The Bizarre World of The Beatles Tape Albums | Cassettes + 8-Track
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- Опубликовано: 6 апр 2024
- In today's global marketplace, the idea of any Beatles product being different in another country is unthinkable. But with the launch of the 8-track and compact cassette in the late 1960's EMI totally reconfigured The Beatles albums to fit the new formats making them unrecognizab;e from thier vinyl counterparts. I this video we look not just the hstory of the format but what each album looked like in the alternate reality of tape.
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I remember when I was 8 years old, my late mother was head of accounting for an Electronic and Appliance store in Brooklyn, NY called Bresners. They had a cabinet with cassettes and 8-Tracks for sale. My mom would purchase cassettes and surprised me when she came home from work. One day she came home witha copy of ALL THINGS MUST PASS by George Harrison. It came in a cardboard thin box with 2 cassettes. It was like she brought me a toy, and a good one at that! It's memories like that still make me smile 24 years later!
Once and for all, When I Get Home is a GREAT track. It features a concise lyric, grungy guitar and one of Lennon's best ever vocals. The abuse this fabulous record has gotten over the years is astounding.
If we're talking John on AHDN's side 2, I like I'll Cry Instead better though, especially the metre.
I agree that "When I Get Home" is a great rocker with a great intro that is repeated throughout the song. And I love how Lennon pronounces way-ee, bay-ee bee, today-ee, say-ee. Still, every time Paul tells the story of how John got him to change the line "never been a beauty queen," I want to ask him why he didn't return the favor later by getting John to ditch the line "I'm gonna love her till the cows come home." Cringe!
@@alanlinfield8207 what's interesting is that When I Get Home has a similar lyrical theme as A Hard Days Night. I wonder which was written first!
Personally I don’t think there’s anything close to a bad song on AHDN
The melodies are just perfect on every track imo
Agreed. WIGH rocks.
Very interesting juxtaposition at 15:30 -- "She Loves You," "And I Love Her"
When America sneezed Britain got the cold. Brilliant line
It really is brilliant. Andrew is paraphrasing from a line about US influence on the rest of the world, but the phrase originated during the Napoleonic era in France. It was first used by a Prussian diplomat who stated "When France sneezes, the whole of Europe catches a cold". 😊
A cassette copy of Past Masters Volume 2 was my formal introduction to the Beatles, given by a High School mate. When the riff of Day Tripper kicked in, it changed my life forever. I never looked back! ❤
I bought myself a cassette player a couple of years before a record player. It was in the 1970’s and I was a teenager.
My girlfriend bought by mistake “Please please me” on cassette for my birthday. It was really “1962-66” I’d wanted but I didn’t say anything - except thank you. Her mistake was understandable, it’s practically the same photo on the cover.
Later I started collecting Beatles on vinyl.
It took me a long time to get used to the “right” track listing on the vinyl “Please please me”😆
In Italy there never has been a strong market for pre-recorded music cassettes, people preferred to buy blanks to copy vinyls or to create their own lists. Great video as usual, Andrew.
In the mid 70’s when I began collecting Beatles my first few albums were on cassette. The US cassette version of Yellow Submarine began side two with the bonus track Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds before beginning George Martin’s contributions. Once I picked up a vinyl copy, I really missed having that song as part of my YS experience. After those first few tapes, everything was on vinyl from then on.
My introduction to the Beatles were the 2 volumes of Rock & Roll Music on cassette and they will always hold a special place in my heart.
Not having a stereo set up in my room, my Beatles collection consisted of the U.S. albums in mono. I was saving up for a stereo system when a friend played me his Beatles collection on the 8-track player he had installed in his car. It was the first time I had heard any of the Beatles songs in stereo and I was so blown away I bought the same 8-track system for my car, instead of buying a stereo for my room. I thought I finally had the ultimate set up until a few years later I bought the English 8-track of "Help" with the gold packaging, and it was incredible! The sound quality was so far superior to what I was used to that I bought the entire Beatles catalog on the English 8-Tracks along with an 8-track player system for my room. All the echo, reverb and hiss of the Capitol 8-tracks was gone which made for a truly pleasurable listening experience. Also, the English tapes did not create as much "shadowing" (hearing another song from another program in the background while you were listening to the primary program.) Shadowing is usually associated with cheaper 8-track players, (head adjustment and cleaning helps) but I found it also was present when I upgraded to a better system. Still love both sets of 8-tracks and play them to this day.
