All My Loving / This Boy

45.72144.1.3 is an oddity that does not follow the normal pressing sequence logic: it carries a -5 matrix number on both sides, while every later repressing of this single, from the 1967 brackets label (see 45.72144.2.1) up to the orange labels of the mid 1970s (see 45.72144.7.1), never had matrices higher than -2. How, why and when a fifth lacquer came to be inserted in the middle of a continuous "-2 sequence" (and why there are no documented -3 or -4 copies) remains an open question to this day.

Availability

The swirl label places this copy within the first label's window, from March 1964 to mid 1966, and the high matrix number points to the later end of that window, hence the circa 1966 estimate, but no official date has been determined with certainty for 45.72144.1.3. Only a small number of copies have surfaced so far, and -3 or -4 copies have yet to be documented.

General Information

This copy is virtually identical to previous pressings, it features the same label; the hand-written -5 matrix number in the dead wax is the only difference. So it is visually not that different, but it is historically interesting since its origin and timeline are a mystery and difficult to explain or justify, considering the continuous -2 sequence of the other pressings.

Pressing Information

Where most repressings stopped at a -2 on side A (see 45.72144.1.2), this copy carries a surprising -5 on BOTH sides, implying the possibility of several intermediate generations of parts (-3, -4) that have never been documented. Whether those intermediate lacquers were cut and rejected, or simply never produced is unknown. It is also unclear why -2 matrices were used again on subsequent pressings instead of pushing the -5 sequence further.

Matrix numbers for 45.72144.1.3 are as follows:

Side A: 7XCE 17560A-5
Side B: 7XCE 17560-5

Packaging

Commercial stock copies of the first label design came in the FLAT black Capitol sleeve, in use since December 1963.

Sales

On paper, a -5 would indicate a fifth generation of parts, which by the usual reckoning of roughly 10 000 copies per stamper would sit somewhere in the 40 000 to 50 000 copies range. Yet the known population of first-label copies is overwhelmingly no-dash and -2, so the -5 clearly did not serve a run of that scale. It is another data point in the puzzle of how matrix numbers relate to actual manufacturing quantities, discussed at length on the first pressing's page - (see 45.72144.1.1).