WHAT GOES ON EXCLUSIVE
By Bruce Spizer

Capitol records recently announced the November 16, 2004, release of its first four Beatles albums on compact disc in a limited edition box set. The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1 includes the four Beatles albums issued by the company in 1964: Meet The Beatles!, The Beatles’ Second Album, Something New and Beatles ’65. These were the albums that Americans grew up with not only in the sixties, but also in the seventies and eighties when these landmark albums continued to sell as catalog items introducing the Beatles to second and third generation fans. Although these albums exposed millions of Americans to the Beatles, they are sometimes criticized for not being what the Beatles intended. Beatles historians and fans have passionate feelings about these albums. Recent commentaries and postings on the internet by Beatles fans and scholars not only demonstrate the strong opinions held regarding these albums, but also show that these albums are misunderstood.

Those condemning the Capitol albums often claim that the company remixed the songs, added echo and issued everything in Duophonic fake stereo. That is simply not true. While some songs were altered, most were not. As detailed below, 38 of the 45 songs appearing on the first four Capitol albums are true stereo mixes prepared by George Martin. While the 8 stereo songs appearing on The Beatles’ Second Album have added echo, the others do not. The important thing to know is that The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1 marks the stereo debut on CD of 32 Beatles songs. Hearing George Martin’s stereo mixes of songs such as And I Love Her, If I Fell, Things We Said Today, No Reply and I’ll Follow The Sun on CD will certainly be a treat.

Some people have unfairly accused Capitol of greed when discussing the box set. Each of the four albums is presented in both mono and stereo, a decision that was made to please fans even though it increased the royalties and cut significantly into Capitol’s profits. That doesn’t sound like greed to me. It sounds more like the Beatles practice of giving fans good value for their money. (As of this date, none of the Beatles British albums have been released in both mono and stereo versions on CD.)

Most of the negative comments regarding the Capitol albums are general statements criticizing the running order of the songs and the horrendous mixes. When each album is carefully examined, it becomes clear that these albums are neither travesties nor sonic disasters.

Meet The Beatles! features the same striking Robert Freeman cover photo as the British LP With The Beatles. However, for financial and marketing reasons, Capitol made alterations to disc’s lineup. In order to save on song publishing royalties, the company limited its LP to the American standard of 12 songs rather than the British standard of 14. (In the U.K., publishing royalties are calculated on a per disc basis where each publisher shares pro-rata in the royalties paid on album sales. Thus, there is no additional cost to the record company for having extra songs. In the U.S., royalties are calculated on a per song basis. Each extra song costs the record company money. That is why the U.S. standard was a lesser number of songs.)

While Brian Epstein and producer George Martin believed that singles should not be placed on albums because it forced consumers to buy the same songs twice, Capitol believed that hit singles made hit albums. Thus, Capitol opened its first Beatles album with both sides of its Beatles single, I Want To Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There, followed by the British B side This Boy. The remaining tracks selected by Capitol were the British album’s seven Lennon-McCartney originals, George Harrison’s Don’t Bother Me and the Broadway show tune Till There Was You, a song even mom and dad could appreciate. By choosing original compositions and dropping five cover versions of songs originally recorded by American artists, Capitol could exploit the song writing talents of the group. In sequencing the songs from With The Beatles, Capitol followed the running order chosen by George Martin, except, of course, for the tracks dropped from the lineup.

Meet The Beatles! was the perfect album to introduce the group to America. Capitol’s marketing strategy of placing the hit single I Want To Hold Your Hand on the album paid off. In two months time, Meet The Beatles! sold over 3.6 million copies--ten times more than even Capitol’s most optimistic sales forecasts. The album went on to sell over 5 million copies.

It should be noted that in the early sixties, teen albums rarely sold in excess of a few hundred thousand copies. Capitol’s success with its reconfigured Beatles albums containing hit singles changed that. Record companies soon realized that well-crafted rock albums could be big sellers. A few years later, thanks to the Beatles and Capitol, the album replaced the single as the dominant pop and rock  music format.

The Beatles’ Second Album is admittedly a pieces-parts album, containing the five leftover songs from With The Beatles (Roll Over Beethoven, You Really Got A Hold On Me, Devil In Her Heart, Money and Please Mister Postman), three B sides (Thank You Girl, You Can’t Do That and I’ll Get You), two freshly recorded songs that would later end up on the British Long Tall Sally EP (Long Tall Sally and I Call Your Name) and the hit single She Loves You. That said, it is an amazingly effective album full of great rock ’n’ roll songs such as Roll Over Beethoven, Long Tall Sally, Money and Please Mister Postman anchored by the hit single She Loves You. It was number one on the Billboard Top LP’s chart for five weeks and had certified sales of over two million units.

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Published October 20, 2004