The Beatles - Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School Concert, Buckinghamshire, Britain, 04-04-1963

Here's something that's pretty amazing, if you're a Beatles fan. I'm writing this in December 2023. Back in September, there were some articles in the mainstream media about a recently discovered bootleg recording of a 1963 Beatles concert at the Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, Britain. Here's one such article. I suggest you read it to be familiar with what I'm talking about:

The Beatles Stowe School Concert Is Unlike Any Other Show in History (thedailybeast.com)

I'll explain more about the story behind this concert and how it got recorded in a bit. But first, I want to say that I tracked down that recording after reading about it, and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed, due to poor sound quality. Amongst many other problems, the vocals were so low that they often couldn't be heard at all. I tried my best to fix things with my limited ability using the artificial intelligence based audio editing programs that have come out in recent years, but the recording was too poor to be salvageable. I didn't even bother keeping a copy of the concert in my music collection, because it wasn't worth hearing for me.

Or so I thought. Enter Lord Reith. He's someone who has been editing and improving Beatles recordings for years. I don't know if he's a magician or what, but what he did with this Stowe School bootleg is nothing short of miraculous! There are still some problems, which I will get to in a bit, but he's completely transformed the sound quality, making it almost sound as good as some soundboard recordings. In particular, he did wonders to make the vocals audible. So, in my opinion, this has gone from not worth listening to more than once (if that) to being one of the most interesting and listenable live Beatles recordings, period. If you're a fan, and you can tolerate some sound quality issues, definitely give this a listen.

Now, let me explain a bit more about what this concert is and why it's so unique. Again, I highly recommend you read the above newspaper article, but in case you don't, here's a short summary. At the time of this concert, the Beatles were right on the cusp of being big stars in Britain, but they weren't quite there yet. They'd released their first single, "Love Me Do," in late 1962. It made the Top Twenty in Britain, which was a good start. Then, in January 1963, they released the single "Please Please Me." It reached Number One in most British charts. In late March 1963, they released their first album, also called "Please Please Me." That would go on to be a huge hit, staying in the Top Ten of the charts for over a year, which would set a record for the next fifty years. Then, only one week after this concert, the single "From Me to You" would be released, and that would be another Number One hit in Britain. 

So, mere weeks after this concert, Beatlemania hit Britain in a big way, just as it would hit the U.S. in early 1964. From that point on, pretty much all Beatles concerts would be short, a half an hour or less, and so filled with screams from overexcited girls that one couldn't really hear the music. If you're heard live Beatles recordings, then you know it's usually a pretty rough listening experience, due to all that screaming and cheering.

Previously, the Beatles had spent a couple of years in Hamburg, Germany, honing their music skills by playing in small clubs. There are some rough live recordings from that, and they're very interesting, but they consisted almost entirely of cover songs. 

This recording is unique, however, in part because the Stowe School is very unusual. In 1963, it was only for boys aged 13 to 18. As you can see from this photo, it was only for the children of the elite. It looks less like a high school and more like a palace! The Beatles were booked to perform there months before the concert date, when their fame was a lot less. But they upheld their agreement and played there in April 1963 anyway. Not only that, but they played for over an hour, instead of the mere half hour or less they were already doing for screaming fans in other shows. 

But what's really great is, because the audience considered entirely of boys, and well-behaved upper class boys, no less, there was no screaming. According to articles I read, most of the boys in the audience hadn't even heard of the Beatles yet, so they weren't swept up in any hysteria. The Beatles played virtually all the songs from the "Please Please Me" album, plus "From Me to You" and its B-side "Thank You Girl," despite the fact those last two songs still hadn't been released. Yet they also played a bunch of cover songs that they'd done in Hamburg. This is probably the last time most of those covers were played by them in concert, as they switched to doing very short concerts consisting entirely of their best known songs. So this is the one and only concert recording with a mix of the "old" Beatles of Hamburg cover versions and the "new" Beatles with their remarkable original songs. How lucky we are that one of the boys in the audience snuck in a tape recorder and recorded it.

So that's the good news. The bad news is, even after Lord Reith's miraculous transformation of the recording, there still are sound quality issues. The biggest problem is the banter between songs. There was a lot banter, between almost all the songs. Unfortunately, the recording of those bits were very quiet, way more quiet than the music. So I suspect there just wasn't much there on the recording for Lord Reith to work with. I took his version, with the banter way down low, and boosted the volume of those bits so the banter can be clearly heard. But unfortunately, all that means in that quiet jibber jabber is now louder jibber jabber. I've included a couple of extra text files. One of them is a list of all the changes Lord Reith made to make this listenable. The other is a transcript of what he and other die-hard Beatles fans have managed to figure out from the banter. If you read that as you listen, you can catch most of it. But otherwise, the talking is pretty hard to understand, other than the occasional phrase.

Due to this seemingly unfixable problem, I'm posting two versions of this album. One contains the banter and the songs, and the other one contains just the songs. I much, much prefer the music only version. The banter is interesting to hear once or twice, but beyond that, it drags down the overall recording. So maybe you'll want to download both, and listen to one version and then the other.

