The excitement around releasing this set stems from the importance of "Meet the Beatles" in America. Till that time, record buyers had typically bought only the singles, leaving the albums to the hard core fans, who would account for anywhere from 500,000 to 700,000 album sales. But "Meet the Beatles" broke all the records, selling more than 5-million copies. From that point on, albums would become the driving force of record sales.

Because these albums are being released in this format for the first time on CD, audiofiles will note that "Meet the Beatles" and "The Beatles Second Album" feature the famous "wide" stereo mixes done by George Martin especially for the American market. While "Something New" and "Beatles '65" have proper stereo mixes, also done by George Martin, with the vocals in the middle and instruments spread throughout the songs, with the exception of the German "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (Komm Gib Mir Diene Hand), which has extreme stereo, with music left channel and Beatles' singing on the right (you can actually hear someone whisper something just as the first note hits, and you can hear The Beatles chuckle and breathe on the right side, if you isolate that channel.). One timing note: On "Something New", the third CD in the set, track 1, "I'll Cry Instead" is presented in its 1:48 stereo mix, while the mono version of the same song on track 12, is the 2:08 extended edit.

The set comes with a 48-page booklet that includes historic photos and advertisements from Capitol Records

promoting The Beatles in 1964, plus a written narration of the times by Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, who is most famous for his studio sessions books on The Beatles recordings.

Bruce Spizer has put out an addendum to the set. Visit his website to learn more!

All in all, this set is a must for Beatle fans who grew up listening to American radio waiting for their "boys" to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show (three times in February of 1964!) It's the way fans remember hearing Beatles music, with the compression and echo effects added by Capitol Records engineers to give the songs a more "American" feel. Too bad it wasn't released in February when every news channel in America was experiencing Beatlemania all over again, with stories on the 40th anniversary of The Beatles First US Visit. At least Beatle fans can look forward to getting and giving this set as a holiday gift this year.

We'll be featuring the box set on the November 14th Beatle Brunch, and selected tracks throughout the rest of the year, so enjoy.

With the explosion of the Fab Four in 1964, Capitol Records not only released one album by the group - but four - and though these albums contained less tracks than those released in Britain, these were the albums that America grew up with and heard on the radio constantly. This is truly big news for Beatle audio files who have always wanted to hear the first Beatles music in stereo. In 1987, Capitol released the British versions of those early songs, but mixed in mono. Till now, Beatle fans had to either play their old vinyl records or cassettes which were issued in stereo in the U.S., or rely on poor quality bootleg versions, which were often culled from vinyl anyway. The cassettes and vinyl versions were deleted many years ago and unavailable, except from private collectors.

These albums differ from the British versions in song selection. "In the Sixties, American record labels often chose to reformat British records to suit the needs of the U.S. market," according to Slater. "In America, singles were generally included on current albums, where in the UK 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. In addition, in the case of The Beatles, some of the recordings on the American albums were given more echo than the British versions, to 'Americanize' their sound."

To add value to the set, each of the discs will include two versions of each song - one in stereo (or duophonic in some cases) - then the selections are repeated in mono. The duophonic sound was carefully created by Capitol, using 2 channels of mono which were equalized, compressed and then reverb added. The Capitol Albums Volume 1 have been carefully mastered from the original U.S. masters, taken from the vaults at Capitol Records, to ensure that they sound as they did when first released.

Since that time there has been increasing demand for these original U.S. albums to make their CD debut which they now do as part of this specially priced and uniquely packaged 4 CD boxed set. The Capitol Albums Volume 1 includes all four of the group's (Capitol) 1964 album releases, and each of the discs is housed in a miniature replica of the original album cover. It will also feature a 48 page booklet, along with a scrap book effect of photos and clippings from that amazing year, with a liner narrative written by Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn (why Capitol chose a Brit to chronicle an American release is beyond us).

HERE IS THE TRACK LISTING:
Meet the Beatles
(Released Jan. 20, 1964)
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Saw Her Standing There
This Boy
It Won't Be Long
All I've Got To Do
All My Loving
Don't Bother Me
Little Child
Till There Was You
Hold Me Tight
I Wanna Be Your Man
Not A Second Time

The Beatles Second Album
(Released April 10, 1964)
Roll Over Beethoven
Thank You Girl
You Really Got A Hold On Me
Devil In Her Heart
Money
You Can't Do That
Long Tall Sally
I Call Your Name
Please Mr. Postman
I'll Get You
She Loves You

Something New
(Released July 20, 1964)
I'll Cry Instead
Things We Said Today
Any Time At All
When I Get Home
Slow Down
Matchbox
Tell Me Why
And I Love Her
I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
If I Fell
Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand

Beatles '65
(Released Dec. 15, 1964)
No Reply
I'm A Loser
Baby's In Black
Rock And Roll Music
I'll Follow The Sun
Mr. Moonlight
Honey Don't
I'll Be Back
She's A Woman
I Feel Fine
Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby