Beatles'65

LP.2228.2.3 is a mono pressing of Beatles'65 on the "rainbow brackets" label, circulating around 1967. The record is identical to LP.2228.2.2 (same USA-supplied plates with stamped matrix numbers); the difference is on the jacket, where a new print run of the front slick carries the catalogue number printed sideways along the right edge of the front cover.

Availability

This variation circulated around 1967, alongside LP.2228.2.2, until the mono format was phased out in mid 1968. Since the plant assembled whatever slicks and stampers it had on hand, the sideways-number cover and the regular cover overlapped for a while; the sideways cover is the scarcer of the two.

General Information

The sideways catalogue number is a small printing quirk of a late front slick, where the number was added in a rotated position along the right edge of the front image, in addition to the regular one in the top strip. The same feature is found on stereo covers of the same period (see LP.2228.2.5). It is a handy way to date a jacket to the 1967 print run.

It is clear that these numbers were not meant to be visible and were simply the result of a "badly trimmed" slick and assembly (the number being a printer's reference meant to be cut off), but other copies were found trimmed the same way and did not feature the printed number; some slicks seem to have them and others not. It is not known for sure if only later slicks featured this quirk in its artwork or if only the later slicks added these. This is also the only album that has been found with this type of printed mark.

It is important to note that a new cover variation does not necessarily imply a new set of pressings; new covers could (and most likely did) house records from the same batch of pressings as the previously documented variations. Covers and discs were produced as required, and therefore not necessarily at the same time.

Pressing Information

As with all previous variations, Capitol of Canada subcontracted the RCA pressing plant in Smiths Falls (Ontario) to manufacture this batch of pressings. The records were pressed from the same later-generation USA-supplied plates (sent from Capitol's Scranton pressing plant) as LP.2228.2.2, and carry the same stamped markings:

Side 1: T1-2228-P25  
Side 2: T2-2228-T26  

These pressings feature a 70 mm deep-groove pressing ring, a hallmark of early RCA Canadian manufacture. Labels feature the "brackets" rainbow label (see perimeter print at the bottom of the label: "MFD. IN CANADA BY CAPITOL RECORDS (CANADA) LTD." with brackets around the word CANADA).

Cover

The jacket for LP.2228.2.3 features an identical build to its predecessor: the inner seams (the inside fold of the cardboard jacket) are still cut straight and measure 10 mm high.

Covers up to the mid 70s used a “front slick” construction (a larger back slick, usually printed in black and white that wrapped around the front of the cardboard cover, onto which a smaller colour front slick was glued, creating a white frame effect all around the front image).

Both slicks were printed by Parr's Print and Litho in Toronto and assembled onto the cardboard frame by Modern Albums. The front slick of this print run carries the sideways catalogue number along the right edge; the back cover still carries the "Also Available in Stereo" notice.

Packaging

Copies of LP.2228.2.3 were packaged with a tight shrink wrap.

These were sold with / without the red and white Capitol / Pathé "ATTENTION" paper LP inner sleeve.

Sales

Records show that only 2,620 copies of Beatles'65 sold in Canada in 1967 (this includes variations LP.2228.2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5, mono and stereo combined) (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 3, "Sales of Beatles Records in Canada"). The sideways-number covers come from a single print run within that small number. Over its first four years, Beatles'65 therefore sold a total of 151,152 copies in Canada (1964 to 1967), all formats combined: these Capitol figures are per title, not per format, so from July 1965 they also include the reel-to-reel tape (see RE.2365.1.1).