Beatlemania!
With The Beatles

This is the second pressing of Beatlemania! With The Beatles and was released only in MONO. This second pressing is recognized by its jacket’s STRAIGHT inner seams. Early copies also featured the “no dash” matrix numbers (XEX 447 and XEX 448) since the original plates were still usable after the first run, while later copies have numbers up to -5.

Availability

This second variation was available between early April 1964 and 1966 (for approximately 2 years). This pressing is the most common variations of Beatlemania!, many different batches were pressed during these two years, and matrix numbers do not always follow a logical order. It seems, older plates were reused occasionally (or different mothers were reused to produce multiple stampers), causing these numbers to jump back and forth from time to time.

General Information

This variation appeared after Beatlemania (the phenomenon) really took off, making it a very popular album at the time. This explains why this is one of the most common variation of the album.

Beatlemania! With The Beatles was a Canadian only release. While the newer US Meet The Beatles was released in the USA in 1964, it would not be released in Canada until years later when the Canadian catalogue was supposed to be realigned with the US catalogue for conformity. In the end, Canadians had little interest in the early US Beatles catalogue, having already been served three big sellers with Beatlemania! With The Beatles, Twist and Shout and Long Tall Sally. In the end, the Canadian album remained available until the late 1980s. No stereo release of the LP was prepared in Canada until 1975.

Pressing Information

As was the case for variation LP.6051.1.1, Capitol of Canada subcontracted once again the RCA pressing plant in Smith Falls (Ontario) to manufacture new batches of the now very popular new album (LP.6051.1.2). Initial copies reused the original plates supplied in 1963 (XEX-447 and XEX-448), and went on to produce more stampers from the same source, as needed until the early 1970s, with verified no brackets copies with matrix numbers going up to “dash 5”, sometimes with a "no dash" on side 1. Copies have been found in multiple configurations, here is an example:

Side 1: XEX-447-4
Side 2: XEX-448-5

These second pressings feature the "no brackets" rainbow label (see perimeter print at the bottom of the label: "Manufactured in Canada by Capitol Records of Canada" with no brackets around the word CANADA).

Cover

The jacket for this second pressing is the most common cardboard frame found on the Beatlemania! album. From early April 1964 on, this construction type saw very few changes, mostly only in the size of the seam (the inside fold of the cardboard jacket), varying somewhere between 10 mm and 4 mm until the mid 70s. The new frame introduced by Modern Album, now featured a straight cut inner seam (with no indentation in the centre).

Otherwise, the cover construction is identical to the previous variation, with a front slick construction.

Both front and rear slicks were printed by Parr’s Litho in Toronto (see the printer’s logo on the bottom right of the cover) and sent to Modern Album for assembly.

Covers also featured the words PRINTED IN CANADA inside a box at the bottom of the back cover, alongside the monophonic playing instructions.

Packaging

Later editions from 1964 onward were shipped in a tight shrink wrap, with or without a red and white Capitol / Pathe paper LP inner sleeve.

Sales

As mentioned in the previous entry (LP.6051.1.1), sales records show that 182 396 copies of Beatlemania! With The Beatles sold in Canada in 1963-1964 (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 3). These numbers including both 1963 and 1964 sales would indicate that most of these 182 000 copies were in fact this specific variation, sold between early 1964 until 1966, when the label design changed only slightly with new perimeter text (see LP.6051.2.1).

In this manner, it could be assumed that this variation was the one most often found on the shelves in 1964-1966, as they restocked them during the new Beatles craze. Variation LP.6051.1.2 then, is most likely the one that constitutes the core of these high sales numbers.

New Beatles albums released in 1964 unsurprisingly slowed down sales for Beatlemania!, seeing only 3835 confirmed sales of this variation in 1965 (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 3).