The Beatles' Story

LP.2222.7.3 is the last Beatles' Story pressing documented on the second generation orange label (® logo), and almost everything changed with it. The discs were pressed by RCA on its thin Dynaflex vinyl, from a new set of lacquers with a run-out format not seen before, the label was set in a new layout, and the back slick of the jacket was redesigned with the Capitol-EMI legal text of the period.

Availability

This pressing dates from 1975-1976, while Columbia was still pressing LP.2222.7.2. It was the last orange label pressing of the album before Capitol's own pressing plant took over in October 1976; the next documented variation, LP.2222.10.1, is a Capitol pressing on the purple label (circa 1978), made from the same set of lacquers.

General Information

For this run, Capitol of Canada turned back to RCA, which pressed the album on its lightweight Dynaflex vinyl (the Dynaflex process is explained in full on LP.2108.7.4, another RCA pressing of the same period). The discs are thinner and lighter than the earlier pressings, and noticeably flexible.

The label layout changed once more. The title now runs along the top, STEREO sits on the left of the spindle hole and the catalogue number on the right, with the "ST" prefix back in the small line under it ("(ST1-2222)", where the CBS labels of LP.2222.6.2 to 7.2 read "(T1-2222)"). The side number stays on the far left, and the perimeter print is black, with the ® logo by the Capitol name. Each plant seems to have set its own labels: this RCA layout and the Columbia one are clearly different. As with every earlier pressing, disc 1 holds sides 1 and 4 and disc 2 holds sides 2 and 3.

Pressing Information

The run-out shows a completely new set of lacquers, on all four sides this time: the 1968 RCA numbers with their W suffix and the Capitol lacquers of LP.2222.7.1 are both gone. The new numbers come in a format not documented before on this title: a signature in script, "Jay", then the catalogue and side number, followed by a lathe code. Those codes (H-11, H-13, H-15, G16) carry the letters of Capitol's Hollywood lathes, so these Canadian-cut lacquers most likely came from tapes sent from Los Angeles. Who "Jay" was, and where exactly the lacquers were cut, is not known yet. The same lacquers turn up again on the next variation, LP.2222.10.1 (purple label).

Two sets of markings have been confirmed to date (by disc, in the pairing order). The first set:

Disc 1, side 1: Jay  STBO -1 - 2222  H-11
Disc 1, side 4: Jay  STBO -4- 2222.  H-13
Disc 2, side 2: Jay  STBO-2-2222  H-13
Disc 2, side 3: Jay  STBO-3-2222  H-13

The second set:

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 in Canada from Los Angeles tapes, then pressed by RCA on its Dynaflex vinyl.

These pressings feature the small 24 mm Dynaflex pressing ring instead of Columbia's 68 mm thin ring, and are recognized by their very thin, flexible vinyl profile.

Cover

The jacket is still a back slick gatefold, as on LP.2222.7.2, but the back slick itself was redesigned. The boxed "MANUFACTURED AND DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY CAPITOL RECORDS (CANADA) LTD." line at the bottom is gone. In its place, at the bottom right, are the Capitol target and EMI logos with the legal text of the period ("CAPITOL" IS A REGISTERED TRADE MARK OF CAPITOL RECORDS, INC. MANUFACTURED IN CANADA BY CAPITOL RECORDS-EMI OF CANADA LIMITED, REGISTERED USER...) and the 3109 American Drive, Mississauga address. The jacket had finally caught up with the company name change of January 1974. With the move to the target logo on the back, the Capitol dome logo was also removed from the spine. This is also the last slick jacket of the album: from LP.2222.10.1 on, every pressing came in a posterboard jacket.

Some copies have a pasteover on the inside spread: two slicks glued one over the other. The first slick seems to have been printed too light (the press may have been running low on ink), so a second, darker slick was pasted over it. The underlying print shows through the top one, most visibly where dark text sits on the white background, and both layers can be seen along the edge. Not every copy is like this: only a few seem to have been fixed this way, most likely after a quality control check.

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.