Album Reviews

In the Beatleverse, it is generally well known and quite accepted that the mono mixes of the early Beatles recordings are considered superior to the stereo counterparts for many reasons. The monaural mixes were what the group put their heart and soul into — and, as we know, around 90 percent of record sales at that time in the early 1960s were in mono anyway, seeing how most young fans didn’t own or even have access to those then-still-new stereo playback systems. Mono remained the dominant listening option for most people up until around 1967, when stereo releases (and the related hi-fi gear) started to gain mainstream traction.

It is also generally well known that the original UK mixes of Beatles music on Parlophone are simply better than the, at times, dramatically altered versions issued by Capitol in the United States. However, millions of Americans — myself included — first became fans of The Beatles by hearing those ultimately unique undulations on radio, on 45rpm singles, and those early U.S. LPs. Inherent faults aside, those reinvented versions of The Beatles’ music are still beloved by millions, yet they have also effectively been out of print on vinyl for decades.

This development left a gap in the marketplace for newer record collectors who only want brand new 21st century vinyl for their collections (this is indeed a thing, folks) as well as for older fans who may want to recapture an important part of their lives that was lost long ago to the ravages of time. Thus, a new box set assembling 21st century recreations of those U.S. Beatles albums in their original monaural sound has a special sort of appeal — and that’s where the 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono 180g 8LP box set, which was released by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe on November 22, 2024, comes into play.

I have generally been able to enjoy The Beatles’ 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono box set for what it is, considering it as an offering geared toward specific target audiences. More on that distinction in a moment — but first, let’s explore some of the underlying DNA of how these new albums were created. From the official press materials — and as reported in AP editor Mike Mettler’s September 12, 2024, Album Release News posting (which you can read here) — we learn: “Originally compiled for U.S. release between January 1964 and March 1965 by Capitol Records and United Artists, seven Beatles albums have been analog cut for 180-gram audiophile vinyl from their original mono master tapes for global release on November 22, [2024,] by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe [. . .] The albums’ new vinyl lacquers were cut by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios [. . .] These albums were cut for vinyl from the original master tapes using a completely analog signal path and with constant reference to first generation pressings of the original albums. They were made using a Studer A80 master recorder with analog preview & program paths, and a Neumann VMS70 cutting lathe originally installed in Capitol Studios in 1971. This specific all-analog cutting technique allows faithful representation of the full musical range and dynamics present on the original tapes.”

Please remember those last few words of the prior paragraph, as we’ll come back to this topic in a bit.

The SRP for The Beatles’ 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono box set is $299.99, and you can get it directly from Music Direct here (and by way of the MD link graphic at the end of this review). Six of the seven albums in the box set will be available individually for $29.99, and all of them can be ordered via Music Direct by way of the MD link graphics following each respective album’s tracklisting following the end of my review.

Some quick math now. If you go the latter route, that means you could spend $179.94 for everything in the box set save for the mostly spoken word The Beatles Story audio documentary 2LP set, which is exclusive to this collection. But if you’re a Beatles completist like some of us here at AP are, then you know what you have to do instead.

Going back to those particular words I asked you to remember earlier, and for those not in the know, said “original tapes” were indeed produced initially by George Martin and approved by The Beatles, yet they were altered for the U.S. market by Capitol Records staff producer Dave Dexter, Jr., the man who led the label’s riding of Beatlemania’s rise in the United States. The numerous reasons behind why that happened go beyond the scope of this review — however, in short, Dexter decided that the sound on the original recordings wasn’t quite “right” for the U.S. market, so he decided to add in reverb, EQ, and other non-Beatles-approved sonic twists to increase the appeal on radio and the home playback gear of the day. He also reassembled The Beatles’ output at that point into a multitude of unique albums created and sequenced specifically for the U.S. market that differed from the UK originals.

Clearly, Dexter’s decisions proved to be on target in terms of the populist side of things, as The Beatles’ music became massively popular here in the United States. However, the reality is that those U.S. albums are not quite made from the original tapes. They were made from new altered masters, which are at least one generation (and quite likely two) down from the original UK master recordings. And, unlike digital audio production, in the analog realm, with every copy made, sonic detail is lost along the way. This is important to understand if you are an audiophile-leaning Beatles enthusiast seeking the “best” fidelity.

