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Introducing... The Beatles (1964)

Where the lyrics of Introducing... The Beatles take you, and where it was really made.

Released ten days after Capitol's Meet the Beatles!, this album stalled at No. 2 while Meet the Beatles! sat at No. 1 for eleven weeks.

Key places

Abbey Road Studios, London (1964)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — Abbey Road Studios in London is linked to this album as its recording place. The point marks the studio building, not a specific room. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Album story

Overview

• Introducing... The Beatles: first studio album by the Beatles released in the United States
• Released 10 January 1964 on Vee-Jay Records, ten days before Capitol's Meet the Beatles!
• Originally scheduled for a July 1963 release
• Twelve songs; Vee-Jay omitted "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why" to follow the American 12-song norm
• Otherwise the order and contents of the UK album were left intact

Background

• Capitol Records declined to release the "Please Please Me" single in the US
• Transglobal negotiated with several labels; Vee-Jay signed a licence giving it first refusal on Beatles records for five years
• Vee-Jay president Ewart Abner resigned after using company money to cover personal gambling debts
• That management shake-up cancelled the album's first release plan
• Desperate for cash, Vee-Jay's board decided to release the album on 7 January 1964 even at the risk of legal trouble
• A restraining order stopped further distribution on 16 January 1964, less than a week after release

Recording

• Vee-Jay received copies of the mono and stereo master tapes in late April or early May 1963
• Universal Recording Corporation of Chicago made an acetate with all 14 songs, still titled Please Please Me
• The Chicago engineer snipped the count-in from "I Saw Her Standing There" on the Vee-Jay masters
• Version two dropped "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" and added "Ask Me Why" and "Please Please Me"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960
• Grew out of Lennon's earlier band the Quarrymen
• Built its reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg
• Starr officially joined in 1962

Members

• John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr

Career

• Manager Brian Epstein shaped them into a professional act
• Producer George Martin developed their recordings after they signed with EMI
• First hit Love Me Do came in late 1962
• By early 1964 they were international stars
• Part of the British Invasion of the US pop market
• Retired from live performance in 1966
• Turned to more sophisticated studio albums: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album and Abbey Road
• Founded Apple Corps in 1968
• Broke up in 1970

Around this album

• Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together
• On 20 September 1969, six days before release, Lennon told McCartney, Starr and manager Allen Klein that he wanted a divorce from the group
• No public announcement of the split came until McCartney announced he was leaving in April 1970

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Billboard album chart: entered one week after Meet the Beatles!, which had entered first
• Stalled at No. 2 and stayed there for nine consecutive weeks while Meet the Beatles! peaked at No. 1 for eleven weeks
• Cash Box: peaked at number two
• Record World: reached number one

Records

• During its availability, sold approximately 1,300,000 mono copies and approximately 41,000 stereo copies
• Stereo copies were only 3.1 percent of all LPs, so true stereo copies are rare
• Certified gold and platinum by the RIAA on 24 July 2014
• Two Vee-Jay repackagings also made the Billboard album charts: Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles peaked at number 63, and The Beatles vs the Four Seasons peaked at number 142

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The Vee-Jay release came out ten days before Capitol's Meet the Beatles!, but entered the US album chart a week later.
• A surviving acetate made in Chicago kept all 14 songs in UK order, with the title still Please Please Me.
• Two Beechwood Music songs, "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You", led to the restraining order and forced a reconfigured version two.
• Introducing... The Beatles has never been officially released on compact disc, although several unauthorized CD reproductions have circulated.
• Counterfeit copies often claimed to be in stereo, though the actual sound was usually mono.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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