Classic Pop Icons

The 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ first trip to the US has been celebrated with the release of “The Beatles – The US Albums” 13-CD box set. The collection includes the series of American Beatles albums released by Capitol between 1964 and 1970, each featuring a reproduction of the original vinyl packaging. The CDs have also been re-released individually, with the exception of “The Beatles’ Story”.

The Beatles had already taken the UK by storm with two albums and several hit singles by the time they made their first visit to the US. With the US playing catch-up on the band’s musical output, the decision was taken to release albums tailor made for the US market. This box set features all thirteen unique albums released by Capitol Records in the US. The remastered mono and stereo versions of all albums are included, except for “The Beatles’ Story” and “Hey Jude,” which are presented only in stereo.

“The Beatles’ Story,” “Hey Jude,” “Yesterday and Today,” and the US versions of “A Hard Day’s Night” and Revolver” make their CD debut on this set. The remainder were previously released on “The Capitol Albums Volume 1” and “The Capitol Albums Volume 2” in 2004 and 2006, respectively.

The set isn’t simply an expanded version of the two “Capitol Albums” volumes though. The producers have taken the decision to make use of the 2009 mono and stereo remasters in many cases, replacing the duophonic (fake stereo) versions with true stereo versions, and the fold-down mono songs with true mono sources. Most of the unique US mixes are retained, but the reverb present on the original Capitol versions has been removed. These are positive changes as far as the listening experience goes, but some would no doubt have preferred the set to authentically replicate the original audio.

“The Beatles – The US Albums” does not feature “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club,” “Magical Mystery Tour,” “The Beatles (the “White Album”),” Yellow Submarine,” “Abbey Road” and “Let It Be” as they were released in the same form in the US as in the UK.

Here’s a run-down of what’s on the set:

“Meet The Beatles”

The first Capitol Records album released in the US (Vee-Jay had released “Introducing… The Beatles” shortly before) was “Meet The Beatles,” which featured recent singles and nine tracks from the UK album “With The Beatles”. The cover songs featured on “With The Beatles” were not included as it was felt that original material would be preferable.

“The Beatles Second Album”

Next up was the aptly titled “The Beatles’ Second Album” which replaced “Meet The Beatles” at the top of the US album chart. The album included the five cover songs from “With The Beatles” that hadn’t made it onto “Meet The Beatles” as well as material from recent singles, “You Can’t Do That” from the UK’s “A Hard Day’s Night” soundtrack, and the early 1964 recordings “Long Tall Sally” and “I Call Your Name”.

“A Hard Day’s Night”

The US version of “A Hard Day’s Night” featured all seven songs from the movie, the song “I’ll Cry Instead,” which was intended for but not included in the movie, and four instrumental versions of Lennon and McCartney songs (“I Should Have Known Better,” “And I Love Her,” “Ringo’s Theme,” and “A Hard Day’s Night”) arranged by George Martin.

“Something New”

“Something New” included eight songs from the UK version of “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Slow Down” and “Matchbox” from the “Long Tall Sally” EP, and the German-language version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.

The mono version included alternative versions of “Any Time At All,” “I’ll Cry Instead,” “When I Get Home,” and “And I Love Her”.

“The Beatles’ Story”

The documentary album, “The Beatles’ Story,” featured interviews, press conferences, and song snippets, including brief excerpts of the 1964 Hollywood Bowl concert.

This is the only one of the albums on the box set that is not also receiving an individual CD release, so if you want it you will need to buy the complete set or download via iTunes or Amazon.

“Beatles ’65”

“Beatles ’65” (actually released in December 1964) featured eight songs from the UK album “Beatles For Sale,” the single “I Feel Fine”/”She’s A Woman,” and “I’ll Be Back” from “A Hard Day’s Night”.

“The Early Beatles”

This album featured all the tracks that had appeared on Vee-Jay’s “Introducing…The Beatles” album (Vee-Jay’s American rights to release Beatles music had just expired).

The tracks all previously appeared on the band’s UK debut album “Please Please Me”.

“Beatles VI”

The Larry Williams’ covers, “Bad Boy” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” were recorded for this release, which also featured the remaining six tracks from “Beatles For Sale” that hadn’t been featured on “Beatles ’65,” “You Like Me Too Much” and “Tell Me What You See” from the forthcoming UK version of “Help!”, and “Yes It Is”.

“Help!”

The American version of the soundtrack to The Beatles’ second movie featured the seven songs included in the movie, including the classic title track and the brilliant “Ticket To Ride,” along with several instrumentals composed by Ken Thorne and performed by the George Martin Orchestra.

“Rubber Soul”

“Rubber Soul” is rightly regarded as one of the finest albums of the 1960s and is a real favourite among fans, so it is a little odd to view the discrepancies between the UK and the US versions. For the latter, “Drive My Car”, “Nowhere Man”, “What Goes On” and “If I Needed Someone” were removed, and “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and “It’s Only Love” from the UK version of “Help!” were added.

“Yesterday and Today”

“Yesterday and Today” featured the four songs that had been removed from “Rubber Soul,” the “Day Tripper”/”We Can Work It Out” single, and “I’m Only Sleeping”, “Doctor Robert” and “And Your Bird Can Sing” from the forthcoming UK version of “Revolver”.

The album was controversial when first released because of the so-called “butcher cover” which led to it being recalled and reissued. That cover is included on this reissue, along with a sticker of the replacement cover.

“Revolver”

This was the last of The Beatles’ UK albums that Capitol would alter for the US market. The only changes are the removal of the duplicate tracks that had appeared on “Yesterday and Today”.

“Hey Jude”

“Hey Jude” was a compilation of songs by Apple Records that had not appeared on a Capitol album to date. The compilation was originally going to be called “The Beatles Again,” but the title was changed in order to highlight the inclusion of the hit single.

You can order “The Beatles – The US Albums” now via the links below:

Title
The Beatles – The US Albums	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

If you prefer to order the albums individually, instead of the complete set, they are each listed on our New Releases page. Alternatively, you can follow the iTunes links above.