The Beatles: UK Response to US Capitol versions?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by John Porcellino, May 18, 2016.

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  1. John Porcellino

    John Porcellino Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Beloit, WI
    I'm listening to my beloved Beatles Capitol boxes and had a question. Do listeners in the UK find any fascination with these US versions, or are they just considered apostasy?

    Here in the US I was only familiar (VERY familiar!) with the US versions of the Beatles records until the UK mixes/track listings were made consistent across the board with the CD releases. So when I first heard the UK version of say, Revolver, it was like getting a whole new record, and since then it's been fun to compare and contrast the different releases. I'm glad we have both versions available.

    So I was curious if any UK Beatles fanatics here find the US versions interesting or compelling...
     
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  2. muffmasterh

    muffmasterh Forum Resident

    Location:
    East London U.K
    they were more interesting when they were the primary source that contained stereo mixes we could not get in the UK ( thank u girl springs to mind ) but they remain of some interest because of the the dexterisations and odd variations.

    However as Capitol mash ups i find the albums themselves an aberration, but i am still glad they exist.
     
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  3. varitone

    varitone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lincs, UK
    Interesting, yes. I bought a few of the US albums in the 1970s. The Thank You Girl mix was a surprise.
     
  4. Cronverc

    Cronverc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn,NY
    UK versions? Actually these versions were released almost everywhere except US and Canada, even countries like former Yugoslavia released "normal" versions of Beatles albums. Growing up not in US I have always considered US versions as inferior somehow.

    I know, that a lot of people will disagree with me, but lets face it - US Beatles fans has been ripped off by Capitol with so called "American albums".
     
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  5. ralph7109

    ralph7109 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Franklin, TN
    I only knew the US versions growing up and I'm still mad that we weren't given the proper releases.

    That's my US response to the US releases.
     
  6. Lance Hall

    Lance Hall Senior Member

    Location:
    Fort Worth, Texas
    I'm just glad I got into the Beatles AFTER the CDs came out so that all I know are the original British albums. The American albums I consider to be compilations kinda like a continuous series of "best of" albums. They are good collections of songs by themselves but I prefer what the Beatles/Martin originally intended and released.
     
  7. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    How were we ripped off?
    Maybe we got less songs per album but it was more than made up for by us having the hit singles on the albums.
    Singles weren't always easily accessible after their initial run if you didn't collect them from the start.
    And during the 70s and 80s when I was buying Beatles albums, the singles section of the store didn't have Beatles songs.
    And even if you did have the 45s, it was really convenient to have those songs on your LPs and not have to only play one song at a time to hear a hit.
    Even today I enjoy hearing them on US album cds with other songs from that era and not only on Past Masters.
    As well, we never felt ripped off because we quite enjoyed the sequencing and cohesiveness of many of them.
    Some were obviously weaker than others but the ones that did work, actually worked really well.
    To this day I feel Meet The Beatles, The Beatles Second Album, Beatles 65, US Rubber Soul and Yesterday and Today are great albums.
    Something New and Beatles VI are okay and the soundtracks to Help and the United Artists A Hard Days Night are just that, soundtracks, so we always enjoyed them as memorials of the films.
    Early Beatles is kinda weak but we also had Introducing the Beatles from Vee Jay which was a little better.
    US Revolver suffered but I still like it for nostalgia reasons.
    I don't feel ripped doff at all.
    You want to know when I felt ripped off?
    1987 when I first saw Beatles albums on cd and in 1992 when I first bought them.
    I don't feel that way about the UKs anymore, as they did grow on me but I still enjoy both sets equally.
    And those US albums represent a massive portion of Beatles certified sales, and if you talk about all their sales and # 1 albums in the US from a legacy standpoint, most are unique US titles or versions.
     
    Last edited: May 19, 2016
  8. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    Capitol was their legal representative in the States for the US market, they did there job and the Beatles legacy never suffered.
    We're not talking about bootlegs or playlists, but official Beatles albums that have sold millions upon millions and been certified by the RIAA as doing so.
     
  9. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    I only had a US Magical Mystery Tour, that I bought in a Chicago grocery store, in 1968, and a copy of Let It Be, a birthday present, in 1970 until 2010.
    In 2010, after joining this forum, and slowly learning about UK vinyl, and " country of origin," I chose to buy the canon in UK mono.
    I've never cared about the US Capitols in any way, shape, or form.
    .
     
  10. Joey Self

    Joey Self Red Forman's Sensitivity Guru

    Largely, as an American, I agree with you. However, while the practice of leaving the singles off the albums may have made economic sense to the UK buyer, it doesn't make a lot of aesthetic sense. Leaving "I Want To Hold Your Hand/This Boy" off WITH THE BEATLES in favor of "Till There Was You" and "Devil In Her Heart" (or pick any other pair you like less) made that album lesser; the US version of MEET THE BEATLES is about the only time I'd say the US version of the pre-'66 albums was better. But the same exercise can be done on BEATLES FOR SALE (add "I Feel Fine/She's A Woman in place of "Mr. Moonlight" and whatever else you want). RUBBER SOUL, great as it is, would have been even better with "We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper" in the running order. (The US RUBBER SOUL didn't include that single, either--those appeared on YESTERDAY AND TODAY, a real hodgepodge that works in an odd way.)

