We see the phenomenon replicate time and again. Younger generations of people discovering the music of The Beatles buy their records anew. But some fans who are buying Beatles’ vinyl might be wondering why the same song might appear on two different albums.
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Well, there were essentially two competing sets of Beatles’ LPs on the market for much of the 60s. In comparison to the official releases in the United Kingdom, the American market received Fab Four albums with separate titles, artwork, and song selections.
US Late to the Party
The Beatles’ first album in the United Kingdom, Please Please Me, arrived from EMI Records in early 1963. At the time, the band’s music hadn’t spread outside of England. As such, other parts of the globe didn’t have an incentive to put out their records. The group soared in England throughout ’63. But Capitol Records, the label that held the rights to their music in the US, refused to release any of it.
In 1964, right before The Beatles visited America, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” took off on US radio. That forced Capitol’s hand. The label already had access to more than a year’s worth of the songs released in Great Britain from which to choose. As a result, they created a kind of Frankenstein monster of an LP.
They called it Meet The Beatles. This America-only LP arrived in January 1964. It included a few songs from Please Please Me, a few from With The Beatles (their second UK album), and a few songs, including “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, that were non-album singles in the UK.
Beatle Frustration
Because the UK albums usually included 14 songs, while the US versions boasted an average of 10, Capitol always had an excess of material from which to choose. As a result, they were generally able to get about three LPs’ worth of songs for every two that were released in the UK.
But The Beatles soon became frustrated with this setup. The US releases ignored the sequencing that the Fab Four intended. In some cases, Capitol would lump together songs from two different time periods. It was a great financial scenario for the label. But it didn’t represent what the group wanted.
The Beatles famously showed some of their frustration over this mess by posing for a controversial cover on the US-only Yesterday And Today in 1966. American fans heard truncated versions of classic albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver. Only in 1967 did the group finally insist that the two versions be uniform. The first album for which this held true: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
‘Mystery’ Achievement
As annoying as this practice was, we do have to give credit to Capitol for stumbling into something special on one occasion. In 1967, The Beatles released an extended play (EP) single with songs from their psychedelic movie Magical Mystery Tour. But Capitol wanted to turn it into a full album.
To do that, they tacked on several other singles that The Beatles had released during 1967, including incredible songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Penny Lane”, and “All You Need Is Love”. The American version so expertly captured the group’s musical spirit in that magical year that it eventually became accepted as canon.
You’ll surely find defenders of the American versions of the albums. And how could they really go wrong, considering they were still filled with many of the greatest songs of that era? But if you really want to hear The Beatles as they wanted to be heard, stick with EMI’s official UK LPs.
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