On this day in 1973, Apple released "The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970" - the "Red" and the "Blue" albums.
The Beatles 1962–1966 (widely known as "The Red Album") is a compilation album of songs by the English rock band the Beatles, spanning the years indicated in the title. It was released with 1967–1970 (widely known as "The Blue Album"), in 1973. The Beatles 1967–1970 made No. 1 on the American Billboard chart and No. 2 on the British Album Chart. This album was re-released in September 1993 on CD, charting at No. 4 in the United Kingdom.
The album was compiled by Allen Klein.The album liner notes state that all songs were produced by George Martin, except "Across the Universe" and "The Long and Winding Road" produced by Phil Spector, meaning that George Martin was credited as producer of the song "Don't Let Me Down" which usually has no official producer's credit.
As with 1962–1966, this compilation was produced by Apple/EMI at least partially in response to a bootleg collection titled Alpha Omega, which had been sold on television the previous year. Print advertising for the two records made a point of declaring them "the only authorized collection of the Beatles."
For the group's 1963 debut LP Please Please Me, photographer Angus McBean took the distinctive colour photograph of the group looking down over the stairwell inside EMI House (EMI's London headquarters in Manchester Square, demolished in 1995).
In 1969, the Beatles asked McBean to recreate this shot. Although a photograph from the 1969 photo shoot was originally intended for the then-planned Get Back album, it was not used when that project saw eventual release in 1970 as Let It Be. Instead, another photograph from the 1969 shoot, along with an unused photograph from the 1963 photo shoot, was used for both this LP and 1962–1966.
The inner gatefold photo for both LPs is by Don McCullin from the "Mad Day Out" photo session in London on Sunday 28 July 1968.
The album cover was designed by Tom Wilkes.
No comments:
Post a Comment