What a great, interesting comment! Wow, a happy ending story from an original 8-track owner. That's really made my day. I was also from that era, but my 8-tracks went to heaven when my car player went.
I have vivid memories of the week 8-tracks were officially discontinued. Store marked every title down to $1. No matter who the artist was. It was really shocking... And, still, they kind of sat there. A few weeks later, they were 4 for $1. They vanished quickly, at that price. It was something to see...
@@CraiginOhioUSA
Hi Craig, Yes, I remember when the 8-tracks were discontinued also. My local Tower Records lined the tape section with garbage cans and poured the 8-tracks in them. You had to dig and dig, but it was worth it because I got a ton of Apple 8-tracks, solo Beatles, Badfinger, Mary Hopkin, Emitt Rhodes Beach Boys, Kingston Trio etc. I bought multiple copies and still have some sealed ones! They also discontinued the 8-track cases so I was able to pick up several of those as well, all at $1 each. My home system is an AKAI player and a Pioneer Super Tuner for the car. Too Much FUN!
@@williamglenn5327 That, also, is so intriguing. Too bad there isn't any videotape of those moments. I realised it was a one-time-only moment in the history of media, but I never thought about taking a snapshot.
@@CraiginOhioUSA AGREED!
I'd heard that 'shadowing' on vinyl releases - in particular on the PVC release of Anthony Phillips & Enrique Berro-Garcia's 'Antiques' album where the ending of a previous track was heard in the background just as another was about to start. And continuing on the subject of Genesis and related solo work, there was a double cassette release of Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot, where Timetable got shifted to after Fountain Of Salmacis on Side One to make the running order more even!
Strangely, when I first got into The Beatles in 1979 at the age of 8, my source of playing music was a Sear receiver/turntable with built-in 8 Track recorder (fancy stuff!). So I would go to the mall and grab the odd 8-track and my first was "Yesterday And Today", which actually had a completely different mix of "Im Only Sleeping", at least in terms of the backwards guitars. To this day, I can still hear the jump cut in the middle of "Day Tripper" where one program advances to the other. Stange days indeed.
I'm from Argentina and I grew up with The Beatles' cassette tapes. However, the tracklisting was true to the original UK Lps, so I'm very surprised it wasn't so elsewhere!!
No todos eran igual al LP 8-)
I was introduced to The Beatles in the very late 90s, but my main introduction has been my mum's cassette collection.
They there mostly German/Swiss 70s editions, so they had the usual track listing, but Abbey Road, which my mother bought in late 1969/early 1970, had that curious switch-up. So I first listened to it and grew my appreciation for it with the two George songs kicking it out and the Lennon double Come Together/Because starting off Side 2.
You can imagine my surprise when I read in the books (I started studying The Beatles right aways by late 1999) that the tracklist of that album was indeed different
I remember sitting in my brother's truck and listening to Sgt. Pepper on 8 track. It was so cool to listen to in spite of the fact that the tape would stop mid track so it could play side 2. I was warned not to run down the truck battery!! Thanks Andrew for another terrific presentation!
Great memories, Michael!
The first 'album' I ever bought was Revolver, on compact cassette (in 1976). It's still my favourite record to this day, and for me the definitive running order is the one on that old cassette!
I had Meet The Beatles and a few other Beatle albums on 8-track. I remember one song was chopped between tracks. Also, on Abbey Road, Her Majesty was placed somewhere in the middle with the final song being The End, appropriately. I had all the American versions on cassette as well. Cassettes were fun little toys because I could bring my little player with me when I was hanging out with the boys. Great memories. Thanks for another great upload!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I became a Beatles fan in 1987. The first Beatles albums I actually owned (as opposed to taping from the radio, taping from public library copies, etc.) were Abbey Road and Let It Be on cassette, Christmas presents from my brother. This is America, so they were Capitol-branded. Abbey Road reflected the tape in your video, with the opening tracks juxtaposed, but Let It Be moved "I, Me, Mine" to the beginning of side 2. I didn't know that was different, so I was kind of blindsided when the CDs came out and I heard "I, Me, Mine" seemingly out of place! Those were really the only Beatles cassettes I ever owned, except someone (probably my brother) got me one of the Tony Sheridan reissues some time later. I started buying the CDs in 1990 after I got a CD player.
