The Beatles' Story

LP.2222.10.1 is the first Beatles' Story pressing on the purple label (second generation, with the Capitol-EMI perimeter print), and the first one made at Capitol's own pressing plant in Mississauga. The discs come from the same "Jay" lacquers as LP.2222.7.3, and the jacket keeps the redesigned back introduced with that pressing, but it is now a posterboard gatefold.

Availability

The second generation purple labels were used on Capitol Beatles albums from 1978 to 1980. No first generation purple pressing (the one-off Cinram batch of 1977 found on some other titles) has been documented for The Beatles' Story, so the album went straight from the orange label to this one. No orange third generation pressing (the first Capitol pressings, from October 1976) has been documented either: the album being a slow seller, the remaining copies of LP.2222.7.3 were most likely sold from stock until this purple label pressing was needed. The purple label pressings are among the most common variations of the album; this one was followed by a copy in a lighter blue cover (LP.2222.10.2).

General Information

The label layout changed again with the purple design, now set by Capitol itself: the dome logo and the title in a script font at the top, "STEREO" and the side number on the left, and the catalogue number on the right, with the small line under it reading "(T1-2222)" (the "T" prefix of the CBS labels, where the RCA labels of LP.2222.7.3 had "ST"). All the print is in silver, and the perimeter print states "MANUFACTURED IN CANADA BY CAPITOL RECORDS-EMI OF CANADA LIMITED". As with every earlier pressing, disc 1 holds sides 1 and 4 and disc 2 holds sides 2 and 3.

Pressing Information

This pressing was manufactured at Capitol's own pressing plant in Mississauga (Ontario), recognized by its medium size 39 mm pressing ring, and on regular, thicker vinyl again after the Dynaflex discs of LP.2222.7.3.

The discs come from the same "Jay" lacquers as LP.2222.7.3, with their Hollywood lathe codes (H and G), and the run-out also carries a stamped MASTERED BY CAPITOL marking. That stamp marks Capitol of Canada's own mastering, which suggests that "Jay" worked there, though this remains to be confirmed. The markings are as follows (by disc, in the pairing order):

Disc 1, side 1: Jay  STBO -1 - 2222  H-13
Disc 1, side 4: Jay  STBO -4- 2222  H-15
Disc 2, side 2: Jay  STBO-2-2222  G16
Disc 2, side 3: Jay  STBO-3-2222  H-15 ②

Read together, these markings tell how the record was made: lacquers cut by Capitol of Canada (MASTERED BY CAPITOL stamp) from Los Angeles tapes, then pressed by Capitol in Mississauga.

Cover

The jacket keeps the design of LP.2222.7.3 (the Capitol target and EMI logos, the Capitol-EMI legal text and the 3109 American Drive, Mississauga address at the bottom right of the back, and no Capitol dome logo on the spine), but it is now a posterboard gatefold: the artwork is printed directly on the cardboard instead of on paper slicks glued to it (see the Jacket Construction page). From this variation on, every pressing of the album came in a posterboard jacket.

Packaging

As with the other posterboard jackets of the period, these were shipped in tight shrink wrap (no sealed copy has been photographed for this archive yet).

These were most likely sold with the plain paper inner sleeve Capitol used with its own pressings at the time (type 3 on the Inner Sleeves page): straight cut, with one side shorter than the other and a large flap at the bottom.