Section 2 - Fine Albums of Significant Interest

i
SECTION ONE—SINGLES OF SIGNIFICANCE
Please, Please Me b/w Ask Me Why
From Me To You b/w Thank You Girl
Please, Please Me b/w From Me To You
Twist And Shout b/w There’s A Place
Do You Want To Know A Secret?
b/w Thank You Girl
Love Me Do b/w P.S. I Love You
The Beatles on Oldies 45
Foreign Singles and other
7” Wonders of the World
Fine Fakes of Significant Interest
SECTION TWO—
FINE ALBUMS OF SIGNIFICANT INTEREST
Introducing The Beatles (Version One)
Introducing The Beatles (Version Two)
Jolly What! The Beatles & Frank Ifield on Stage
Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles
The Beatles vs The Four Seasons
The Beatles & Frank Ifield on Stage
Hear The Beatles Tell All
The 15 Greatest Songs of The Beatles
Counterfeits of Significance
ii
iii
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How To Use This Interactive Ebook
Apps: GoodReader is the only tablet app we’ve found so far that will
allow you to use all the interactive features like the GET BACK button, search, annotate, markup and bookmarks. It has a ton of features, including syncing to dropbox. It currently costs $4.99, and it is well worth it. We have found that most other
PDF readers do not handle some of the interactive features. Hopefully, as apps are
updated, you will find others that work as well (let us know if you find one). Each
eReader software has different ways of navigating, zooming and viewing, so please
refer to your app instructions for more information.
This book is designed to be read in portrait mode. You can read it in landscape
mode, but you may have to scroll down on each page first. We optimized it for the
iPad, but it should work on any tablet that can read PDF files, and of course on the
PC or Mac in Acrobat Reader.
To mark up your copy (make notes, check off items in your collection, etc.),
just install a PDF app that allows annotation (GoodReader is the best we have found).
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table of contents, checklist in the back and Bruce’s site. You will also find cross references throughout the book to jump to referred to images and text. After you have
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About the Revised Edition
Ever since The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay sold out and began going for a few
hundred dollars or more in the secondary market, people began asking me when I was
either reprinting or publishing a revised edition of the book. And while I knew there
was demand for the Vee-Jay book, I was concerned over the economics of reprinting.
The Vee-Jay book was published over 15 years ago in New Orleans. Reprinting
the book would not be a simple case of calling the printer and having him use the
existing digital files to roll the presses. The original printing plates used for the VeeJay book were destroyed in the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina, and even
had they survived, technology has changed so much over the past 15 years that they
would have been useless. Thus, I would have been required to go through the entire
pre-press process, effectively driving up the cost of a reprint to the full cost of a new
book. With high production costs due to the use of color throughout the book, the
cost per book on a small run would have been high, forcing a retail price of about
$100 to make the reprint profitable. And while the cost per book would have gone
down with a larger press run, I did not make sense to pay more overall printing costs
and run the risk of being stuck with a large inventory of books that could take ten
or more years to sell.
Fortunately, some of the younger customers of my books began asking me if
I had considered doing the Vee-Jay book as a digital eBook. At first, I was troubled
by the idea. There is something wonderful about holding a beautiful book in your
hands. Surely I would miss the feel of the pages and the experience of turning the
pages. And as a collector, I love having my bookshelves filled with books. An eBook
would not be on my shelf or proudly displayed on my coffee table. It would be stored
in an iPad just like music was stored in my iPhone. And that last thought made me
realize that there was a place in the world for digital books.
I love collecting, owning and playing vinyl records. I love the look and feel of a
12-inch album cover. I love removing the vinyl from its jacket and placing it on my
turntable. But if I am on an airplane or in a hotel room, I love that I can still hear
music by playing my iPhone. Just as there is a place in my world for vinyl records,
CDs and digital music files, there is room in my world for hardcover books, paperback
books and, dare I say it, digital eBooks. And so the decision was made to publish the
Vee-Jay book as an eBook. Not only would a digital book solve my production cost
and inventory problems, but it would also fulfill a need for those who could not afford
ii
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the original hardcover book and for those who wanted the convenience of taking my
books with them. (People always complain about how heavy my books are!)
Once the decision was made to do an eBook, I realized that I could not merely
put out the 1998 book as it was originally published. Oh sure, the book got great reviews when it first came out and demand for the Vee-Jay book had not diminished.
But I learned a lot of cool stuff in the past 15 years and realized I needed to do a revised edition so that I could incorporate new information and images. This would
also give me the opportunity to do some things differently and correct a few errors
along the way.