    JcS
     
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  11. I knew the U.S. albums and then later I knew the U.K. ones.
    Both ruled.
     
  12. wildstar

    wildstar Senior Member

    Location:
    ontario, canada
    "Official Capitol creations/compilations"? Perhaps.

    Authentic Beatles albums? Nope.

    If the American albums are authentic Beatles albums then so is every single thrown together concoction created by any country's EMI subsidiary or licensee released anywhere in the world.

    So either there's 13 IIRC authentic/official Beatles albums (the UK albums), or there's several hundred authentic/official Beatles albums (the UK albums plus every single compilation/variations released by any country absolutely anywhere worldwide).

    Those are your only two options - Choose one.
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2016
  13. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    If there are hundreds then so be it. To this day my favorite Beatles albums are Beatles 65 and the Capitol Rubber Soul. They're not my favorite "compilations" their my favorite albums. They were # 1 on the Billboard "Album" chart they sold millions of "albums" in the US. The Beatles just do happen to have many more albums than other artists becsuse of how they were marketed differently in various locations and I'm not placing the US market above other areas. I think those places should have their choice too as to which versions they purchase and maybe they pick both. I certainly understand how for convenience reasons they originally followed the British versions upon inital cd release, but we can't change history. The ones you call mere Capitol creations or compilations were still compilations in "Album" format and offically so by their US label. So are we now saying that the Beatles never sold any pre 66 albums in the US from 64-87?
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2016
  14. MONOLOVER

    MONOLOVER Forum Resident

    Location:
    UPPSALA, SWEDEN
    Here in the sixties US Beatles albums were considered something extra. Hard to find and with exclusive covers and lots of cuts not possible to get on LP elsewhere. I still have some of this fascination...especially for "Beatles VI" and "Magical Mystery Tour".

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  15. rediffusion

    rediffusion Forum Resident

    I'm British and think of the US versions as sacrilege
     
  16. The Bishop

    The Bishop Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dorset, England.
    I can understand love for the US versions, if that's what you grew up with, but I've never been interested in checking them out. Mind you, I've made my own compilations of Beatles albums, that would no doubt be frowned upon, so I can't really moan about the US albums.
     
  17. Cronverc

    Cronverc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn,NY
    I sure understand and respect all kinds of nostalgic reasons some people has, but for me it doesn't change anything. IMO there are certain albums released by the band in England (which were released in the same form in most other countries around the world). And OTHER releases, compilations, call them whatever You want, released by EMI representative in US and Canada.

    And by the way many singles ended up on UK 1966 compilation " A Collection Of Beatles Oldies But Goldies", which IMO is a "proper compilation". It was also released in many other countries even in Mexico, but never in US.

    John's comment to that (go to 0:50) :
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2016
  18. rediffusion

    rediffusion Forum Resident

    This should have been the cover of 'Yesterday and Today' so US fans would know exactly what they were listening to....

    [​IMG]
     
  19. raveoned

    raveoned Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ambler, PA
    To me, I would think that what was issued in the US or any country other than the UK, until the aligning of the catalogue with the CD releases are technically albums. Compilations, to me, have always been songs assembled like a hits collection (A Collection of Beatles Oldies and Hey Jude, for example).

    What always puzzles me is the picking on the treatment of the US albums by UK purists, when the US was not the only country doing it (Beatles in Italy, anyone?) Canada, Japan, hell, even one country omitted songs for censorship purposes (Pepper lost one or two songs, I believe!)

    Plus in 1964-65, you're talking about regular, off the street fans who only knew one version of the music in the US, and those were the albums that Capitol were putting out, along with the endless versions by Vee-Jay and the Sheridan cuts put out by MGM, etc.

    The Beatles knew what was going on, I'm sure some more sophisticated fans knew there were UK versions that differed (and some record shops could import), but I'm sure general fans only knew the Capitol releases, and were quite overjoyed with them.
     
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  20. rediffusion

    rediffusion Forum Resident

    They did and they weren't very happy about it. Neither was George Martin.
     
  21. raveoned

    raveoned Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ambler, PA
    Were they happy with the chopping up done in Canada? Japan? Other countries that reassembled the LPs? Did they care about the South Korean version of Pepper?
     
  22. rediffusion

    rediffusion Forum Resident

    No they weren't happy with any of it.
     
  23. raveoned

    raveoned Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ambler, PA
    While I understand that, I still am puzzled, after being a Beatles fan for a while now, the US albums get singled out for criticism.
     
  24. Culpa

    Culpa Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    But yet they'd provide tracks as yet unreleased in the UK, or even record new tracks specifically for the US market, which they would later use when they were scraping around trying to fill a new "official" UK LP:

    Bad Boy
    Dizzy Miss Lizzie
    You Like Me Too Much
    Tell Me What You See
    I'm Only Sleeping
    Dr Robert
    And Your Bird Can Sing

    They should have just stuck Paperback Writer and Rain on the UK Revolver, rather than digging up three old tracks from Yesterday and Today!
     
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  25. rediffusion

    rediffusion Forum Resident

    Are you sure about that? I don't think they recorded tracks for the US albums, rather Capitol helped themselves to anything that was in the can for forthcoming UK releases. Bad Boy might be the exception for this. Can anybody provide any further information on this?
     
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