It Was Fifty Years Ago Today

[Sailor Steve]

On March 22, 1963, The Beatles released their first album.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Please_Please_Me

[August]

"It was 50 year ago today,
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play..."

[eddie]

You are really making me feel old Steve

This is the cover of the first album by them that I bought!

[Sailor Steve]

Yep, Capitol's first Beatles album. There was actually an earlier US release, from VeeJay records, with 12 of the original 14 from Please Please Me. The Capitol album was the US version of their second album, With The Beatles, released in November. It had 9 of the 14 songs from the British version, plus two songs from a single* not on the British album, and a song from the first album.

*It was a curious difference between British and American albums. Not only did the British versions have 14 songs to the American's 12, but songs that were being released as singles in Britain were intentionally not put on albums. When Capitol put up the money for the CD releases they chose to go with the original British versions. This led to much confusion from American fans from the old days, especially albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver, which not only had songs not on the American versions, but were missing songs that had already appeared on earlier British albums, and to the release of Past Masters vol. 1 & 2, two full discs of singles that were never on the British albums.

[GoldenRivet]

the influence the beatles had on rock and roll is undeniable

that said, i cannot STAND that group.

used to like em a lot... but i eventually just gave up on my oldies radio station because every 5th or 6th song was a beatles song and it seemed as if you would hear several songs repeatedly within a span of a few hours.

then the beatles version of rock band came out... kids anywhere from 10-16 who yesterday - wouldnt give the band a second glance and considered it old fart music - the next day they could name every member of the band and had a half dozen of their favorite beatles songs and they would come on the radio and beg you to leave it there.

ugh.... eventually it just got to the point that i couldnt stand it.

I all but have them blocked on pandora

[August]

I have a Beatles white album printed on white vinyl.

[August]

BTW just happened to run across this in the news today:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nationa...ntent=National

DALLAS — Advance bids for a copy of The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album autographed by all four band members are even higher than the auction house anticipated.
Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said Friday that bidding for the 1967 album has reached $110,500 and could surpass $150,000 by the March 30 auction. Heritage originally estimated the album would go for around $30,000.
The Beatles signed the album on the gatefold above pictures of their heads.
The auction company's consignment director, Garry Shrum, says there's no telling when an autograph of such quality will show up again and "people are responding to that."
Shrum says the bidding seems to have "taken on a life of its own."
Bids started at $15,000 and include the buyer's premium.

[vienna]

*It was a curious difference between British and American albums. Not only did the British versions have 14 songs to the American's 12, but songs that were being released as singles in Britain were intentionally not put on albums. When Capitol put up the money for the CD releases they chose to go with the original British versions. This led to much confusion from American fans from the old days, especially albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver, which not only had songs not on the American versions, but were missing songs that had already appeared on earlier British albums, and to the release of Past Masters vol. 1 & 2, two full discs of singles that were never on the British albums.

The difference between the US/UK versions also was the prime reason the Beatles formed Apple Records. THe Beatles, particulary John, were upset about the exclusion, exclusion, or rearranging of the order of the songs on the US album releases. The band had worked to put the songs in a particular order for an overall effect on the listener. The Beatles were among the first artits to view an album as a whole work rather than just the inclusion of a hit single or two padded out with filler songs. When Sgt. Pepper was released, the Beatles caused the record companies in the US/UK great consternation by refusing to release any singles from the album. This was coupled with a drawn out battle over the album cover design (John had originally just wanted to release the album in a simple brown cardboard cover) and the inclusion of the lyrics on the album's back cover...

Another little noted difference was Captol Records (US) tinkering with the recordings themselves. There are differences in the editing of some songs and sometimes a bit of audio "sweetening" was added by Capitol in the final US releases...

<O>

[Jimbuna]

Grew up and was weaned on them...don't have any vinyl now but got all their main albums on CD

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

On March 22, 1963, The Beatles released their first album.

I was 13 years old and the Beatles had a huge impact on my musical interest. My favorite albums were the ones that preceded Sgt. Pepper, Rubber Soul and Revolver. Watching their performances on Ed Sullivan inspired me and my two brothers to play guitar. And we all still do.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by vienna

THe Beatles, particulary John, were upset about the exclusion, exclusion, or rearranging of the order of the songs on the US album releases. The band had worked to put the songs in a particular order for an overall effect on the listener.

I've known about that for years, and I've laughed at them for years. Yes, I would challenge Lennon and McCartney themselves if I could. If that's true then they could have done a lot better job of it.

The back side of Help!, in particular, seems to be a hodgepodge of leftover songs thrown together just to fill out the side. Nothing special about it at all, and annoyingly done.

When Sgt. Pepper was released, the Beatles caused the record companies in the US/UK great consternation by refusing to release any singles from the album.

Except of course for 'Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever', which were recorded for the album but pulled to make a single. As I said, the standard British practice was to never include songs on an album that were scheduled for single release. I can show several more examples by the Rolling Stones and The Who.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Grew up and was weaned on them...don't have any vinyl now but got all their main albums on CD

Well, you know me. We've talked about it before. I have all the British and all the American albums, and the singles, and the EPs, all sorted by date.

I prefer the US version of albums like Rubber Soul, partly because that's the version I've listened to all these years, and partly because that version of 'I'm Looking Through You' has the "false start" guitar track at the intro not found on the British version. Conversely only the British version of Sgt. Pepper's has the cool laugh track at the very end.

[vienna]

Steve, this might interest you; there are a couple of Beatles-themed radio shows here in Los Angeles available also over the 'Net:


Saturday Withe the Beatles (KCSN 88.5) Saturdays, 10:00 am - 1:00pm PST

http://www.kcsn.org/programs/saturday-with-the-beatles/


Breakfast With The Beatles (KLOS 95.5) Sundays, 9:00 am - 12:00pm PST

http://www.955klos.com/common/page.p...=321&is_corp=0

The Sunday show has the distinction of being the longest-running Beatles radio show, broadcasting for nearly 30 years.

Both shows feature Beatles news, rare tracks and outtakes and specials shows for the Beatles' birthdays and such. The Sunday show also plays 1960s Beatles radio promos and commercials from local radio station 93 KHJ. It is quite a kick to hear an ad for "the latest Beatles album available for just $2.95". Ah, for the days when I could go down to a recrd store and but four albums for $10.00...

<O>

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by u crank

I was 13 years old and the Beatles had a huge impact on my musical interest. My favorite albums were the ones that preceded Sgt. Pepper, Rubber Soul and Revolver. Watching their performances on Ed Sullivan inspired me and my two brothers to play guitar. And we all still do.

Same here, except I wasn't really aware of them until Ed Sullivan, and they didn't really affect me for another year. In '65 I saw Help! in the theater, and when the movie started girls were screaming at them on the screen!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by vienna

Steve, this might interest you;

Saturday I'm not familiar with, but Breakfast is nationwide. I used to hear it in my car years ago. On the other hand I can listen to anything I want by anyone I want anytime I want, so I don't listen to much radio anymore.

My favorite radio station of all time was one I used to listen to back in 1970 in L.A. They would play two or three different versions of the same song. Something recently popular would actually be a cover of an older, maybe unknown song, and you could decide if the popular cover was really better than the original. That's when I first found out that Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love' was actually an uncredited ripoff of a Small Faces song, which was actually a ripoff of a Muddy Waters song that was actually written by Willie Dixon.