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The Beatles first official albums were recorded on Parlophone records, a sublabel of EMI, the prominent British record company. No one knew what was about to happen. But as the Beatles grew to become a European phenomena, EMI looked to the United States as the next country to conquer.

EMI did not have a direct presence in the U.S. and offered the Beatles' catalog to their subsidiary label, Capitol Records, whom promptly turned them down, seeing The Beatles as a strictly European happening. Independent label Vee Jay Records picked up The Beatles' first album, repackaged it and released it, to virtually no interest.

But as The Beatles' popularity took the rest of the world by storm, Capitol Records finally realized that they needed to get involved in what was happening and started to release the Beatles' material in the United States. Only instead of re-releasing the 14 song albums that were common in Britain, Capitol, because of higher royalty fees in the states and a different marketing strategy, came up with their own 12 song albums, many with different album art and some with "fake" stereo mixes.

These are the albums that millions of American fans grew up with, and when the Beatles catalog was finally released on CD in 1987, it was the British albums, song orders and cover art. The Capitol Albums Vol. 1 release is the first time the American Beatles' albums have been officially released with both the U.S. mono and stereo mixes and cover art.

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