As I got into the project, I began to realize all the cool things that you can do with
an eBook. One of the problems with the Vee-Jay book was that although it contained
great stories, the reader could get bogged down with the pages containing minute
details about the record labels and trail off areas. To solve this problem, I re-edited
the book by placing all such information at the end of each chapter, giving the reader
the opportunity to skip the label details without missing any of the stories. And to
make it easier for someone to fly past the dull but necessary information tailored for
collectors, each chapter contains a green line at the point where the stories end and
the record label details begin. You can merely tap on the highlighted page number
and skip forward to the next chapter, bypassing the highly detailed information. (And
while this certainly improves the overall reading experience, sometimes you may want
to go through the final pages of each chapter just to look at all the beautiful labels.)
The digital book also gives the reader the ability to navigate pages by touching
the screen. This is particularly helpful to “turn to” a page referenced in the text. By
merely touching the page reference, the desired page appears on the screen. And
after checking out the new page, you can touch the GET BACK key to take you back
to where you once belonged (or at least back to where you were reading).
The digital book also gives you the ability to enlarge images. This is particularly
helpful when you want to read text in advertisements and on record labels. It’s a really cool feature that can’t be done in a regular book.
Other eBook features include the ability to read in little or no lighting and access to the interest. The book contains a few links that will take you to information
that will be updated when warranted.
Now that I have undertaken my first eBook, I gotta admit I am quite excited
about it. I hope you enjoy the eBook as much as I have putting it together.
iii
The Beatles Records on
Vee-Jay
Songs, Pictures and Stories of the
Fabulous Beatles Records on Vee-Jay
Compiled
by
Bruce Spizer
Foreword
by
Perry Cox
Table of Contents
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Copyright ©1998 and 2013 by 498 Productions, L.L.C.
498 Productions, L.L.C.
1010 Common Street, Suite 1964
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
Fax: 504-524-2887
email: 498@beatle.net
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by
any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without written permission of the
copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews. Making copies of any part of this book for any purpose other than your own
personal use is a violation of United States copyright laws.
This book is sold as is, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. While
every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of
the information contained herein, the author and 498 Productions, L.L.C. assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages
resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
The Billboard chart data used in this book is ©1930-1995 by BPI Communications,
SoundScan, Inc. and Broadcast Data Systems.
Print edition Library of Congress Catalog Number: 98-72110. ISBN 0-9662649-0-8
v
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
SECTION 0
WORDS OF SIGNIFICANCE
How To Use This Interactive Digital Book
Checklist
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introducing...The Beatles Book
About The Author
Discoveries Of Significant Information
www.beatle.net
Discoveries Of Errors And Omissions
Numbers Of Significance
QUICK JUMP TO
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR
Section 1 - Singles of Significance
GET BACK
Section 2 - Fine Albums of Significant Interest
Section 3 - Stories of Significant Interest
Section 4 - Other Significant Information
vi
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SECTION 1
SINGLES OF SIGNIFICANCE
VEE-JAY 498
PLEASE PLEASE ME B/W
ASK ME WHY
VEE-JAY 522
FROM ME TO YOU B/W
THANK YOU GIRL
VEE-JAY 581
PLEASE PLEASE ME B/W
FROM ME TO YOU
TOLLIE 9001
TWIST AND SHOUT B/W
THERE’S A PLACE
VEE-JAY 587
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A
SECRET B/W THANK YOU GIRL
VEE-JAY VJEP 1-903
SOUVENIR OF THEIR VISIT
TO AMERICA
VEE-JAY SPEC. DJ NO. 8
ANNA B/W ASK ME WHY
TOLLIE 9008
LOVE ME DO B/W
P.S. I LOVE YOU
THE BEATLES ON OLDIES 45
vii
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SECTION 1
SINGLES OF SIGNIFICANCE
CONTINUED
TEEN FUN CARDS
THE BEATLES CHRISTMAS
PICTURE SLEEVE
FOREIGN SINGLES
BINGO BY
THE BABY BUGS
METAL PARTS
OF SIGNIFICANCE
HOW RECORDS
ARE MADE
THE TOLLIE
SINGLES STORY
FINE FAKES OF
SIGNIFICANT INTEREST
VEE-JAY RECORD SLEEVES
& MAILERS
viii
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SECTION 2
FINE ALBUMS OF
SIGNIFICANT INTEREST
EE-JAY VJLP 1062
INTRODUCING THE BEATLES
(VERSION ONE)
VEE-JAY VJLP 1062
INTRODUCING THE BEATLES
(VERSION TWO)
VEE-JAY VJLP 1085
JOLLY WHAT! THE BEATLES &
FRANK IFIELD ON STAGE
VEE-JAY VJLP 1092
SONGS, PICTURES AND STORIES
OF THE FABULOUS BEATLES
VEE-JAY DX-30
THE BEATLES VS.