Also in America -- "Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9" were listed as "Revolution No. 1" and "Revolution No. 9" on the Capitol cassettes. And Yellow Submarine actually had sort of a bonus track: "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" kicked off side 2!
I'm stunned that for the cassette they didn't put "I Saw Her Standing There" back in its place rather than just follow the 8-track arrangement!
“Abbey Road” on cassette with “Here Comes the Sun” as the opening track is how I first heard the album in the late 1970s and how I still anticipate it to this very day! Thanks for the insightful episode, Andrew!
Thanks Matthew. Glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah, same here. I had that one on 8 track tape as a kid and thats the way I always remember Abbey Road is with the 1st song being Here Comes The Sun.
When I made my own cassete copy on type II tape I used a C46 and followed the prerecordeds tracklisting as it fitted beautifully.
Really enjoyed this episode, Andrew! I really like how you give a history of the format before delving into The Beatles use of it!
I would love to see another special look into the Beatles filming of Help!, if you have any other interesting tidbits, like you did with the Austria scenes! 😊
Glad you enjoyed it! I’d love a trip to The Bahamas!
Thank you for covering this. As teenagers in the early 80s, my brother and I had Rubber Soul and Revolver on tape which was our first listen to those albums and just accepted that was the track listing…and because I first heard them this way, in some ways, it still is. Great video.
I remember back in the early 70's, there was a record shop in Dugdale Street (Nuneaton) that would swap any pre-recorded cassette tape for another (even chart album tapes) for just 50p. We would go to Tandy and buy some obscure pre-recorded tapes for 50p and directly swap them, thereby getting a current chart tape for just a quid. An album at this time would be around £2.50p so quite a saving. As an added bonus, we would record albums onto blank tape before re-swapping back. We soon built up quite a library.
You may remember that this shop in Dugdale Street was one of the very few that sold UK Beatles albums to the USA.
Are you talking about What Records?
I grew up listening to The Beatles on my brother's Lp's. After that, I started buying my own 8 tracks. l fondly remember the track listings The weird thing was that on some of the songs they would tag another repeat ending or have false starts to round out the timing of the 4 tracks. The unfortunate thing about living in Minnesota where the weather can get well below 0 in the winter, these tapes would slow down to about half speed in the car until you finally got to your destination and the car warmed up. They also became very brittle, so I'm pretty sure I bought multiple copies of various Beatles 8 tracks. I purchased the Plastic Ono Band, Live Peace in Toronto on a little revolving counter stand at a small gas station out in the country. Pretty sure the old guy behind the counter had no idea the music that was in that square box.
I can remember in the early 90's ,I worked in a factory,and I bought Beatles cassette albums,it brings back a lot of memories.
I had a casette called Only The Beatles..., a Heineken promo product, and it was the first time I'd heard 'Yes It Is' and 'This Boy', & it was quite exciting to hear those two next to the hits.
Yes It Is indeed is a hidden Beatles classic. Imagine Giles Martin updating it now with only strings. Amazing to think it didn’t appear on either of their 65 albums, Help & Rubber Soul. A throw away B side..
Take the vinyl record, an 8 track recorder,80 or so minute cartridge, and viola..... you have the lp on the 8 track in tact! No rearranging the tracks for the convenience of record companies. Even when the track changes, the song continues with only a minor annoyance. No wait for it here. That's how we did it back then. What a memory. Thanks again Andrew, another great Beatle video. Keep them coming, PLEASE.
Glad you enjoyed it! Stay tuned or maybe subscribe?
I liked the track order of the Rubber Soul cassette tape. That was the track order I was used to. It was only much later, that I found out it wasn't the original track order.
Great video as always! I started collecting several UK gold inlay cassettes in the mid 1980s. Picture this Andrew, i remember popping into the Canterbury Our Price after school in early 1987 and discovered to my horror that the cassette track list was different. I couldn't understand why this had happened - I felt cheated 🤣 So i began collecting on record instead... and then EMI started releasing the XDR's with the correct order... arghhhhhhhhh! Confusing and dangerous times for a 16 year old trying to discover great music. 🤣😂😂 I now have a beautiful and complete Blue Box Cassette release and all the "vinyls".
