It was the BBC screening of the Beatles movies that enabled me to record Let It Be on Betamax. I recorded all the other Beatles films that year too. I still have Let It Be on now transferred to VHS, but all the other Beatles movies have since been released on DVD. When they released Help! ( Restored version) we had a release party at the Old City Barge pub in Richmond where scenes for Help! Were filmed. We invited actor Victor Spinetti along to the party. Victor Spinetti appeared in almost all the Beatles movies. We were completely astonished when he actually turned up😨😨😱 He was great telling us stories of him and the Beatles.
That must’ve been great. I would’ve loved to of gotten the remastered yellow submarine 1999 on video and two disc DVD set I’m hoping that they will release it. I would also love to get the Beatles a hard days night the first remastered version and also the remastered version of help from 2005 I believe.
@@frommetoyou5305 Where Did You Learn That It Was Normal Or Acceptable To Capitalize Every Word In A Sentence And Why Haven't You Figured Out That It's Obviously Incorrect? Have You Not Noticed That Nobody Else Does This?
9:17 The look of a collector staring into the abyss of the unattainable...I feel your pain my brother. One of the best historical music retrospective channels on the platform. Great job...and cheer up.
Another excellent video. I'm actually a cassette collector as well. I actually like the sound of cassettes...but keep in mind at of the quality comes from your cassette player and how well you maintain it...cleaning the heads and making sure all the moving parts are properly lubricated. The interesting thing about cassette is that really. ..it is what vinyl lovers are searching for..the search for something that sounds as good as the master tapes..now I'm not saying it's as good. ..but really cassette does what analog tape does...it dulls top end a bit...it handles bass very well and adds compression. ..as tape normally does. Now again. ..another factor is mastering. ..being an engineer who does mixing and mastering. ..I always approach a cassette release much different then mastering for CD or vinyl for that matter...when this is done...the results are fantastic. I have a few Maxell chrome cassettes in which I made my own copies of albums that sound fantastic and for a long time were my go to versions. Just some food for thought. Looking forward to your next episode. Mark Anthony K Projekt Gemineye
I only have about 1000 because I picked them up mainly to play in the car, so don't call myself a collector. Worse cassette In the land of pink and grey by Caravan ..why cause one side is about 7 minutes longer than the other. Plus in the late seventies/early eighties bootlegs were mainly cassettes if you wanted something modern. I ordered the Church live cassettes once and when they never arrived was a bit angry but checking I had ordered shows yet to be performed. They eventually arrived and was not disappointed. Modern artists started off on cassette too like Porcupine tree/Steve Wilson. Those American slip in ones were a bit naff. There were some side entry ones too. Weird. There was even a cassette magazine not a mag about cassettes but one made on cassettes. Sometimes singles came with a free cassette of the same songs.
I switched to digital format decades ago, but I remember all the difference the tape made, be it played on any of my eighties radios or our car, the difference between a thing recorded best on TDK, BASF or Sony cassette from a LP, and an official release replicated of who knows what generation from Yugoton company. I remember Abbey road EMI original tape. That sounded good on Grundig machine. The kid had to puncture the speakers with a toothpick to improve the overall sound of course. Never had to use Dolby system with the Beatles and that's about all I rememebr and about Ferromagnetic tapes being shite. It's just a memory now, but experience listening to tapes used to be better in a way than is now in digital age. Is it because analog tape handles bass very well or because younger ear hears better I don't know, but I can say there was more noise on cassettes, but from that noise you could hear Beatles guitars better.
I love cassettes as well Mark cassettes are one of the greatest things ever I just love all recorder technology whether it be a wax cylinder 78 4533 years cassettes and CDs cassettes are really great.
I was introduced to 'pre-recorded' cassettes in 1969. They used the CHEAPEST tape back then! I recorded the TV using the mic as well, until I found out I could connect a line-level jack and use a patch-cord!
For my birthday this year, my dad got me The Beatles Collection tape box set, first time seeing them in person. Was very interested when I saw that Parlophone did the switch of the openers of Abbey Road like the Capitol cassette releases. It was awesome to hear that Sgt Pepper Inner Groove at the end of the Sgt Pepper cassette. There can be a argument of what sounds better, the vintage first pressings vs the 1980's, but this is only on the bases of Capitol US Albums on Cassette, which I own multiple copies of, if only you can see my wall. I'm so happy you did this video, not many people talk about the cassette issues of The Beatles albums, they tend to be overshadowed by their Vinyl and CD counterparts. And you are so lucky to get those MMT EPs in that video, I've been wanting to get the EP for quite sometime, someday.