As a pretty much lifelong Beatles fanatic — one of the three earliest things I can remember is watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in early 1964 with my brothers when I was maybe 3 years old! — I’ve had to take many steps back in preparing this review to look at things objectively. That said, I can appreciate the inherent appeal of a box set like 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono for at least two types of Beatles consumers: 1) the young vinyl collectors who want clean, pristine new copies of Beatles music on vinyl (vs. seeking out used and often pricey originals in pristine condition), and 2) the older fans who lost their old/original records to time and just want a good-sounding romp down memory lane, enjoying the nostalgia of these American editions.

In that light, all things considered, the albums in 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono box set are a generally pretty good sounding set of recordings, crafted for a particular time, place, and playback intention. Working off the Dexter remastering, the new editions are probably as good as we could hope for at this time. I compared most of these new albums to my own original pressings, and there’s definitely a bit more fidelity apparent than with my vintage pressings.

Before I move forward into some of the finer nitty-gritties here, I do have to extend kudos to The Beatles, Apple Corps Ltd., Capitol, and UMe for being collectively upfront in the liner notes about how these tracks were created. Most of the tracks on March 1965’s The Early Beatles, for example, are confirmed to be so-called “fold-downs” from stereo masters, save for the first tracks on each album side, “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me.” Looking more closely at the information included in the individual booklet inserts accompanying each LP, we learn that fold-downs from stereo were also prevalent on January 1964’s Meet The Beatles! and April 1964’s The Beatles’ Second Album.

I’ve discovered some other interesting revelations listening to 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono. For example, I found it curious that a sort of fuzzy distortion on the vocals in particular — which I had always heard toward the end of Beatles ’65 song “Mr. Moonlight” (Side 1, Track 6) — was actually on the tape, and not my old Capitol pressings. The new Beatles ’65 LP plays pretty much identically to what I remember hearing as a kid in the 1960s and ’70s playing my older brother’s copy (which we played to death on the Garrard automatic changer built into his GE compact stereo). I’ve heard that same fuzzy sound on subsequent copies of the album I have collected over the years, but always chalked it up to groove wear from being played on improperly aligned turntables. But no, it seems to be there on that tape, just as it is on this pristine, brand-new LP.

To make sure, I pulled out my copy of Beatles for Sale from September 2014’s excellent and rightly acclaimed The Beatles in Mono box set (where much of Beatles ’65 hails from, for those not in the know), and that sense of distortion around the vocals is not as prominent. The track is mastered more quietly, and the high end does not sound boosted. So that fuzziness issue, while there, does not jump out at the listener like it does on the U.S. edition. Interestingly, the Hammond organ on “Mr. Moonlight” sounds richer and rounder on the UK edition than on the new U.S. edition, leading me to think that some sort of EQ was employed along the way.

[MM adds: Allow me to interject here briefly, as I too agree with Mark’s U.S./UK LP correlation assessments here. Back in the fall of 2014, I hosted two panels — one in New York, one in Los Angeles — with Ken Scott and Steve Berkowitz, both of whom worked on The Beatles in Mono box set. If you want to read more about how The Beatles in Mono LP collection came together and why it’s so vitally important to this very day, you can check out my story about it all that posted on our sister site Sound & Vision on October 15, 2014, right here. And now, back to Mark’s Fabs mono box set review!]

To make sure I wasn’t just dealing with a tracking issue on my end, I chose another track on Beatles ’65 that often sounded distorted — their cover of Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music,” as compared to the version on Beatles for Sale (both Side 1, Track 4, on the respective albums). The U.S. version is significantly louder and harsher sounding than the UK version, again pushing out the raw edges of John Lennon’s already edgy vocals into the foreground. Curiously, Ringo Starr’s drums feel more subdued on the U.S. version, compared to the UK edition.

Now, having said all that, the new 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono edition of Beatles ’65 does sound fuller than my original mid-’60s U.S. pressing of the same album. Got that?