There's one other big problem. The tape in the tape recorder only lasted for about sixty minutes. The recorder was up at the stage and the boy who recorded it was sitting in the audience, so when the tape ran out, there was no way for him to flip it over and keep recording. Thus, the end of a second version of "I Saw Her Standing There" was cut off, plus all of the last two songs, "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Long Tall Sally." Most of the second version of  "I Saw Her Standing There" survived, and luckily it happened to be the only song played twice. So I patched in the ending from the first version earlier in the show. But the last two songs are lost.

And there's one more lost song. Right before that second version of "I Saw Her Standing There," the Beatles played "Money (That's What I Want)." Unfortunately, there's only about twenty seconds of this on the recording, and then it gets replaced by the hit version of "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen! Probably what happened was that the boy who recorded it accidentally recorded that song off the radio over the Beatles concert. I removed the snippet of "Money" and the little bit of banter before it, because it's frustrating to get only such a short part of that. 

Furthermore, note that even after all of Lord Reith's edits, there were still some problems with the vocals. I used UVR5 to boost all the vocals a bit. I think that helped to make the singing easier to hear. But some songs are better than others. For "Matchbox" in particular, only bits and pieces of the lead vocals can be heard. I figure that's because that song was sung by Ringo Starr, the drummer, and maybe he was sitting back and too busy with drumming to keep his mouth near the microphone all the time. (That reminds me: there are no lead vocals from George Harrison because he was recovering from a cold.)

If you want to know even more about this remarkable concert, I recommend this link:

The Beatles concert at Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School in Buckingham on Apr 4, 1963 (the-paulmccartney-project.com)

It includes lots of great photos and stories. You can learn the whole story of how this bootleg came to be recorded and then rediscovered decades later. It's really interesting stuff, if you're a Beatles fan. That also includes a transcript of the banter between songs.

Here's the track list to the version that includes the banter. This version is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Beatles)
02 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
03 Too Much Monkey Business (Beatles)
04 talk (Beatles)
05 Love Me Do (Beatles)
06 talk (Beatles)
07 Some Other Guy (Beatles)
08 talk (Beatles)
09 Misery (Beatles)
10 talk (Beatles)
11 I Just Don't Understand (Beatles)
12 talk (Beatles)
13 A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Beatles)
14 talk (Beatles)
15 Boys (Beatles)
16 talk (Beatles)
17 Matchbox (Beatles)
18 talk (Beatles)
19 From Me to You (Beatles)
20 talk (Beatles)
21 Thank You Girl (Beatles)
22 talk (Beatles)
23 Memphis, Tennessee (Beatles)
24 talk (Beatles)
25 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)
26 talk (Beatles)
27 Twist and Shout (Beatles)
28 talk (Beatles)
29 Anna [Go to Him] (Beatles)
30 talk (Beatles)
31 Please Please Me (Beatles)
32 talk (Beatles)
33 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)
34 talk (Beatles)
35 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
36 talk (Beatles)
37 Ask Me Why (Beatles)
38 talk (Beatles)
39 Till There Was You (Beatles)
40 talk (Beatles)
41 I Saw Her Standing There [Edit] (Beatles)

And here's the link to the version with the banter:
NOTE: The download link has been removed due to a copyright issue, sorry. But check the comments below.
Here's the track list for the version with only the music. This version is 50 minutes long, eight minutes shorter than the other version.

01 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
02 Too Much Monkey Business (Beatles)
03 Love Me Do (Beatles)
04 Some Other Guy (Beatles)
05 Misery (Beatles)
06 I Just Don't Understand (Beatles)
07 A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Beatles)
08 Boys (Beatles)
09 Matchbox (Beatles)
10 From Me to You (Beatles)
11 Thank You Girl (Beatles)
12 Memphis, Tennessee (Beatles)
13 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)
14 Twist and Shout (Beatles)
15 Anna [Go to Him] (Beatles)
16 Please Please Me (Beatles)
17 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)
18 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
19 Ask Me Why (Beatles)
20 Till There Was You (Beatles)
21 I Saw Her Standing There [Edit] (Beatles)

Here's the link to the version with no banter, and only songs.
NOTE: The download link has been removed due to a copyright issue, sorry. But, again, check the comments below. Again, especially if you're not a die-hard fan, I recommend just getting the music only version. For the cover photo, I used one of the photos from this exact concert and colorized it, using the Palette program. You can see a larger and uncropped version of the original black and white photo in one of the above article links.

Posted by Paul at 4:12 PM 

Below are some CD releases for this concert:

More information is available on this set here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/search?q=stowe

Another source for more information is here:

https://archive.org/details/beatles-school-gig

More versions of this concert are appearing on CDs from Japan below:

Beatles - Last Night in Hamburg

Another set of Beatles live recordings from Hamburg, is the CD set "Last Night In Hamburg". There are 28 songs in this collection. Many have appeared on other sets. Below is more information on this set and where you can listen to it.





















