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With
the Beatles - Mono
The
Beatles second UK album released on 22nd November 1963.
When
"With the Beatles" was released Beatlemania had taken hold of the
UK and demand for it was huge! Before it had even been
released there were advance orders of over 500,000 and it had sold
another 500,000 on top of that by September 1965 (making it only
the second album ever to sell more than a million copies - the first
being the "South Pacific" Soundtrack). Because the album it had knocked
off the top spot was "Please Please Me", it meant that the group
had a run of 51 consecutive weeks at the top of the UK album charts!
So,
naturally, there are countless copies of the original 1st pressing
out there on the market; most of them in a pretty shocking condition.
Also, because of the overwhelming demand, mistakes and changes were
made to the earlier labels to create quite a few early 'mix and
match' variations. There are 3 different variations
of the 1st label compared to the 6 for stereo. This difference could be attributed to the larger pressing runs of mono discs as opposed to the far fewer stereo.
If
you have a label or font variation - no matter how small - that
we haven't documented here, please contact us!
Credits:
Label 3A courtesy of forum member Baard
| Mono
1st Label, Variation A |
| When
this LP was initially released there were a few little problems
on the label that still had to be cleared up. The song title
You Really Got a Hold on Me was mispelt as You Really
Gotta Hold on Me and the song Money was credited to the publishers
'Jobete'. In stereo these are quite easy to find, but in mono
this label variation is a bit scarcer although really not as rare as many dealers make out. |
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Side
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| Mono
1st Label, Variation B |
| A little while after 1A, the Jobete credit was altered to correctly read 'Dominion, Belinda (Ldn.) Ltd.'. |
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| Mono
1st Label, Variation C |
In
the past this particular variation has been (very!) erroneously billed as a '1967'
pressing for some odd reason, but actually this variation was produced in early 1964
before the 'Sold in UK' text was added. On the side 2 label the
end of the song title I Wanna Be Your Man was shifted along
enough so that its full credits appeared on one line rather
than breaking in the middle of 'Northern Songs'. Because of
this, Devil in her Heart and Not a Second Time both now
started on new lines rather than being broken in the middle. Most obviously of course, on side 2 the tracklist now correctly states "You Really Got A Hold On Me" instead of "Gotta".
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| Mono 2nd Label |
Amazingly, no reissue labels from the 1964 'Sold In UK' era to the removal of the mono catalogue in 1969 have surfaced. It was believed that some mono copies of the 1969 Yellow and Black, no Sold In UK' existed but still we haven't seen any so discount it as myth for now. It is likely that such huge numbers of mono copies were produced in the 1963 era that reissuing them in the later years of the 60s wasn't necessary. I find that hard to believe considering the number of stereo copies from this period that turn up, but I can't think of any other reason unless EMI decided to stop mono issues in the early 60s. This is unlikely though as they didn't officially delete their Beatles mono catalogue until 1969/1970.
It wasn't until the mono boxset of 1982 that the mono issues seemed to appear again. These labels are a mock 60s Yellow and Black, but are easily distinguidhed 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.
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| Mono
3rd Label, Variation A |
In
the late 1980s EMI decided that it was
going to drop the stereo press of "With the Beatles" and only
sell it in mono. This was not only done on the vinyl release
but also on the CD release. However, when the printers were
modifying the stereo labels to mono, they changed the catalogue
number and format but forgot to change the matrix numbers on
the left side of the label. As a result, although the record
played in mono, it had the YEX stereo matrix number printed
on the label.
The labels are also now black with silver EMI logos and have no encircling silver rim around the edges. This appeared sometime in the late 80s and lasted through the 1990s. |
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| Mono
3rd Label, Variation B |
| As
above, but the matrix number is now corrected to the XEX mono. |
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| Mono 4th Label |
| Despite looking identical to label 3, 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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