Being a first generation Beatles fan, it was such a surprise to have only 2 John Lennon songs and 3 George Harrison songs on Revolver. At the time we didn't know our US albums were different than the UK. It wasn't until the CD's came out did we realize how different the albums were. And thank you for getting me reacquainted with the albums I grew up with. My favorites are Rubber soul and of course Meet the Beatles. As your dad and uncle said it was such a big deal when it came out. And I still love Revolver even without the 3 Lennon tunes.
Fantastic video, Brian... These Capitol pressings hold a lot of sentimental value to me. When my folks got married back in 1969, my father was gifted an AKAI X-150D reel to reel tape deck and lots of new 7" Audiotape Formula 10, 2400 ft. tapes. The very first tape out of 10 was just strictly Beatles Capitol albums that he taped. So one side recorded at 3/34 ips was Meet The Beatles, Something New, Beatles '65 and Beatles IV. So it was nearly 2 hours of Beatles bliss... As a child, it was absolute magic to watch the reels turn and hear this amazing music fill the living room.
I think that in order to make the American Revolver unique, Capitol should have included "Rain" on it, so it would have a different value. and not wait until the album "hey Jude", what do you think?
@@BrianBringelson i thought it was . i´ve just checked and it isn´t, it´s on Hey Jude too. so you are right, the american revolver should have included both songs to make it unique
Brian, my son just showed me how to add comments on RU-vid...that said, been watching your videos for years & look forward to them....glad to see there's people that are Beatle nerds out there like me...Keep the great videos coming...love Anchor & Bear...love your vocals on Magic..CHEERS!
I've got all of these except for the Vee-Jay albums (which my older brother had when I was a kid). He got The Beatles' Second Album for Christmas the year it was released. The walls in our house were thin, so I heard everything he played (which was a GOOD thing). That album has been a fave ever since. Hey Jude is a good compilation, and the front and back cover photos are from the final photo session the group did together. Nice job on the vid. 😎
Great video, I have been trying to replace my worn Capitol albums they hold great memories of growing up excitedly waiting for the next release. Take care !
Not having access to the UK releases back in the 60's, I remember wondering why John had so little input on Revolver (US). I may have switched that with the Hard Day's Night release on your list, otherwise, you are pretty spot on....
Thanks for showing this. I started getting Beatles albums in 1982 starting with Meet the Beatles. I definitely have an affinity for these albums. I owned the collection Reel Music and the inner sleeve had the entire Capitol collection and I remember having a goal to own every one of those records which I achieved within 3 years. I think the Beatles Second Album is my favorite because it does rock for an early album. I do love many of the other ones including MMT and Hey Jude (the UK import of this one sounds even better than the US pressing). Thanks for sharing
"Beatles'65" is my favorite Capitol album. All the songs flow nicely & it's the Capitol album I've listened to the most. "A Hard Days Night" is 2nd place. I like the mix of the title song which seems slightly different than the U.K. version plus it has the instrumentals "This Boy" & "I Love Her" both of which I like. "Help" is 3rd place as again I like the instrumental songs mixed in with The Beatles songs. Hey Brian if you own all 13 studio albums by The Monkees I'd be interested to know in what order you would rank them.
As a new Beatles fan in 1977 at the age of 14 I grew up with the Capitol albums and they will always have a special place in my heart. As far as my favorite it would be MMT because it was the first one I bought.
The Early Beatles was the first time I heard The Fabs as a very young child. My father was an album & 45 collector as a young parent. So the Capital Early Beatles album has an extra sentimental attachment. Definitely agree about the high ranking of Magical Mystery Tour. I still need to obtain a good copy of Yesterday & Today.