Track Listing:

1. I Saw Her Standing There (2:35)
2. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You) (2:44)
3. Roll over Beethoven (2:13)
4. Hippy Hippy Shake (1:45)
5. Sweet Little Sixteen (2:45)
6. Lend Me Your Comb (1:52)
7. Your Feet's Too Big (2:18)
8. Where Have You Been All My Life (1:45)
9. Twist and Shout (2:04)
10. Mr. Moonlight (2:28)
11. Taste of Honey (1:52)
12. Besame Mucho (2:08)
13. Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (2:59)
14. Kansas City (2:31)
15. Nothin' Shakin' (But the Leaves on the Trees) (1:29)
16. To Know Her Is to Love Her (3:13)
17. Little Queenie (4:04)
18. Falling in Love Again (2:02)
19. Sheila (1:59)
20. Be-Bop-A-Lula (2:29)
21. Hallelujah, I Love Her So (2:09)
22. Ask Me Why (2:50)
23. Red Sails in the Sunset (2:33)
24. Matchbox (2:38)
25. I'm Talking About You (2:06)
26. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate (2:15)
27. Long Tall Sally (1:48)
28. I Remember You (1:58)

Total Time: 65:42

Bonus Tracks from a 2000 remaster :   
29. I'll Keep You Satisfied
30. Bad To Me
31. Cat Call
32. I'm In Love
33. I Don't Want To See You Again

Releases information

This album is well-known also with the title "Reeperbahn" (For example: Arena Records 1103-122) Reading the titles of the songs of this album I can say that it is another repackaging of the recordings done with a Grundig Mono Open Reel tape machine at the Star Club, in Hamburg, Germany, in December 1962. As I wrote in my review for the first version of this album released in the L.P. format in the U.K. (1977) called "The Beatles Live! at the Star Club, Hamburg, Germany; 1962" in Progarchives, The Beatles fought then to cancel the release, but the owners of the tapes won the litigation then. But in the 90s I read in one newspaper that The Beatles again fought to cancel the releases of these recordings in the CD format, and that they won then. So, I think that this CD is one of those releases of these old recordings in the CD format, but the status of this and other releases is maybe more of bootlegs now, being unauthorized by the band. The title of this CD also suggest that the recordings were done in December 1962, as it was the last time that the band played in the Star Club, but the interesting thing is that it seems that the package includes almost all the songs recorded there, as the U.K. and the U.S versions of the 2 L.P. set released in 1977 had some diferences in the songs included. For example, the songs "Sheila", "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You) "and "Where Have You Been All My Life" were only released in the 1977 U.S. album, but that U.S. album also included "Till There Was You", and this song is not included in this CD. I also can see that it doesn`t include all the songs which were included in the 1977 U.K. release, so this CD has not the complete songs (30 in total) which appear in other CD releases of these recordings. For more details, visit the www.jpgr.co.uk/ website.

As I wrote in my review for the 1977 U.K. release, the quality of these recordings is not very good, but these recordings are of real historical importance and are more directed to The Beatles`greatest collectors (which is not my case) . I have never listened to all the 30 songs recorded there as I only have the 1977 L.P. version which was released in the U.K. and Germany. So, maybe one day I could be interested in listening to all the 30 songs included in one package in the CD format. 

Source: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=12056

More information is available at Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live!_at_the_Star-Club_in_Hamburg,_Germany;_1962

More information is available here:
https://archive.org/details/the-beatles-live-at-the-star-club-in-hamburg-germany-1962-06

More information is available here:
https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-beatles-star-club-hamburg-germany.html

More information is available here:
https://slspencer.com/Music/The%20Beatles/03.%20Last%20Night%20In%20Hamburg%20%5b2%20Disc%5d/

You can listen to this collection below:

Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963 - iTunes release and other sources

The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963 is a compilation album of 59 previously unreleased recordings by English rock band the Beatles, released on 17 December 2013, exclusively through the iTunes Store.[1] While it was initially only available for a few hours,[2] it is currently available again for purchase.[3] The release was timed to extend the copyright of the 1963 recordings under EU law by 20 years – the EU protects recordings for 70 years only if they are formally released.[1][4] Officially unreleased recordings from the band's earlier recording sessions previously entered public domain in 2012.vailable again for purchase.[3] The release was timed to extend the copyright of the 1963 recordings under EU law by 20 years – the EU protects recordings for 70 years only if they are formally released.[1][4] Officially unreleased recordings from the band's earlier recording sessions previously entered public domain in 2012.  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_Bootleg_Recordings_1963

The album includes 15 studio outtakes and 42 live BBC Radio tracks, adding to those released previously on the albums Live at the BBC (1994) and On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2 (2013).[5] The album also includes John Lennon's demo recordings of "Bad to Me" and "I'm in Love", later released as singles by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas and the Fourmost, respectively.[1] 

After something of a false start, Apple Corps/Universal have today issued 59 previously unreleased recordings by The Beatles consisting of studio outtakes and live material from 1963. We should clarify straight off the bat, that this is not a deluxe box set; indeed, it’s not being released physically on any format. Bootleg Recordings 1963 (as this collection is dubbed) is a digital-only affair and can only be bought via iTunes. But hey, it is The Beatles, so coverage here is justified!
The Beatles’ Anthology albums (themselves nearly 20 years old) were the one and only time in the last 50 years that Fab Four studio outtakes have been officially released, so to see something akin to The Holy Grail almost casually uploaded onto (the other) Apple’s iTunes servers takes a while to get your head around.

But that is what has happened. Tracks made available include work-in-progress from Please Please Me and With The Beatles, and early takes of the group’s first (official) UK number one From Me To You and its B-side Thank You Girl. The 1963 version of The One After 909 (which famously went unreleased until Paul and John dusted it down for Let It Be six years later) is another notable inclusion (takes 1&2) in this Beatles Bootleg bundle.

