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

In the 1960's I was completely unaware that the U.K. versions of Beatles albums were different from U.S. versions. I bought all my albums from places like grocery stores and dept stores (J.C. Penneys) during the 1960's. These types of stores never carried imports.

It wasn't until around 1974 when I saw U.K. versions at Tower Records that I became aware of the different versions.

 

In my hometown, back in the 70s, there was a local store called Discount Records;
In fact they had two locations about 4 miles apart ~ one within walking distance, the other within bike-riding distance of my house. They had a decent sized "Imports Section" of LPs, and you bet I collected the hell out of 'em! I was especially fond of the many great mono mixes of title's found in that section as well. It was from those bins that my first exposure to bands like the Stones, Yardbirds, Pretty Things, Them, The Animals, Cream, Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green), Savoy Brown, Rory Gallagher, Ten Years After,
and a whole slew of other top-flight 60s and 70s bands was culled. Instead of the usual $3.99 USD for an LP, the imports were anywhere from $7.99 to $9.99 a pop and worth every penny too !
Most other music aficionados that I knew at the time were well aware of British versions of albums and import-only titles as I seem to recall.

 

Thank God for Jem!

 

What a terrible title for a thread. Ah well, it was my first crack after lurking around for a year.

 

(RE)opened indeed.

I saw the thread title and was all set to comment, but then perused the earlier posts and discovered I had made the very comments I was about to make — over 12 years ago!

 

Truer words have never been said. Crack to a young record collector. And those quieter, better surfaces and lower generation sources were heaven to my ears. That post is McLover Endorsed!!!

 

TSS's "Record World" on Hempstead Tpke in Elmont was always flowing with imports.

 

Here's something SH posted sometime back:

I Like Singles

#10

"I have very many British 45's. Impossible to get here in LA before the days of eBay. Some of them suck, soundwise but most are really wonderful sounding and I'm fascinated to hear what some of those wonky master tapes were meant to sound like on the actual records. They mostly sound really good, much better than their American counterparts. Of course, to watch an original label going around is magical. Other than Lewin's Record Paradise, back in the 1960's, it was impossible to buy UK records in Los Angeles. So much easier now. People have no idea!"

That changed some time in the '70s, though. I bought my first UK copy of The Hollies Butterfly at the little Tower Records store in my little California home town in 1974.

 

My bud from College worked at Discount Records (then they added tape's and cd's to the title)

 

I got alerted to the British versions in 1974 when I bought a UK Rubber Soul from a used record store in town. It made me decide to collect 'em all.

 

This makes it clear there was bit of awareness of the British versions in the '60s, in some places:

"Beatles '65" album. The in-depth story behind the Beatles' fourth Capitol album. Recording History. Origin of the Album. Capitol Records.

"For Beatles fans who lived in Pittsburgh, New York and Atlanta in early December of 1964, anticipation was especially great. Major radio stations in those states obtained British copies of the "Beatles For Sale" album, which had already been released in that country on December 4th. This album of all new material was, according the Billboard magazine, "garnering plenty of yule season airtime." This meant that Capitol Records needed to act fast."

I don't know how these stations would have gotten these, but I do remember reading somewhere that a DJ somewhere had a airline stewardess friend who'd bring back the new Beatles records for him on her stopovers to the UK. Don't know if that'd have been a common way to get them, though.

 

The latest ‘Swinging Through The Sixties’ podcast deals with the differences between the US & UK Beatles releases.

Podcasts - Swinging Through The Sixties