← Beatles Albums Released in Canada
Abbey Road
Compo NO "Her Majesty"
RCA NO "Her Majesty"
Compo with "Her Majesty"
CBS, Red Box Posterboard
Apple CBS Posterboard
Apple + Mississauga Address
Orange 2nd ®
Orange 3rd Generation
Purple 1st Gen. Cinram
Purple 1st Gen. Capitol
Purple 2nd, ABBY mistake
Purple 2nd Generation
Purple 2nd, Black Cardboard
Purple 3rd Gen. Cinram
Purple 3rd Generation
Retro Rainbow Capitol
Retro Rainbow Columbia
Reel Tapes (1970)
As a general rule for Canadian Beatles reel tapes, both the tapes and boxes were manufactured in Canada, but slicks were often made by using US artwork. The best way to distinguish the Canadian pressings from the US issues is the color of the box: Canada always used WHITE cardboard boxes, while the USA used either BROWN or BLUE boxes.
That being said, it is not known if Apple albums were ever produced in the reel format in Canada (with a white box) - All examples found to date are US brown box tapes, which might have been imported to Canada instead of being manufactured here. Until a Canadian Apple tape is documented, the present archive only lists the Gold Box Series for Apple reels.
8 Track Tapes (1969-1980)
Beatles 8 Track releases are usually found in five main series produced in Canada between 1968 and 1980: White shell with white paper labels, Transitional hybrid configurations, Black shell (AMPEX Datapack), Black shell (Lear Jet) and Black Shell (Capitol) many of which have their own "sub-variations". See the TAPES section for more details.
White Datapack Shell
Transitional White Shell
Transitional Black Shell
Black Datapack Shell
Lear Jet Shell USA Artwork
Lear Jet Shell CDA Artwork
Black Capitol Shell
Cassette Tapes (1969-1993)
Cassette tapes were introduced in Canada as late as the fall of 1968 or early 1969. Cassettes could/would have been imported from the USA prior to this. There appears to be eight main series of cassette tapes produced in Canada between 1968 and 1993: Blue Spine, Black spine, Light Bue Spine, Black and Yellow, Black and Yellow SDR, Light Blue SDR, color Inlay (5 series) and Modern Apple tapes, all of which have their own "sub-variations".
Blue Spine, White Labels
Blue Spine, Yellow Labels
Blue Spine, Beige Shell
Blue Spine, Black Shell
Blue Spine, Target Logo
SDR Black Shell
SDR Cream Shell
Black and Yellow
Color Inlay, 4XT
Color Inlay, C4
Color Inlay, C4 Apple
C4 Apple XDR Clear shell
Compact Discs (1989-Present)
Canada started pressing Beatles compact discs in 1989, as the "official" Beatles catalogue was being standardized through the CLJ and CD series. Early copies were pressed by Disque Americ and CINRAM, while later copies were pressed by EMI, before differing to Cinram again until today. Keep in mind that throughout these pressing periods, CDs were also sporadically imported from the US and the EU to meet demand, instead of being locally made.