Into total, 15 studio tracks are issued followed by an enormous amount of what you might call Live at the BBC ‘the leftovers’ – tracks recorded at the BBC radio studios that haven’t appeared on the official releases (1994 and 2013) probably to avoid duplication and in some cases because the sound quality is not up to par. So we get three Love Me Dos, four A Taste Of Honeys and a couple of Do You Want To Know A Secrets amongst the 42 Beeb tracks. A special treat at the end of the Bootleg Recordings are demo versions of Bad To Me and I’m In Love, two Lennon-McCartney songs given to other groups (Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas and The Fourmost, respectively).

As a fan of physical media the first reaction is ‘why couldn’t they have released this is a proper box set’, but in truth, the digital domain is somehow a more forgiving environment for this Merseybeat memory dump; running orders don’t need to be fretted over (or are rendered irrelevant by the medium), and no one is going to complain about multiple versions of the same track because you just can just download the ones you want. In short, Apple don’t need to think  about it too much, because the truth of the matter seems to be that they would probably rather not do this at all. The current thinking is that this Bootleg Recordings 1963 release is all about retaining copyright of the material once it’s over 50 years old. Previously released material is now protected for 70 years (in Europe), but unreleased material is not afforded the same protection and becomes public domain. The solution? Release it.

And that is what Apple/Universal have done today. The Anthology projects of the 1990s were studies in planning, hype, marketing, coordination and global brand enhancement. Three multi-formatted double albums spread over a year with the small matter of a six-part companion TV documentary (and later a hardback book). By comparison Bootleg Recordings 1963 is the polar opposite. No hype, no build-up, no advertising, no ‘tie-ins’ – just a bucketful of Beatles’ rarities falling onto the unsuspecting Mop Top fan as they go about their daily business.

If there are no changes in the copyright law, then surely we can look forward to similar Beatles Bootleg recordings in our Christmas stockings over the next seven years. Bootleg Recordings 1963 is released globally via iTunes today and is available to download in many territories already.

Source: http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/beatles-bootleg-recordings-1963/



Track listing
Tracks 1–14 are stereo; the rest are mono.
All tracks written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted.

Tracklist

1-1	There's A Place (Studio Outtake / Takes 5 & 6)	2:19
1-2	There's A Place (Studio Outtake / Take 8)	1:58
1-3	There's A Place (Studio Outtake / Take 9)	2:04
1-4	Do You Want To Know A Secret (Studio Outtake / Take 7)	2:17
1-5	A Taste Of Honey (Studio Outtake / Take 6)	2:12
1-6	I Saw Her Standing There (Studio Outtake / Take 2)	3:07
1-7	Misery (Studio Outtake / Take 1)	1:54
1-8	Misery (Studio Outtake / Take 7)	1:56
1-9	From Me To You (Studio Outtake / Takes 1 & 2)	3:24
1-10	From Me To You (Studio Outtake / Take 5)	2:17
1-11	Thank You Girl (Studio Outtake / Take 1)	2:09
1-12	Thank You Girl (Studio Outtake / Take 5)	2:04
1-13	One After 909 (Studio Outtake / Takes 1 & 2)	4:29
1-14	Hold Me Tight (Studio Outtake / Take 21)	2:42
1-15	Money (That's What I Want) (Studio Outtake)	2:48
1-16	Some Other Guy (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 26th January, 1963)	2:02
1-17	Love Me Do (Live At The BBC For "Saturday Club" 26th January, 1963)	2:31
1-18	Too Much Monkey Business (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 26th January, 1963)	1:50
1-19	I Saw Her Standing There (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 16th March, 1963)	2:38
1-20	Do You Want To Know A Secret (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 26th January, 1963)	1:50
1-21	From Me To You (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 26th January, 1963)	1:54
1-22	I Got To Find My Baby (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 26th January, 1963)	1:59
1-23	Roll Over Beethoven (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 29th June, 1963)	2:29
1-24	A Taste Of Honey (Live At BBC For "Easy Beat" / 23rd June, 1963)	2:01
1-25	Love Me Do (Live At BBC For "Easy Beat" / 20th October, 1963)	2:29
1-26	Please Please Me (Live At BBC For "Easy Beat" / 20th October, 1963)	2:08
1-27	She Loves You (Live At BBC For "Easy Beat" / 20th October, 1963)	2:29
1-28	I Want To Hold Your Hand (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 21st December, 1963)	2:19
1-29	Till There Was You (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 21st December, 1963)	2:16
2-1	Roll Over Beethoven (Live At BBC For "Saturday Club" / 21st December, 1963)	2:16
2-2	You Really Got A Hold On Me (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 4th June, 1963)	2:54
2-3	The Hippy Hippy Shake (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 4th June, 1963)	1:43
2-4	Till There Was You (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" /11th June, 1963)	2:14
2-5	A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 18th June, 1963)	2:06
2-6	A Taste Of Honey (Live At The BBC for "Pop Go The Beatles" 18th June, 1963)	1:56
2-7	Money (That's What I Want) (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 18th June, 1963)	2:41
2-8	Anna (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 25th June, 1963)	3:02
2-9	Love Me Do (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 10th September, 1963)	2:29
2-10	She Loves You (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 24th September, 1963)	2:16
2-11	I'll Get You (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 10th September, 1963)	2:05
2-12	A Taste Of Honey (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 10th September, 1963)	2:00
2-13	Boys (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 17th September, 1963)	2:12
2-14	Chains (Live At BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" / 17th September, 1963)	2:22
2-15	You Really Got A Hold On Me (Live At The BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" 17th September, 1963)	2:57
2-16	I Saw Her Standing There (Live At The BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" 24th September, 1963)	2:41
2-17	She Loves You (Live At The BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" 10th September, 1963)	2:15
2-18	Twist And Shout (Live At the BBC For "Pop Go The Beatles" 24th September, 1963)	2:36
2-19	Do You Want To Know A Secret (Live At The BBC For "Here We Go" 12th March, 1963)	1:55
2-20	Please Please Me (Live At The BBC For "Here We Go" 12th March, 1963)	1:57
2-21	Long Tall Sally (Live At The BBC For "Side By Side" 13th May, 1963)	1:49
2-22	Chains (Live At The BBC For "Side By Side" 13th May, 1963)	2:23
2-23	Boys (Live At The BBC For "Side By Side" 13th May, 1963)	1:53
2-24	A Taste Of Honey (Live At The BBC For "Side By Side" 13th May, 1963)	2:04
2-25	Roll Over Beethoven (Live At The BBC For "From Us To You" 26th December, 1963)	2:17
2-26	All My Loving (Live At The BBC For "From Us To You" 26th December, 1963)	2:06
2-27	She Loves You (Live At The BBC For "From Us To You" 26th December, 1963)	2:21
2-28	Till There Was You (Live At The BBC For "From Us To You" 26th December, 1963)	2:12
2-29	Bad To Me (Demo)	1:29
2-30	I'm In Love (Demo)	1:32