THE FOUR SEASONS
VEE-JAY VJLP 1085
THE BEATLES & FRANK IFIELD
ON STAGE (PORTRAIT COVER)
VEE-JAY PRO 202
HEAR THE
BEATLES TELL ALL
VEE-JAY VJLP 1101
THE 15 GREATEST SONGS
OF THE BEATLES
COUNTERFEITS OF
SIGNIFICANCE
Inner Sleeve Dust Covers
ix
Table of Contents
SECTION 3
STORIES OF SIGNIFICANT INTEREST
A Brief History of Vee-Jay Records
A Very Brief History of Capitol Records
How The Beatles Ended Up On Vee-Jay, Swan and Capitol
Checklist
ALAN LIVINGSTON From Bozo To The Beatles
Lawsuits of Significance
Gold Record Awards
Significant Promotions From Vee-Jay
www.beatle.net
Beatles With An A (And One T)
SECTION 4
OTHER SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION
Fine Factories Of Significant Interest
Other Fine Books Of Significant Interest
Checklist of Beatles Records on Vee-Jay
GET BACK
7" 45 RPM Records And Picture Sleeves
Checklist of Beatles Records on Vee-Jay
12" Longplaying Albums
Fine Vendors of Significance
x
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About The Author
Bruce Spizer is a lifelong native of New Orleans,
Louisiana, who was nine years old when the Beatles
invaded America. He began listening to the radio at
age two and was a die-hard fan of WTIX, a top forty
station that played a blend of New Orleans R&B music
and top pop and rock hits. His first two albums were
The Coasters’ Greatest Hits, which he permanently
“borrowed” from his older sisters, and Meet The Beatles!, which he still occasionally
plays on his vintage 1964 Beatles record player.
During his high school and college days, Bruce played guitar in various bands
that primarily covered hits of the sixties, including several Beatles songs. He wrote
numerous album and concert reviews for his high school and college newspapers,
including a review of Abbey Road that didn’t claim Paul was dead. He received his
B.A., M.B.A. and law degree from Tulane University. His legal and accounting background proved valuable in researching and writing this book.
Bruce is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the Beatles. A “taxman” by by day, Bruce is a Board Certified Tax Attorney with his own practice. A
“paperback writer” by night, Bruce is the author of eight critically acclaaimed books
on the Beatles, including The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America,
a series of six books on the group’s American record releases and his latest book,
Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records, which covers all of the Beatles records issued
in the U.K. from 1962 - 1970. His articles have appeared in Beatlefan, Goldmine and
American History magazines. He was selected to write the questions for the special
Beatles edition of Trivial Pursuit. He maintains the popular website www.beatle.net.
Bruce has been a guest at numerous Beatles conventions in the U.S. and U.K.
and at the American Film Institute, New York’s Lincoln Center and the Rock ’N’ Roll
Hall of Fame & Museum in Cleveland. He has appeared on Fox National News, CNN,
ABC’s Good Morning America and Nightline, CBS’s The Early Show and morning
shows in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans and other cities and is a frequent guest on radio shows, including NPR and Beatle Brunch.
Bruce has served as a consultant to EMI and Capitol Records on Beatles projects. He has an extensive Beatles collection, concentrating primarily on American,
Canadian and British first issue records, promotional items and concert posters.
xx
1
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Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles Records on Vee-Jay
VEE-JAY 498
PLEASE PLEASE ME b/w ASK ME WHY
The first record issued with the Beatles name in America was VJ 498, which
featured Please Please Me and Ask Me Why. These were the same two songs appearing on the group’s second U.K. single, which was released as Parlophone 45-R 4983
on January 11, 1963. Vee-Jay released its Beatles single four weeks later on February
7, 1963, exactly one year prior to the group’s triumphant arrival in America. Both
songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
As detailed beginning on page 319, the Beatles ended up on Vee-Jay, a Chicago-based independent label that specialized in R&B and gospel recordings, because
Capitol Records failed to exercise its right of first refusal as EMI’s American subsidiary to issue the single. (Capitol had also declined to release the Beatles first single,
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3
Producer George Martin with the Beatles at Abbey Road Studios in Robert Freeman
photographs that appeared on the cover of the George Martin album Off the Beatle Track,
United Artists UAL 3377.
Love Me Do b/w P.S. I Love You.) On January 10, 1963, Vee-Jay Records entered
into a five-year licensing agreement with Transglobal Music Co., Inc. (an American
corporation controlled by EMI) to issue the songs Please Please Me and Ask Me Why
in America. A rider to the agreement also gave Vee-Jay a right of first refusal for all
Beatles recordings owned by EMI for the length of the five-year contract.
