Meet The Beatles Question

It is my understanding that Dave Dexter or someone at Capitol did not like the Fabs' Vee Jay-era material. So the only Vee Jay track on the Beatles' Capitol debut is "I Saw Her Standing There."

One thing I have never been clear on: Did Capitol know when they were assembling that album that they would have had to pay Vee Jay for the use of their material, or was it just serendipity that Capitol plucked only one of those Vee Jay tracks for Meet The Beatles?

 

I Saw Her Standing There was on the flip side of the Capital I Want to Hold Your Hand single, which is why it’s on the album. Capital did a great job assembling this album, it was, in my opinion, superior to the UK With the Beatles. Capital eventually got the rights to the Vee Jay material and the Vee Jay album was deleted from Vee Jay’s catalog.

 

Thanks. I know this, but that is not the question I'm asking.

 

Capitol didn't have to pay anyone to use "I Saw Her Standing There".

Funny, Capitol used that track before Vee-Jay, as the single came out in December 1963.

At that time, Vee-Jay wasn't doing anything to market the Beatles and financially, the label was struggling. Vee-Jay saw that Capitol was making enormous amounts of profit of the band and immediately began to pump singles out the kazoo. Introducing... The Beatles, which had been shelved for 6 months, became the label's top priority and Capitol was furious. You could say that Capitol won the court battle in the end; the Vee-Jay contract had originally secured first pickings on subsequent singles till what, 1966? That was voided out. They could recycle all the Please Please Me songs plus the "From Me To You" single and B-side until October 1964. Doesn't mean Capitol couldn't use any of those tunes but why? Why when every single song was coming out as a '45 by Vee-Jay and at rapid pace (we're talking a new single every 2 weeks).

So, to answer your question: There was no restriction. EMI could have given Capitol anything they wanted.. Afterall, EMI was their parent company.
Vee-Jay didn't pay the group any royalties and whoever EMI's transglobal booking agency was, decided/presumed that the deal was VOIDED.

 

Thank you. So, theoretically, Capitol could have compiled a very different debut album with, say, a mix of all the 1963 tracks, without affecting their bottom line. Interesting.

 

Yeah, they technically could have but they didn't.

Keep in mind, "Please Please Me" and "From Me To You" went absolutely nowhere upon their inital releases in the United States. Plus, the Beatles were evolving and getting better by the mind; you want to give the audience something fresh and familiar. Meet The Beatles accomplished just that by laying down hot new originals and great covers. I'd hate to say the Please Please Me songs sounded somewhat "dated" but the new ones were awesome.

The biggest mistake made though was giving Vee-Jay first cracks for an extended period of time.

EMI went to a single-by-single distribution offering after no one picked up the phone in Chicago. Swan ended up with "She Loves You" and its flip side and it failed to do anything on the market. As soon as America heard an import of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" on the radio, the band finally caught on. Neither of the other two labels marketed the Beatles, but their $$$ wasn't in the same league as Columbia, Decca or Capitol either. Making a deal with Swan was liking waiting to catch lightning in a bottle, and it seemed like there was no hope to bring the Beatles any success in America.

Of course, we know Capitol saw that things were picking up rapidly and finally agreed to take them!

 

One bit of confirmation supplementing the fact that Capitol could have used the Vee Jay tracks at any time is the fact that a snippet of Boys appears on The Beatles Story.

 

It's my understanding that Capitol had to pay Vee Jay for "Thank You Girl" on the Second Album. I also read that Capitol considered including "Twist and Shout" as the twelfth track on that album, but they didn't want to pay Vee Jay for two songs.

 

Ugh! None of the Capitol recordings sound good! So much so that the US box set used the UK recordings with a bit of trickery here and there.

 

Capitol didn't have the rights to the Introducing/Please Please Me album when Meet the Beatles was compiled and released. Vee Jay did.
Capitol subsequently acquired the rights in October 1964 and released most of the tracks in the US as The Early Beatles the following March.

 

I have the late 70s Canadian Rubber Soul. Pretty awesome sound.

 

While I haven't been into the minutiae of this for years.

There are entire books written about the subjects of how, why, when Capitol decided to finally start releasing Beatle records in the US.
See Bruce Spizer's books, for most of the pertinent points, but there are some good others, with pertinent insights.

I'd say, as Capitol finally came around to the "business decision", of the Beatles, it was never about 'art' or 'liking' or 'not liking'.
It was, could Capitol make money, selling Beatle records, period? That was all that mattered to Capitol, ever.

When it was decided that yes, Capitol should release Beatle records, they needed to secure rights, to what they could and could not legally release.
Since George Martin and to a lesser extent Brian Epstein had made deals with many other companies/entities prior to Capitol's final "yes" decision.
Capitol put lawyers on the case to find out the legal standing/ownership/lease agreements of all the tracks, that were available, to release, but had been previously negotiated by Martin and/or Epstein.

