Beatles'65

LP.2228.1.3 is the first stereo pressing of Beatles'65, and the first Beatles album ever pressed in stereo by Capitol of Canada. It was released on 14 December, 1964, the same day as the mono edition (LP.2228.1.1). The label is the stereo version of the rainbow no brackets design (catalogue number ST-2228), the record was pressed from USA-supplied stereo plates, and the front cover carries the classic arrow-shaped "Capitol Full Dimensional Stereo" banner.

Availability

This variation was available between 14 December, 1964, and July 1966 (for approximately 19 months) when the perimeter print changed to a version with brackets around the word CANADA (see LP.2228.2.4). Stereo copies sold in much smaller numbers than mono at the time, which makes this first stereo variation harder to find than its mono counterparts (numbers floating around usually lean towards an approximate 10:1 ratio). Hemmingsen estimates that fewer than 5,000 stereo copies were pressed in Canada over the first six months of 1965, possibly sold to dealers on special order only (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 2).

General Information

Beatles'65 holds a special place in the Canadian catalogue: it was the first Beatles album that Capitol of Canada pressed in stereo. The company had seen no market for stereo Beatles LPs in 1964 and had issued its first four albums in mono only; from Beatles'65 on, both formats were offered at the same time; Hemmingsen dates the first stereo copies to December 1964, alongside the mono release, at $4.79 to $5.29 against $3.79 for the mono (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 3). Mono and stereo stampers were shipped together from Capitol's Scranton plant (Pennsylvania) to RCA in Smiths Falls in early December 1964, and a CKLG Vancouver chart ad for the week of 20 December, 1964 already lists the album in stereo (source: P. Hemmingsen, "The Story Behind The Very First Stereo Beatles Album Released In Canada", Capitol 6000, 2011).

The other candidate for that title is United Artists' A Hard Day's Night, pressed by Compo in Cornwall. Compo may have run a few stereo test pressings as early as late 1964, but its stereo edition (UAS 6366) was most likely first pressed in the spring of 1965, which makes it the second stereo Beatles album in Canada, after Beatles'65 (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 3).

Many albums in the 1960s were sold in both formats at once, and their covers carried a notice pointing to the other available (mono) edition. The stereo Beatles'65 back cover reads "Also Available in Regular Monophonic" under the Full Dimensional Stereo logo, while the mono cover reads "Also Available in Stereo". The notice stayed on stereo covers until mono was phased out in 1968 (see LP.2228.2.6).

Rainbow "no brackets" labels are found on the earliest of Beatles pressings (between November 1963 and July 1966). Canadian operations being smaller than south of the border, these early pressings are usually of high quality, sounding dynamic and their deep grooves being less prone to scratches affecting the sound.

There is a small quirk behind this, though. Capitol's Los Angeles factory cut its lacquers from first generation master tapes, while the New York tapes were second or even third generation copies. The letter that follows the catalogue number in the run-out tells which coast cut each lacquer (F, G, H and J for Hollywood, P, T, W and X for New York), and Scranton made its plates from lacquers cut on both coasts. On this variation, side 1 (X2) was cut in New York and side 2 (B6) in Hollywood, so the two sides of the record come from different tape generations (a difference that is probably very hard to hear on most systems) (source: Pink Floyd Archives, "U.S. LP Manufacturing Information").

Pressing Information

As with all previous variations, Capitol of Canada subcontracted the RCA pressing plant in Smiths Falls (Ontario) to manufacture this batch of pressings. Like the mono edition, this first stereo batch was pressed from plates supplied from Capitol's Scranton pressing plant in the USA. USA plates are recognized by their machine-stamped matrix numbers, and parts that originate from the Scranton pressing plant feature the triangular IAM (International Association of Machinists) logo; each American plant had its own distinctive logo.

LP.2228.1.3 has markings as follows:

Side 1: ST1-2228-X2 #2  
Side 2: ST2-2228-B6 #2  

Read together, these markings tell how the record was made: plates supplied by Capitol's Scranton plant, with side 1 cut in New York from New York tapes and side 2 cut in Hollywood from first generation Los Angeles tapes, then pressed by RCA in Smiths Falls.

The side 2 code is only partly legible on our copy, but it is the same B6 plate that turns up on the later stereo pressings (see LP.2228.2.4).

The same set of USA stereo stampers (X2 on side 1) turns up on every later stereo pressing of the album until the mid 1970s: unlike the mono edition, the Canadian stereo pressings never received a locally cut master before then. Reason for this is most likely the simple fact that stereo copies were originally produced in much smaller quantities than mono copies, and the stereo plates therefore remained in usable condition for many years before needing replacement.

These pressings feature a 70 mm deep-groove pressing ring, a hallmark of early RCA Canadian manufacture. Labels feature the "no brackets" rainbow label (see perimeter print at the bottom of the label: "MFD. IN CANADA BY CAPITOL RECORDS OF CANADA" with no brackets around the word CANADA).

Cover

The jacket for LP.2228.1.3 is built like the mono edition: the inner seams (the inside fold of the cardboard jacket) are cut straight and measure 10 mm high.

Covers up to the mid 70s used a “front slick” construction (a larger back slick, usually printed in black and white that wrapped around the front of the cardboard cover, onto which a smaller colour front slick was glued, creating a white frame effect all around the front image).

Both slicks were printed by Parr's Print and Litho in Toronto and assembled onto the cardboard frame by Modern Albums. The stereo front slick is a separate print, with the arrow-shaped stereo banner above the title and a "File Under: The Beatles" line with the ST 2228 catalogue number along the top edge.

The banner itself was not new. It is the older "Capitol Full Dimensional Stereo" design, which Capitol of Canada had already used in 1962 on the stereo edition of a Helen Shapiro album (ST-6020); the "New Improved Full Dimensional Stereo" banner that Capitol introduced in 1965 only turns up later, on the Canadian stereo pressings of Beatles VI, Help!, Rubber Soul and Yesterday And Today (source: P. Hemmingsen, "Stereo Banners", Capitol 6000).

Packaging

These pressings were usually shipped in a loose or tight shrink wrap.

These were sold with / without a red and white Capitol / Pathé paper LP inner sleeve (apparently designed by Paul White).

Sales

Sales records show that 88,352 copies of Beatles'65 sold in Canada in 1964 (variations LP.2228.1.1 and LP.2228.1.2, along with the first stereo copies), 53,804 in 1965 (this includes variations LP.2228.1.2, 1.3 and 1.4), and 6,376 in 1966 (variations LP.2228.1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2 and 2.4) (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 3, "Sales of Beatles Records in Canada"). These figures mix mono and stereo copies; the stereo edition, priced a dollar above the mono at $4.79 to $5.29, was pressed in limited quantities and accounts for a small share of the total. Over its first four years, Beatles'65 therefore sold a total of 151,152 copies in Canada (1964 to 1967), all formats combined: these Capitol figures are per title, not per format, so from July 1965 they also include the reel-to-reel tape (see RE.2365.1.1).