What was the level of awareness of British verisons in the 60s in the USA

Reading the special third Beatles box set thread, and having been born during the Ford administration, I was curious about what the folks on here that were buying LPs in the 60s knew about the British releases. I can't imagine Wollworths etc stocking Parlaphone imports. What about in NY and LA record stores? Were would you hear about such things?

I can see Brian Wilson getting care packages from The Beatles, or perhaps via Capitol, but what about you regular folks?
Cassius

 

As a kid, I never even KNEW there were such things as "British editions" of record albums/singles until a girl in high school showed me her copy of "Beatles For Sale". She had bought it at a shop called Discount Records (I think) in Columbus, Ohio. The record store was tied into Columbia Records somehow, and I guess they used to be able to special order imports.

 

A very good question that I've often wondered about myself...

 

I didn't know there was a UK Rubber Soul with a different track listing.

 

I was first aware when my brother bought me Rock And Roll Music and it came in a pale blue cover instead of that ghastly silvery one that Capitol put out. I guess it was 1976 or so? I was intrigued by the stark Parlophone label and once the needle hit the grooves I was impressed with how much quieter the vinyl sounded. That was it. I went to the store he got it from (funny, it was a little Italian record shop!), and bought up what I could.

 

Buying Beatles albums from Simmons Appliance & TV Repair on Walnut Street?... no, I was not aware of the differences between UK and US releases. I became a serious music fan during my high school years - 1968-72 - but don't remember ever seeing or being aware of European imports in the shops that I frequented in Chicago and the western suburbs, although I do remember finding a few bootlegs in Olde Towne, including Get Back and more.

I first started seeing imports when I went to college, The Record Co-op stocked some. I remember being a bit baffled when I came upon Beatles imports with different track listings... it really took a while for it to sink in. "Wait a minute. All the songs from the movie were on the first side of A Hard Day's Night and they got six more songs on Side Two?! What the..." I bought those Beatles imports and a few others besides, but it wasn't until I moved to the NY area in 1976 that I started seeking out imports with regularity. They were a lot more available in this area of the country.

 

In the late 60's and early 70's Britsish imports were pretty much all that I was buying.

 

I remember sometimes seeing the import versions of Beatles albums in record stores in the early '70s, even here in South Carolina. One local store even stocked a bunch of Beatles bootlegs in with the regular catalog material. I couldn't figure out where all of these "new" Beatles albums came from all of a sudden.

 

During the sixties, with the draft, Cold war, & Vietnam war, a lot of Americans served in the military. Some of my friends older brothers used to have 'weird' Beatles and other rock albums that were clearly 'foreign.' I also remember those odd looking asian versions that were in a paper sleeve inside a plastic liner, rather than the normal cardboard. I suspect they bought this stuff in the PX's and such, especially those who served in Europe.

By the mid-seventies, as a teenager, I used to see import sections in most of the better record stores. I wouldn't know about the sixties as I used to get my 45 records at a place called Valu-mart and didn't pay attention to whether the LPs were domestic or foreign - unfortunately!!

 

I recall hearing something about alternate titles and tracklists from overseas back then, but with no Internet or international travels back then, I could never hope to get my hands on any foreign releases.

And besides, from our perspective back then, it was OUR stuff that was correct - everything else had to be wrong! Right?

The assumption too was that whatever else there was, it had to be the same sounds on those grooves, so there wasn't any urgency to explore.

 

I don't think that many, if any, teenagers in the '60's thought that there were different versions, mixes, the existence of Dave Dexter, etc. However, because U.S. radio stations were playing cuts not commercially available, with only modest research (no Googling then), I was able to determine that in some places the track order, number of tracks and single releases were different than here. For example, my "Rollover Beethoven" 45 was on Capitol Of Canada.

 

I had no idea until CDs started coming out. I just listened to the music when I was a kid. I didn't have friends interested in talking about music. . . Now I have you guys.

(I overheard the older kids talking about Zep, Stones, etc. and the Rod Stewart, Frank Zappa & Alice Cooper stories).

