A Collection of Beatles Oldies ... But Goldies!

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by fboothco, Jul 21, 2021.

  1. fboothco

    fboothco Day Tripper Thread Starter

    Location:
    Annapolis, MD
    I have a stereo EMI copy from back in the day. Beatles greatest hits that wasn't imported to the States. Analysis, please.
     
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  2. Exotiki

    Exotiki The Future Ain’t What It Use To Be

    Location:
    Canada
    Analysis on what exactly? :confused:
     
  3. Blair G.

    Blair G. Senior Member

    Location:
    Delta, BC, Canada
    I have it on Japanese vinyl. Don’t know what possessed me to buy it, had all the tracks already.
    Probably the uniqueness.
    Bet it’s 40 years since I played it.
    Cool album cover
     
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  4. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    Been discussed around here many times. Basically, The Beatles used to put out new product in time for the Christmas season or thereabouts. In '66, with Revolver having come out in August, no Beatles for Christmas (they had actually commenced work on what was going to be Sgt. Pepper but two of the songs ended up a single). Anyway, to have Christmas with The Beatles, EMI decided on a compilation album which actually included one song never released in the UK to this point in time, Bad Boy (which they specifically had recorded for Capitol's Beatles VI).
     
  5. lordcat

    lordcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I often think it's an overlooked album.
    Apple should remix every track and reissue it to give it some sales and new kudos!
     
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  6. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I played the UK mono pressing through a couple of weeks ago. It sounds mediocre but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It flows very well.
     
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  7. Brickie

    Brickie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    The album is special to me. It was the first time i listened to The Beatles it introduced me to music at an early age.
     
  8. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I'd buy it if it was done the same as the 2014 mono box LPs.
     
  9. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    It would make for a great RSD release.
     
  10. lordcat

    lordcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    My only copy of it is a tattered old Cassette I got from my local library and never took back :)
     
  11. Adam9

    Adam9 Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    The stereo lacks bass and the mono is dull sounding.
     
  12. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    The UK mono sounds like the tape head alignment isn't right. It's puzzling that it got out like that.
     
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  13. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    Yea, the sound quality (which a present day reissue would rectify) is the only real drawback.
     
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  14. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    You youngsters.

    Back in the day, the ONLY place in the USA via British import to find stereo versions of many of those songs. We bought it in January of 1968 at Lewin's Record Paradise on Hollywood Blvd. and it was like 7 bucks. A fortune to us but we could hear our favorite songs in stereo for the first time. I don't think Capitol ever caught up on many of them to this day. I still have it, one of my favorite albums, even though it's pointless now. Still, 16 songs, many true stereo. Was worth it at the time. (Thanks to Jon's mom for kicking in the extra 3 dollars.)

    Tell me, did Capitol EVER issue stereo versions of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, TICKET TO RIDE, CAN'T BUY ME LOVE, I FEEL FINE, I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, FROM ME TO YOU, etc?
     
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  15. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    Wow….7 bucks for a “British Import”!! By the time I got to them around ‘72 or so they had already increased by 8, 9 dollars. But this particular album was pretty much nowhere to be found. My first copy was from Greece which I was given as a gift over there in the Summer of ‘69. It was a mono copy (true mono). Like a dope I traded it away in the early seventies. My first copy after that was a Japanese on Apple years before I tracked a UK on Parlophone.
     
  16. dsdu

    dsdu less serious minor pest

    Location:
    Santa Cruz, CA
    I believe that was where I bought the UK Aftermath in 1966.
    Drove my father's Honda 65 from La Canada up Foothill, down Verdugo through Glendale on Los Feliz and onto Hollywood Blvd. to get it.
     
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  17. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    Until the mid-Sixties, most (or possibly all) LPs released on EMI labels in the UK were ‘flipbacks’ with laminated colour front covers and black-and-white back covers.

    A Collection of Beatles Oldies… But Goldies was one of the first EMI LPs to have a colour back cover:

    [​IMG]

    The type of cardboard used for the back cover gives the image a slightly muted quality (which I rather like).

    But, for once, the Beatles weren’t the first. Back in February 1966, EMI had already given a colour back cover to the UK edition of Beach Boys’ Party:

    [​IMG]

    And, in May 1966, to Cliff Richard’s Kinda Latin:

    [​IMG]

    And, finally, in December 1966 (contemporaneously with A Collection of Beatles’ Oldies):

    [​IMG]

    Making me wonder why Parlophone hadn’t done something like this for the back cover of Revolver in August…

    [​IMG]
     
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  18. Saint Johnny

    Saint Johnny Forum Resident

    Location:
    Asbury Park
    My copy is from Uruguay or Argentina(?).
    The cover is printed on thin flimsy paper surrounded by a permanent loose poly bag. I got it in the late 1970s in a cut-out bin for a dollar or $3.00.
    And I do remember thinking at the time, wow some of these songs sound different.
     