 

Basically from my understanding of it, and via a bit of heavy oversimplification.

Capitol was big international conglomerate. With big pockets and savvy lawyers.
The business people and lawyers at Capitol decided that they wanted exclusive rights to all Beatle releases past and present circa late 1963/early 1964, and going forward.

And those Capitol execs and lawyers set about finding ways legally to achieve that goal.
The lawyers found some loopholes in the Vee-Jays agreements and like good, well payed lawyers do. They exploited those loopholes, caused by some really stupid legal misdeeds, by Vee-Jay brilliantly. Since Vee-Jay was already going broke, due to mismanagement, they just threw in the towel.

Some tracks were immediately available for Capitol to release, as early as Dec 1963, others took some time to secure, but my bet is, that is why the track listing of the MTB is as it is.

 

In case anyone was wondering why Vee-Jay had financial problems.

Well, from my understanding, whoever owned them at the time had some serious gambling problems. Considering this label was boasting the 4 Seasons and Frank Ifield, you would think they'd be doing alright, but there were some issues with how the money was being spent. Surely, EMI was not the only one in a dilemma with Vee-Jay.

Not exactly too sure about this one.

Most likely they went to court over it though. I'm sure they tried to reason a way, but it would had to been in the midst of the mania. They must have met in court at least 100 times to figure out if the other side was doing something legally wrong or... right.

Dick James Music even got in the fun by pushing an injunction on Vee-Jay for using "Love Me Do" on that album, which haulted production temporarily.​

 

"Thank You, Girl" was published by Conrad Publishing, which Vee-Jay owned. So, technically Vee-Jay did make money from Capitol releasing "TYG".

 

And then there are 'Misery' and 'There's A Place' that weren't used on any Capitol LP later, not even on The Early Beatles. Eventually those tracks were released on a 45 (Capitol/Starline label).

 

The ultimate authority for this is the Bruce Spicer book: The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay (Digital Ed.) – beatle.net

It's on sale for $20. A must! Some simplified points from the book:

On January 10, 1963, Vee-Jay entered a five year licensing agreement with Transglobal (EMI subsidiary for the US) which gave them exclusive right to sell Please Please Me and Ask Me Why. They released the Please Please Me single in February 1963 and From Me To You / Thank You Girl in May.

Part of the agreement specified that Vee-Jay had right of first refusal, and would receive all new Beatles recordings, to be released within thirty days of receiving them. They received the stereo Please Please Me album master in March 1963, but did not release it that year because of financial issues and poor sales of the singles.

By the summer of 1963 Vee-Jay had failed to make royalty payments for the two singles, and on August 8, 1963 Transglobal considers their agreement with Vee-Jay terminated and demands they halt production of Beatles records. By January 1964 it was becoming clear the Beatles were about to be popular, and Vee-Jay realizes they probably don't have the right to release an LP, but take a chance and do so anyway.

Capitol's position was that they had obtained, in October, 1963 exclusive rights from EMI to issue Beatles records, as Vee-Jay's agreement was no longer valid. Capitol filed a lawsuit on January 13, 1964 for Vee-Jay to stop selling Beatles records. This eventually resulted in the agreement that Vee-Jay would end selling any Beatles records on October 15, 1964.

 

This sums it all up pretty well and concisely.
And to whoever posted above. It was not the owners of Vee-Jay that had had the gambling problem, it was a president or vice president that the owners had put in charge.

As I also recall, though I may be forgetting some details. By the late summer of 1964, Vee Jay was basically broke, and could no longer pay their lawyers to continue appeals and so all litigation concerning rights to produce Beatle product was effectively over. And that's when Capitol took control of all pre-MTB product, that Vee-Jay, Tollie, Swan et al had rights to.
That's when 'The Early Beatles' and that string of rare green label Star-Line 45s were released by Capitol.

 

It was Vee Jay President Ewart Abner who had the gambling problem that drove the label into bankruptcy.

 

But not owners Bracken and Vance, correct?

Found this:
"Introducing The Beatles" album. The in-depth story behind the Beatles' first American album. Recording History. Origin of the Album. Vee Jay Records.

 

what!??? there were no Capitol recordings.; )...all songs were recorded in England. NOW if you are referring to the Capitol albums they sound fabulous on the 2 Volumes of US The Capitol Boxes...sounding much better than the sad lie mishap of the that fake American albums box set...

 

a fun book! I have the HC...

 

I disagree with that. The Capitol boxes sound fine

 

Actually they were strangled by their success. A series of things happened over a couple of years. They were run like a mom and pop operation with all the stuff inside one guys head. they sold a lot of records but nothing like the monster that was the Four Seasons. Pressing and shipping. Accounts receivable months behind, not weeks. Then the Seasons sued over unpaid royalties and left the label.
Then the Beatles hit. They were fighting Capitol in court They were losing their Chicago root as they were moving to LA. And they were still getting stiffed for Beatles albums this time.
Then they ran out of money.