The recording industry at the beginning of 1964 started to realize the potential of the Beatles and a few "cash-in" LPs were released during this year of Beatlemania. The first of these were issued by MGM in Canada and the United States on or about February 03 1964. The catalogue number for "The Beatles With Tony Sheridan and Guests" was MGM E-4215 (mono) and MGM ST-4215 (stereo) for the United States. Canada only had mono copies released on the same date with the catalogue number E-4214 (C). The "C" was denoted as a Canadian destination. In Canada, the LP was manufactured and distributed by Quality Records as stated on the lower back cover.
The front cover of this horrible LP is an ugly green with "The Beatles" in very large print in white and "With Tony Sheridan and Guests" in very small black print. The four Beatles contributed songs are "featured" in a box on the lower part of the cover. These four recordings are part of the "Tony Sheridan" session in Hamburg for Polydor (more of this in another post).
The back cover is white and once again "The Beatles" in large black thick print and "With Tony Sherican And Guests" in smaller black print is on the left side of the back cover. The left side also includes the track listing and the "artists" or "guests" alongside The Beatles. These "guests" were an unknown band who called themselves the "Titans". The Titans contribute six songs, the other guests are "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers" which is essentially Tony Sheridan with a back-up band (not the Beatles) contributing two songs. There are liner notes on the right hand side of the back cover by Ian bond. My Canadian Copy has a drill hole through the middle of the cover denoting that it has been deleted.
The labels for the LP in the United States are black with the large "MGM" logo (and the lion above it). The large "MGM" logo is in a rainbow colour and the lion above it is also in colour. The track listing is white. The labels for the LP in Canada are orange or yellow and black with the "MGM" in orange or yellow (as well as the lion's head). The track listings are in black with the orange or yellow back ground. Also on the labels are the words "Long Playing" "Microgroove" "Unbreakable" and "331/3 RPM".
Side one contains: "My Bonnie" and "Cry For A Shadow" by The Beatles w/Tony Sheridan, "Johnson Rag" by the Titans, "Swanee River" by Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, "Flying Beat" and "The Darktown Strutters' Ball" by the Titans.
Side two contains: "The Saints" by The Beatles w/Tony Sheridan, "Rye Beat" by the Titans, "You Are My Sunshine" by Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, "Summertime Beat" by the Titans, "Why" by The Beatles w/Tony Sheridan and finally "Happy New Year Beat" by the Titans.
I have not seen any evidence of an inner sleeve being included with original copies.
MA QUANTO COSTA QUEL VINILE?IO CE L'HO E CI TENGO MOLTO MA PURTROPPO DOVRO VENDERLO AL MIO AMICO COME ALTRI VINILI PER COMPRARE ALTRO. E QUESTO CI TENGO TANTO MA NON SO A QUANTO POTREI VENDERGLIELO. NON PENSO COSTI MOLTO MA TENTO DI PRENDERGLI IL PIU POSSIBILE!PACE
ReplyDelete