"Revolver" showed how much the Beatles had broken away from their roots of Love Me Do and Please Please Me. Gone are the simple little love ditties that they shook their moptops to and replacing them are delicate, intricate little musical masterpieces. It showed that music wasn't just there to be danced to, it was there to be listened to. By 1966 the Beatles were all experimenting in drugs with John's work being most heavily influenced by the frequent LSD trips he was taking. She Said She Said was inspired by Peter Fonda telling John about how he almost died during an operation whilst they were tripping together; Peter kept telling John, "I know what it's like to be dead." Then there's Tomorrow Never Knows, a song inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead and uses just two chords. Tomorrow Never Knows is a heavy psychedelic song - one of the first ever to appear on vinyl. Paul tackled depression, isolation and loneliness in music with Eleanor Rigby and even George, who had been quiet on the song-writing front, has three compositions offered - something unique to a Beatles disc. Love You To showed George's heavy Indian influence, something that was also to show in The Inner Light and Within You Without You. To complete the overall package, the album contains a beauifully simply love song by Paul called Here, There and Everywhere and a fun little children's ditty sung by Ringo called Yellow Submarine.

When "Revolver" was initially mixed a different master for Tomorrow Never Knows was sent off to be pressed. This mix is known as 'Remix 11'. Although subtle, it is different to the standard 'Remix 9' which was ultimately to replace it. The story goes that each group member was given the first copies from the production line and John went to listen to it. But, it turned out that he was unhappy with the mix or that the wrong one had been used and he informed George Martin. Production was then stopped as the new masters were cut and the pressing plates were replaced. This story has never been verified though... These first presses have a side 2 matrix number of XEX 606-1 whereas the standard presses have XEX 606-2 and beyond.

The chronology of the 1st label variations is not yet fixed as it is a little confusing, hopefully this can be re-ordered into the most likely sequence when we can analyse some more label shots. Also, not forgetting, some of these variations could have been in production simultaneously.

If you have a label or font variation - no matter how small - that we haven't documented here, please contact us!

Label 3 courtesy of Samuel Tzur

Mono 1st Label, Variation A

This is how the labels first appeared on the shelves. Still using the sans serif Arial typeset, all 606-1 copies of "Revolver" were pressed on this label - we have *never* seen the Times New Roman labels of label 1C have this initial 606-1 matrix number. Also, these early labels misprint the side 2 track Doctor Robert as "Dr. Robert", something that John Lennon allegedly wasn't happy with. These early sans serif labels have each song title starting on a new line with the first line purely for Taxman and have Eleanor Rigby starting on the second line down. Also something to note on these original labels is that each song title was followed by song credits and then lead vocalist.

Side 1 ..... Side 2

Mono 1st Label, Variation B

As above, but the "Dr. Robert" error on side 2 has been corrected, now correctly reading "Doctor Robert". This particular variation is quite hard to find as the mistake seems to have been rectified just before the general layout of the labels changed with song credits and lead vocalist text being altered. We date this example to very late 1966.

Side 1 ..... Side 2

Mono 1st Label, Variation C

A run of TNR labels appeared on "Revolver" and, while not rare, are not so common to find as the Arial ones. This label exhibits a new layout design most notably with side one having both Taxman and Eleanor Rigby on the first line. Yet it also displays the 'incorrect' Dr. Robert spelling on side 2. The credits pattern of 'Song, Composer, Lead Singer' has also now switched to 'Song, Lead Singer, Composer'. Due to this mismatching of old and new designs, we place this variation at a point in very late 1966 to 1967 when the Dr. Robert text is being rectified and also the overall layout is being altered. A similar band name and album title design appears on the mono "Help" 1C which we know ran at some point in late '66 to '67 but in small numbers.

Side 1 ..... Side 2

Mono 1st Label, Variation D

This variation seems to take the label layout design of the TNR 1C run, but incorporates the corrected Doctor Robert spelling. We imagine this run to have occurred around the same time as 1C. It returns to the sans serif label and the type was set with the same linebreaks as the TNR 1C layout, meaning that the top line of side 1 was shared by both Taxman and Eleanor Rigby instead of just purely Taxman. Also, the credits arrangement of 'Song, Lead Vocalist, Composer' was kept as it was on the 1C TNR label. Also, as stated before, the song title is now Doctor Robert, back to how it appeared on 1B. This probably appeared in 1967 or 1968.

Side 1 ..... Side 2

Mono 2nd Label

In 1969 the tax laws that required EMI to include the 'Sold in UK' statement were repealed, and so were duly removed. For a short while, just before the mono catalogue was closed and the label design changed, copies were available on the yellow / black label and without the 'Sold in UK' text.

Side 1 ..... Side 2

Mono 3rd Label

In the early 80's EMI released the Beatles Mono Boxset where each Beatles album was faithfully reprinted in glorious mono. The old Parlophone yellow / black label style was reintroduced for a bit of nostalgia. The easiest way to differentiate these between the original presses is that these copies have the MONO format printed at the top right corner, something that in the 60's was only reserved for the stereo presses.

Side 1 ..... Side 2

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