The Beatles’ U.S. ALBUMS
Collection & Individual titles Available Now
for Global Digital Pre-Order on
iTunes and soon in Record Stores
Hollywood,
California – January 7, 2014 – To commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' first U.S. visit and the
band's history-making debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show," The U.S. Albums, a new 13-album
collection spanning 1964's Meet The Beatles! to 1970's Hey Jude, will be
released January 20 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol and exclusively distributed by MCA Music (Universal Music Philippines). The Mastered
for iTunes LP collection, including a 64-page booklet with Beatles photos
and promotional art from the time, as well as a new essay by American author
and television executive Bill Flanagan, are available now for digital pre-order
exclusively on iTunes (http://smarturl.it/Beatles-TheUSalbums). All of the Mastered for iTunes albums (with
the exception of The Beatles' Story, an audio documentary album) are also available
now for individual pre-order on iTunes.
The
Beatles' U.S. Albums differed
from the band's U.K. albums in a variety of ways, including different track
lists, song mixes, album titles, and art. The albums are presented in mono and
stereo, with the exception of The Beatles' Story and Hey Jude, which are in
stereo only. All of the albums,
including the U.S. versions of A Hard Day's Night (Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack), Help! (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Rubber Soul, and
Revolver, make their digital debuts with these iTunes releases.
On February 7, 1964, The Beatles arrived at New
York's John F. Kennedy Airport, greeted by scores of screaming, swooning fans
who rushed the gate to catch a glimpse of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George
Harrison and Ringo Starr as they took their first steps on American soil. Two nights later, on Sunday, February 9, 74
million viewers in the U.S. and millions more in Canada tuned in to CBS to
watch The Beatles make their American television debut on "The Ed Sullivan
Show." In this cultural watershed
moment in American history and one of the world's top-viewed television events
of all time, The Beatles performed five songs on the live broadcast. "Beatlemania," already in full,
feverish bloom in The Beatles' native U.K., was unleashed with blissful fervor across
America and around the world. The
British Invasion had begun.
By the end of 1963, before The Beatles' American
arrival, "Beatlemania" had already sprung forth across the Atlantic
to take root in the U.S. In early
December, The New York Times published a Sunday magazine feature and "CBS
Evening News" aired an in-depth report about the unprecedented frenzy over
the young band from Liverpool. Radio
stations in the U.S. began playing The Beatles' latest U.K. single,
""I Want To Hold Your Hand," in heavy rotation, trying to meet
an insatiable listener demand. Capitol
Records rushed out the American single for "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
(with B-side "I Saw Her Standing There") on December 26, three weeks
ahead of schedule and one month after the single's U.K. release. More than one million copies of the U.S.
single were sold within 10 days.
In early January 1964, Vee-Jay reissued
"Please Please Me" (with B-side "From Me To You"), and Swan
reissued "She Loves You." The
Beatles' first Capitol album, Meet The Beatles!, followed on January 20. After achieving the No. 1 chart position for
five consecutive weeks in the U.K., "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
reached the top of the U.S. singles chart on February 1, holding the No. 1
position for seven consecutive weeks, and within two months, more than 3.5
million copies of Meet The Beatles! were sold in the U.S.
The excitement of The Beatles' February 7 arrival
in New York, where they were met by an estimated 3,000 ecstatic fans at the
airport, was documented by the world's leading media outlets, beamed around the
world in a blitz of news bulletins and photos.
Every move The Beatles made, and seemingly every word they uttered, was
captured – melting hearts of young fans everywhere who simply could not get enough
of these charming, witty and stylish British boys and their electrifying new
songs. America's biggest star of the
day, Elvis Presley, sent The Beatles a telegram wishing them well for their
national television debut.
Ed Sullivan spoke of the unprecedented frenzy in
his memorable first introduction of The Beatles, saying, "Now, yesterday
and today our theater's been jammed with newspapermen and hundreds of
photographers from all over the nation, and these veterans agreed with me that
this city never has witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from
Liverpool who call themselves The Beatles."
After captivating North America with their Ed
Sullivan debut, The Beatles traveled to Washington, DC, performing their first
Stateside concert on February 11 at the Washington Coliseum to 8,000 fans in
the round. The Beatles then returned to
New York for two sold-out Carnegie Hall concerts on February 12. On February 16, they made their second
appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in a live broadcast from The
Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.
Viewership for the episode was nearly as strong as for their debut one
week prior, with an estimated 70 million people -- 40% of the American
population -- tuned in to watch their performances of six songs. On February 22, The Beatles returned to
England in triumph, welcomed home upon their 7am landing at London's Heathrow
Airport by an estimated 10,000 fans.
The Beatles were now firmly in place as the world's
favorite and most famous band. Their
third "Ed Sullivan Show" appearance, a three-song performance taped
prior to the band's live debut on the program, was broadcast on February
23. Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart
for April 5, 1964 was graced by 12 Beatles songs, including the chart's Top 5
positions, a sweep of the chart's summit that has not been achieved by any
other artist since. The band's meteoric
rise to unparalleled fame continued as "Beatlemania" swept the globe,
a singular and boundless cultural marvel.
The Beatles now belonged to the people, as they have ever since, with
their universally-loved music and unflagging respect for humankind, advocating
peace and love for all people around the world.
The Recording Academy®, AEG Ehrlich Ventures and
CBS have announced "The Night That Changed America: A GRAMMY® Salute To
The Beatles," a two-hour primetime entertainment special to air Sunday,
February 9 at 8pm ET/PT, precisely 50 years to the day, date and time of The
Beatles' groundbreaking debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The special broadcast will feature
performances of Beatles songs by many of music's biggest stars in HDTV and 5.1
surround sound.
The Beatles’ U.S. Albums include the following
individual albums:
1.
Meet The Beatles (January 20, 1964)
2.
The Beatles’ Second Album (April 10, 1964)
3.
A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Sound Track) (June 26,
1964)
4.
Something New (July 20, 1964)
5.
The Beatles Story (November 23, 1964)
6.
Beatles ’65 (December 15, 1964)
7.
The Early Beatles (March 22, 1965)
8.
Beatles VI (June 14, 1965)
9.
Help (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (August 13, 1965)
10. Rubber Soul
(December 6, 1965)
11. Yesterday And Today
(June 20, 1966)
12. Revolver (August 8,
1966)
13. Hey Jude (February
26, 1970)
“THE
BEATLES: THE U.S. ALBUMS” will be available soon at Astroplus, Odyssey Music
& Video and Fully Booked.
