Long Tall Sally

This curious variation is actually not a true Beatles record since although a Beatles label was used, it is not Beatles music that was pressed on the disc. Capitol tested different colors in the summer of 1980 and used some Long Tall Sally labels that they had on hand. Probably not a rarity, but more of a curiosity, it makes two different interesting discs that feature a Beatles label.

Availability

These discs would have been pressed in the summer of 1980. Other experimental test pressings of the same run were made, but used different labels; all of these used labels from albums that were being pressed and released in the late spring / early summer of 1980, indicating they were made later than the more common series of colored pressings that were released in 1978.

General Information

These experimental pressings are a perfect example of a "test pressing", as they clearly simply tested production methods or machine adjustments, but did not trial run an actual album. These few pressings are a mismatch of random different parts and different labels; it seems they simply used whatever they had on hand at the time. The result is an assembly of two different pressing plates from two different (and unrelated) bands, with various randomly selected labels of other unrelated bands that were being pressed at the New Capitol pressing plant at the time, from The Beatles, to Prism, to Sammy Haggar or The Grateful Dead; possibly faulty rejected labels that were simply used to test procedures or adjust machinery.

Pressing Plates (audio material)

One side of these pressings (because there is no true "side 1 or 2" here), features the audio material of Canadian singer/songwriter "Ian Thomas"; the pressing used pressing plates of the B-side of his 1980 compilation called "The Best of Ian Thomas" released on May 16, 1980 on Anthem (but pressed by Capitol):

The other features audio material from the American group called "Dirt Band" (aka Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) who recorded albums between 1976 and 1981. This batch of pressings used pressing plates from side 1 of their "Make a Little Magic" album released in the summer of 1980 by United Artists (but newly pressed at Capitol after they acquired the UA catalogue, and coinciding directly with the dates of other album labels used on the other tests pressings):

Disc Labels

Overall, the test run featured a bunch of randomly selected labels (Prism, Sammy Hagar, etc.) and two discs with Long Tall Sally labels; a blue/green disc that has the Beatles side 1 label on one side and a blank label on the other:

The other disc features the same Long Tall Sally label on one side, and Side 2 of Sammy Hagar's Danger Zone LP:

The Beatles labels used on both experimental pressings are consistent with the pressing variations that were used between 1978-1980 on the second generation purple labels:

The Sammy Hagar label is also consistent with the release of his Danger Zone album in June of 1980, which helps to pinpoint the experimental pressing around the summer of 1980.

Two other test pressings from the same batch did not use Beatles labels, but used side 1 of Prism's 1979 "Armageddon" instead, with a blank B-side:

Finally, a last test pressing from the batch used side 1 labels from The Grateful Dead's Go To Heaven, (released on April 28, 1980) with a blank B-side:

Pressing Information

This series of pressings used plates from two different albums: "The Best of Ian Thomas" (released by United Anthem but pressed by Capitol), and Dirt Band's "Make A little Magic" (released by United Artists but pressed by Capitol).

Both albums being pressed at Capitol's Mississauga plant in the summer of 1980, it is logical that these two pressing plates were lying around, and that all these different labels were being used on the same sets of machines (and therefore available for testing the machines during maintenance). The matrix numbers found on the test pressings are all identical, and are consistent with the two albums parts used to test the machinery:

Ian Thomas side (Anthem): ANR-1-1024-RE-B
Dirt Band side (United Artists): LT-1042-A

Cover

These randomly mismatched pressings were insider tests so they were never meant to be mass produced (they are not even of "an album", but simply two different pressing plates assembled to test/adjust/run the machinery, and were therefore never housed in a specific cover.