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Tracklisting & More Information
1. Can't Buy Me Love
2. You Can't Do That
Unsurprisingly, when British acetates do turn up they are invariably EMIdisc or Apple studio cuts, so it's incredible to be offering this incomparably rare Pye Group Records acetate for this 1964 release. There are, of course, well documented Pye contract pressings for this single, so it follows that acetates must have been cut for this non-EMI pressing. This 2-sided acetate features 'Can't Buy Me Love' on one side coupled with 'You Can't Do That' on the other.
The black & white labels are a simple design, headed with ADVANCE PRESSING PYE at the 12 o'clock position. The song title and artist name has been hand-written in blue ink which has darkened with age to an almost black colour. As is often the case the wet ink must have been slightly smudged once written and this feathering shows the ink as definitely being blue.
Incredibly, this acetate has remained within the same family since soon after it was cut, some 44 years ago. The original recipient was a session musician who worked occasionally at the Embassy Recording Studios in London, performing cover versions of the hits of the day for Woolworths own Embassy Records label. It was mailed to him for the sole purpose of learning to play and mimic the music for 'Can't Buy Me Love' - one usually had to have the original artist recording in order to perfect the cover version! The 'Embassy' version was released in March 1964 with The Jaybirds performing 'Can't Buy Me Love'. The B side featured Del Martin performing 'I Love You Because'. If you wish to track one down the catalogue number is WB-625.
The following extract from explains the background & history behind the Embassy Records label:-
"In 1954 Woolworths decided that they wanted to offer affordable records to those customers who could not afford the new skiffle and popular music that was sweeping the country. Building on the success of Eclipse and Crown before the war, they decided on an own label - this time for pop music. They went out to tender to various suppliers, and chose Oriole Records to supply them, under the name 'Embassy Records'. Initially Embassy Records were available only as 10 inch (25 cm) discs playing at 78rpm. Despite the dull plain brown overprinted sleeves, sales of the opening titles were very encouraging - and before long they had come up with a better design for the sleeves and a strategy to develop the label.
A broad spectrum of music would be offered:
- songs and instrumentals from films and shows
- light classical numbers, for example Gilbert and Sullivan
- children's records
- cover versions of the hits of the day, recorded by unknown artists, session musicians or (occasionally) by stars working under false names.
Before long the company added a 7 inch (17.5cm) 45 rpm record, which gradually took over from the 78s - with each record containing two hit songs, and long playing 33 rpm 12 inch (30 cm) records with ten to twenty tracks. They were very popular and sold by the million.
Customer feedback about the classical, instrumental and children's records was always positive. The cover versions attracted more controversy. Some artistes (notably Pearl Carr) were better than the people they covered for and went on to be stars in their own right. But others weren't so good. Although the Embassy Records were only about half the price of the original hits (and contained two songs) many people remember the disappointment when it turned out that 'sounds like' is no substitute for the real thing.
The challenge for Woolworths and Oriole bosses was to predict which new release songs would get into the charts (at the time called the "Hit Parade") and have cover versions ready for sale when they did. More often than not, they got it right, successfully predicting the hits. But the occasional cover song that they recorded was a bigger hit than the original that sank without trace."
This advance pressing Pye acetate is the original recording, performed, played & sung by The Beatles, not a cover band. Considering the amount of play this acetate would necessarily have been subjected to it remains in remarkably good condition. A visual grading would place it somewhere between Good and Good+. We have carefully play-graded it once through and were pleasantly surprised. There is audible surface noise & hiss during the intros on both sides, and a noticeable reduction in sound quality with slight distortion all the way through. However, there are absolutely no skips or jumps and the disc plays with a certain character reminiscent of the age. It's no audiophile experience but then this acetate as a physical artefact is arguably more important, and much rarer, than the mere quality of the audio reproduction. It's easy to find the music, but not quite so easy to find another Pye acetate!
7" RECORD
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