The Beatles US Capitol Albums Volume 3 On CD

My odd 3 picks for the #3 box (still not sure what I would include for a 4th disk -probably Hey Jude):

Rarities to wrap-up a few loose ends


The Capitol-proposed Sessions album for some unreleased content (ditch most of the Emerick mixes)



Yesterday and Today: because we need the content and all unique stereo and mono mixes

 

Yesterday and Today
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper
Magical Mystery Tour
(All unique in their own way)

Then Volume 4.
Hey Jude
A Hard Days Night
Rarities (with bonus tracks maybe to include whatever songs are missing aside from the albums that are the same in UK)

 

Same reason this one does. It is a marketing conceit. In 1995, it didn't matter whether the label said Capitol or Parlophone or Apple. They were the same EMI recordings. In 1964-1986 it made a difference as to which versions of [some] tracks you were listening to.


What are we arguing here? That AHDN as manufactured and distributed by Capitol with a Capitol label from 1979-1987 was not a Capitol album because it was initially released by United Artists?

Why does the US Albums box set contain the UA A Hard Day's Night [or Apple's Hey Jude] but not VeeJay's Introducing The Beatles? [And not Capitol's version of Magical Mystery Tour?] Someone is drawing an imaginary line somewhere...

 

What is the US master of the German “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on that list? How is it different from the UK?

 

Duophonic IIRC

 

Ah, possibly - I hadn’t considered that. You’re probably right.

 

I'll pop in my Dr Ebbetts Somthing New's (Mono and Stereo) and check later.

 

Not Duophonic. Nothing Duophonic is on the list.

For whatever reason, the tape used on Past Masters sounds awful in comparison. That's the difference.

 

Oh yeah! It's terrible. (It was so bad that I synced the backing of IWTHYH to the vocals of Komm Gib and it actually turned out pretty great)

 

Funny - I’ve always thought the version on Something New sounded superior to Past Masters.

 

Way superior. Also the US version has the off-mic shouts in the intro, eliminated from the UK copy/mix.

 

Since I can't seem to find it at the moment...is that also true on Rarities? Or was it something done in 2009?

 

I think so... not sure without checking though.

 

I've had this German LP for a short while, but haven't listened to it yet. I'm thinking it was released in 1964 and may be the first stereo release of Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand.

 

There can’t have been too many LPs released in 1964 that included both Elvis and The Beatles (and Cliff!)

 

I actually bought this record twice. The first time I was mistakenly sent the version where the one Beatles track was substituted with a Marlene Dietrich song.

 

I'm almost scared to bring this up cause I'm way out of my league here, but what about the Rock and Roll Music compilation? (My first Beatles album, Christmas present the year it came out) Weren't those mixes different from what came before, newly done by George Martin specifically for that release? The U.S version only, IIRC?

 

Some stereo mixes were tweaked, but nothing was remixed from the session tapes.

 

IIRC, the mixes tweaked were the twin-track songs (with everything hard panned left or right). Martin moved the vocals channel towards the center.

 

Listening to my copy of Vol 1 in the first time in forever, all he did was narrow the channels...and apparently EQ things quite a bit. That's it.

Martin's account is pretty elaborate for what's just heavy-handed mastering. Then again, it's immediately followed by the claim that EMI finally caved to Martin's demands due to The Beatles' success and got 4-track...despite the fact that 4-track had been at the studios for 4 years by then.

 

...but the Emerick mixes were going to be on the Sessions album! If authenticity and fidelity to the originals is the reason for another Capitol box, why substitute other mixes on Sessions? Any complaints about the quality of those mixes would certainly also apply to flaws on other Capitol Beatles records, like the cavernous reverb on "I Feel Fine" or the ridiculous panning on the "stereo" A Hard Day's Night.

 

Good point!

 

I just read that these new tweaked versions were not used on the UK Parlophone release, some sort of Beatles rule to only use the music as originally recorded, on EMI records in Britain. But later, when the double album was reissued as 2 seperate volumes, the tweaked versions were used on all copies.

 

Martin claims that...yet he remixed Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, and Baby You're A Rich Man in 1971. And EMI issuing the stereo mixes "as they were" wasn't anything new...they had basically been doing so since 1963. Martin seemed to imply that they hadn't previously been issued in stereo, which was of course not true.

 

It was the same here in Spain. I have a separate vol. 1, so it has the tweaked versions. I just heard a couple, and as lukpac said, Martin just narrowed the channels and EQ'd. Although I still get the impression that the vocals channel is more centered than the other one.