The Beatles: the RED and BLUE new vinyl edition with Extras

Where do I begin with this entry? What I'm reviewing has a very long past, which is why it's  here as a music featurette as these two records were originally issued on lp record, cassette and  super clunky 8 Track cartridge way way back in May of 1973 when I was officially young.

While two compilations had been issued by the Beatles in the UK ("A Collection of Oldies but Goldies") and North America ("Hey Jude") there had not  been a career covering set issued officially so on the backs of a unofficial multi disc set issued a year before, two two record sets were issued that took in all the UK singles A sides plus highlights from their studio lps.

This was timely as by 1973 each former Beatle had their own solo following and indeed in Paul McCartney's instance a new and highly popular band called Wings so there was a lot of interest by fans of the same for something that clued them into the past as well as those fans from the 60's who wanted a nice tidy set to remember The Beatles by.

The front cover was an alternate take to that used on their UK Please Please Me lp cover and the front for the 1967-1970 one a remake from 1969 intend for the scrapped Get Back lp.

Below are the original UK cassette inlay cards showing the covers in colour

In the UK the cassette and eight track tape issues were "Double Play" meaning both lps were on the same tape.

These albums remained on catalogue in their original forms until September 1993 where the first cd versions were issued and then re-issued using the 2009 remasters in 2010 but for reason best known to Apple, a number of different versions were substituted for the cd and lp/cassette reissues in 1993.

Here's a short summary:
Stereo replaced by Mono-
Please Please Me
From Me To You

Fake stereo to Mono-
Love Me Do (album version)
She Loves You

Original 1965 stereo mixes to 1986 digitally remixed with echo(!) -
Yesterday
Ticket To Ride
Help
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Drive My Car
Norwegian Wood
Nowhere Man
In My Life
Michelle
Girl

US stereo mix for UK stereo -
Day Tripper
Faded in lp to cold start -
A Day In The Life

So you can see what we've had for twenty years wasn't what we originally had!

Fast forward to November 24th 2014 in the UK and Europe and these lps have been newly re-issued but from the actual analogue master tapes used for the originals except for the two fake stereo tracks that were rightly put into mono.

What that means is on vinyl we can have the mixes we used to have all over again and taking advantage of modern thinking about lp cutting more effort has been put in to keeping the low notes in for deep bass and more extended treble  as as a bit more of a gap between the loudest and softest sounds in each song and a good example of this is on From Me To You which in stereo has never sounded better.

As the 2012 stereo re-issue lps were digitally sourced for now at least it's the only new spot for much of the stereo material mastered they way it used to be.

I bought both and have to say these reissues are superior to my UK originals in so many ways it's amazing and works well with the mono albums issued a few months back much the same way.

Issued in North America December 9th by Capitol.

Kickstarting the Extras on this post is a 2012 stereo re-issue of the groups first album, Please Please Me from March 1963 bought mainly because in those early days Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You recorded for single record release was only mixed to mono and for the stereo lp that came out a month after initial mono copies they reprocessed it into fake stereo that sounded pretty bad.

This newer copy restores those two tracks to mono apart from bringing a bit more low notes out than original cutting allowed for back then.

It also features like the mono reissue from earlier in the year that gold on black early label.

Their second album, With The Beatles came out in November of 1963 but the stereo was a bit extreme and most copies lacked real bass.

This new copy from 2012 puts those matters aright.

This appears on a Yellow on Black label which all pre-1970 copies used which is a cool retro touch.

This is the most recent addition from 2017, the Abbey Road cut by Sean McGee of Beatles For Sale, the December 1964 album that generally sounds better in stereo here with better low notes and a less recessed midband designed to go in a magazine with lp "Partwork" on the Beatles but spares were sold separately.

This too has that original style Yellow and Black label although the fonts and typesetting isn't like originals.

The lp jacket of the original always was a bit of a pain for holding the record in pocket you could only access with the gatefold cover spread out from the inside just opposite the left side of the gatefold that housed notes and a photograph.

This edition uses a more conventional side pocket which is much easier to open without causing wear or fingerprints on the black background gatefold.

While sourced and cut from high resolution digital files transferred from the master tapes, they so sound really good.

*Updated by Tammy 2017