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  19. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    Sounds like Uruguay… I have a copy of Pepper from there with the same type of packaging.
     
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  20. Hombre

    Hombre Forum Resident

    I've always wondered why "Please Please Me" wasn't included in this collection (perhaps it was the same technical reason that excluded it from "1"). On the other side, the presence of "Michelle" evidences the high regard that song had back in the day, even though it wasn't released as a single by the Beatles (actually a cover version by the Overlanders was a #1 hit in UK).
     
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  21. badfingerjoe

    badfingerjoe Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I going to answer Steve's question but I'll be going by memory on this. These tracks getting true stereo releases by Capitol took a while. "I Feel Fine" & "I Want To Hold Your Hand" saw their first true stereo releases on Capitol's "20 Greatest Hits". "A Hard Day's Night" was issued on "Reel Music", "Can't Buy Me Love" on "Hey Jude" and "From Me To You" on "62-66. The other long overdue Capitol true stereo release was "Ticket To Ride" which first appeared also on "Reel Music". Crazy how Capitol waited into the 80's before they issued most of these tracks in true stereo.
     
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  22. recap200

    recap200 Forum Resident

    Location:
    nowhere land
    Yep, I remember buying A Collection of Golden Oldies for the unique stereo mixes. This was my first chance to hear some of my favorite Beatles' songs in 'true' stereo, etc. It's been a long time... I need to give this album a listen sometime soon.

    ---

    From Wikipedia:


    Stereo mixing
    Several tracks, including "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out" and "Paperback Writer", were remixed in stereo for the album, since the majority of the Beatles' singles had only been mixed for mono release previously. The stereo mixing was overseen by George Martin, the Beatles' producer, with none of the band members present. The mixing sessions took place between 31 October and 10 November 1966 at EMI Studios (later Abbey Road Studios) in London.

    Martin was surprised at how time-consuming the remixing of "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" proved to be. In the case of "She Loves You", the 1963 two-track recording tape had since been reused, forcing EMI engineer Geoff Emerick to return to the mono master and create a "mock stereo" mix. This was achieved through removing the high frequencies from the left channel and the low frequencies from the right. They had also intended to remix "From Me to You", the Beatles' first song to top the Record Retailer chart, but this did not take place.

    The final day of the album's preparation was carried out without Martin and Emerick. Author Kenneth Womack writes of their absence, as of the Beatles' non-participation: "Clearly, A Collection of Beatles Oldies was the sole priority of EMI at this juncture." Two other EMI engineers, Peter Bown and Graham Kirkby, remixed "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out" that day. They then worked on "This Boy", the B-side of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", but this was due to a miscommunication with EMI's office in Manchester Square, where the song had been confused with "Bad Boy". The error was discovered later, by which point there was no time to remix "Bad Boy" and the original mix was used for the compilation.

    "The LP was issued in both mono and stereo formats but since some of the songs had never been mixed for stereo – principally Beatles singles, which were released in mono until 1969 – a series of remix sessions were set up. None were attended by as much as a solitary Beatle." – Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn
     
  23. mBen989

    mBen989 Senior Member

    Location:
    Scranton, PA
    I think the plan was to minimize duplicate tracks.
     
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  24. BlueJay

    BlueJay Forum Resident

    A criminally neglected Beatles album, part of the original UK album series, and a much loved piece of Beatles history. I was going to say like the 'Hey Jude' album but of course that was not part of the original UK album series. I found a nice copy of 'Oldies .... but Goldies' in a UK thrift store a few years ago and snapped it up. I'd love to see it reissued - not as an RSD release, I hate those - but as a regular vinyl reissue. I said here some time ago that I thought it was a huge missed opportunity not to have included a cd version of the Oldies album in the Beatles Japan albums cd box. But don't get me going on 'huge missed opportunities' .......
     
  25. Phil P

    Phil P Forum Resident

    Location:
    Marlborough, UK
    Special to me too as the first album I ever bought with my own pocket money, in the early 70's - sold that pressing for some reason many years later.
    I now have a first pressing mono with the yellow Parlophone logo and the KT tax stamp, and also a late 70's stereo.

    I believe it's still the only place to get the 1966 mock stereo mix of She Loves You.
    The other four stereo mixes from that time (I Want To Hold Your Hand, We Can Work It Out, Day Tripper, Paperback Writer) were used for the 2009 Past Masters I think.
     
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