 

Didn't know about the UK versions until I found a book called "Beatles - Illustrated Record" by Roy Carr and Tony Tyler. The album sized book had full photos of each UK album cover. I was quite surprised when I saw them.

 

I started seeing imports appear in 1974-1975 in Vancouver. There was an article in the Province Newspaper that stores were now stocking them due to the poor quality of CDN. vinyl (not completely true, as we now all know). it was so cool, then, because all stores started carrying them, including the record departments of the CDN. department stores (Eaton's & The Bay). They were everywhere....

Here in the Bay Area, I have asked around and imports started appearing as early as 1967.

 

The foreign versions of record albums by mainly UK artists were largely unknown to the record-buying public during the "British Invasion" that began in 1964. It wasn't until "hippie" record stores began to appear in the later sixties that import pressings were marketed here, except for a brief flurry of UK Beatles records in early 1964 to keep up with the sudden demand for their releases while the US record industry tried to deal with what had just happened. The main source of used import vinyl was returning US servicemen, coming home from various tours of duty in Europe and Asia. How many people got their first view of the "different" Beatles albums at a yard sale or visiting a friend's house with big brother's albums in it?
For myself, it was a bit different. I grew up in a port town, and lived near where the ships tied up. Visiting the ships daily, I became familiar with European and Japanese versions of Beatles, Stones and other artists' lps, and would often end up confused what song was on what album when discussing music with my peers at school.

 

I have no idea about America, but here in Canada as a pre-teen (circa 74/75) I was just becoming aware of the differences between Canadian and US pressings. The Canadian albums were usually still full-price catalog items while the cut-out bins were full of the same titles as US pressings, but much cheaper. I bought a few I already had just because you guys deleted your titles so fast while north of the border, we cut corners (ha! does that count as a pun?) by not including inner sleeves and only using outside covers instead of gatefolds. And we kept them in print much longer.

I vividly remember buying a cutout of Zappa's 'Chunga's Revenge' in the delete bin for $2.49 just because it had a gatefold cover (I had NO idea what artwork was inside) and was surprised to see the blue Bizarre label (we just got the steamboat Reprise with the Bizarre logo on the side). At the time (I was maybe 11 or 12) I intended to keep the Canadian record I already had and just exchange the better cover. When I played it I couldn't believe how much better it sounded than the undefined mulch I had been listening to. From then on I began to realize just how unathentic my collection was (luckily I was just starting) and how I needed to pay more attention to how records were made and which stampers were used, etc. (Plus, the coolness factor of packaging doodads like the UK 'Wish You Were Here' having a black shrinkwrap where the Canadian was green and the curved corners on the UK 'Obscured By Clouds') If I had known as a kid that different countries had different songs on the same albums, I think my head would have exploded.

By the time punk hit, UK imports were cheap and plentiful.

 

I do recall seeing Canadian Beatles albums in the stores occasionally and marveling at the different covers, titles and track listings.

As for radio stations, I have an aircheck from late 1966 (made myself with my trusty little Japanese 3-inch reel-to-reel!) of WKYC in Cleveland -- during which they play, with considerable fanfare, the four cuts on the British Rubber Soul that weren't on the US version.

They must have done the same thing sometime earlier with "It's Only Love" and "I've Just Seen a Face" from the British Help! I don't have an aircheck, but I have a tape of my best friend and me making a comment about this.

 

Goodness me, manners gentlemen!

(Beatles talk is like a fever Cassius..people forget themselves )
Welcome to the forum, hope you post many interesting new threads
W.S

 

Hi Guys,

I was 19 when the Beatles hit here in America (1964, of course). I was an immediate fan. I bought the Capitol Albums. I was happy.

Then I went to Japan in June of 1965 - June 1967 (U.S. Navy communications base outside Yokohama - hey, there really was an Army draft!).

Anyway, I went to the local Japanese record store, and holy shXt, they had DIFFERENT Beatles albums. I bought them all. We now call them Japanese Red Wax. They had the UK track listings, and they sounded FABULOUS! They were not enhanced stereo or Dextorized. I bought Help! and AHDN first, and then the rest of them.