There also is an unofficial bootleg 2-CD version of these recordings. (below)

More info is available here:
https://www.judemacforever.com/blog/bootleg-recordings-1963-2013-the-beatles
P/W=arse



Below is a review of the Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963:





You can listen to the entire set below:

The story behind: Introducing the Beatles - VeeJay Records-1964

 

Introducing The Beatles is the first Beatles album released in the United States. Originally scheduled for a July 1963 release, the LP came out on 10 January 1964, on Vee-Jay Records, ten days before Capitol's Meet the Beatles!. The latter album, however, entered the U.S. album chart one week before the former. Consequently, when Meet The Beatles! peaked at No. 1 for eleven consecutive weeks, Introducing...The Beatles stalled at No. 2 where it remained nine consecutive weeks. It was the subject of much legal wrangling, but ultimately, Vee-Jay was permitted to sell the album until late 1964, by which time it had sold more than 1.3 million copies.[2] On 24 July 2014 the album was certified gold and platinum by the RIAA.


Initial non-release

The Beatles' recording contract that began May 1962 with Parlophone in the United Kingdom gave the parent corporation EMI rights to offer any of the group's recordings to the various labels EMI owned in many countries of the world. However, EMI's United States subsidiary, Capitol Records, declined to release the "Please Please Me" single.[3] Following this, Transglobal, an EMI affiliate that worked to place foreign masters with US record companies, negotiated with several labels before Vee-Jay Records signed a licensing agreement giving it the right of first refusal on Beatles' records for five years.[4] As part of that agreement, even after its singles releases of "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You" failed to chart above No. 116 on the Billboard Hot 100, Vee-Jay planned to release the Please Please Me album in the US, and received copies of the mono and stereo master tapes in late April or early May 1963.[5]


Originally, Vee-Jay considered releasing the Please Please Me LP unaltered, as it appeared in the UK. A surviving acetate made by Universal Recording Corporation of Chicago, probably in May 1963, contains all 14 songs in the same order as on the UK album, with the title still listed as Please Please Me.[6] But in keeping with the American norm of a 12-song album, Vee-Jay chose instead to omit "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why" (which had comprised the first single release) and change the album's title to Introducing... The Beatles.[7] Also, the engineer at Universal in Chicago thought that Paul McCartney's count-in at the start of "I Saw Her Standing There" was extraneous rather than intentionally placed there, so he snipped the "one, two, three" (leaving the "four") from Vee-Jay's mono and stereo masters.[8] Except for those omissions, the order and contents of the album were untouched, resulting in a US album that bore the closest resemblance to a British Beatles LP until Revolver in 1966.[9]

Preparations for the LP's release continued in late June and early July 1963, including the manufacturing of masters and metal parts and the printing of 6,000 front covers.[10] But, despite the claims of many older Beatles books and discographies that Introducing... The Beatles was first released on 22 July 1963,[11][12][13] no documentation exists to confirm that the album was released at any time in 1963.[14]

A management shake-up at Vee-Jay, which included the resignation of the label's president Ewart Abner after he used company money to cover gambling debts,[15] resulted in the cancellation of the release of Introducing... The Beatles and albums by Frank Ifield, Alma Cogan and a Jewish cantor.[15]

Version one


Vee-Jay's financial problems forced it to take care of its most pressing debt first. Because the Beatles and Ifield were low priorities, the label chose not to report royalties on their sales. As a result, Transglobal declared its contract with Vee-Jay null and void on 8 August 1963.[16] The next single, "She Loves You", was licensed by Transglobal to the Swan label of Philadelphia.


