The Early Beatles

The Early Beatles
Compilation album by The Beatles
Released 22 March 1965
Recorded 4 and 11 September,
26 and 30 November 1962;
11, 20 and 25 February 1963,
EMI Studios, London
Genre Rock and roll
Length 26:26
Label Capitol
Producer George Martin
Compiler Dave Dexter, Jr.
The Beatles North American chronology

Beatles '65
(1964)		 The Early Beatles
(1965)		 Beatles VI
(1965)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
The Rolling Stone Record Guide [2]

The Early Beatles is the Beatles' sixth release on Capitol Records, and their eighth album for the American market. All of the tracks on this album had previously been issued on the early 1964 Vee-Jay release Introducing... The Beatles. The front cover photo for this album features the same back cover photo for the British LP Beatles for Sale.

Vee-Jay had gained American distribution rights to the tracks before the group became popular in America (because Capitol, the US subsidiary of EMI which owns the Beatles' record label Parlophone, had declined to release the group's records in America), and their releases had initially failed to chart. But after the group became famous, Vee-Jay, still holding the rights to the early material, was able to reissue them in America and this time the records sold in the millions. Capitol filed a lawsuit to stop Vee Jay from distributing the tracks, but was not successful. In October 1964, Vee-Jay's license to distribute the Beatles recordings they possessed expired, so Capitol finally got the American distribution rights for the album.

Though Vee-Jay had compiled four Beatles albums, ten singles and one EP in the space of just fifteen months from these tracks, when issued on Capitol, the album sold well, but its highest chart position was only number 43, making it the only original Capitol or United Artists released Beatles album not to reach numbers 1 or 2 in America (with the exception of the Capitol documentary album, The Beatles' Story, which peaked at number 7). Capitol did little to promote the album since the label merely viewed it as a replacement for the Vee-Jay LP, rather than a "new" Beatles album. The Early Beatles sold one million copies by late 1973 and was certified gold on 8 January 1974 and platinum on 10 January 1997 by the RIAA. It was released in both mono and stereo versions. As no stereo masters of "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" exist, Capitol used EMI's duophonic mixes of both songs.

The Early Beatles is available on compact disc as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 boxed set (catalogue number CDP 0946 3 57498 2 3), in both mono and stereo. A second CD version of The Early Beatles with the songs in both stereo and true mono was issued in 2014 individually and part of the Beatles The U.S. Albums boxed set.

Track listing

The album consists of eleven of the fourteen tracks from the Beatles' first British LP Please Please Me. Tracks not included are: "I Saw Her Standing There" (issued on Meet the Beatles!), "Misery" and "There's a Place". The latter two tracks, first issued by Capitol in 1965 on "Starline" singles, finally got a Capitol LP release in 1980 in the American version of the Rarities album. Two other tracks originally released by Vee-Jay in America but also not included in this album were "From Me to You" (which was not issued on an LP in America until 1973 on the compilation 1962–1966) and "Thank You Girl" (which Capitol had already issued on the LP The Beatles' Second Album). All songs written by Lennon-McCartney except where noted.

Side one
  1. "Love Me Do" – 2:23
  2. "Twist and Shout" (Phil Medley and Bert Russell) – 2:33
  3. "Anna (Go to Him)" (Arthur Alexander) – 3:00
  4. "Chains" (Gerry Goffin and Carole King) – 2:27
  5. "Boys" (Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell) – 2:25
  6. "Ask Me Why" – 2:28
Side two
  1. "Please Please Me" – 2:00
  2. "P.S. I Love You" – 2:05
  3. "Baby It's You" (Burt Bacharach, Mack David, and Luther Dixon, credited as Barney Williams) – 2:38
  4. "A Taste of Honey" (Ric Marlow and Bobby Scott) – 2:04
  5. "Do You Want to Know a Secret" – 1:59

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Canada (Music Canada)[3] Platinum 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[4] Platinum 1,000,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r1511
  2. ↑ Marsh, Dave; Swenson, John (Editors). The Rolling Stone Record Guide, 1st edition, Random House/Rolling Stone Press, 1979, p. 26.
  3. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – The Beatles – The Early Beatles". Music Canada. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  4. ↑ "American album certifications – Beatles, The – The Early Beatles". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 15 September 2013. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH

References

  • Stannard, Neville (1981). The Long and Winding Road: A History Of The Beatles On Record. London: Virgin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-907080-96-0.