The deal was brokered by Paul Marshall, a New York attorney who represented
both Vee-Jay and Transglobal. Marshall offered Vee-Jay the single after several major
companies, including Atlantic Records, had passed on the disc. His decision to offer
the deal to Vee-Jay was based on his friendship with and respect for Vee-Jay president Ewart Abner, as well as the label’s recent success with a Frank Ifield single. After
Capitol had declined to issue Ifield’s I Remember You, Vee-Jay released the single,
which became a number five hit. In addition, Vee-Jay was doing well with another
group of four white male singers, the Four Seasons, who quickly scored two number
one hits with Sherry and Big Girls Don’t Cry during the last few months of 1962.
On January 21, 1963, Vee-Jay sent a telegram to its attorney requesting the
American publishing information for the Beatles record. The text ended with the
word “Urgent!” On February 1, 1963, Vee-Jay sent a telegram to Concertone Songs
notifying the publisher of the songs that “Please Please Me by the Beattles will be
released February seven.” The misspelling of the group’s name with two “T”s was
carried forward to ads placed by Vee-Jay in music trade magazines and on the labels
to the first pressings of the Please Please Me single. (See telegrams on next page.)
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Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles Records on Vee-Jay
5
Shortly after the record’s
official release date, Chicago radio station WLS broadcast Please
Please Me. WLS disc jockey Dick
Biondi, who frequently got together with Vee-Jay president
Ewart Abner, recalls receiving a
copy of the single in early February. Abner endorsed the 45 with
his usual “I feel this could be a
big record,” and Biondi liked
what he heard. Biondi believes he
may have debuted the single as
early as Friday, February 8, 1963,
during his 9:00 p.m. to midnight
shift. During the next few weeks,
the single began receiving moderate airplay at the station.
WLS Silver Dollar Surveys
from March 1963 support much
of Biondi’s recollections. The
station’s March 8 survey indicates that Please Please Me by
“Beattles” had been played for 3
weeks and lists the song at number 40. The survey from March
15 (shown right) features a picture of Biondi at the bottom and
shows the single at its peak and
final position of number 35.
Although Please Please Me
failed to make the national charts
published by Billboard, Cash
Box and Music Vendor (later
renamed Record World), the song did chart in a few local markets other than VeeJay’s Chicago home during April and May of 1963.
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Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles Records on Vee-Jay
Vee-Jay wasn’t quite sure what it had with
the Beatles. Was the group pop, R&B or
country & western? In this March 2, 1963,
Cash Box ad, Vee-Jay covers all the bases,
claiming that Please Please Me by the
“Beattles” was “Going Great R&B, C&W &
Pop!” A more honest ad would have said
the record was “Going Nowhere!”
Ain’t that a shame that Vee-Jay couldn’t
even spell the group’s name correctly in
this Billboard ad in the April 27, 1963, issue.
Shame, shame, shame.
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7
KFXM, which boasted it was number one in Riverside and San Bernardino,
California, first charted Please Please Me at number 41 in its Fabulous 59 survey of
April 6, 1963. The song fell off the charts for two weeks before reappearing at number
40 on April 27. The single remained at 40 the following week and then peaked at 38
on May 11, its final of four weeks on the charts.
San Francisco’s KEWB charted Please Please Me for three weeks, with its debut
at number 37 on April 20, 1963. The single peaked the following week at number 34
before falling to number 40 on May 4.
Other stations also briefly charted Please Please Me in the spring of 1963.
Miami’s WQAM reported the song for two weeks at number 47 in its Fabulous 56
surveys of April 27 and May 4. KNUZ in Houston listed the song at number 34 on
its May 3 survey.
This limited airplay in a handful of markets prevented the record from being a
total stiff. Vee-Jay sold approximately 5,650 copies of the single during the first half
of 1963. By mid-year the record had run its course as evidenced by Vee-Jay’s claim
that only two copies were sold in the last six months of 1963. A limited pressing of
the single in 1964 added sales of approximately 1,650 units, raising total sales to
7,310 copies.
In the U.K., Please Please Me became
the Beatles first number one single on most
of the charts. Although Record Retailer reported the song at number two behind Frank
Ifield’s third consecutive chart-topper, The
Wayward Wind, it hit the coveted number
one spot in the BBC chart, Melody Maker,
New Musical Express (“NME”)and Disc.
On April 13, 1963, Please Please Me was
awarded a silver disc by Disc magazine signifying sales of 250,000 units. By the end
of 1963, the single had sold 310,000 copies.
John was inspired to write Please Please Me by his memories of his mother
Julia singing the Bing Crosby hit Please, which topped the U.S. charts for six weeks
in 1932. John was impressed with the word-play in the song’s lyrics, particularly the
line, “Please lend your ears to my pleas.” He took it one step further with the line
“please please me,” which first uses the word “please” as a request and then as a verb
meaning “to pleasure.” John envisioned the song as a slow ballad in the style of Roy
Orbison.
