Reel Music

This compilation LP was compiled by Capitol Records as another of their "theme" albums. This time the songs were taken from the Beatles' four major motion pictures with United Artists/ Apple films as well as the television special "Magical Mystery Tour". The original name for the release was "The Reel Beatles". The logo for the LP was a large movie reel (in case nobody figured out the pun !). This LP was released in North America on either March 22 or March 24 1982. The North American catalogue number is Capitol SV-12199. This LP was released in the UK on March 29 1982. The UK catalogue number was Parlophone/EMI PCS 7218.

The song selections were complied by Randall Davis and Steve Meyer. There are four songs featured from the movie "A Hard Day's Night". The title song appears in true stereo for the first time in the US on this LP. "I Should Have Known Better" has the stereo mix with the harmonica from the intro fixed to sound similar to the intro of the mono mix. "Can't Buy Me Love" "And I Love Her" round out the tunes from this movie. The next three songs are from the movie "Help!" which include the title track, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and "Ticket To Ride" (in true stereo for the first time in the US). Side one ends with the title track of "Magical Mystery Tour".

Side two opens with "I Am the Walrus" (this version having the six bar intro rather than the four bar intro). It continues with two songs from the "Yellow Submarine" film including the title track and "All You Need Is Love". The set closes with three songs from the "Let It Be" film including the title track, "Get Back" and "The Long And Winding Road". Both "Let It Be" and "Get back" are the LP mix versions rather than the 45 single mixes.

The front cover of the LP depicts a drawing of the Beatles arriving at a theater (the "Capitol" theater) in various incarnations of their dress from each film. The inner sleeve depicts photos of the individual Beatles along film reels on one side. The US version of the inner sleeve depict the US LPs available with the caption at the top reading: "The Beatles Collection". The UK and Canadian inner sleeves are black with the "Reel Music" logo at the upper left.

The package came with a 12 page booklet issued as "The Beatles Souvenir Program". This booklet includes liner notes on each film with the last page showing various movie posters for the films. This booklet was printed in the USA and all booklets were imported into the various LP issues for Canada and the UK. The labels used on the vinyl records were custom labels in Canada and the USA. The UK labels are the Parlophone/EMI black and silver labels.

There were also special promotional LPs released which featured gold coloured vinyl issues. The Canadian copy has the large promotional stamp on the bottom left of the front cover. My personal copy is "Limited Edition Serial No. 1373". The US promotional copy was numbered on the back cover in the upper right. My personal copy is "Limited Edition No. 11134 Not For Sale". My US copy proves that although the limited edition was supposed to be limited to 10,000 more than this number were obviously pressed.

My US copies also come with a small sticker on the shrink wrap promoting the fact that 14 songs from their movies and promotes the special 12 page color souvenir program.

This LP was never officially released on compact disc.