It Was Fifty Years Ago Today

[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...

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[Jimbuna]

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

[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.

[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.

[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...

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[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.