The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" - Putting together the proper tracklist

You keep talking about sales when:
1. We don't have reliable sales figures for many countries in the 60s
2. Sales don't have anything to with my point: the original album was a milestone in the UK and many other countries where it was released, so the influence of the US album in the US is not a particular effect of that configuration.

Of course the influence can be evaluated. From first-hand memories of my father's and other people who lived when it was released, from books, documentaries, and of course the music. And no, not only Los Bravos:

 

Abe Lincoln said it, but thanks. You have the right idea!

 

+99999...

It is rather telling, is it not, that it sold far more in the US than the rest of the world put together?

The figures supports Schnitzers view, anyone who passed basic math would have to admit that. US Rubber Soul IS the canon, and I say that as a dane who's ever only heard the UK version.

 

Come on, that one was pretty funny.

 

Hello Goodbye would work nicely on Sgt. Pepper. She Loves You wouldn't work at all on Rubber Soul.

Savvy?

 

WE CARE! 'MERICA!

 

A truly great man. There's a statue of him in Manchester (UK, for the avoidance of doubt)

 

The theme of the White Album is "Eclectic Rock".

The theme of With The Beatles is "Bug Music".

The theme of Rubber Soul US is "Folksy Acoustic Maturity".

Stop looking smoking guns. There aren't any.

 

20-years-later reissues on a new disc format do not undo the Rubber Soul impressions on billions of American minds from 1965-1987. 6 Million copies sold in the Capitol configuration. A paltry 600 Thousand in the UK configuration. That's 90% America to 10% Britain if anyone's counting.

If one shall be designated the more influential, it is unquestionably the Capitol version.

 

The theme of the White Album is "Eclectic Rock".

The theme of With The Beatles is "Eclectic Rock".

The theme of Rubber Soul is "Eclectic Rock".

 

Where do you get six million from 65-87 from? Rubber Soul has been certified at six million in the US for all sales up to 1997.

 

Wrong!!

 

I own the Spizer books, they are excellent. As already stated, Capitol had a banner year in 1963 on the tails of Beach Music and didn't need another genre at that point.

The Vee Jay, Swan, and Tollie records of all the huge UK hits were released, they did exist, one of them even charted, they were a flop. Turns out, in 1963 the American public wasn't ready for the Beatles. In 1964, they were. Dave Dexter Jr. was correct. Likely due to Presidential tragedy, Baby Boomers in January '64 were looking for something to break them out of their doldrums and the Beatles were the thing.

And once Dexter embraced the band, he launched them, he packaged them, he sequenced them, he marketed them just brilliantly, the biggest explosion in the history of music. Timing is everything. The '63 launch was a bust. The '64 launch was epic. Thank you Dave Dexter Jr. God bless you.

 

There's roughly 5 times as many people in USA as in the UK, but 10 times the sales numbers of Rubber Soul. Case closed if you ask me.

 

... including sales of the UK tracklisting, in Martin's 87 mix variation. Rubber Soul doesn't go platinum in the US until 1991.

 

Feel free to find the numbers in the pre-CD era if you like, the percentages will stay the same. And that's the point- the US was 90% of the US/UK business. What Capitol sequenced was far more important and influential than anything Parlophone did in their tiny space. You may think that the creators, the comedy producer, and the shopkeeper came up with the track listing for Rubber Soul, but they didn't. Because their version didn't matter. Too few copies to make a difference in public perception.

 

That's all it takes. Funny, but it's true.

 

I didn't ask you to recite your ******** talking points about "shopkeeper" or "importance", I asked you about a number.

 

Right!!

 

Spizer says that the US configuration of Rubber Soul sold 4 million in the US.

 

And Spizer's source is?

 

And boom goes the dynamite. If the UK version were so epic, it would have sold much better. Brilliant.

Dave Dexter Jr. is therefore absolved of any wrongdoing. God bless his contributions to rock music history and may he rest in peace.

 

RIAA certification.

 

I would put revolution number 9 as the opening track on us album and at the end of the UK album.