Beatles 1987 cd Packaging and Manufacture Questions in USA

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by RnRmf, Aug 21, 2017.

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  1. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    I seem to recall reading this occurred shortly after the long-running lawsuit vs EMI was settled, though I can’t find a reference to that online at the moment. Perhaps it’s A “Beatle Urban Myth”...
     
  2. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    I seem to recall, too that I did not see the Apple Logo until the 1st CD versions of the Red and Blue albums, too.
     
  3. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    There was mention of the Apple EP? Is this the one?, which I also have:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  4. Morton LaBongo

    Morton LaBongo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manchester NH
    Yep that is the one I have. The middle slides out and had the EP in it I believe. The stems were notorious for breaking off, just as the photo illustrates. This is when the Apple logo started to emerge again (in the US at least). Like Mr. Jinks says in his post, I seem to recall this had something to do with a lawsuit being settled, I thought it was Beatles Apple vs. Apple Computers, but I could be wrong. I know they did at one point have a protracted legal battle.
     
  5. numer9

    numer9 Beatles Apologist

    Location:
    Philly Burbs
    I think all four sound horrid.
     
  6. numer9

    numer9 Beatles Apologist

    Location:
    Philly Burbs
    Bought all first day of release. First two made in W. Germany, AHDN USA, BFS Japan, Help W.Germany and the rest USA.
     
  7. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    I will agree, the apple stem got either bent from the shrink wrap, or was just apt to fray or bend. Kind of like the USB Apple, there were "stem" issues there as well.
    I thought this EP was analogous to the "Our First Four" single promo set of 1968, only Hey Jude and The Black Dyke Mills Band were swapped out for Billy Preston and Badfinger.
     
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  8. davers

    davers Forum Resident

    Are the White Album and Let It Be discs for the US market as well? If so i'd say they're relatively scarce as the post-Sgt. Pepper rollouts were much more likely to be US pressings.

    US presing plants were finally coming up to speed for handling domestic capacity as 1987 progressed.
     
  9. Martyn

    Martyn Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ
    I bought all my Beatles 87 CD's when they 1st came out as well. I was looking forward to them & enjoyed them all, I was disappointed that the 1st 4 were Mono at the time, wanted Stereo. I probably bought them all on release day, if I didn't, at least release week. Mine are all made in the USA except Help, which was made in Germany for some reason. My White Album is numbered as well. I noticed just finished looking at them that Please Please Me has a booklet in dark blue, a supplement that shows all the CD's in the pages. Plus it shows the EP's release and box set release in it as well. I don't know if this was inserted by me at a later time or it came with Please Please Me originally, but it's printed in the UK with the Capitol & Apple logos on the back of this insert as well.

    I forgot that they even came in long boxes until I saw the scans in this thread, they looked familiar, so yes mine were in long boxes as well. But at the time long boxes were around they were just considered trash at the time, you tore through them just to get the CD, personally I don't see any need for them, still don't. Of course it was great for the stores, they did not have to get new racks where there records once were. For the life of me I can't remember where I purchased these, maybe Tower, Zia Records, Circuit City?
     
  10. fogalu

    fogalu There is only one Beethoven

    Location:
    Killarney, Ireland
    I've asked this before but does anyone know if the 2009 Beatle digipaks fit into the 1987 CD breadbox?
     
  11. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    “The Beatles - The Catalogue”, perhaps? I have that as well, stored with my original Red & Blue cd issues - so that’s likely when that originated. Can post pics, if desired...
     
  12. Martyn

    Martyn Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ
    Yes, it is that. I never did purchase the Red & Blue sets though, I never saw the point to buy that, except to get some tracks in stereo from the "Red" one, so never got.
     
  13. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    Hmm. Maybe they just threw them in with ALL releases around that timeframe. It certainly wouldn’t have been early on, because the singles and ep boxes didn’t come out until much later...
     
  14. These are the pressing plants that I have seen for the 1987 original releases in the US market (i.e. with Capitol Records referenced somewhere on inserts (and some discs) and have a DIDX number added too, Apple logo) that came in the original longboxes:

    Original same as Europe CDs with Capitol inserts usually from Please Please Me to Sgt. Pepper's with some exceptions:
    PDO West Germany (solid center hub - old PolyGram Hannover plant)
    Sonopress West Germany

    Capitol US procured CDs with Capitol US inserts and labels:
    Sony DADC USA
    PDO USA
    Victor-JVC Japan
    Capitol JAX USA plant using stampers made at WEA Mfg, Sony DADC, and often EMI's UK Swindon CD plant

    Surprisingly, I have not seen Toshiba-EMI Japan CDs in a long box with Capitol inserts. Anyone see them?