As a teenager, I too recorded “A Hard Days Night” on my cassette recorder when it TV aired here in the States back in 1978. I listened to it repeatedly mimicking their super cool Liverpudlian accent for hours to impress my bandmates days later. I then bought every Beatles cassette I could find. I’m sure the UK versions were superior. Those were the best of times.
I was buying the Beatles US albums on vinyl in the early 1980s as well as a few cassettes. I did come across a Please Please Me cassette on import in 1984. It was cheaper than the US albums but it was non refundable. The track listing was different than the record but since I had never heard the original vinyl I didn’t mind. It had a gold cover with a white cassette and red printing. The sound quality was terrific and sounded much like FM radio. Thanks for sharing.
Fascinating. I remember that week of Beatles films! I too, never got the point of pre recorded cassettes and I only had a couple if them (no idea why!)
Brilliant video Andrew thank you. I also recorded the whole of AHDN onto cassette and played it endlessly. I almost learned the whole script by heart. We had rented one of the early Philips video recorders in 1979 with the big square tapes and recorded all of the films which I still have.
I've got early 1980s Japanese EMI/Odeon Beatles cassettes. The only differences in the songs (that I remember) were: George counting the beats in the last bars of the instrumental bit of "Within You Without You", and some of the sound effects in "Magical Mystery Tour" were different. I probably should listen to these tapes again some day...
The Mobile Fidelity cassette of Magical Mystery Tour in true stereo is close to the Horzu. It used the actual tapes from EMI as well. One generation earlier. Half Speed mastered.
Great video and info as always. My first ever copy of Rubber Soul was the earlier version of the cassette with the 'jumbled' track listing. How I loved that tape (and the vintage 65 stereo mixes contained within it)! Need to make a play list now! Thanks!!
I held my portable tape player’s microphone up to the TV speaker while Free as a Bird and Real Love played during The Beatles Anthology telecast. Analogue workarounds even in the 1990s!
Throughly enjoyed this, and spot on as always! I gathered my UK Beatles cassette collection together to watch. Thanks very much for making the video... I shall certainly consider becoming a member of the channel. Marvellous work.
I haven’t played cassettes for a while, but just got the blue box on cassette. Listening to the Beatles albums with the song order messed up is a slightly disorienting experience. I’m enjoying it, and rediscovering my youth with cassettes again.
2:00 What I did was to solder a pair of wires from the TV speaker to a jack socket, then plug the tape recorder into the jack socket. That prevented anyone coming into the room talking over the recording.
You are right about the German vinyl MMT, the best sounding version one can get. So in keeping with your thoughts on how it sounds, I will take my vinyl copy of it and tape it on my very fine Sony 555ESG on a metal tape. And after that, I shall add the appropriate graphics for the case. It’ll be a one off and unique for me. Enjoy your informative videos muchly.
Andrew, you need to do a second video history of the Beatles on Mobile Fidelity audiophile cassette which comprises of 5 albums mastered in real time on chrome cassettes using Dolby B noise reduction. The albums were Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour, all using true stereo EMI master tape. I own these cassettes and they genuinely rival the best vinyl pressings in sound quality!
I bought an adaptor that you could connect to the speaker inside the TV with a pinch clip to record direct from the TV of all the Beatles films that they showed at Christmas 1979 without having to use a microphone. It gave a good recording. I still have the cassettes .
Great video....I have nostalgic feelings towards my first few Beatles cassettes, Sgt Pepper and the Blue 67-70 album. Played em to death back in the early 80's
It's fascinating to see how primitive (and how much of an afterthought) graphic design was in these UK cassette releases right up to the end. EMI could have learned a lot from its German affiliate.
Around the same time as you, I made a cassette of A Hard Day's Night when a local rock station broadcast the audio of the entire movie. I later pointed my trusty mike at my black and white TV's speaker to record Help when it aired on The 3:30 Movie. When A Hard Day's Night came out on VHS, I simply borrowed another VHS recorder to make a copy of it. Now, I have the movie's audio on my mp3 player.
Loved this video. Brought back lots of memories of my old tape collection. Thankfully no super rare and expensive ones thrown away or lost over the years!!!
Hi, I just bougth Rubbersoul in XDR, and the dynamics are simply great. The balance on treble and bass is wonderful. I will look to find the whole set. Thanks.