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8
The Beatles rehearsed and auditioned Please Please Me for George Martin
at EMI’s Abbey Road studios on the afternoon of September 4, 1962, prior to the
group’s first proper recording session. The song sounded drastically different from
what would become their first big hit. According to Martin, Please Please Me was “a
dreary song” which “was like a Roy Orbison number, very slow, bluesy vocals.” He
suggested that the group rearrange the song by speeding up the tempo and working
out tight vocal harmonies.
The group returned to Abbey Road on September 11. After recording P.S. I Love
You and a remake of Love Me Do with Andy White on drums, there was time available to begin work on a third song. Following Martin’s advice from the week before,
the band, with Andy White still on drums, performed Please Please Me at a quicker
pace, but failed to nail it down. This early version of the song, which made its debut
in 1995 on Anthology 1, is interesting, but suffers in comparison to the remake the
group would later record. Conspicuously absent from this version is John’s harmonica. In addition, John and Paul’s harmonies are not as effective. Paul described
the initial recording of the song in the February 23, 1963, Melody Maker. “After we
had recorded Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You, we played Please Please Me over to
recording manager George Martin. It was a bit fussy and he told us to smooth it out
a bit. Simplify it. We did — and the results speak for itself.”
John told a similar story in the March 8, 1963, NME. “Our recording manager,
George Martin, thought our arrangement was fussy, so we tried to make it simpler.
We were getting very tired, though, and we just couldn’t seem to get it right. We’re
conscientious about our work and we don’t like to rush things. In the following weeks
we went over it again and again. We changed the tempo a little. We altered the words
slightly. And we went over the idea of featuring the harmonica, just as we’d done on
Love Me Do. By the time the session came around we were so happy with the result,
we couldn’t get it recorded fast enough.”
The Beatles got their chance to record the song on November 26, 1962. Unlike
the prior September sessions for their first single, the group was recorded on twintrack tape instead of mono (one track tape). Rather than first obtaining an acceptable instrumental backing for overdubbing of vocals, the group did the songs live,
simultaneously playing their instruments and singing as the tape rolled. All of the
instruments were recorded on one track and the vocals on the other. This enabled
George Martin and the engineers to achieve a proper balance of the vocals and instrumental backing. This technique would be used up until the recording of the group’s
fifth single, I Want To Hold Your Hand, in October 1963.
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9
After an hour-long rehearsal, the Beatles began work on a remake of Please
Please Me. This time the group perfected the song. It was completed in 18 takes,
including harmonica overdubs by John. Four days later, George Martin edited the
finished master from an unknown number of takes, correcting a vocal flub in the
third verse. The song was then mixed for mono.
Please Please Me is an exciting rocker propelled by superb drumming from
Ringo. John and Paul share lead vocals backed by George on the chorus and bridge.
Unlike the first single, this time both John and George play electric guitars, with
John on his Rickenbacker Capri and George on his Gretsch Duo-Jet. Paul plays his
Hofner bass. After this recording, Martin knew there would be no need for a session
drummer for the band. Speaking from the control room of Studio Two, Martin confidently told the group, “Boys, I’ve just heard your first number one record. Come
up and have a listen.”
After hearing the playback and breaking for tea, the band returned to Studio
Two to record Ask Me Why. The Beatles had recorded the song at their first visit to
Abbey Road on June 6, 1962, although tape of that performance no longer exists. Ask
Me Why was part of the group’s stage show at that time, evidenced by their recording of the song before a live audience at the Playhouse Theatre in Manchester on
June 11, 1962. This performance was broadcast four days later on the BBC program
Here We Go. The arrangement is very similar to that of the later recorded single,
but features Pete Best on drums since it was performed prior to his being replaced
by Ringo. The group also ran through the song during their September 4, 1962, prerecording rehearsal at Abbey Road.
The group’s familiarity with Ask Me Why facilitated its quick recording, with
the sixth and final take being the master. John sings the lead vocal, backed by Paul
and George. The song features John on Rickenbacker Capri, George on Gretsch DuoJet, Paul on Hofner bass and Ringo on drums, providing a Latin beat. The song was
mixed for mono on November 30.
The Beatles promoted both sides of the single in concert and on various television and radio programs. Please Please Me was performed a dozen times for BBC
radio. The first was taped before a live audience at the Playhouse Theatre in Manchester on January 16, 1963, and was broadcast on Here We Go eight days later.
During their first visit to the United States, the group performed the song at
their February 11, 1964, Washington Coliseum concert, which was filmed for release
to theaters. The live version of Please Please Me on part three of The Beatles Anthology video is from this concert. The Beatles also taped a performance of the song on
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10
the afternoon of February 9, 1964, for broadcast on February 23 on The Ed Sullivan
Show. This performance is included on The First U.S. Visit video.
