“PHENOMENAL POP GROUP” The Beatles’ North American releases

North American Beatles releases would vary in odd and intriguing ways from their original UK iterations throughout their career, from the time Vee-jay misspelled their name as “Beattles” on Please Please Me. Some of the most interesting ones from the era of their US breakthrough include the items detailed here.

Picture sleeves for singles were far more common in the US, and as a demonstration of their belated commitment to promoting the group, Capitol put a Dezo Hoffmann picture of the collarless-suited quartet on I Want To Hold Your Hand, which used I Saw Her Standing There rather than This Boy as the B-side. It sold so many copies that the original p/s isn’t exactly rare, though not so easy to find in anything near mint condition. As a quirky footnote, when the single was reissued 20 years later, Paul Mccartney’s cigarette was airbrushed out of the image.

Although their first Capitol LP, Meet The Beatles!, had a very similar cover to their second British album, With The Beatles, the slogan, “The First Album by England’s Phenomenal Pop Group” served as the subtitle. While the track selection duplicated nine of the songs from With The Beatles, both sides of their fifth British 45 (I Want To Hold Your Hand and This Boy) were added, and all of the covers besides Till There Was You omitted (though they’d soon find US release on The Beatles’ Second Album). In a licensing kink, I Saw Her Standing There, which had been on their British debut longplayer Please Please Me, was also added.

It’s been reported Capitol wanted to emphasise The Beatles’ songwriting, and hence their then-exotic Englishness, at the expense of their fine interpretations of American rock and soul classics. Meet The Beatles! is still a great listen anyway, and the original US stereo and mono mixes were reissued on CD in 2004 as part of the Capitol Albums, Volume 1 box.

Meet The Beatles!, contrary to its subtitle, wasn’t their first album. Please Please Me was, and Vee-jay rushed out all but two of its 14 songs in January on Introducing The Beatles. Confusingly, this was quickly replaced by an edition substituting Please Please Me and Ask Me Why for Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You, owing to a publishing rights issue. While the back cover of Meet The Beatles! had a reasonably informative sleeve-note, Introducing The Beatles was assembled so quickly that the first and rarest editions simply reproduced miniature covers of 25 other Vee Jay LPS on the back, or had an entirely blank rear sleeve.

At a time when The Beatles’ image was changing with furious speed, the January 1963 cover pic was already terribly outdated. Photographer Angus Mcbean recalled the session to the authors of The Beatles’ London as “a gangling group of four young men in molecolored velveteen performing suits of terrible cut. I took a dreadful picture of them, which is best forgotten.” It was far from forgotten, as it would be seen by millions of Americans when Introducing The Beatles made No 2 in the US.

Vee-jay missed an opportunity for squeezing another hit out of their brief stewardship of their early recordings when it put From Me To You on the B-side of their reissue of the Please Please Me single. The picture sleeve simply reused the same Angus

Mcbean photo, while

Swan’s picture sleeve for

She Loves You opted for the oft-reproduced photo of the collarless-suited

Beatles where George’s arm is extended toward Ringo – the very same picture found on the back of Meet

The Beatles!, taken by Dezo

Hofmann in April 1963 at the same session that