Thank you for the terrific review of the Beatles on cassette 😀. I enjoy listening to cassettes, remembering times long past. I have a good deck, which brings out everything the format has to offer. Always looking to pick up more of them. On another topic, the number of and timing of the commercials is terrible. Seems like every two minutes, a pair of them interrupted you in mid-sentence. I’m in the USA, where about a month ago, u-tube decided to automatically add random commercials throughout videos over eight minutes in length. This was pitched as a way to increase revenue for the channel, and of course u-tube. Sorry for the rant, I am just frustrated with this decision. Again, a terrific review and channel, thanks. Best regards, Brian.
I clearly remember Christmas 1979. I was 16 years old and was working at my first job. I finished work early on that snowy Friday in December and rushed home, excited at the prospect of seeing Magical Mystery Tour for the first time which, along with the Shea Stadium concert, were the only Beatles films I hadn't seen up to that point. The other movies, including Let It Be, had been screened several times throughout the '70's and I always watched them. And yes, I recorded them all on the ubiquitous portable cassette recorder. Those were the days, my friend.
Another very interesting issue, certainly from my personal perspective. Thinking back now, it would actually have been much more logical for me to posess pre-recorded cassettes (or MusiCassettes, as they were called in my home country Germany). After all, I was the proud owner of my own few Beatles vinyl LPs at a VERY!! tender age, but of course didn't have a record player of my own, so I'd always have to beg either me dad (sapphire stylus alert!!) or some brother for a spin. However I did own a tiny cassette recorder, which was used for all kinds of funny microphone-point recordings as well as cassettes I had my older siblings record for me. And as I knew from several listens with friends, the German Electrola Beatles MusiCassettes from the 1970s and 80s were very fine, with thumbs up sound quality and no jumbling of running orders whatsoever. Apparently tape waste was not an issue for the wealthy FRG 😄 Anyway despite all the given circumstances, it was largely the vinyl I went for. If it was cassettes, it was self-recorded stuff from my siblings' LPs that I hadn't but wanted. There was some kind of stigma to pre-recorded cassettes back then. They were simply deemed "no good", at least compared to vinyl, for no real (reel?) reason. Well that is, in one respect they clearly and by far fell behind: longevity. So, only in houses where there either wasn't a record player or the kids weren't allowed near it were cassettes to be found, and even if so, the other kids went like whispering, poor kid, when he wasn't looking you know, but not sympathizingly but rather mockingly... As for the aforementioned jumbling of sequences on those first generation British cassettes: why did Misery have to be put to the beginning of Please Please Me at all, when I Saw Her Standing There with that ever-suitable count-in was also on Side 1? I don't get it, nor does anybody else I guess. What track to kick of Help! other than Help!? I Need You seems in fact a bit at a loss here - why not I've Just Seen A Face? It DID work for real elsewhere, didn't it? Well...I guess that's all water under the bridge now...
Sometime in the '70s North American prerecorded cassettes were encoded with Dolby noise reduction to eliminate hiss. You had to have that system on your tape deck and switch it on for that Dolby encoded cassette to reduce hiss.
It hadn’t occurred to me until you said it that I too only ever bought one pre-recorded cassette! (We’re around the same age). I also recorded the complete Ready Steady Go repeats of the mid ‘80s upstairs from my portable b/w telly onto cassette.
About the only Beatles prerecorded cassette I bought was The Beatles Second Album. That was because Thank You Girl was moved from track two on side one to the last song on side two. Thank You Girl replaced She Loves You as the final cut. When the US Albums set came out, I recreated the cassette version on CD, all mono. Its funny how moving just one track effects the entire album.
OMG what a trip down memory lane - I remember that Christmas edition of the Radio Times and the 'Beatles at Christmas' season....I even remember the page headers you showed here.
I have a memory of walking into a U.S. record store, circa 1987, looking at the Beatles cassettes, and verifying that the "Hey Jude" cassette was called "The Beatles Again" on the spine. Am I imaging things?
As to the reel to reel, I'm not into cassettes either. But, i have to share my story because that's how I discovered The Beatles. It was summer 1999 when I went with my dad in the storage room to find something he wanted (was already into music in general and loved to play LPs in our vintage turntable). There I found a big Tupperware full of cassettes. I asked him if I could take it, he agreed, and the very first cassette i picked up was The Beatles Love Songs collection. Yesterday was the first track I heard. That was it! I was hooked! I spent many many hours listening to the songs again and again trying to figure out the lyrics (a lot of the times with my mum's help :P ) so I could learn to sing them myself. That method helped me a lot in the following years while I was studying English. And that's how it started for me.