On 14 December 1963, Billboard magazine mentioned that Capitol Records planned an all-out promotional campaign for the Beatles in the United States.[17] Following that, the single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was rush released on 26 December.[18] On 7 January 1964, Vee-Jay's board of directors met for the first time since the single was released, and it discussed the Beatles' material it had in the vault. Desperate for cash, the board decided to release Introducing... The Beatles, even if it meant legal trouble in the future.[17]



Metal parts were already at Vee-Jay's three primary pressing plants, and 6,000 front covers were already printed. But it had no back cover prepared. So, as a stopgap, the label used a back cover slick made from one side of its standard inner sleeve, consisting of full-colour reproductions of the covers of 25 "other fine albums of significant interest".[19] This cover is known by collectors as the "Ad Back" version and is highly sought. A second stopgap back cover was used when the "Ad Back" slicks were exhausted; because it is all-white with no printing at all, it is known by collectors as the "Blank Back" edition and is also very rare. Finally, third editions contain Vee-Jay's official back cover, with Introducing The Beatles near the top and the song titles in two columns underneath. All of these were available on the market within days of the 10 January release date.[19] Also in January, "Please Please Me" was reissued as a single, this time with "From Me to You" as the B-side.[20][21]

But on 16 January 1964, less than a week after Introducing... The Beatles was released, Vee-Jay was served with a restraining order stopping further distribution. Beechwood Music, Inc., Capitol Records' publishing subsidiary, owned the American publishing rights to "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You", and because the two songs had not yet been officially released in the US, Beechwood refused to issue a license for Vee-Jay to release them.[2] Approximately 80,000 copies of Introducing... The Beatles had been released with the two songs on them, with only 2,000 or so in stereo.[2]


Version two

To circumvent the restraining order, Vee-Jay quickly reconfigured Introducing... The Beatles. It removed "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" and replaced them with the previously omitted "Ask Me Why" and "Please Please Me", though some pressings of the album did not alter the track list. The new versions were prepared in late January and began appearing in stores around 10 February 1964.[2]

Because of the initial restraining order, version two of Introducing... The Beatles did not enter the Billboard charts until three weeks after Capitol's Meet the Beatles! album. Once it did, it quickly rose to the number two spot, where it stayed for nine straight weeks.[22] It also peaked at number two in Cash Box, and it got to number one in Record World magazine.[23] This success inspired a host of other Vee-Jay releases. First came the album Jolly What! England's Greatest Recording Stars: The Beatles and Frank Ifield on Stage issued on 26 February, containing the Beatles tracks "Please Please Me", "From Me to You", "Ask Me Why" and "Thank You Girl" from the 1963 singles and Introducing..., and other tracks from Frank Ifield.[24] The rereleased single "Please Please Me" rose to number three on the Hot 100, Cash Box and Record World. Soon after, "Twist and Shout" was released 2 March on the subsidiary Tollie label with "There's a Place" as the B-side, and "Do You Want to Know a Secret", with "Thank You Girl" on the B-side, was issued on 23 March. Both singles went up to number two on the Hot 100, with "Twist and Shout" reaching number one on both Cash Box and Record World. Also a Beatles EP titled Souvenir of Their Visit to America was released by Vee-Jay on 23 March, featuring "Misery", "A Taste of Honey", "Ask Me Why", and "Anna".[25]


Even with the replacement of the two Beechwood Music songs, Vee-Jay and Capitol battled in court throughout the early part of 1964. Injunctions against Vee-Jay's album were issued, lifted and restored more than once.[26] Because the album was often pressed quickly between restraining orders, there are almost two dozen different label variations, including mono and stereo copies, manufactured at numerous pressing plants.[27] Finally, on 9 April 1964, the two labels settled. Vee-Jay was granted a license giving it the right to issue the 16 Beatles' songs it controlled, in any way it saw fit, until 15 October 1964. At that time, its license expired, and all rights would revert to Capitol.[28] During the time Introducing... The Beatles was available, it sold approximately 1,300,000 mono copies and approximately 41,000 stereo copies. Because only 3.1 percent of all of the LPs were in stereo,[29] true stereo copies are rare.


After the settlement, the Beechwood songs were issued by Vee-Jay as a single, on 27 April on Tollie. "Love Me Do"/"P.S. I Love You" rose to become the Beatles' fourth number one single on Billboard and their fifth on both Cash Box and Record World.[30][31]


Other versions

Twice before its license expired, Vee-Jay repackaged Introducing... The Beatles. Although neither album contained any new music, both of them made the Billboard album charts. VJ 1062 (with photos)

One of these was Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles (Vee-Jay VJLP(S)-1062), which featured a three-quarters gatefold cover, portrait paintings of the four musicians and the text:




"Look inside. Complete story of their favourite male and female singer, their favourite foods, types of girls, sport, hobby, songs, colours, real name, birthplace, birthdays, height, education, color of hair & eyes."

The inside cover text describes Paul as the "Nut Beatle" or "Beatle Nut", John as "nearsighted" and the "Chief Beatle", George as the "quietest" and the "one with the deadpan face" and Ringo as the "shortest Beatle" who "will send his steak back if it is not blood red". The back sleeve shows outlines of hearts below each Beatle-photo and holds instructions of how to fill the hearts with personal photos.

The record inside the cover did not even contain the new name; it still stated Introducing... The Beatles on the label.[32] Songs, Pictures and Stories was released either in late July 1964[32] or 12 October 1964,[33] with the latter the more likely date, because it entered the Billboard album chart on 31 October.[22] It eventually peaked at number 63.[33]
VJ 1065 (with the Four Seasons).