It was at that point that I found out about the UK pressings and lineups. I knew that back home fans were getting screwed by Capitol. And I haven't heard the Capitol pressings since 1965. OK, I bought the Capitol Box Set last year, and it was fine. But after listening to the Cap Box Set a few times, it cannot compare to the UK pressings (imho). I have the BC-13 and MFSL sets and that's what I listen to.

Tom Kennedy

 

I was very fortunate to have grown up in Los Angeles, where there was a record store in Hollywood called Record Paradise, owned by an Englishman. They stocked UK versions of the Beatles, Stones, etc. I would pick up an album now and then starting in around 1966 or 1967. First purchases include Aftermath, A Hard Day's Night, Help, and a few others (which I still have). Steve Hoffman has written about the shop and its attractions during that period of time.

 

I am from the DC area, and I first noticed UK Beatles LPs in the fall of 1968 in a shop at Dupont Circle. They had Beatles For Sale in shrink wrap, and I had my girlfriend watch the register while I slit it open to see what was on it (interesting selection, but I already had everything). They also had Revolver, Pepper, and Rubber Soul. I didn't start buying them until 1970 or so, when I found out they sounded better.

 

They must have just released the UK versions in Japan then. The first few Beatles albums released in Japan were Japanese compilations, and they were mono only. My first album was the Japanese "Beatles Second Album" with 14 songs on red vinyl. I remember it started off with "Can't Buy Me Love", followed by "Do You Want To Know A Secret", mostly songs from their first two UK lps, but it also had "Thank You Girl". There were at least three Japanese-only Beatles albums released in 1964-1965, and then I think they started releasing the UK versions in stereo only. I don't think they started releasing the US versions until the 1970s.

 

That's how I discovered "The Truth" too! I love that book -- not only was it the first "authoritative" Beatles book I owned (this was 1984, pre-Lewisohn, and I was 16, with no car, no Internet, and no clue), but it was the first Beatles book I'd ever read that wasn't fawningly worshipful. Their irreverence was shocking at first, but much needed.

Anyway, "The Beatles Illustrated Record" is where I first learned the real track lists, and first started to piece together when different things were recorded ("Day Tripper" belonged with Rubber Soul, "Old Brown Shoe" belonged with Abbey Road, etc.). I dutifully re-created the UK albums on cassette, but still didn't realize how different some of the songs were mixed or prepared for the US.

A few years later, of course, purchasing Mark Lewisohn's "Recording Sessions" book was a life-altering event -- it was like receiving the stone tablets from God himself. But before that, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler were my Beatles gurus. I wish they had updated their book; I'd love to see what they'd write about some latter-day Macca albums!

 

Back then the rage was to have a penpal. Mine was the lovely Jenny McHugh in Liverpool proper. I finally got to meet her in 1997 but that's another story. She would send me a few records but no lps. They cost a whole week's pay.

We knew a local girl who went to England in the summer of 1965. She brough back the Help! lp. We were puzzled. There were two songs we'd never heard of before. Needless to say, I got my penpal to hook me up with a record store that did mailorder. By that time it was late 1965. I bought Help!, Rubber Soul (which had a few songs that wouldn't be released in the US for a few months) and Get The Picture. The UK lps were $5 shipped. I did this until imports became easily available in the early 70s through JEM Records. A distributor that was in Jersey, I believe.

mud-

 

Not true. In Vancouver, in 1975, you couldn't buy a Pagliaro album (and he's CANADIAN!) to save your life. Buckingham Nicks was deleted and so was every single pre-RCA Kinks album. Same for Hollies, Gerry...anything on the Canadian Capitol 6000 was deleted by 1975.

True. I recently acquired a sealed stereo CDN. Kinks Something Else. No inner sleeve. Village Green was a single sleeve in Canada, but Arthur was gatefold.

Again, not true. Bought mine on day of release at Kelly's on Broadway in 1975 and it was indeed blue.

True, but it was on Capitol in Canada! That's a cool LP to have on lime green (not sure if it came out on this label) or red purple CDN. Target label.