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A
Hard Day's Night - Mono
Released
on 10th July, 1964.
By
now the Beatles were at the top of the music industry and their next
step forward was to star in a movie like their idol Elvis Presley.
The resulting album was a major first for the group in that every
song on it was a self-penned Lennon / McCartney number and showed
the world just what these guys were capable of.
Again,
preorders and sales of this album were huge, but EMI were prepared
and managed to keep on top of demand and prevent any label errors
during the most hectic months!
If
you have a label or font variation - no matter how small - that
we haven't documented here, please contact us!
Credits:
Label 1B courtesy of Yuri Zgirsky
Labels 1D courtesy of John Wright
Labels 3A and 6A courtesy of forum member Baard
| Mono
1st Label, Variation A |
| When
the LP was first released it featured a new type-set that had
not been seen on any Beatles album in the past. This type was
chubby and rounded and only lasted a short time but as so many copies were pressed initially to satisfy the preorders, it is the style most commonly seen for this album. |
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| Mono 1st Label, Variation B |
Pretty soon the font seen on the 1A label was changed back to the slimmer, more usual, sans serif arial font. The only difference to the font is on the title, band name, tracklist info, and Cat. No. as the rest of the text is in the usual form. The layout of the label is identical to the 1A variation with the side 2 songs still being presented in a column. The rimtext still started with 'Parlophone' when this pressing was introduced. Of note, the paper used on the labels now has a different consistency and is more smooth than the slightly rough paper used on older labels such as 1A.
The title "Songs from the film A Hard Day's Night" doesn't take up as much width across the label as before or as it does in future. This variation is placed here as this smaller text may have been an experiment after the chubby text style was changed. |
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| Mono
1st Label, Variation C |
| The same as above, but the album title "Songs from the film..." is now a little larger and is spread across the label a little more. |
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| Mono 1st Label, Variation D |
The same as above, but this time the track listings have been spaced out a little wider vertically. |
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| Mono
1st Label, Variation E |
| This
time the track listing style on both sides were rearranged
to use the label space more effectively. This is most noticeable on side 2. Interestingly, our copy has a vertically spaced out side 2 label similar to 1D which would appear to be mismatched with this 1E copy. Until we can verify that there are two versions of this label with matching, corresponding sides it will be left as one copy in the labelography. |
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| Mono
2nd Label |
This
variation has the same layout as variation 1B but now the 'Recording
First Published' text has been replaced with a  datestamp. It is unsure if this label design exists in mono. |
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| Mono
3rd Label, Variation A |
| When
the rimtext was altered in 1965 so that instead of starting with 'The Parlophone Co'
is started with 'The Gramophone Co.', the typeset used on the "Hard Day's
Night" label seemed to have also changed from Sans Serif to Times New Roman.
The layout of the track listing was also re-arranged to incorporate
the differering type size, most notably the track If I Fell on side 1 has a line all to itself on this variation. The side 2 tracklist also now have the periods after each track removed. |
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| Mono
3rd Label, Variation B |
| It is likely this label variant was produced for a time simultaneously with 3A, the label font having been switched back to Sans Serif. |
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| Mono
4th Label |
| In
1969 the tax laws that required EMI to include the 'Sold in
UK' statement were repealed and for a brief time before Parlophone
underwent a label change the album was available with this style.
It was at this time that Parlophone removed the mono pressing from
their catalogue making only the stereo pressing available to buy. This mono version is very difficult to find. |
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| Mono 5th Label |
| Part of the 1982 mono box set which is commonly seen broken up today into individual LPs. The labels are a mock-60s Yellow and Black, but are easily distinguishable by the 'MONO' text above the cat.no. towards the right side of the label. This was never utilised on mono issues during the 60s. A Hard Day's Night is very uncommon on this label. |
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| Mono
6th Label, Variation A |
In
the late 1980s Parlophone decided
that it was going to drop the stereo pressing of the Hard Day's
Night album and keep solely with the mono mix. Initially when
the album was released there was a small error in that it displayed
YEX stereo matrix numbers on the label instead of the XEX mono ones. The labels are also now black with silver EMI logos and have no encircling rim around the edges.
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| Mono
6th Label, Variation B |
| As
above but with the matrix number on the label now giving the
mono XEX instead of the stereo YEX. |
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| Mono 7th Label |
| This type is the newest and is, at time of writing, the current label design for reissued Parlophone Beatles LPs from 2003 onwards. The only difference is a dish effect underneath the labels impressed into the vinyl itself. This indicates it was pressed in the Netherlands (despite the 'Made In England' text) at the 'Record Industries' plant in Haarlem, Holland. |
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