On Thursday The Beatles' U.S. Albums Set For Release was a top story. Here is the recap: Apple Corps Ltd. and Capitol Records have announced that they will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' first U.S. visit and the band's history-making debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show," with the digital release of The U.S. Albums.The new 13-album Mastered for iTunes LP collection spans The Beatles' U.S releases from 1964's Meet The Beatles! to 1970's Hey Jude. We were sent over the following details:
The collection includes 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, is available now for digital pre-order exclusively on iTunes.
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. - more on this story