I heard some distortion on my copy of The Early Beatles on “Boys” and “Ask Me Why” (Side 1, Tracks 5 & 6). Another track skipped on one turntable, but played through OK on another, so if there was something pressing residue in the groove, it might have “fixed” itself with playback; I’m not sure. The tracks may be mastered pretty hot. Also, my copy of Something New has numerous visible non-fill markings, and one track looks like it has a scratch in the groove, but it too plays through OK. The second side of Something New was significantly off-center, causing wavering of the sound. (Thankfully, Mettler tells me his box set copy of Something New experienced none of those issues — whew!)

While none were perfect, of the six music-centric albums, I found that, overall, the A Hard Day’s Night, Something New, and Beatles ’65 LPs sounded best to my ear, with reasonable bass, midrange, and not overly hard highs. Perhaps not surprisingly, these were the ones made from dedicated mono mixes, not fold-downs.

On A Hard Day’s Night, I detected what sounded like dropouts and other tape anomalies on tracks like “And I Love Her” (Side 2, Track 3) and “Can’t Buy Me Love” (Side 2, Track 5). Just to be sure I wasn’t imagining things, I broke out my UK copy of A Hard Day’s Night (again, from the 2014 all-analog The Beatles in Mono box set), and the tapes used there are in much better shape — no dropouts or other anomalies jumped out at me. And, once again, the UK album proved to be mastered more quietly, so when I turned up the volume, the music opened up and wasn’t sounding overly bright. Of course, this is one of the downsides of an all-analog process, as there is no opportunity for restoring the tapes as one might be able to in the digital realm using technologies such as Plangent Processes and other related tech of our modern era.

Gosh . . . after all that, I feel a bit petty bringing this next point up — but, as a lifetime Beatles fan/collector, I must admit I was a bit disappointed with the design/construction of the individual album covers. Don’t get me wrong — they do look beautiful! They just aren’t period-accurate as to how the covers were made in the 1960s. Original covers would have been made of a thick, grayish-color cardboard stock with printed paper paste-overs of the artwork and tracklistings. These new-edition Beatles cover recreations are instead made on a thinner but sturdy oaktag-type white cardboard that allows for printing directly onto the stock in a high-gloss finish.

Even so, the production team did do a pretty decent job recreating the look and feel of the original labels, but it is too bad they had to include a distracting circle of copyright text around the inside of the labels, so they do not look exactly like the originals. They’re close, just not the same. That said, I was pleased to see they were able to recreate the look and feel of the original United Artists label for the A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack (as seen below).

It is this level of nuance that would have made these new Beatles LP reproductions that much more appealing to hardcore collectors. But again, I think 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono is a collection designed more for the aspiring newbie young Beatles fan as well as those older, less-hardcore fans hoping to revisit their youth.

I’ve also heard some folks grumbling about the inclusion of the aforementioned audio documentary album The Beatles Story in this collection. This 2LP set was issued only in the U.S. in November 1964, and it is generally ignored by a good number of Beatles fans as being nonessential. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether owning it is worthwhile for your own listening/collecting preferences.

As far as our ratings go, having compared this collection with both those 2014 The Beatles in Mono remasters and my original 1960s U.S. Beatles pressings, I feel the sound quality overall falls somewhere in the middle. Pressing issues aside, these new LPs generally do sound better than my original 1960s U.S. copies, but they are not as nice sounding as their UK counterparts. While the Music gets a solid cumulative 10 rating — and we acknowledge that some of these albums may go up to 11, individually speaking, depending on your affinity for this early wave of Beatles U.S. LP releases (such as Meet The Beatles!, which Mettler rates at 11) — we do have to give the Sound a 6.5 overall (rounded up to a 7 on our graphic ratings dial) to account for the noted distortion issues, visible non-fill markings, and off-center pressing problem. (For his part, Mettler tells me he did not experience those issues with his box set’s LPs, so his Sound ratings varied from 7, 7.5, and 8 accordingly.)