After the single’s release, the Beatles performed Ask Me Why three times for
BBC radio. A live version of the song is included on some versions of the Live At The
Star-Club album, which was recorded at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany, in
late December of 1962.
Due to its relatively low sales figures and the historical importance of being the
first Beatles record released in America, VJ 498 is highly sought after by collectors,
who face with an interesting array of multiple pressing variations.
There are six label variations to the stock (retail) copies of VJ 498. In addition,
there is a promotional copy and oddball stock copies that pair different label types
for the A-side and the B-side. Although some of the variations are relatively minor,
all variations have been given separate numeric listings as collectors have placed
significance on each different pressing. The Disc Jockey Advance Sample copy of the
record and three distinct variations of the stock copy have the word “BEATTLES”
misspelled on the label (shown on page 17). In contrast with the Parlophone
single, which credits the songs to “McCartney-Lennon,” the Vee-Jay disc lists the
songwriters as “J. Lennon-P. McCartney.”
Prior to the publication of the first edition of this book in 1998, most Beatles
historians and record collectors believed that the stock copy variation of VJ 498 with
the “BEATTLES” misspelling and thin print was the first issue of the record because
its label had the same typesetting as the promotional copy. A careful inspection of the
trail off areas of the records and the documents filed in Vee-Jay’s New York lawsuit
against Capitol proved that this theory was wrong. To fully understand VJ 498, one
must examine both court records and vinyl records.
Shortly after entering into its January 10, 1963, licensing agreement with Transglobal for the American rights to Please Please Me and Ask Me Why, Vee-Jay received
a tape from EMI containing the two songs. When Vee-Jay co-founder Vivian Carter
entered the songs into the company’s Master Book, she misspelled the group’s name
as The Beattles. (Interestingly, this historic Beatles entry was made in a darker ink,
causing it to stand out prominently, while the entries for other artists faded away.)
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11
The tape was then sent to
Universal Recording Corporation in Chicago for mastering, a
process that involves the cutting
of lacquer discs. The recording
engineer who cut the lacquers
hand-etched his initials “RA”
into the trail off area of the discs,
along with each song’s master
number. Please Please Me was
assigned number 63-2967 and
Ask Me Why was assigned number 63-2968.
On January 18, 1963, Universal sent the lacquers to Audio Matrix, Inc. in the Bronx,
New York, to prepare the metal
parts needed to manufacture the
records. (Packing Slip shown
right.) As discussed in greater
detail on page 141, these metal parts included the masters,
mothers and stampers used to
press the records. The masters and mothers were prepared by Audio Matrix and the
stampers were generated from mothers by either Audio Matrix or the pressing plant.
Metal parts produced by Audio Matrix have the company’s logo machine stamped
into their trail off areas, which transfers to the finished record. The sharpness of the
logo varies among individual records. This is due to the image on the stamper wearing down from excessive use. On some discs the words “Audio Matrix” are clearly
visible, while on others all that remains is what appears to be a series of dots.
Fortunately for Beatles historians, a handful of Audio Matrix invoices were
filed into the record of the New York court proceedings. Three separate Audio Matrix
invoices dated January 29, 1963, indicate that the company prepared 45 RPM metal
parts for master numbers 63-2967 and 63-2968 (Please Please Me and Ask Me Why)
for Vee-Jay and shipped these parts to three different factories: “Am Record Press,”
“Monarch” and “Southern Plastics.”
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In the early 1960s, Vee-Jay records were pressed with black label backdrops featuring
an outer rim colorband and oval logo. In January 1964, Vee-Jay began using new label
backdrops showcasing the company’s new brackets logo. Label backdrops, like the ones
above, were sent to regional factories, where the song information was overprinted onto
the label in silver print. As typesetting varied among the different printers used by the
pressing plants, each release had multiple typesetting variations.
Vee-Jay, like most small, independent labels, did not press its own records.
Instead, the company had the metal parts sent to regional factories for manufacture.
Records were then sent directly from these pressing plants to distributors, who in
turn sent records to retailers and other distributors. In 1963, three of the primary
pressing plants used by Vee-Jay were The American Record Pressing Co. in Owosso,
Michigan, Monarch Record Manufacturing Co. in Los Angeles, California and Southern Plastics in Nashville, Tennessee.
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The rest of this chapter describes and shows images of all of the label variations of this
record. Those not interested in such details may wish to quickly forward through these
pages or skip to the chapter on the next Vee-Jay release beginning on page 20.
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Records pressed by The American Record Pressing Co. (“ARP”) in 1963 and
1964 have a raised relief script “ARP” machine stamped logo in the trail off areas.
