Yesterday and Today

• 1. Capitol Records Compilation Strategy

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  In June 1966, Capitol Records released an album titled Yesterday and Today. This record contained songs pulled from British EMI albums like Help! and Rubber Soul. It also included three new recordings that would later appear on Revolver in other countries. The band had recorded six albums for EMI by early 1966. Yet this was their tenth American Capitol album overall. Capitol selected tracks to fit US market preferences rather than following the British track lists. Industry preference in the US favored shorter LPs. This policy allowed Capitol to create unique compilations for North America. Songs from non-album singles outside North America were also included. For example, the February 1966 single Nowhere Man appeared here after being omitted from Rubber Soul in December 1965. The collection covered diverse musical phases between June 1965 and May 1966. It included material drawing on American folk and country styles. Some songs anticipated British psychedelia through drug-inspired lyrics. The hodge-podge nature of this repackaging infuriated John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They felt Capitol violated rules against issuing full fourteen-song LPs in the US.

• 2. The Butcher Cover Photo Session

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  On the 25th of March 1966, photographer Robert Whitaker hosted a session at his studio located at 1 The Vale off King's Road in Chelsea. The band members had spent three months away from public eye before arriving. They were eager to depart from the formula imposed on them as pop stars. Whitaker planned a conceptual art piece titled A Somnambulant Adventure. He described it as a considered disruption of conventions surrounding orthodox pop star promotional photography. He assembled props including plastic doll parts, trays of meat, white butchers' coats, a hammer, nails, a birdcage, cardboard boxes, false teeth, and eyes. During the shoot, he took several reels of film showing the group interacting with these objects. The final photos depicted the band dressed in white coats draped with pieces of meat and body parts from baby dolls. Lennon recalled they were motivated by boredom and resentment at having to do another photo session. Whitaker intended the image to serve as the basis for the right-hand panel of his triptych design. He planned to reduce the image to just two-and-a-quarter inches square set in the middle of the panel. Jewelled silver halos would be added behind the band members' heads. The remaining space was designed as a Russian religious icon in colors of silver and gold.

• 3. Public Outrage And Operation Retrieve

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  Capitol Records printed approximately 750,000 copies of Yesterday and Today with the butcher cover. The album was scheduled for release on the 15th of June 1966. Around 60,000 copies were sent to US radio stations and print media for marketing purposes. Reaction was immediate and severe. Disc jockeys were outraged by the cover image. Most retailers found it so distasteful they refused to stock the LP. Capitol president Alan Livingston contacted Brian Epstein who conceded to having the cover replaced. On the 10th of June, Capitol launched Operation Retrieve. This operation recalled all copies of the LP from distributors to replace the offending image. It also recalled items such as promotional posters. The total cost to Capitol of replacing the cover and promotional materials was $250,000. This amount wiped out the company's initial profit. All copies were ordered shipped back to the record label leading to its rarity among collectors. On the 14th of June, Capitol sent a memo to reviewers asking them to disregard the artwork. They quoted Livingston explaining that the original cover created in England was intended as pop art satire. A sampling of public opinion indicated the design was subject to misinterpretation.

• 4. Collector Market And State Variations

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  The original LP sleeves for Yesterday and Today were assembled at Capitol plants in Los Angeles, Scranton, and Jacksonville. Numbers designating where covers originated were printed near the RIAA symbol on the back. Stereo copies from the Los Angeles plant were designated number five while mono copies were marked six. Mono copies outnumbered stereo copies by about ten to one making stereo versions far more rare. Capitol initially ordered plant managers to destroy the covers. The Jacksonville plant delivered most copies to a landfill. Faced with so many jackets already printed, Capitol decided instead to paste the replacement cover over the old ones. The new cover had to be trimmed on the open end by about three millimeters because the sheet known as a slick was not placed exactly square on top of the original cover. Tens of thousands of these trunk covers were sent out. As word became known owners attempted to peel off the pasted-over cover hoping to reveal the original image. Eventually soaring value spurred development of intricate techniques for peeling the trunk cover off leaving only faint horizontal glue lines. Copies never having the white cover pasted onto them are known as first state covers and command highest prices. Copies with the pasted-on cover intact above the butcher image are known as second state or pasteovers.

• 5. Commercial Performance And Chart Success

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  Despite Capitol's recall of the original LP some distributors had already delivered stock to retailers. Copies were sold to customers in line with the scheduled the 15th of June release date. Capitol released Yesterday and Today with the amended cover on the 20th of June. Record Worlds reviewer included the LP among the magazine's albums of the week. Billboard described it as a Hot album release saying five previously unissued songs all have singles potential. Cash Box rated the new tracks top notch calling the set stunning. The Recording Industry Association of America certified Yesterday and Today as a gold record signifying it as a million seller on the 8th of July. The album topped the Billboard Top LPs chart in the US on the 30th of July displacing Frank Sinatra's Strangers in the Night. It stayed at number one for five weeks topping sales charts in Cash Box and Record World. Figures published in 2009 by former Capitol executive David Kronemyer showed the album had sold 967,410 copies in the US by the 31st of December 1966. By the end of the decade sales reached 1,230,558 copies. As of 2014 the album was certified 2x Multi-Platinum indicating US sales of over two million.

• 6. Catalogue Standardization And CD Reissues

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  In early 1986 Capitol announced that over the next two years the Beatles catalogue would be streamlined to adhere to band EMI releases up to Revolver. International standardisation of their catalogue was established in 1987 with CD release of original EMI Parlophone albums followed by Past Masters compilation containing all non-album singles. US Capitol albums were deleted on LP in 1989 though they remained available on cassette into early 1990s. In 2014 Yesterday and Today was reissued individually and included in The U.S. Albums box set. Jon Savage described it as a rag-bag of material for which the withdrawn butcher cover was an apt depiction since the album represented worst piece of vandalism carried out by Capitol. Mixes included on mono stereo 2014 CD differ from original North American LP releases. Drive My Car in mono has been replaced with UK mono mix while Doctor Robert in mono omits Lennon's very quiet spoken words at end. All tracks in stereo except Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out have been replaced with versions from 2009 UK format stereo CDs. The cover is the butcher cover with a sticker including trunk cover provided with the CD.