The other repackaging was the two-record set The Beatles vs the Four Seasons, which contained copies of Introducing... The Beatles in one pocket of the gatefold cover and Golden Hits of the Four Seasons (VJLP 1065) in the other.[34] This Vee-Jay creation spent three weeks on the Billboard chart in October 1964 and peaked at number 142.

Though Vee-Jay could not manufacture or distribute any Beatles product after 15 October 1964, it took a long time for the records to vanish from retail stores. Both Introducing... The Beatles and Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles remained on the Billboard LP chart until 9 January 1965.[35]
After Vee Jay license expired: The Early Beatles, Rarities[edit]


From the start of Beatlemania in the United States until the October 1964 expiration of its rights to Beatles music, Vee-Jay issued four LP albums, four singles, and an EP out of the 16 tracks it gained from its 1963 license period. On 22 March 1965, Capitol issued The Early Beatles, which contained 11 of the 14 tracks that had previously been issued on Introducing... The Beatles.[36] "Misery" and "There's a Place", two of the other three songs, would not make their Capitol Records LP debut until 1980, on the US version of Rarities. The other Introducing... song was "I Saw Her Standing There", first released in the UK on the Please Please Me LP. The song appeared in the US on both the Vee-Jay album as well as Capitol's Meet The Beatles! LP. These two albums marked the only time that two different Beatles' albums, each from a different record label, were released in the same month with one song appearing on both albums. There is a difference between the two tracks in that Paul's count-off is cut short on the Vee-Jay release by three numbers leaving only "four!" on the intro. Later, in the summer of 1964, Capitol would release Something New in the United States with five songs that had already appeared on the American A Hard Day's Night soundtrack album released by United Artists Records about one month earlier.


Introducing... The Beatles has never been officially released on compact disc in America, although imported second-hand copies have circulated from other countries — in both mono and stereo versions, mostly with the version two line-up (with "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why").



A counterfeit Introducing... The Beatles label with the group's name and album title separated by the centre spindle hole

Starting in the late 1960s and continuing through the 1990s, Introducing... The Beatles was frequently counterfeited.[37] These counterfeits can be identified by the cover printing and quality, the label, or the sound quality.

Counterfeits have some significant differences from the commercial issue. Some of the more common variations include...
Labels with the title of the album and the group's name separated by the center spindle hole (as shown in the photo to the right)[37]
Labels with color bands that are off-center and/or missing the color green (as shown in the photo to the right)
Labels with large white "brackets" (no color band)
Album covers with dark brown borders
Dating from the late 1970s, George Harrison's shadow is not visible on the right side of the cover (However, all legitimate copies of the album and even most counterfeits include his shadow).[38]

Nearly all fakes claim to be in stereo (though the actual sound of the record is often in mono). As legitimate stereo copies of Introducing... The Beatles are rare,[38] the majority of copies with "stereo" or "stereophonic" printed on the cover are counterfeits.[37]

There are also known fake versions of Songs, Pictures, and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles.[37] These counterfeits often omit "Stories" from the album title, since they are circulated without the gatefold cover and the text inside, renaming it Songs and Pictures of the Fabulous Beatles. These versions have 3 songs not on the original album. "From Me To You" (in place of "Anna"), "Love Me Do" (in place of "Ask Me Why") and "P.S I Love You", which opens side 2 rather than "Please Please Me" (The song is rather placed on side 1, track 3).[37]


Track Listing
All tracks written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted.

Side one
No. Title Lead vocals Length
1. "I Saw Her Standing There" (McCartney counting "one, two, three" is omitted; recording starts with "four") Paul McCartney 2:50
2. "Misery" John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1:48
3. "Anna (Go to Him)" (Arthur Alexander) John Lennon 3:00
4. "Chains" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) George Harrison 2:25
5. "Boys" (Luther Dixon, Wes Farrell) Ringo Starr 2:28
6. "Love Me Do[a]" Paul McCartney and John Lennon 2:19
Side two
No. Title Lead vocals Length
1. "P.S. I Love You[b]" Paul McCartney 2:04
2. "Baby It's You" (Burt Bacharach, Mack David, Barney Williams) John Lennon 2:41
3. "Do You Want to Know a Secret" George Harrison 1:59
4. "A Taste of Honey" (Ric Marlow, Bobby Scott) Paul McCartney 2:05
5. "There's a Place" John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1:53
6. "Twist and Shout" (Phil Medley, Bert Russell) John Lennon 2:33
Replaced by "Ask Me Why" in February 1964


Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introducing..._The_Beatles

Beatles - Introducing The Beatles (VJ Records)- Details

VJ Records had exclusive distribution rights for the Beatles songs circa 1962 - 1963. After a series of singles were released by VJ and did not catch on, disk jockey's started playing imported copies of British Beatles records. In order to cash in on this rising popularity, VJ assembled this collection of songs. It was the first U.S. Beatles album distributed. VJ later failed to make royalty payments, and lost its distribution rights. Capitol Records (a division of EMI-England) started promoting and distributing Beatles records thereafter.