They also have thin print throughout the label. All Vee-Jay records manufactured at
this factory in 1963 have the song title and artist’s name in capital letters below the
center hole and all other words in upper and lower case letters. The master number
and the word “Vocal” are to the left of the center hole and the publishing information and running time of the song are to the right. The records are pressed in vinyl
and have a raised area for the label that drops off one-half inch from the center hole.
As is the case with the Audio Matrix logo, the appearance of the script “ARP” logo
varies among individual records. On some discs all letters are clearly visible, while
on others only a part of the logo is noticeable. The location of the logo in the trail off
areas may also vary among copies of the same release, indicating that the records
were pressed by different stampers created from the same mother.
The discs manufactured by Monarch Record Manufacturing Co. are easily identified by a circled  symbol machine stamped in the trail off areas, which also contain a hand-etched job number preceded by a “D” symbol. On Vee-Jay discs pressed
by Monarch, the song title and artist’s name are located below the center hole in
capital letters and thick print. The remaining information is in small print with the
master number and the word “Vocal” to the left of the center hole and the time and
publishing information to the right. A raised rim separates the label from the end of
the trail off space. Monarch singles are made of styrene, a plastic compound, rather
than vinyl. Although the sharpness of the  logo varies from record to record, it is
normally the easiest of the machine stamped logos to detect.
By process of elimination, the third variation of the misspelled VJ 498 must have
been pressed by Southern Plastics. These Vee-Jay records have thin print throughout
the label, with the song title and artist’s name in all capital letters below the center
hole. The names of the songwriters are in upper and lower case “microprint.” All other
information is in capital letters. As is the case with the ARP and Monarch labels, the
master number and the word “VOCAL” are to the left of the center hole and the time
and publishing information are to the right. There is no factory logo in the trail off
areas. The records are pressed in vinyl and have a raised area for the label that drops
off about one-half inch from the center hole. Singles pressed by Southern Plastics
up to and including VJ 498 have a “#” symbol preceding the record number. Starting with Vee-Jay 499, Frank Ifield’s The Wayward Wind, the “#” symbol is replaced
with the VJ prefix or no prefix at all.
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All variations of Vee-Jay Beatles records pressed in 1963, as well as many pressed
in 1964, have the initials “RA” and the master number hand-etched and the Audio
Matrix logo machine stamped in their trail off areas. The characteristics discussed
above apply not only to 1963 Beatles records on Vee-Jay, but also to most of the records of other Vee-Jay artists released during the same time frame.
Because all three variations of the misspelled “BEATTLES” stock copies were
manufactured with metal parts sent to the three different regional pressing plants
on the same day, it makes little sense to claim that any one of these discs was released prior to the other two. All three misspelled variations are original issue records. Nonetheless, the thin type version of the record has been assigned number
VJ 498.01 (shown on page 17) in deference to the long held belief that it alone
is the original issue. Old myths die hard. This record has thin silver lettering on a
black label with an oval logo and outer rim colorband. The initials “ARP” appear in
script in the trail off areas, indicating that this record was pressed by The American
Record Pressing Co. Although this is not the rarest of the VJ 498 singles, it has been
the most sought after as collectors are attracted both to the novelty of the group’s
name being misspelled and to the record’s purported status as the first Beatles record
issued in the United States. (While the single My Bonnie, Decca 31382, was released
over ten months earlier in April of 1962, it is not a true Beatles record as the group
only served as backing musicians for Tony Sheridan and was listed on the label as
“The Beat Brothers.”)
The other two variations of the stock copy with the double T misspelling are
similar to VJ 498.01, but are clearly distinguishable. VJ 498.02 (shown on page
17) also has silver print on a black label with the outer rim colorband featuring
the oval logo, but the song titles and the group’s name are in thicker print than on the
other variations. The  symbol machine stamped in the trail off areas indicate that
this styrene disc was pressed by Monarch Records. The trail off areas also contain
the job numbers D46527 hand-etched on the A-side and D46527-X on the B-side.
Although VJ 498.03 (shown on page 18) has the same colorband oval logo
label and thin print as VJ 498.01, there are noticeable differences. These include a
“#” symbol preceding the record number, the words “VOCAL” and “TIME” and the
publishing information entirely in capital letters, the songwriter credits in microprint
and the lack of a pressing plant logo in the trail off areas. It has been determined
that this variation was manufactured by Southern Plastics. Of all the misspelled label
variations, this “#498” version is the rarest.
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The promotional copy of the record, VJ 498.DJ1 (shown on page 17), is
similar to VJ 498.01 as it was also manufactured by ARP. Its typesetting is identical to the ARP stock copy down to the misspelling of the group’s name. The record’s
white label features an oval logo and an outer rim “colorband” with varying shades
of gray. It has black print lettering, “Disc Jockey Advance Sample” to the left of the
center hole and “NOT FOR SALE” to the right. Its trail off area markings are identical to those of VJ 498.01, indicating that the ARP stock and promotional discs were
pressed from the same stampers.