Second Album is # 1 for me followed by Beatles 65, Yesterday and Today, Magical Mystery Tour, A cassette version of Rubber Soul I had in the late 70s with extra reverb (didn't get the vinyl for a while), Meet The Beatles, Beatles VI, Something New, Help, Early Beatles, Revolver, Introducing, and Hard Days' Night. Yes, I had The Beatles Story and listened to it once when I was 10 years old 😆
Because I was born and still live in England, UK, I'm not that up on my knowledge of the U.S. Capitol albums but I would absolutely love to start collecting them and get really familiar with them. I've only ever owned a couple via the 2014(I think) U.S. Albums box. However I didn't buy or ever own that box, I just picked up a couple (I think they had the stereo and mono tracks on if I'm thinking correct). And I ended up giving them to my Mrs a couple years ago because they didn't really have a place in my collection as I was concentrating on the UK collection(which I do now have EVERY SINGLE OFFICIAL RELEASE UK BEATLES ALBUM EVER RELEASED IN THE ORIGINAL MONO WHERE AVAILABLE AND STEREO WHERE THAT'S ALL THAT WAS AVAILABLE AND ALL THE 50TH SUPER DELUXE VINYL BOX SETS AND EVERY 87 CD AND EVERY 2009 CD). So I reckon I can start my U.S. Capitol adventure now. If you were me Brian where would you start?
One of the values of the Hey Jude album was first time true stereo mixes of the songs in the U.S. It also was the first time stereo mixes ANYWHERE of Hey Jude and Revolution. Not counting the "A Hard Days Night" soundtrack album (which was on United Artists), the title song didn't appear on a Capitol ALBUM until the Red compilation.
The only Beatles Capitol album I ever owned was 'Beatles '65'. Because in the Mid-Eighties in Germany this album (I believe) was the only way to get the song 'She's a woman' on an album at all (this was years before 'Past Masters' was released). And although 'She's a woman' and 'I feel fine" (in fake stereo) sounded different from the other regular stereo recordings on this album I liked the album's sound very much.
Try listening to Rubber Soul , Yesterday and Today, and Revolver in succession and throw in Paperback/Rain single for good measure. For those ling car journeys!
Rubber Soul was just about barely robust enough with George’s Think for Yourself to withstand Dave Dexter’s meddling. Revolver was just a stand alone masterpiece impossible to touch. I’d have taken two tracks out (because I had to bring it down to 12 legally) maybe Dr.Robert and Yellow Sub then added them in a single in the packaging so nothing was really lost.
Capitol really kept the momentum and interes going. The U.S market was the biggest.Ilove the George Marten orchestra instrumentals on A Hard Day's Night.Ialso like the instrumental score on Help.Too bad they didn't put the instrumentals all on side 2.Yellow Submarine got it right.
Although the UK versions are the definitive albums with 14 tracks per record, the Capitol albums included more singles than they're UK counterparts. Meet the Beatles had "I Want to Hold Your Hand" etc. and With the Beatles didn't. I do like the USA Rubber Soul with "I've Just Seen a Face" & "It's Only Love" give it a more unified Byrds/folk-rock feel. The Capitol albums are still valid and fun with unique (and occasionally better) song configurations.
Growing up, before I the real Beatle albums, in 1970, I'd say your ranking would approximate what I liked as well back then. After getting the Parlophone albums, they became just an anachronism.
Overall, I can't complain with the order shown here. However, one must use a time machine to truly assess these, as in "how good was it when it came out". And also, of course, SQ. One of the biggest misses here is the Help album. I have a 1965 stereo Jacksonville pressing, and it sounds as good as anything that Capitol put out. The instrumental tracks are actually very good and help (no pun intendes) to make this a true soundtrack album. There was no way to see the film unless one went to a movie theater, and for me that would be about 1980. Until then, I had this record and LOVED it. The cover, the SQ, the track order - so much fun. I agree with most others you trashed, tho I don't see the early beatles as a failure. This is what we had, aside from the VeeJay LP, which was hard to find (by 1973). It didnt sell as well as other Capitol albums because so many 1st generation fans had bought the VeeJay record. (One must remember at the time, Introducing The Beatles was kick-arse!). Still, because Capitol made it so easy to buy, The Early Beatles got plenty of spins by me. The Beatles 2nd Album is also kick butt. I have rainbow stereo and mono pressings. For each of these, though, the compression is off the charts. Capitol wanted AM radio sound, and they got it. This is a record that always lets me down when I actually play it. Fans would do better to just create a playlist from the UK versions. I rank it in the middle of your list. Yesterday and Today, Beatles VI and Beatles 65 sit on top. Why? Because Capitol put singles on albums, and the records are filled with them. All in all, tho, this is a well-thought out primer. It's informed by those '87 CDs, tho. I bet your dad would have reordered a few things as well, since he was an early generatiom fan :-)
As a British fan who grew up on the UK records, the only American albums I listen to at all are Help! and A Hard Day's Night, simply because of the instrumentals you can't get on any UK records. Otherwise I don't really have any time for US Beatles albums. They're universally inferior in every way as far as I'm concerned.
