These releases were niche products for the rare people who used high end playback systems, and they were aimed at the audiophile market of the time. Audiophiles often leaned towards classical and jazz music rather than pop music in this format. So these tapes are extremely scarce in any condition today. As a general rule, both the tapes and boxes were manufactured in Canada, but used US slick artwork. The best way to distinguish the Canadian pressings from the US issues is the color of the box: Canada always used WHITE cardboard boxes, while the USA used either BROWN or BLUE boxes.It is not known if Apple albums were ever produced in Canada (with a white box) - All examples found are US brown box tapes, which might have been imported to Canada instead of being manufactured here.
Capitol Records of Canada started to offer the 8 Track tape format in the fall of 1968. Early tapes (until 1971) were manufactured by Ampex, after which Capitol switched to other manufacturers. Early tapes had white shells, and between November 1968 and mid-1969, they were issued in a sideways red and black cardboard slip case that featured the tracklisting of the album. Later 1970s and 1980s shells were black, but changed manufacturers a few times (Audiopack, Lear Jet, Capitol). We also see some hybrids or transition tapes where older white slicks are used on a newer black shell, or the other way around (a black slick on a white shell).
Also of note, some tapes were found with US arwork on a Canadian shell. It is not known if all titles have been released in all variations, but it is assumed that most have been. THe website here pictures all confirmed variations, with expected titles being marked as "To Be Confirmed"". Finally, some extremely rare two album tapes exist (like the two-pack reels), but are EXTREMELY hard to come by.
For a detailed account on the 8 track story in Canada, please also refer to Piers Hemmingsen's book: The Beatles' Canadian Discography part 1.
Cassette tapes were introduced in Canada as late as the fsall of 1968 or early 1969. Cassettes woulkd have been imported from the USA prior to this. Early cassettes had a blue spine and paper labels on a white plastic shell. Labels were either white or yellow. While Beatles cassettes are probably the format that had the most variations, it is also the most difficult one to catalog properly, variations seemingly overlapping for a period of years.
There appears to be seven main series of cassettes tapes: Blue Spine, Black spine, Light Blue spine, Black and Yellow (SDR), Color Inlay, Gold UK format and Modern Apple tapes, all of which have their (many!) "sub-variations". Again, it is not known if all titles have been released in all variations, but it is assumed that most have been. This website here pictures all confirmed variations, with expected titles being marked as "To Be Confirmed", but be aware that it is not yet complete, and that dating these might prove to be difficult, so most dates here are estimates. If you have information that can help detail, clarifiy or rectify this archive, please do contact us, as we would like to make this reference website as accurate as possible.
For a detailed account on the cassette story in Canada, please also refer to Piers Hemmingsen's book: The Beatles' Canadian Discography part 1.