Vee-Jay eventually realized its mistake of misspelling the group’s name, so later
issues of the record corrected the error. VJ 498.04 (shown on page 18) is a crude
attempt to fix the misspelled name. The label is identical to the label of VJ 498.03,
the “#498” variation, except that one “T” has been physically removed. The label
takes on an amateurish appearance as “THE BEATLES” is not re-centered and the
“LES” part of the name does not line up properly with the first part of the name (see
page 18). The trail off areas are identical to those of VJ 498.03, indicating that
both records were pressed from the same stampers by Southern Plastics.
The corrected thick print oval variation, VJ 498.05 (shown on page 18), has
“THE BEATLES” properly centered below the title and above “VJ 498.” The markings in the trail off areas are identical to those of VJ 498.02, indicating that both
discs were pressed by Monarch with the same stampers. Vee-Jay distributor invoices
document that Monarch shipped 1,565 copies of VJ 498 to Field Music Sales during
March and April of 1963. It is not known how many of these had corrected labels.
VJ 498.06 (shown on page 19) has the same thick print and correct spelling as 498.05, but is printed on a label backdrop featuring Vee-Jay’s brackets logo.
These label backdrops were first printed by Ivy Hill Lithograph Corp. in Great Neck,
New York, in January 1964. A review of invoice summary sheets for the first quarter of 1964 indicates that 1,650 copies of the record were pressed and sold in early
March of 1964. These bracket label discs were manufactured by Monarch with the
same stampers used for VJ 498.02 and 498.05.
Vee-Jay was never in a financial position to scrap labels or records that should
have been replaced. Thus, existing labels were used until the inventory was fully
depleted. This policy led to a strange variation of the single, VJ 498.07 (shown on
page 19), which has the correctly spelled brackets label of VJ 498.06 on one side
and the misspelled oval label of VJ 498.02 on the other. There are two variations
of this oddball California pressing. VJ 498.07A pairs the correctly spelled brackets
label on the Please Please Me side with the misspelled oval label on the Ask Me Why
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side. VJ 498.07B is a mirror image of the preceding disc, pairing the misspelled
oval label on the Please Please Me side with the correctly spelled brackets label on
the Ask Me Why side. These are certainly the rarest versions of the record as they
are variations of the limited 1964 bracket pressing. They are also the only records
to have the group’s name spelled incorrectly on one side and correctly on the other.
(There are mispaired transition labels for other Vee-Jay singles, but they have not
been assigned separate numbers because they do not have the significance of VJ 498.)
Unlike many later offerings, no picture sleeve was issued for this early Beatles
record. Instead, it was often distributed in center cut sleeves printed with Vee-Jay
logos. Versions VJ 498.01 through 498.05 would have originally come in VJ RS.01
(the sleeve shown on page 2 and on page 168). Versions VJ 498.06 and
498.07, which have bracket logo labels, are normally found in VJ RS.02 sleeves.
This 1964 sleeve (shown below and on page 169) features the brackets logo and
the phrase “SINGLES OF SIGNIFICANCE.”
Vee-Jay corporate documents indicate that less than 7,500 copies of VJ 498
were pressed. Thus, it should come as no surprise that all versions of this record are
quite scarce. Accordingly, the value gap between what were once considered the more
common variations and the so-called rarer variations has narrowed.
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VJ 498.DJ1
VJ 498.01
VJ 498.02
17
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VJ 498.03
VJ 498.04
VJ 498.05
18
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VJ 498.06
VJ 498.07A
VJ 498.07B
19
To buy the complete story,
and Bruce’s other books, visit
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Complete story of their records
on Vee-Jay —
Now in Digital
For the Very First Time!
How creative marketing turned 16 Beatles songs into
a comprehensive catalog of multiple 45, EP and album
releases that, taken together, are worth more today than all
other American Beatles records combined.
How the Beatles ended up on Vee-Jay, a Chicago-based
independent label that specialized in R&B and Gospel
recordings.
Court records and Vinyl records
•
•
•
Capitol Records, Inc. vs. Vee-Jay Records, Inc.
Beechwood Music, Inc. vs. Vee-Jay Records, Inc.
The Beatles vs. The Four Seasons
The stories behind the ad back and Jolly What!
How to tell the difference between counterfeit Vee-Jay
records and the real thing.
How Vee-Jay lost, reclaimed and lost the Beatles.
Hundreds of color pictures, including all known
variations of album covers, picture sleeves and record
labels, Billboard and Cash Box trade ads, royalty
statements and checks issued to Capitol Records,
promotional mailers, catalogs, posters and other cool stuff!
Written and compiled by Bruce Spizer