You are such an interesting person! Your knowledge is great, and you are very articulate! I really enjoy this channel , makes me crave to listen to a Beatles album 😁
I feel quite shy of encouraging you in the endeavour but there is only one old format left not reviewed by you; 8 track cartridge. What fun you could have with showing us old technology with that video.......
My first copies of The Beatles' albums I owned were on cassette. Surprisingly, the 1987 Capitol XDR releases of Please Please Me to Revolver had the song order jumbled as were The White Album and Abbey Road. Nevertheless, I cherished those cassettes and played them until they wore out in the early 1990s, when I replaced them with the CDs.
I bought XDR cassettes of "Please Please Me" and "A Hard Day's Night" in 1991. They have the stereo mixes, even though the spine says "mono"! A year or so later I bought "With The Beatles", but sadly that did play in mono... Anyone else encountered that phenomenon?
Another awesome video, they’re all great. Have you considered publishing a reference book of Beatles physical media releases? If not, you should, I’m sure lots of us would buy one.
A timely video, as I was discussing the tape issues with my son only a few days ago. It's the 'gold' releases I remember, not that I bought them on cassette. I happened to mention that I thought the track listing was fiddled with (seems I remembered that correctly!) Christmas '79 was indeed a real high for Fab fans (wiped out in '80, of course) and I was majorly excited as a 12 year old fan. Unfortunately, I didn't have my own tape machine, so no TV taping then, but do recall borrowing my Dad's radio/cassette player attempting to record Radio Luxembourg 's Beatle Hour, poor reception making it worthless on playback! Look forward to your next video, thanks
great video! early pre-recorded cassettes generally used low grade normal bias tape & cheap shells. by around 1984 some manufacturers started using Cro2 higher grade tape & that was a giant improvement.
Great information, as always. Fascinating to look at the Beatles on this format. My first ever Beatles purchase was the cassette of Rock and Roll Music, Volume 2. I then bought the Red and Blue albums, along with Something New. It was at that point that I figured it was much smarter to buy the albums on vinyl and record my own cassettes for my Walkman. That way, once I wore out my cassette copy, I just needed to make another.
From a marketing point of view in the 80’s & 90’s bonus tracks were sometimes added to cassette. Some fans bought the vinyl & cassette editions.. The Beatles/EMI didn’t exploit the fans in this way.
Oddly enough, the US 1987/88 cassettes (which arrived with the remastered first Beatles CDs in 1987 ) came out with the remastered music and, for the first time, featured the UK album titles and artwork BUT used the 1970-73 (that was used into the 80s ) UK art AND the original messed up UK running order for the tracks. In 1992 this series was reissued once again, the only difference being an Apple logo added somewhere on the cover, usually rather inartfully . Also, several UK EMI cassettes in 1970 were made in the US (including 'McCartney' and 'Let It Be"). (source: I own them).
The Beatles on cassette first introduced in the US by around 1968 or so when Capitol was the first to put them on cassette, either have the “Dome” logo or the “Target” logo, or perhaps the Apple logo.
My first Beatle cassettes were the ratty seconds of my parents’ Red and Blue albums, which I proceeded to play until the tape became entangled in my cheap GE boombox forever. Somewhere, in a landfill somewhere, lies that cassette player. I often wonder how it’s getting on.
A very informative and highly entertaining video...being from the U.S., I really didn't have much knowledge of the history of the U.K. cassettes. I would like to suggest a comparison between the British and American cassettes, but it would be clear cut...the U.K. tapes will probably wipe out the U.S. releases. Incidentally, I did the same you did recording A Hard Day's Night off the TV when I was younger, but all I did was record the songs, not the whole movie. I'm happy to see I wasn't the only one to do that. Any plans to do videos about the U.S. albums or the CD releases?...I'd really enjoy that. Thanks for a great video.
All I can say is you certainly know your stuff. This took me to an unusual place regarding the Beatles. Very interesting. Just when I thought I knew it all...
I didn’t have a Beatles cassette, but I did have the reel-to-reel tape release of the Please Please Me album, bought just as it was released. Played it a lot, but didn’t buy another Beatles release until Sgt Pepper on CD. Wish I’d kept the reel-to-reel, but I gave it away when I sold my tape recorder. Pity!
I've recently acquired a superb complete set of XDR cassettes housed in a Beatles-branded "bread bin" style box! I understand similar boxes were issued for the vinyl and CD versions.
I opened the back of the TV and attached alligator clips to the speaker leads. No outside noise or mom yelling at me that I'd get shocked by the TV tube.
I've never listened to any of the cassettes (I never liked them as a format) and some of those tracklists make my toes curl 😂😂 but thanks for another great video!
