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Universal Music continue to exploit their newly acquired Beatles catalogue, with a comprehensive reissue of the bands output as released in North America via a 13CD The U.S. Albums box set as well as limited individual CD reissues of 12 of those Capitol Records titles.
The reissues span 1964s Meet The Beatles! to 1970s Hey Jude and are released in January 2014, exactly 50 years after the mop tops celebrated I Want To Hold Your Hand becoming their first American number one.
Key points:
Each CD in the box set will contain mono and then stereo versions of the original albums except The Beatles Story and Hey Jude which are stereo only.
The 2009 remasters have been used to create these US albums newly EQd from a 24/192 digital source alongside original 1960s U.S. master analog tapes to preserve specific mixes and edits
Each album is a mini-LP CD vinyl replica faithfully recreating original artwork including inner sleeves (think Mono box)
Yesterday And Today will use the infamous butcher cover but will come with a sticker of the trunk cover which you can choose to paste over the top!
The 13 CDs are accompanied by a 64-page booklet with Beatles photos and promotional art from the time, as well as a new essay by American author and television executive Bill Flanagan
A Hard Days Night (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), The Beatles Story, Yesterday And Today, Hey Jude, and the U.S. version of Revolver make their CD debuts with these releases.
The colourful red, white and blue box will have an inner drawer which slides into the outer box.
The uninitiated might wonder what the difference is between what The Beatles released in the UK and what was put out in the United States. Well, in the sixties, Capitol Records (EMIs American operation) famously went off-piste with their Fab Four releases, and didnt just echo the official Parlophone issues. The US label created completely different Beatles albums (Meet The Beatles, Yesterday And Today) or chopped, amended or edited familiar titles (Help!, Revolver). It wasnt uncommon for tracks from one British release to be spread across three separate US titles.
Also, it was common practice in the UK to leave singles off albums to give value to the pop picker, but that wasnt something that troubled Capitol executives collective consciences, and all the big hit 45s were bolted on to the various long players. The US eventually fell into line with the UK and from 1967 starting with Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band the albums were always identical (although the Magical Mystery Tour (1967) and Hey Jude (1970) LPs were still unique Capitol creations).
Obviously, the US releases will have great resonance to anyone who grew up buying them in that part of the world, but for collectors and Beatles enthusiasts outside America, they still represent something of a treasure trove, with lots of alternative and unique mixes found dotted across the individual albums both in mono and stereo (sometimes duophonic or fake stereo). Most of the quirks of the original Capitol audio fake stereo and added reverb and the like will not feature on these reissues because Apple are reverting to the 2009 remasters. However according to this article unique edits or mixes that were supplied to the US by George Martin have been maintained. So the track listings have been recreated by a mix of 2009 core catalogue remasters and original 1960s Capitol analogue master tapes. and EQ more in line with the US audience of the 1960s has been applied.
The following CDs are in the box (see full track listing below)
Meet The Beatles!
The Beatles Second Album
A Hard Days Night (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Something New
The Beatles Story
Beatles 65
The Early Beatles
Beatles VI
Help! (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Rubber Soul
Yesterday And Today
Revolver
Hey Jude
The U.S. Albums box set and the individual reissues are released on 20 January 2014.
ThaiProg
