The Beatles' Story

LP.2222.5.1 is the Beatles' Story pressing on the red target label. The discs come from the same hand-written stereo lacquers as LP.2222.2.2 and LP.2222.2.3, and they still came in the Canadian jacket introduced with LP.2222.2.3: only the label changed.

Availability

The red target label appeared in January 1971, and it was used on Capitol Beatles albums until early 1972, when the orange label took over. RCA stopped varnishing its labels in December 1971, so its red target pressings come in two finishes: glossy labels before that date, and flat (unvarnished, textured) labels after it. The labels of the documented copy are semi-glossy, which makes them hard to call, but they lean toward the flat finish and point to the later part of RCA's red target pressings, so this pressing most likely dates from late 1971 or early 1972 (a late repressing makes sense for an album selling as slowly as this one). The album then carried on with the orange label pressings (LP.2222.6.1), and copies of this red target pressing were most likely still sold from stock for a while after that.

General Information

The Beatles' Story went straight from the rainbow "brackets" label to the red target: no green target copy has been documented to date. The green target label was used on Capitol of Canada albums from the summer of 1969 to the end of 1970, but no documented information was found to explain the skip.

The likeliest explanation lies in the sales. The album was selling very slowly by the late 1960s (only 376 copies in 1967) (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 3, "Sales of Beatles Records in Canada"), and the 1968 stereo run was a limited one, pressed for back catalogue orders. Capitol of Canada did not throw away perfectly good records: stock on the old label was used up before a title was pressed on the new one. So the "brackets" copies of LP.2222.2.3 were most likely still sitting in the warehouse through 1969 and 1970, and by the time a new batch was needed, the target had turned red.

The red target series is also interesting from a collector's point of view: in Canada, the Capitol back catalogue was reissued on this red label, while Capitol USA moved its Beatles albums to the Apple label, so these red target pressings are unique to Canada. As with all the earlier pressings, disc 1 holds sides 1 and 4 and disc 2 holds sides 2 and 3 (the "automatic changer" pairing, explained on LP.2222.1.1).

Pressing Information

Capitol of Canada once again subcontracted the RCA pressing plant in Smiths Falls (Ontario), now with the new red target labels. The discs were pressed from the same Canadian stereo lacquers as LP.2222.2.2, cut by RCA in Toronto from New York tapes, so the run-out carries the same hand-written numbers (the W suffix still sits almost half-way around the run-out from the number).

LP.2222.5.1 has markings as follows (by disc, in the pairing order):

Disc 1, side 1: STBO.1.2222  W7
Disc 1, side 4: STBO.4.2222  W5’
Disc 2, side 2: STBO.2.2222  W5’
Disc 2, side 3: STBO-3-2222  W8

Read together, these markings tell how the record was made: lacquers cut by RCA in Toronto from New York tapes, then pressed by RCA in Smiths Falls.

These pressings still feature the 70 mm deep-groove pressing ring of RCA's Canadian manufacture. The label layout changed with the new design: STEREO is still printed on the left, but the "A Capitol Records, Inc., U.S.A. Recording" credit is gone, replaced by "TRADE MARK OF CAPITOL RECORDS, INC." under the Capitol logo. The perimeter print now reads "MANUFACTURED AND DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY CAPITOL RECORDS (CANADA) LTD.", the same wording as on the back slick of the jacket.

Cover

The jacket is the Canadian gatefold introduced with LP.2222.2.3: the "Litho in Canada" credit with no Parr's logo on the front, STEREO under the Capitol logo, and the Canadian back slick ("MANUFACTURED AND DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY CAPITOL RECORDS (CANADA) LTD."). Covers and discs were produced as required, so the same jacket simply carried on with the red target discs.

Packaging

As with every Canadian copy of the album, these were shipped in a loose poly plastic wrap, which let customers open the gatefold in the shop.

These were most likely sold with a generic plain paper LP inner sleeve, as on the other red target pressings.