    Key detail here is that not all titles were produced at all the plants, for example, Sony DADC made a lot of the post Pepper's CDs for the US, but none of the earlier ones.

    Not surprising, given the popularity of the Beatles, many plants pressed their CDs for the US market after that:

    Later repressings of the CDs above were also done by - some in longboxes, some later with Apple logos:
    Disctronics USA (likely 1988 or 1989) - this is the plant formerly known as Laservideo or later Disc Mfg. with the same style matrix, not the other Disctronics USA plant later.
    Nimbus USA
    Capitol JAX/EMI Mfg. - Capitol JAX changed its name to EMI Mfg. in the 90s.
    Denon USA (rare)
    Sony SDM Pitman, NJ (rare)
    Cinram USA - not the old WEA Mfg. plant, but the plant owned in Richmond, IN before they acquired WEA Mfg.
    EMI Uden, Holland with Capitol US markings on it (rare) - usually they just took the EMI Europe disc and used US inserts.

    All of these later pressing plants are all closed.

    Prior to the mid-90s, Capitol JAX had limited glass master/stamper capabilities, so they often used other plants' stamper, hence why a familiar matrix with the plant markings has 'Capitol JAX' and the run info stamper on top of the matrix. So Capitol JAX, took the other plants' stamper and then pressed the CD in their JAX (Jacksonville, IL) plant. EMI's other plants in Italy and Australia (DATA) often used Swindon masters also.

    So there are Capitol JAX repressing with stampers from WEA Mfg, Sony DADC, EMI's UK Swindon CD plant, later EMI's Uden, NL CD plant, Disctronics above, Sanyo USA (was a frequently used master maker for Capitol in the later 80s to early 90s), JVC Disc America.

    This is just the US market!
     
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  15. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion

    Location:
    Canada
  16. Morton LaBongo

    Morton LaBongo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manchester NH
    At the time, there was a lot of attention paid to the fact of them being mono as a result of the way G. Martin did the original stereo mixes. I think the feeling was that the public of 1987 wouldn't be too happy with having vocals all the way on one side and instruments on the other, so they used the mono mixes. There was a lot of discussion and critique by DJ's on the radio as well as in audio magazines about the quality of The Beatles cd's, particularly right after those first four hit the market, and my recollection is that most people seemed happy with it although that was quite a long time ago. Out of all the cd's I thought Beatles for Sale and Help sounded a bit off but was pretty happy with the others. A Hard Day's Night was one of the first I owned and I thought it sounded great.
     
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  17. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Don't know, but if a digipak is no bigger than a jewel case, then the answer is yes!
     
  18. Stan94

    Stan94 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris, France
    I’m sorry, the WA and LIB were bought here in Paris. But a friend of mine who visited the Cleveland area in the summer of ‘88 bought LIB there, and it was a US-made CD.
     
    davers likes this.
  19. fogalu

    fogalu There is only one Beethoven

    Location:
    Killarney, Ireland
    I suppose that should be the case. But I haven't come across anybody who tried it. :)
     
  20. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    My copy of the White Album looks similar as yours on the right.
    But it also includes the Parlophone/EMI Records logo under the tracklist (lower right). Probably a reissue from the early 1990s.
     
  21. One edit - see above Past Masters! SorryI forgot this typo.
     
  22. numer9

    numer9 Beatles Apologist

    Location:
    Philly Burbs
    Didn't help that they were transferred on a stereo deck.
     
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  23. Doug Sulpy

    Doug Sulpy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Except HDN isn't mixed like that.
     
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  24. SJB

    SJB Beloved Parasitic Nuisance

    The Blue CD was the first Beatles album to feature "A Day in the Life" with a clean intro. (It previously surfaced on the Imagine: John Lennon soundtrack.)
     
  25. Dan The Man1

    Dan The Man1 Never Could Be Any Other Way

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    They don’t.:doh:
     
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