The Early Beatles.....essential?

I have been attempting to collect original pressings of all the Beatles U.S. albums on vinyl and I am almost finished only lacking White Album, Yellow Sub, The Beatles Story and The Early Beatles.
I have decided since Beatles Story is just snippets and talk I am going to omit it from my collection but I am undecided on Early Beatles. I already own an original VeeJay pressing of Introducing The Beatles (vers 2 mono) so would Early Beatles not be pretty much the same as a duplicate of the VeeJay album?
How does a mono Early Beatles compare with ITB sound quality wise?
Any opinions appreciated.

 

If I remember correctly, The Early Beatles in mono was a stereo fold down on all tracks. Not true mono. From your post, I'm guessing you're not going for a complete collection, so my recommendation would be to pass on it. And this is coming from someone who actually LIKES the U.S. Capitol issues!

 

If you are attempting to collect "original pressings of all the Beatles U.S. albums on vinyl", I don't see how you could justify leaving out an original Capitol album, and the one on which most Americans were introduced to Please Please Me era stuff. Nobody bought the VeeJay album. You bought all the rest, I don't see how you can have a complete collection without getting the others...

 

Introducing The Beatles spent 9 weeks at number 2 on the Billboard album charts so I disagree that "nobody bought it". The Early Beatles did not crack the Top 40. That to me says more fans owned the VeeJay album than the Capitol album which is sort of a reissue.

 

I will wager that The Early Beatles outsold Introducing the Beatles handily over its 20+ year lifetime though.

 

Now that may be true. I was only looking at chart position. With it's longer lifespan it may well be the bigger seller.

 

I've wondered this.

 

The track listing is different and has a couple(Love Me Do and PS I Love You) that were not on ITB, although they had been released on other VJ releases. And it bumps off Misery and Theres A Place. Then there is the issue of Stereo. Finding a real stereo ITB is expensive to say the least, and while LMD and PSILY are mono only, the rest on Early Beatles are stereo.

 

As cool a cover as The Early Beatles is, the cover shot of ITB is its' equivalent of horrendous.

 

Introducing The Beatles.

 

It is a cool cover. Gives me subliminal messages to play my U.K. tube cut stereo copy of Beatles For Sale.

 

Probably Introducing The Beatles. Don't quite have the moptops yet.

 

Probably Introducing The Beatles. I agree the cover to The Early Beatles is great. When I was a kid and had my mom's albums, this and Second Album were the ones I really wanted based on the covers you'd see on the back of the other records. I also don't mind the sound of these albums. Despite being able to find better sounding vinyl of the Beatles more easily now, there's something about these Capitol albums that take me back to how I first listened to many of them.

 

Brings back memories thinking about how important those record covers were! I remember one time looking through some Rolling Stones albums, having just enough money to choose one. I picked "Out Of Our Heads" because I liked the cover better than any of the others!

 

Agree, but I've wondered why Capitol didn't use a picture more in keeping with the period those songs were from. Maybe something like:



or:

 

God awful pics

 

If you have Introducing there is no need for the inferior Early Beatle package.

In 1964, 65 most of us had easily acquired Introducing, and by the time Early was released it was old old news.

 

"Introducing The Beatles" and "The Early Beatles" have shipped roughly the Sam number of copies... A million.

The difference: The former did all that in a year and was a smash hit; the latter was essential pointless in the fan's perspective but the sole intention was to capitalize on the moment after VeeJay's distribution rights expired. It was, however, the in print go-to for the 70's and 80's and sold quietly over that period of time.

 

The Brits got the better one from that session, I think, with the Beatles for Sale front cover.

 

You might want to reconsider getting "The Beatles Story". It certainly gives a flavor of what was going on in the U.S. in 1964 and 1965. If you are having to be careful with money just pick up a nice copy and don't worry about first pressings. I think it's fun to listen to every now and then. Many don't think it's important but it is part of their U.S. story. Can't imagine anything like that for anyone recording today. Anyway maybe get a copy just to fill in the collection.

 

I did. That was the only copy they were selling in my town.

 

Introducing the Beatles was an essential part of US Beatlemania in early '64. Early Beatles came later and wasn't necessary.