http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,15129,00.html?tnewsThe Capitol Albums Volume 1 will feature all of the group's releases from that year: Meet the Beatles, The Beatles Second Album, Something New and Beatles '65. The quartet of discs include such Beatles classics as "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "I Saw Her Standing There," "She Loves You," "Roll Over Beethoven" and "I Feel Fine," among others.
"These are the records that introduced The Beatles to America 40 years ago. Remastered from the original American master tapes, these were the audio mixes and sequences of songs that found their way into our homes," said Capitol Records president Andrew Slater in a release.
Each disc will offer two takes of each song--one in stereo followed by a mono version--and be packaged in a miniature replica of the original album cover. The set will also contain a 48--page booklet featuring photos, original artwork and clippings from that year commemorating the close of the 40th anniversary of their American invasion.
The Capitol Albums Volume 1 will retail for about $70, though it's expected to be available for much less as big box retailers slash prices for the cutthroat holiday season.
The Beatles' Capitol-era U.S. recordings have been available on CD since 1987, however, to please surviving band members and their producer, George Martin, the label and its parent company, EMI, decided to only release the original British albums, which had different track listings and were in mono.
U.S. fans had been used to the vinyl versions, which were compressed and equalized in stereo, or simulated stereo (aka duophonic) with added reverberation.
The U.S. recordings also contained fewer songs than their British counterparts, which allowed Capitol to milk the band for 10 albums between 1964 and 1966, as opposed to the seven that were released in England at the time.
"In the '60s, American record labels often chose to reformat British records to suit the needs of the U.S. market," Slater said. "In America, singles were generally included on current albums, where in the U.K., albums and singles were most often separate releases. Higher music publishing costs in the U.S. also made it impractical to include as many songs on American albums."
It wasn't until 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that the Beatles insisted on the same tracks appearing on both sides of the Atlantic.
Slater says that Capitol decision to release the U.S. albums, which the band considered to be bastardized versions of the original British LPs, was to appease baby boomers who wanted to hear, for better or worse, the albums in the same format they grew up with.
Chris Carter, the deejay who hosts the popular Breakfast with the Beatles radio show on Los Angeles' 97.1 KLSX-FM, said the Capitol cuts will certainly satisfy collectors who did not yet have the stereo versions from their youth. But for purists, mono has always been where it's at.
"Obviously [the Capitol set is] interesting for people who grew up with those records," Carter tells E! Online. "For Beatles guys like myself, though,
