Back in 1964 American buyers of the mono "A Hard Day's Night" Soundtrack album (United Artists UAL 3366) got a better deal than did the ones who bought the "stereo" version. While the latter's instrumentals were in true stereo the Beatles songs were mangled by UA engineers into versions that were electronically reprocessed for stereo.
Though the two originals have plenty of "mileage", they don't sound "chewed" and a great deal of high frequency energy remains in the grooves. Nonetheless, this new AAA reissue sounds tonally identical to the original.
On the afternoon of September 4th, 1962 The Beatles arrived at Abbey Road for their first official session. They rehearsed, had dinner, returned to the studio and recorded “How Do You Do it” chosen for them as their first single by George Martin.
The Beatles in Mono arrived today. This evening listening will begin but this afternoon analogplanet.com editor Michael Fremer opened the box and physically inspected.
A visit to Czech Republic-based GZ Media recently published on a website includes an un-captioned photo of a large stack of the upcoming Beatles Mono box sets. This has flooded analogplanet.com's "inbox" with emails from readers, some inquisitive, some hysterical and a few spewing expletives.
Analogplanet received one of the first Ortofon 2M MONO Special Edition cartridges developed by the company in cooperation with Universal Music Group as a tribute to the upcoming Beatles "Back to Mono" box set.
Apple Corps and Universal Music Group today announced the September 8th release date (September 9th in North America) of the long-anticipated Beatles’ mono vinyl reissue series, cut to lacquer using the original analogue master tapes.
This year's Fest for Beatles Fans coincided with the 50th anniversary of their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, February 9th, 1964. The "invasion" festivities began earlier of course, including one event held Thursday February 6th at the 92nd St. "Y". That one featured Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon, who also signed James Taylor to Apple and went on to become a major producer/manager), performer Billy J. Kramer, Beatle secretary Frida Kelly and Vince Calandra. The event was hosted by British actor/comedian and Beatle fan Martin Lewis. Donovan was a no-show due to a friend's death.
On January 21st 2014 Apple Corp/Capitol will release a thirteen CD box set containing all of the American Beatle albums from Meet The Beatles (1964) to Hey Jude (1970). Just think: the entire history of the Beatles is like the time between 2007 and now. Think about that. It's guaranteed to blow your mind.
The discs contain both the mono and stereo versions, except for Beatles' Story and Hey Jude, which are in stereo only. And yes, the set will include the famous "Butcherblock cover" for Yesterday and Today
Exhibitors at The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and at RMAF have been using reel to reel tape as source material. Some use Tape Project tapes, which we know are copies of copies of actual master tapes licensed by and supplied by the record labels. Yarlung is also doing this.
These BBC recordings from 1963 and 1964 make clear that The Beatles were, even at that early stage of their career, a skilled musical ensemble and that even then they were eager to cast off the teen-craze image created for them by Brian Epstein.
Woody Allen famously said "80% of success is showing up." 16 year old recording engineer/producer Ken Scott showed up at EMI Studios less than a week after writing a letter requesting a job interview. He "passed the audition" and was rewarded with a job in EMI's tape library.
While The Beatles' musical arc was ever upward, the group's cinematic efforts traveled in the opposite direction. "A Hard Day's Night" was the group's best film. Shooting in black and white was more of a financial than esthetic choice it worked perfectly to capture the staid post-war period the boys found themselves in growing up.
A woman walks into a butcher shop. She says "Can I see that chicken?" The butcher hands it to her. She smells it in front, she smells it in back, she smells it all over and then hands it back to the butcher saying "Mister, this chicken stinks!" The butcher replies "Lady, could you pass a test like that?"