Not the best sounding quality but Beatles prerecorded cassettes served their purpose and they served it well....Whenever the turntable was not accessible there was always a cassette player somewhere around to put in those cassettes and press the play button... The cassettes I had were the early 80s Greek versions with blue or green lettering stamped on a light beige cassette, the inlay cards were white and all songs were running in their proper order...
Enjoyed this video, very informative. The only Beatles I had on cassette was the XDR of Sgt Pepper, I bought in 1988. BTW IMO it would be interesting to see a video about Beatles on 8-track, for some real track order butchering?
I own all of the Beatles XDR tapes. That's the only medium I can afford as a teenage Beatles enthusiast back in the 90's. CD was to expensive, and Vinyl was pretty much dead by 80's in Indonesia.
Technics RS-TR333 has only 20~17kHz on normal tape playback. Of course the sound frequency is poor. Even the metal tape playback frequently is up to only 18kHz. I have a 1987 Japanese issue of Rubber Soul with XDR. The sound frequency was up to 19kHz on Pioneer T-1100S when azimuth is correct.
Fair point, I had a Nakamichi DR-3 that was 20-20k on all tape types. I never measured the frequencies of tapes when I had it though, just listened! Sounded good!!
I grew up with the Beatles on tape, but from Capitol - mostly the US cuts (blue spine XDR), though at one point I had the 1987 remaster of PPM, with gold color inlay.
Nice to see! Cassettes are a bit underrated IMO. As long as they're in good condition, working properly and played on a hifi deck they can be surprisingly acceptable. I like the beige early 1980s edition UK tapes best overall - the XDRs are from the 1987 digital remasters. Technics '90s decks are great to play pre-recorded cassettes on, especially the RS-AZ 6/7 series
I remember recording hard days night on my old Philips cassette recorder..lol...but unlike most of my mates..I found the advantage of the headphone output or aux din output on the TV so no need to keep quiet during recording.. wasn't much a fan of pre recorded cassettes because of the poor sound alongside dolby B that sounded horrendous...so in the end recording vinyl to cassette without any dolby..-tape hiss wasn't a problem compared to compressed noise reduction!- was always better quality..provided one had both decent hi end decks ..sgt peppers 1975 cassette I once had bought from hmv Brighton...age 12 ....this was first time listening to this album so was very excited... but one thing I noticed on lovely Rita piano solo that jumped ... Good memories without any doubt .
what a video! very interesting the changes between the tape generations. I got a mexican versions of some US albums like yesterday and today from 1971 and a white album versión from 1973, this one had a lot of changes in the track listing with the original opening (back to the ussr) in the side 2 opening this version open with wild honey pie and the tape ends with revolution 1 and revolution 9. all of these tapes have the dolby system but the players are very expensive nowadays and a very big part of them don´t have the dolby system to "improve" the quality of the cassette.
I had such a crap record player (and scratched overplayed records) when I was young, that purchasing pre-recorded cassettes of mid-price albums was a huge sonic upgrade for me. I loved the format. But of course, as you pointed out, they were late 80s/early 90s tapes, and they were much better quality at that point.
The green label Capitol issue of Magical Mystery Tour WAS in true stereo (except for "I Am the Walrus")...but they were for the Capitol collector's club.
I remember that Christmas when the BBC screened all those Beatles movies. Me and my brother we Beatles mad and had no idea there were movies for Magical Mystery Tour and Let it Be. We were SO excited. The only problem was we weren't allowed to watch A Hard Days Night on Christmas Day because we had some family thing to attend. Amazingly, to this day I've still not seen A Hard Day's Night. I'm keeping it for the 60th anniversary in a few years. Will the 60-year wait be worth it?
Very interesting indeed. I certainly prefer cassette tape to CD where the Beatles are concerned, I also recently noticed Prince 'Graffitti Bridge' is better on tape to the degree that there are instruments I can hear on the tape that I cannot on the CD. CD seems to sterilise so much of the content. Cassette tapes last longer - still listening to tapes from 1970's whereas all my CD's from 1990's have failed.
Well actually the cities have gotten a lot better, when the Beatles really leased a catalog on CD for the first time back in the 1980s, they were very murky it’s not the CD some cells, it is all about the engineers on how they mix the CDs and remaster them I especially really love the remix remastered of the Beatles albums you should check them out. They’re really great. If you want to get the Beatles catalog you can definitely get them on the Beatles stereo and mono box that’s which was remastered in 2009. I love all recorder technology including cassettes LPs CDs 45s and all 78 I’ve yet to hear wax Ellender’s.
