Long Tall Sally

LP.6063.1.1 is the first pressing of Long Tall Sally and was released only in MONO. This pressing is recognized by its misaligned catalogue number on the top right cover; the "T-6063" number is vertically lower than the "File Under" information to the left of the black dot.

Availability

This variation was available on 27 April, 1964 (available for possibly just a few weeks/months) when the text alignement was corrected on subsequent releases (see LP.6063.1.2). It is also possible that this layout mistake was corrected extremely early on and that both the mistake and corrected versions were sold simultaneously.

General Information

For Canadian Beatles fans, the track listing offered on Long Tall Sally proved to be quite perplexing. Their popularity just having bursted into uncharted territory, Capitol of Canada was hoping to produce a new (third) album to capitalize on their popularity. They had already issued much of The Beatles' EMI catalogue, which forced them to fill the album with previously issued tracks alongside recent single A and B sides. Being faced with a lack of available new material, Long Tall Sally even dropped the number of tracks per side, having a 12 track selection instead of the usual 14 track format. Needless to say this album was slightly underwhelming with only a few new songs.

The track selection itself has been the source of many discussions over the years, fans and critics alike wondering why some tracks were ommitted in favor of previously released tracks (e.g. Thank You Girl). Still today, there is no real answer, but one could argue that it was a decision driven by the nature of the market and the intended upcoming releases (e.g. Capitol 72159), or the desire to keep an interesting balance between cover songs and original compositions.

For the source of this information and for more details on the release of Long Tall Sally: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 2

Pressing Information

Capitol of Canada subcontracted the RCA pressing plant in Smith Falls (Ontario) to manufacture the records. RCA Toronto cut a set of lacquers from mono master tapes previously sent from EMI’s UK head office (most of them having been used on previous Canadian albums). (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 2). These lacquers were then used to create many different generations of stampers in the years to come (until 1976 when a first stereo version was introduced). These copies 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).

LACQUER NUMBERING ERROR

Curisously, these Toronto lacquers have mistakenly used the matrix numbers of the Twist and Shout album. The error was quickly detected, the 455 and 456 numbers were crossed out, and 471/472 were added at the end of the crossed out numbers on the master lacquer, as such:

Side A: XEX 455 471
Side B: XEX 456 472

Masters cut from these lacquers were used until 1972 on the orange label, where a new set of lacquers was created for subsequent releases.

LACQUER NUMBERING SEQUENCING

Another curious fact about this LP's matrix numbering system is that some of the most early copies have been found with "-2" markings. It is possible that -2 copies have been issued alongside original pressings with no dash numbers on both sides. Furthermore, no copies with numbers above -2 have been documented between 1964-1972.

As was the case with Beatlemania!, it is difficult to make sense of the matrix number sequence for rainbow label pressings of Long Tall Sally because they seem to go back and forth between no dash and -2 matrices until the 1970s. For example, some no dash copies have been found on 1972 pressings, well after -2 plates had been steadily used on previous pressings.

The sequencing of the pressing plates seems to have been arbitrary over the years. If the plates are still good, they are kept and reused until they wear out. Not being as successuful as other previous albums, it's not surprising to see early plate reused through the years. This back and forth between no dash and -2 plates might indicate that two sets of plates were used simultaneoously (and randomly) used when new copies were needed. Another explanation is that a single mother could produce more than one identical stamper, so there are possibly multiple "no dash" or -2 stampers to account for the number of reported copies produced and sold.

Cover

The cover of this variation was printed by Parr's Litho, with a straight inner seam construction measuring approximately 8 mm.

This cover is also built with a traditional front slick cover.

Synchronization with the US catalogue

Again, in his discography book, Piers mentions it is likely that discussions were already in progress between Capitol USA and Capitol of Canada about coordinating future Beatles releases. Capitol of Canada most likely needed permission to issue the "Long Tall Sally" LP and was informed by the American parent company that future artwork would need to be identical. This directive would explain the identical artwork concept between the two albums. In a way, this LP marks the transition to synchronized releases between Canadian and American Capitol catalogues.

Similarities also extended to the back cover, but where "Meet The Beatles" (a U.S. Capitol LP not yet available in Canada on vinyl) was found on the US "Second Album", the Canadian cover featured images for both "Beatlemania" and "Twist and Shout" instead.

Long Tall Sally was not released in Canada until April 27, 1964, creating a two weeks gap between the release dates of "Second Album" and "Long Tall Sally." Piers also mentions that during this period, copies of the mono "Second Album" were likely imported from the U.S. by Capitol of Canada. This is evidenced by the presence of Capitol of Canada Pathe red and white inner sleeves in some US copies of the album found in Canada.

Again, for the source of this information and for more details on the release of Long Tall Sally: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 2

The first US albums (Meet The Beatles, Second Album and Early Beatles) were originally not issued in Canada -- besides a rare reel tape version of Meet The Beatles (see RE.2047.1.1). Beatlemania!, Twist and Shout and Long Tall Sally were favored in Canada and were produced until the late 1980s on LP and cassette, while the early US albums were instead introduced to the Canadian market in 1967 to standardize North American releases.

Unlike the US titles that were available on a larger spectrum of formats, from LPs to cassettes, but also reel tapes and 8-track tapes, the three unique Canadian albums were only produced on vinyl and cassette.

FIRST PRESSING DESIGN LAYOUT MISTAKE

Early copies of the cover had the catalogue number (T6063) vertically misaligned with the "File Under" text on the top right portion of the front cover. These two pieces of text are printed on the same piece of paper (the back slick wrapping around the front), indicating this misalignement is truly a design layout issue and not a slick assembly issue. This minor detail was quickly corrected on later copies, and it is even possible that the two versions were sold simultaneoously on the day of release.

The top photo in the image below shows the current variation with the "T-6063" number vertically misaligned with the "File Under" information to the left of the black dot (LP.6063.1.1), while the bottom photo shows the corrected "aligned" cover (LP.6063.1.2).

Packaging

As was the case with the previous two albums, early editions were shipped in loose poly bag wrap, with or without a red and white Capitol / Pathe paper LP inner sleeve. Note that tight shrink wraps were introduced during the summer of 1964, and later copies would have been sold in a tight shrink wrap (the last album to be sold in a single lose bag was an early pressing of Something New).

SALES

According to Piers Hemmingsen, sales for Long Tall Sally in 1964 were far less than Beatlemania and Twist and Shout. This is not surprising considering this new album barely had truly "new" material to offer, and was more of a compilation of mismatched tracks that had for the most part already been available in Canada on previous albums and/or singles. A total of 67 133 copies have been reported being sold in 1964 (compared to approximately 200 000 copies for the first two albums, respectively).

For the source of this information and for extensive details on the sales of Long Tall Sally and other Beatles albums, please see the third installment of Pier's discography series: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 3