Introducing... The Beatles
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 labels owned by EMI worldwide. However, EMI's United States subsidiary, Capitol Records, declined to release the Please Please Me single. Following this, Transglobal, an EMI affiliate, 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. As part of that agreement, even after its singles releases failed to chart above No. 116 on the Billboard Hot 100, Vee-Jay planned to release the Please Please Me album in the US. They received copies of the mono and stereo master tapes in late April or early May 1963. 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. 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 and change the album's title to Introducing... The Beatles.
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. Despite claims that Introducing... The Beatles was first released on the 22nd of July 1963, no documentation exists to confirm that the album was released at any time in 1963. A management shake-up at Vee-Jay resulted in the cancellation of the release when the label's president Ewart Abner resigned after using company money to cover personal gambling debts. Vee-Jay's financial problems forced it to take care of its most pressing debt first. Because the Beatles 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 the 8th of August 1963. On the 7th of January 1964, Vee-Jay's board of directors met for the first time since the single was released and discussed the Beatles' material in the vault. Desperate for cash, the board decided to release Introducing... The Beatles even if it meant legal trouble in the future. 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.
On the 14th of December 1963, Billboard magazine mentioned that Capitol Records planned an all-out promotional campaign for the Beatles in the United States. Following that, the single I Want to Hold Your Hand was rush released on the 26th of December. On the 7th of January 1964, Vee-Jay's board of directors met and decided to release Introducing... The Beatles. Approximately 80,000 copies of Introducing... The Beatles had been released with two songs on them, with only 2,000 or so in stereo. On the 16th of 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. 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. 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. The new versions were prepared in late January and began appearing in stores around the 10th of February 1964. Once it did enter the Billboard charts three weeks after Capitol's Meet the Beatles! album, it quickly rose to the number two spot where it stayed for nine straight weeks.
Starting in the late 1960s and continuing through the 1990s, Introducing... The Beatles was frequently counterfeited. These counterfeits can be identified by the cover printing and quality, the label, or the sound quality. Labels with the title of the album and the group's name separated by the center spindle hole appear on many fakes. Labels with color bands that are off-center and/or missing the color green also mark counterfeit copies. Labels with large white brackets without any color band are another common variation. Album covers with dark brown borders distinguish some fake pressings from legitimate ones. Dating from the late 1970s, George Harrison's shadow is not visible on the right side of the cover on certain reproductions. Hype stickers that read Featuring Twist and Shout and P.S. I Love You appear on many fakes while legitimate hype stickers show Twist and Shout and Please, Please Me. 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, the majority of copies with stereo or stereophonic printed on the cover are counterfeits.
On the 24th of July 2014 the album was certified gold and platinum by the RIAA. Vee-Jay repackaged Introducing... The Beatles twice before its license expired. One version was Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles which featured a three-quarters gatefold cover with portrait paintings of the four musicians. The inside cover text describes Paul as the Nut Beatle or Beatle Nut and John as nearsighted and the Chief Beatle. George appears as the quietest and one with the deadpan face while Ringo is described as the shortest Beatle who will send his steak back if it is not blood red. The other repackaging was 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 in the other. This Vee-Jay creation spent three weeks on the Billboard chart in October 1964 and peaked at number 142. 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.
Up Next
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When was Introducing... The Beatles first released in the United States?
Introducing... The Beatles was officially released on the 16th of January 1964. Prior to this date, no documentation confirms a release occurred during 1963 despite preparations beginning in late June and early July.
Why did Vee-Jay Records change the tracklist for Introducing... The Beatles?
Vee-Jay Records changed the tracklist because Beechwood Music Inc. refused to license Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You due to unpaid publishing rights. The label removed these songs and replaced them with Ask Me Why and Please Please Me to circumvent a restraining order issued on the 16th of January 1964.
How many copies of Introducing... The Beatles were originally pressed by Vee-Jay Records?
Approximately 80,000 copies of Introducing... The Beatles were initially released with only 2,000 or so available in stereo format. This original pressing included two songs that were later removed from subsequent versions.
What are the visual characteristics of counterfeit Introducing... The Beatles albums?
Counterfeit copies often feature labels where the album title and group name are separated by the center spindle hole. Fake covers may display dark brown borders, off-center color bands, missing green colors, or large white brackets without any color band.
When was Introducing... The Beatles certified gold and platinum by the RIAA?
The album received its gold and platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on the 24th of July 2014. This recognition came decades after the initial release following multiple repackaging efforts by Vee-Jay Records.