The Beatles' Story

LP.2222.7.2 is the Beatles' Story on the second generation orange label with the ® logo, still pressed by Columbia (CBS). The design of the jacket did not change, but its construction did: it is now a back slick jacket. The only copy documented to date is a hybrid, with the new ® labels on disc 1 and the earlier ™ labels of LP.2222.7.1 on disc 2.

Availability

The ® logo replaced the ™ on the orange labels in early 1975, and these labels were used until October 1976, when the third generation orange label came in with Capitol's own pressing plant. For this title, the Columbia pressings were followed by a Dynaflex pressing on the same label (LP.2222.7.3).

General Information

This copy is interesting because it pinpoints the moment when several manufacturing choices changed at once. The new lacquers prepared by Capitol (first seen on LP.2222.7.1) were in use, a new jacket construction had arrived and the ® labels were coming in, while leftover ™ labels were still being used up on some discs. Capitol of Canada did not throw away perfectly good labels: old stock went on the presses until it ran out, so for a short while the two label types could end up in the same jacket.

The hybrid is documented here as it was found. A copy with ® labels on both discs has not been documented to date; if one surfaces, this entry will be updated. As with every earlier pressing, disc 1 holds sides 1 and 4 and disc 2 holds sides 2 and 3.

Pressing Information

Capitol of Canada kept the Columbia (CBS) pressing plant in Don Mills (Ontario) for this pressing. The run-out shows the same mix as on LP.2222.7.1: sides 1 and 3 still come from the 1968 RCA lacquers (with their W suffix), while sides 4 and 2 come from the new hand-written lacquers prepared by Capitol, side 4 with the F8 lathe code. The four numbers are identical to those of LP.2222.7.1, and the run-out carries the same stamped MASTERED BY CAPITOL marking.

LP.2222.7.2 has markings as follows (by disc, in the pairing order):

Disc 1, side 1: STBO.1.2222  W7
Disc 1, side 4: STBO-2222-4  F8
Disc 2, side 2: STBO  2222-2
Disc 2, side 3: STBO-3-2222  W8

Read together, these markings tell how the record was made: disc 1, side 1 from lacquers cut by RCA in Toronto from New York tapes; disc 1, side 4 from lacquers cut by Capitol of Canada (MASTERED BY CAPITOL stamp) from Los Angeles tapes; disc 2, side 2 from lacquers cut by Capitol of Canada (MASTERED BY CAPITOL stamp) from Capitol USA tapes; disc 2, side 3 from lacquers cut by RCA in Toronto from New York tapes, then pressed by Columbia (CBS) in Don Mills.

These pressings feature the 68 mm thin pressing ring, a hallmark of CBS pressings, instead of RCA's 70 mm deep groove.

Cover

This variation brings a new construction type for The Beatles' Story: the jacket is now built as a back slick cover, which is the main way to tell it apart from the earlier gatefolds. The artwork itself did not change: the "Litho in Canada" credit still sits at the bottom right of the front, STEREO under the Capitol logo, and the back slick still reads "MANUFACTURED AND DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY CAPITOL RECORDS (CANADA) LTD.".

The switch did not happen overnight: some copies of LP.2222.7.1 (™ labels) have also been found in this back slick jacket, so the older gatefold and the new back slick cover overlapped. Both types of covers were used side by side for a while, Capitol using whatever stock it had on hand.

In a back slick construction, the larger colour front slick wraps around all four edges of the board, and a smaller black and white back slick is pasted over it, leaving no white border on the front (see the Jacket Construction page). On a gatefold, the folded edges of the front slick also show inside the jacket, where the red of the flag wraps over the bottom edge of the inside spread.

Back slick jackets were used only sporadically by Capitol of Canada, and they look much like the wraparound jackets that Modern Album introduced shortly after (on a regular jacket, the spine is the easiest place to tell them apart). On a gatefold, though, the two constructions seem to be identical, since the outer slick already wraps around the jacket like a book in either case.

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 the plain paper inner sleeve used by Columbia (type 2 on the Inner Sleeves page), recognized by the small die-cut tab at the top and its reverse shape on the bottom flap. CBS had its own sleeve models, different from the ones found with the earlier RCA pressings.