Interesting list and hard to argue with......totally agree with you on the Revolver take. Not sure why Capitol didn't take one track each from John, Paul and George for Y&T instead of three Lennon songs. One of the many mistakes Capitol made back then. I think I would have had all of the Vee Jay records toward the bottom (yes, A Beatles Story deserves the bottom slot.) The Hey Jude album isn't bad, but it should have been sooooooooo much better.. How could they not include I'm Down on it? I slightly prefer VI over '65.....even though '65 apes Beatles for Sale more than VI. I still think WTB is better than MTB (the version I grew up with).....but it's hard to argue with the one-two punch of IWTHYH and ISHST. Yeah.....Second Album is arguably the best collection of early Fab material. Rubber Soul.....putting IJSAF as the lead-off track: brilliant. Seriously....brilliant. And yes......MMT is great. It's basically Sgt. Pepper part 2. I have MMT first and Y&T is second place......but nice job overall. Really enjoyed the video!
Not to nitpick but there is 1 Capitol album that was linked as a Beatles album, which you can see on the back of the Something New LP.. THE BEATLES SONG BOOK by the Hollywood Strings. It's not The Beatles recordings but it is considered by Capitol part of the collection. Love to hear your thoughts.
Interesting ranking! What Capitol did to Revolver is criminal. I'm in the process of collecting the American releases, but I'll probably pass on Revolver.
Introducing the Beatles was forced to make a 14 track masterpiece into a 12 track US album and they did it terrifically. Keeping the original running order, they simply removed the two tracks already released as singles. Also 1st pressings are worth a healthy fortune!
I’m always a bit confused if people say revolver us is pointless or their least favorite yet they like yesterday and today…. If you have both, then you have everything from revolver and a great other album. In one person’s opinion…not directed at you
Totally agree that if you have both the US Revolver and Yesterday & Today, then you do have it all. But the US Revolver by itself just doesn’t work for me knowing what’s missing from it. Granted a 1st generation US fan didn’t know what they were missing and took the album for what it was.
I always wondered why Capitol took away so many songs from 'With the Beatles' for their 'Meet the Beatles'. And interestingly almost all the songs they took away (except for 'Devil in her heart') were cover versions of African American writers and/or performers: 'Please Mr. Postman', 'Roll over Beethoven', 'You really got a hold on me' and 'Money (That's what I want)'. Was that due to a slight racism?
Revolver is better without I'm Only Sleeping, & And Your Bird Can Sing. The whole Yesterday and Today album is depressing. I really like the 2nd album and my favorite b sides to their #1 singles are Thank you Girl (B side of From Me to You) You Can't Do That (B side of Can't Buy Me Love) and I'll Get You (B side of She Loves You)
Capitol albums, or indeed albums from any country that differed from the Beatles intended albums, have no more validity than anyone's playlist. Because that is all they are - variations of the original for whatever reason. If you like the Capitol albums, fine. I like my playlists. We can all listen to the Beatles songs in any way we prefer. But the only valid releases are the 'official' albums (and singles) as the Beatles intended.
this ranking is heavily marred by comparing them to uk albums ,, it would have been much more realistic to review these albums as if a person has no knowledge of what was released in the UK
I know that " Capitol," ruined Beatles albums with " louder," sound than original. As a " European," person i am used to its versions of gatefold looks,and i don' t like the look of U.S.version,but that is the taste question.😎
