The Beatles 1964 U.S. Albums In Mono Reviewed: Track selection not withstanding, Beatlemania’s stateside iteration still sounds thrilling New vinyl boxset collects The Beatles' first six American studio LPs in mono. The Beatles, Washington D.C. 1964 The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono ★★★★ CAPITOL America and Britain are two nations separated by salt water, a common language (per George Bernard Shaw) and different Beatlemanias. The U.K. phenomenon in 1963 remains the gold standard for pop hysteria, a massive rush of love at the speed of light detonated by a handful of singles and an album, Please Please Me, almost half of which was covers from the club sets. READ MORE: Paul McCartney And Ringo Starr Interviewed: "Every so often I’d go to the cupboard and think, 'There’s a new song in there we've got to do it...'" The former colonies were late to the party – EMI's Yankee arm, Capitol Records, spent that year exercising its right of first refusal – but we caught up fast. And this deluxe, vinyl set of the Beatles' first six American studio LPs from mono-master tapes in period sleeves (also available separately) – is hardly the full chaos. Add the cash-ins by ’63 licensee Vee-Jay plus the sudden worth of the 1961 Hamburg sessions and nearly two dozen U.S. albums and 45s were issued over 1964. Capitol's trade pitch for The Beatles Story, a two-LP audio documentary released that November and a bonus in the box, put it bluntly: “The Greatest Profit Package in History.”
The Beatles 1964 U.S. Albums In Mono Reviewed: Track selection not withstanding, Beatlemania’s stateside iteration still sounds thrilling
New vinyl boxset collects The Beatles' first six American studio LPs in mono.
America and Britain are two nations separated by salt water, a common language (per George Bernard Shaw) and different Beatlemanias. The U.K. phenomenon in 1963 remains the gold standard for pop hysteria, a massive rush of love at the speed of light detonated by a handful of singles and an album, Please Please Me, almost half of which was covers from the club sets.
The former colonies were late to the party – EMI's Yankee arm, Capitol Records, spent that year exercising its right of first refusal – but we caught up fast. And this deluxe, vinyl set of the Beatles' first six American studio LPs from mono-master tapes in period sleeves (also available separately) – is hardly the full chaos. Add the cash-ins by ’63 licensee Vee-Jay plus the sudden worth of the 1961 Hamburg sessions and nearly two dozen U.S. albums and 45s were issued over 1964. Capitol's trade pitch for The Beatles Story, a two-LP audio documentary released that November and a bonus in the box, put it bluntly: “The Greatest Profit Package in History.”
But this helter-skelter has a story of its own, a weirdly reordered, uniquely illuminating arc of breakthrough at once belying and beholden to Capitol's mercenary disregard for the Parlophone canon (shortened LPs to save on publishing royalties; made-up platters sequenced with the logic of a roulette wheel). If Please Please Me is the first, giant step of a killer bar band led by two emerging-virtuoso composers, Capitol's debut, Meet The Beatles!, is that genius unleashed with visceral finesse: nearly all John Lennon-Paul McCartney originals, largely drawn from the British jump forward, late-’63's With The Beatles. In this telling, America doesn't stand a chance – the shotgun entrance of I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There; the hard Liverpool stares in Robert Freeman's iconic mod-noir cover photo – and George Harrison is a writer from the start (Don't Bother Me).
Source: David Fricke/mojo4music.com