1. I Saw Her Standing There (Lennon/McCartney) 2:50
Regular
RM Take 9 & 12
11 Feb 1963
SS.PPM.01.09/12.RM
Used for mono LP & CD "Please Please Me".
Also found on mono US "Introducing The Beatles" (Brennan) but missing the count-in (only the "4" remains). It is not sure if the version found on "Introducing .." is the UK mono mix or the UK stereo mix reduced to mono. According to Brennan (again), if it was a reduction from the stereo mix we would hear the volume dropout on verse 3 that is typical on the UK stereo mix.
Beginning with different count " FOUR ", not " 1, 2, 3, 4! ".
Album version mixed from take 9.

2. Misery (Lennon/McCartney) 1:47
Regular
RM Take 16 - US
11 Feb 1963
SS.PPM.02.16.RM.US
The Beatles
Used exclusively on "Introducing The Beatles" US mono LP.
It is usually assumed that this mix is a mono reduction of the regular stereo mix (SS.PPM.02.16.RS) but it's hard to determine.
Mixed by George Martin in 1963 or 1964 in Los Angeles.
Album version mixed from take 11

3. Anna (Go To Him) (Alexander) 2:56
Regular
RM Take 3
11 Feb 1963
SS.PPM.03.03.RM
The Beatles
Released on
UK: Parlophone PMC 1202 Please Please Me 1963.
US: Vee Jay VJLP 1062 Introducing 1963.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46435 2 Please Please Me 1987.
Album version mixed from take 3

4. Chains (Goffin/King) 2:21
Regular
RM Take 1
11 Feb 1963
SS.PPM.04.01.RM
The Beatles
4 takes were recorded. Take 1 & 4 were complete. Take 2 & 3 were false starts.
All tapes were destroyed. Take 1 was used for the CV.
UK: Parlophone PMC 1202 Please Please Me 1963.
US: Vee Jay VJLP 1062 Introducing 1963.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46435 2 Please Please Me 1987.
Album version mixed from take 1

5. Boys (Dixon/Farrell) 2:24
Regular
RM Take 1
11 Feb 1963
SS.PPM.05.01.RM
The Beatles
Only one take was recorded.
Appears on:
UK: Parlophone PMC 1202 Please Please Me 1963.
US: Vee Jay VJLP 1062 Introducing 1963.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46435 2 Please Please Me 1987.
Album version mixed from take 1

6. Ask Me Why (Lennon/McCartney) 2:24
Regular
RM Take 6 - UK/US LP
26 Nov 1962
SS.PPM.06.06.RM
The Beatles
Recorded in 6 takes.
LP mono mix. Issued in UK on "Please Please Me" mono LP & CD and the EP "All My Loving".
Issued in USA on "Introducing The Beatles" mono LP (second version).
Released on:
UK: Parlophone PMC 1202 Please Please Me 1963.
US: Vee Jay VJLP 1062 Introducing second issue 1963, Vee Jay VJ 581 single 1964.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46435 2 Please Please Me 1987, EMI single 1988.
Album version mixed from take 6

7. Please Please Me (Lennon/McCartney) 2:00
Regular
RM Take Unknown
26 Nov 1962
SS.PPM.07.xx.RM
The Beatles
Mono mix based on unknown takes (possibly takes 16, 17 & 18).
UK: Parlophone R4983 single 1963, Parlophone PMC 1202 Please Please Me 1963.
US: Vee Jay VJ 498 single 1963, Vee Jay VJLP 1062 Introducing second issue 1963.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46435 2 Please Please Me 1987, EMI single 1988, EMI CDP 7 97036 2 The Beatles 1962-1966 1993.
Album version mixed from take ?

8. Baby It's You (David/Bacharach/Williams) 2:36
Regular
RM Take 5
11 Feb 1963
SS.PPM.10.05.RM
The Beatles
Released on "Please Please Me" UK mono LP and on "Introducing The Beatles" (both versions) US mono LP.
Recorded in 3 takes + 3 overdubs takes of celeste and piano (George Martin only). The piano overdub was never used while one of the celeste overdubs combined with take 3 became take 5.
UK: Parlophone PMC 1202 Please Please Me 1963.
US: Vee Jay VJLP 1062 Introducing 1963.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46435 2 Please Please Me 1987.
Album version mixed from take 3

9. Do You Want To Know A Secret (Lennon/McCartney) 1:55
Regular
11 Feb 1963
The Beatles
Album version mixed from take 8

10. A Taste Of Honey (Marlow/Scott) 2:02
Regular
RM1 Take 7 - UK/US
11 Feb 1963
SS.PM.12.07.RM1
The Beatles
Regular mono mix: take 7 RM1.
Released on
UK: Parlophone PMC 1202 Please Please Me 1963.
US: Vee Jay VJLP 1062 Introducing 1963.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46435 2 Please Please Me 1987.
Album version mixed from take 7

11. There's A Place (Lennon/McCartney) 1:49
Regular
11 Feb 1963
The Beatles
Album version mixed from take 13

12. Twist And Shout (Russell/Medley) 2:32
Regular
11 Feb 1963
The Beatles
Album version mixed from take 2



There have also been CD bootleg versions available from other sources. Below are examples:































Here is more detailed historical information about this interesting album:











 

You can listen to the entire album here:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxwAB3SECtc&list=PLKKsb10K6yRgRXYl5PEbEcFv7a3-6bL7b

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4buxmiKwyph0FIjzUvAZjTHFKkCxTdKd

More info available here:
https://archive.org/details/TheBeatlesLPRIPIntroducingVER1STEREOORIG