatles, Help! and even “Drive My Car” from Yesterday And Today.
  3. In the few cases where there was no stereo mix to use and Capitol made duophonic mixes (e.g. “She Loves You,” “P.S. I Love You” and “Love Me Do”) – the original UK mono mix was used instead.
  4. There are a few edits and mixes sent to Capitol by producer George Martin that make the US versions of certain tracks unique. Apple has confirmed that these will be remastered and included with the set. However, there is no confirmation on what specific tracks these are. I’ve annotated 5 possibilities and what’s different about the original US Capitol US mix vs. the 2009 remasters below:
    • “I’ll Cry Instead” – extra verse on mono version of A Hard Day’s Night andSomething New
    • “I’m Looking Through You” – false starts on the stereo mix of Rubber Soul
    • “I’m Only Sleeping” – backwards guitar fading up and down in different spots than UK mixes on both stereo and mono versions of Yesterday And Today
    • “Dr. Robert” – slightly longer fade on mono version of Yesterday And Today
    • “Paperback Writer” – reversed right and left channels on Hey Jude

    Of course the first two in this list were already released on the earlier Capitol box sets.

  5. For everything not covered in 1-4 above – the 2009 remasters will be used.

So, unlike the 2004 Apple box set (The Capitol Albums Vol. 1) which included four of these albums in mono and stereo, and the 2006 Apple box set (The Capitol Albums Vol. 2) containing an additional four of these albums also in mono and stereo, The U.S. Albums set will not be using the original Capitol master tapes – most of the time. And it’s this information which is getting some avid Beatle fans and collectors upset. As an example here’s an extract from an email we recieved from Bruce Hamlin who runs the Beatles Records Information Service here in Australia:

I have not received my box yet but according to all internet reports what you are getting is the American Albums artwork reproduced in 5″ format, with special attention given to ‘Yesterday And Today” having a removable cover. However the most important part of any musical format is the music, and it appears what has happend here is you end up with someone in the record company’s opinion of the best version of each song title. NOT in every case the original American Capitol mix of the songs as issued on the American original vinyl albums. Because basically we in Australia (and New Zealand) originally got the English sets of albums, the American ones had a special facination to them. Different album names, different and shorter track listings, funny sounding mixes in both mono and stereo version. Fake stereo on a lot of tracks (they called it Duophonic) and in lots of cases our singles appeared on their albums. Great mystical stuff. BUT what we now get under the misleading title of ‘American Albums’ is just the artwork, and tracklistings. NOT the  music. I will be getting a copy in a few days, but I know although the music will be great, it will not be what I thought I was buying. All we will be getting is mono and stereo versions of the American Albums running order but with mostly the 2009 UK remixes.
When will EMI/Apple/Capitol/Universal ask/employ some Beatles Fans to assist them with compiling new releases? I’m sure half a dozen fans from around the world would actually give the purchasing Beatles fans what they want and in doing so, increase the profits of the record company. God bless the bootleggers who have given us all of this stuff anyway in it’s correct format and correct sound. And at just a smidgen below the record company’s quality. No wonder people don’t buy the record company products. They are crap. It’s not the internet, or downloads or anything else. It’s the Record Companies fault.
So for once I will give a negative recomendation – ONLY buy this package if your are a completist. It is not the real thing, not what it’s title suggests.

I think you can hear the anger there.

Now, of course this cuts both ways. If the set did indeed use the original Capitol master tapes at least eight of the albums would already be in keen collectors hands because they’d most likely already have The Capitol Albums Vol. 1 from 2004, and The Capitol Albums Vol. 2 from 2006. We’d be paying again, but in a different way, for already released material. No doubt there’d be some angst around the internet about this as well.

We’re very interested in your views too.

Would you have preferred the original, nostalgic U.S. Capitol mixes, or the fresher 2009 re-mixes? Did you buy the box set (or individual albums) thinking you were getting something different to what you have?

Beatles US Albums Box