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Tracklisting & More Information
Does this Treasure Chest live up to expectations ? Yes!
You even get a Trunk Cover sticker for your Yesterday And Today with the withdrawn Butcher sleeve art, so you can do the reverse of what people have spent over 45 years trying to do and create your own pasteover version!
You all know that the LP releases in the UK did not match the US until Pepper. This led to some interesting anomalies. The most obvious one was the release of three tracks from the UK Revolver on Yesterday And Today, months prior to the UK release. By the time these were finally released in the UK, the tracks had undergone modification and sounded noticably different. This is also why the US Revolver has eleven tracks, not fourteen.
I'm listening right now. Crisp, clean, instruments separated and bright. You can now hear when double tracked vocals kick in, when reverb starts & stops, the acoustic underneath the string quartet in Yesterday. Wow ! This is nice.
If what I've heard so far is typical, they sound glorious.
Let's move on to the 'Why You NEED This Box Set' section ...
Apart from the jaw dropping beauty of the contents, the five previously unreleased albums and exclusive booklet, there are many differences between the UK versions & these.
By the time Capitol got round to start issuing Beatles records in earnest, the band had already released four singles and an LP. Some US tracks were originally issued through smaller record labels as Capitol hesitated before deciding to take The Beatles on.
The result was albums with less tracks, often with single releases & sonic tweaking. Sometimes, it's a matter of taste. Other times, such as the transformation of the US Rubber Soul, it works well.
Sometimes the mixes are different, or different takes, or it seems to have been the unmixed masters if their old eight track cartridge catalogue is anything to go by.
Now, at last, [with the possible exception of some of the US mixes of MMT] we have it all. There's still scope for a combined UK/US 'Rarities' release of some kind, I notice. We can but hope.
Obvious differences:
The extra reverb on some tracks. This all but disappears by Beatles VI.
On Meet The Beatles, the Capitol mixes were actually taken from the UK stereo masters, completely different to the UK mono and stereo versions. The mono single mix of I Want To Hold Your Hand & This Boy were used for both stereo and mono. You can really hear this and the mixes are very different.
On The Beatles Second Album, Capitol played much the same game. Long Tall Sally is actually a later mix than used in the UK, I Call Your Name, an earlier one. The stereo mix of Thank You Girl was not issued in the UK. Money has an extra Piano overdub. The stereo mixes of the tracks on the Long Tall Sally EP remained unissued in the UK until remixed for Rock And Roll Music, finally appearing on Past Masters.
A Hard Day's Night & Help! contained film incidental music not issued in the UK. There are subtle differences between the songs and their UK versions, but mostly it follows the UK formats.
Something New ? I'll Cry Instead is a different edit stereo mix with an extra verse. And I Love Her loses double tracking on the vocal. If I Fell has the mono mix with a fixed vocal. The German I Want To Hold Your Hand was not released in the UK. For a change, they mostly used the UK stereo mixes for the stereo version.
On Beatles 65, I'll Be Back is slower with more echo. I Feel Fine & She's A Woman are a different mix. For stereo, they mostly used the UK mixes or duophonic for singles.
On The Early Beatles, the mono is built from the UK stereo masters, so different. For stereo, they used the UK stereo masters and rechannelled the mono single tracks.
For Beatles VI, it was mostly the UK mono & stereo mixes throughout.
On Rubber Soul, the stereo spread of some songs is different, particularly the double tracked vocals & the false start to I'm Looking Through You that is missing on the UK version. A different mix of Michelle is evident in the mono version too. The Word is wildly different to the UK stereo.
Yesterday And Today has unique mixes of I'm Only Sleeping, Doctor Robert & And Your Bird Can Sing, as a result of Capitol being supplied with them months before the UK release. Mostly the mono mixes are derived from the UK stereo, but there are oddities like the mix of We Can Work It Out & a unique stereo mix of Day Tripper.
Revolver was pretty much the same as the UK version but with three less songs.
Enough of this waffle. Buy it. Listen to it & remind yourself why they are still the Greatest band of all time. Review by RTA
The Beatles: The U.S. Albums
Presented in mono and stereo, except where noted as stereo only
CD1 | Meet The Beatles!
[Capitol Records: released January 10, 1964; 11 weeks at No. 1]
CD2 | The Beatles’ Second Album
[Capitol Records: released April 10, 1964; five weeks at No. 1]
CD3 | A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
[United Artists: released June 26, 1964; 14 weeks at No. 1]
CD4 | Something New
[Capitol Records: released July 20
CD ALBUM BOX SET
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