Now, we must stress that our Sound ratings are given from the hardcore AP audiophile perspective. This does not disavow the wants or needs of our entire readership, mind you, as we do also feel The Beatles’ 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono box set is a great gift idea for Fab Four fans of all shapes and sizes in general. While hardcore collectors/audiophiles like those of you who likely already have nice/pristine original pressings and/or that 2014 mono box set may decide to wait this one out for now, those of you reading this review who are more mainstream, casual, and/or newbie Beatles-on-vinyl fans may like/love this box set just fine.

Additionally, for those younger, budding LP enthusiasts who prefers pristine, brand-new vinyl pressings — which, as I mentioned earlier, is a type of confirmed customer trait I’ve heard described to me by several different retailers in recent years — the 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono box set will be a welcome addition to your collections. It will be a great listening/learning experience as you begin to explore the many variances between Beatles singles and the UK and U.S. mixes alike.

There are also many fine details to be had within this box, including the excellent above-noted liner notes inserts that come with each LP, as written by noted Beatles expert Bruce Spizer. Finally, for those older, more veteran Beatles fans looking for fresh vinyl pressings of the American Beatles albums they grew up with and loved, these new 180g LP editions are likely to be perfectly satisfying, whether you invest in them individually or pony up for the full 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono 8LP box set as a holiday listening treat. And, with that — Happy Crimble, everyone!

Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.

THE BEATLES
1964 U.S. ALBUMS IN MONO
180g 8LP box set (Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe)

Meet The Beatles!

Side One
1. I Want To Hold Your Hand
2. I Saw Her Standing There
3. This Boy
4. It Won’t Be Long
5. All I’ve Got To Do
6. All My Loving

Side Two
1. Don’t Bother Me
2. Little Child
3. Till There Was You
4. Hold Me Tight
5. I Wanna Be Your Man
6. Not A Second Time

The Beatles’ Second Album

Side One
1. Roll Over Beethoven
2. Thank You Girl
3. You Really Got A Hold On Me
4. Devil In Her Heart
5. Money (That’s What I Want)
6. You Can’t Do That

Side Two
1. Long Tall Sally
2. I Call Your Name
3. Please Mister Postman
4. I’ll Get You
5. She Loves You

A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Sound Track)

Side One
1. A Hard Day’s Night
2. Tell Me Why
3. I’ll Cry Instead
4. I Should Have Known Better (Orchestral Instrumental)
5. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
6. And I Love Her (Orchestral Instrumental)

Side Two
1. I Should Have Known Better
2. If I Fell
3. And I Love Her
4. Ringo’s Theme (This Boy) (Orchestral Instrumental)
5. Can’t Buy Me Love
6. A Hard Day’s Night (Orchestral Instrumental)

Something New

Side One
1. I’ll Cry Instead
2. Things We Said Today
3. Any Time At All
4. When I Get Home
5. Slow Down
6. Matchbox

Side Two
1. Tell Me Why
2. And I Love Her
3. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
4. If I Fell
5. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand

The Beatles’ Story

LP1, Side One
1. On Stage With The Beatles
2. How Beatlemania Began
3. Beatlemania In Action
4. Man Behind The Beatles – Brian Epstein
5. John Lennon
6. Who’s A Millionaire?

LP1, Side Two
1. Beatles Will Be Beatles
2. Man Behind The Music – George Martin
3. George Harrison

LP2, Side One
1. A Hard Day’s Night – Their First Movie
2. Paul McCartney
3. Sneaky Haircuts And More About Paul

LP2, Side Two
1. The Beatles Look At Life
2. “Victims” Of Beatlemania
3. Beatle Medley
4. Ringo Starr
5. Liverpool And All The World!

Beatles ’65

Side One
1. No Reply
2. I’m A Loser
3. Baby’s In Black
4. Rock And Roll Music
5. I’ll Follow The Sun
6. Mr. Moonlight

Side Two
1. Honey Don’t
2. I’ll Be Back
3. She’s A Woman
4. I Feel Fine
5. Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby

The Early Beatles

Side One
1. Love Me Do
2. Twist And Shout
3. Anna (Go To Him)
4. Chains
5. Boys
6. Ask Me Why

Side Two
1. Please Please Me
2. P.S. I Love You
3. Baby It’s You
4. A Taste Of Honey
5. Do You Want To Know A Secret