Capitol Boxes Up Early Beatles Albums
The Beatles’ first four U.S. albums — “Meet the Beatles,” “The Beatles Second Album,” “Something New” and “Beatles ’65” — will be bundled together in the boxed set “The Capitol Albums Volume 1,” due Nov. 16. All were originally released in 1964 as Beatlemania swept the United States.
“In the ’60s, American record labels often chose to reformat British records to suit the needs of the U.S. market,” says Capitol president Andy Slater. “In America, singles were generally included on current albums, where in the U.K. albums and singles were most often separate releases. Higher music publishing costs in the U.S. also made it impractical to include as many songs on American albums. In addition, in the case of the Beatles, some of the recordings on the American albums were given more echo than the British versions, to ‘Americanize’ their sound.”
The albums, which have been remastered from the original tapes, include stereo and mono versions of each song. Each album is housed in a miniature replica of its original album cover, while the box will feature a 48-page booklet chronicling the Beatles’ unprecedented 1964.
“Meet the Beatles” (originally issued Jan. 20, 1964, in the United States) begins with what was at the time the group’s latest single, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” and its U.S. and U.K. B-sides, “I Saw Her Standing There” and “This Boy.” The bulk of the remaining tracks were taken from the U.K. version of the album “With the Beatles.”
“The Beatles Second Album” (April 10, 1964) is a grabbag of such tracks as the “She Loves You” single and its B-side “I’ll Get You,” additional songs from “With the Beatles,” cuts from the “Long Tall Sally” EP and a German version of “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
“Something New” (July 20, 1964) includes eight songs from the soundtrack to the Beatles’ first film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” although not the title track or “Can’t Buy Me Love.” The album was denied the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Top LPs chart by the movie’s proper soundtrack, issued by United Artists.
“Beatles ’65” (Dec. 15, 1964) boasts the “I Feel Fine”/”She’s a Woman” single, the “A Hard Day’s Night” leftover “(I’ll Be Back)” and eight songs from the U.K. album “Beatles for Sale,” including three particularly dark John Lennon tunes, “No Reply,” “I’m a Loser” and “Baby’s in Black.”
It is unknown if Capitol plans to re-release additional titles such as “Beatles VI” or “Yesterday … and Today.”
Here is the track list for “The Capitol Albums Vol. 1”
“Meet the Beatles”:
“I Want To Hold Your Hand”
“I Saw Her Standing There”
“This Boy”
“It Won’t Be Long”
“All I’ve Got To Do”
“All My Loving”
“Don’t Bother Me”
“Little Child”
“Till There Was You”
“Hold Me Tight”
“I Wanna Be Your Man”
“Not a Second Time”
“The Beatles Second Album”:
“Roll Over Beethoven”
“Thank You Girl”
“You Really Got a Hold on Me”
“Devil in Her Heart”
“Money”
“You Can’t Do That”
“Long Tall Sally”
“I Call Your Name”
“Please Mr. Postman”
“I’ll Get You”
“She Loves You”
“Something New”:
“I’ll Cry Instead”
“Things We Said Today”
“Any Time At All”
“When I Get Home”
“Slow Down”
“Matchbox”
“Tell Me Why”
“And I Love Her”
“I’m Happy Just To Dance With You”
“If I Fell”
“Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand”
“Beatles ’65”:
“No Reply”
“I’m a Loser”
“Baby’s in Black
“Rock and Roll Music”
“I’ll Follow the Sun”
“Mr. Moonlight”
“Honey Don’t”
“I’ll Be Back”
“She’s a Woman”
“I Feel Fine”
“Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby”
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