My first copy of Abbey Road was a cassette version that put the two George songs back to back at the start of side one.
My first 8-track car player was life-changing. For the first time, I was not subject to the tyranny of radio. I could play what I wanted to hear. Later I was able to make my own tapes, which was even better.
For me, when I was first introduced to the Red and Blue Album, it was the 8 track running order. I memorized it song for song until I got the original vinyl. Shocked me!
The random order still survived after 1987 in North America. When the UK editions came over here, I bought Revolver, WTB and AHDN on vinyl, but PPM on cassette and got used to the wacky running order... and any time I hear Misery it still sounds like an alternate opening track.
Yes that's right, Capitol's XDR cassettes were presented as the UK gold/brown top editions.
I had never seen a UK cassette before (pre-internet) and it took me years to discover that Capitol had used the brown/gold theme because they were copying the UK cassettes!
Thanks for this video. My Beatle journey started in 86 and I accessed their albums through my local record library. Most were vinyl copies but some - memorably abbey road and especially Revolver - were cassette. I copied onto my own cassettes as I went. As a result I was convinced that Revolver kicked off with good day sunshine and over time just became convinced I must have started with side 2. When the video reached Revolver it was like validation of my memories after nearly 40 years. And it explains why even to this day, Here Comes The Sun doesn't sit right with me opening side 2. It's because for me, it didn't!
I could have cried knowing that my memory was far more functional than I thought. It was validation I don't know I needed!
The local library record, tape and latterly CD sections were great - we had a superb one in Stourbridge where I grew up - I even bought some of their LPs off them when it closed in the late 90s. Pre-internet it was a great way to sample all sorts of different types of music, and it helped me to broaden my music tastes enormously as a teenager.
3 things I hated about 8-track tapes: #1. Split songs! #2. Some early 8-track tapes used a rubber wheel which turned into a gooey mess and damaged the player and was very hard to clean! Thankfully all the wheels were later made of hard plastic. #3. Many times the silver channel changer/splice would come apart and the tape would get eaten and destroyed by the player! Thanks for the bad memories! BTW, I found a brand new 8-track player stand-alone home unit still in the original box from a flea market vendor a few years ago for $5.00 - works perfectly!
This was a great episode.
I grew up on cassettes in the US, starting with a copy of the White Album in around 1979. It came in a black with gold letters (I think) slipcase that I promptly discarded. The order was a bit different. Blackbird ends side one, which was pretty nice with the birds tweeting right before CLUNK the tape ends. Bungalow Bill's title is just that. Revolution "No 1" ends side 3. Sexy Sadie starts the last side. Each tape is Part 1 and Part 2.
I went right to the CD version in the 90s and thus never experienced the vinyl order as much as I did these tapes in my own Walkman.
Thanks again for the cool videos!
Glad you're enjoying the channel, Jimmy!
Haha, that version of I've Got A Feeling..
"Oh no, oh no, the side is ending.."
*starts up on other side*
"Yeah, yeeeeah! We're back!"
Since you wanted to know about how the Beatles tapes fared in the US, I'll add my story. In 1994, I was 15 and I started getting into the Beatles after renting Yellow Submarine on my birthday and then later renting A Hard Day's Night and Help! during the summer.Most of my mother's vinyl albums were stolen long before I was born and I didn't have a CD player yet so I started with cassette tapes. The first two I got were Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road. Someone mentioned that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was tacked onto Side 2 of the cassette version of Yellow Submarine. That is true. It's on my cassette from 1994. Abbey Road made a change to the opening tracks of each side. On cassette, George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun opens Side 1 while John Lennon's Come Together opens Side 2.
I borrowed the two cassette set of The Beatles White Album from the library around the same time. They made some odd changes to the running order in the US. On cassette 1 side 1, Blackbird is moved to the final track of the side after While My Guitar Gently Weeps. On cassette 2 side 1, Sexy Sadie is clipped out and moved to the beginning of Side 2. Unlike the UK cassette release, Good Night closes the US cassette.
I did get Live at the BBC on cassette that fall but it retains the same running order as the CD.
As far as the Beatles on cassette went for me, this is where it ends. Christmas 1994, I got my first CD player with the two Past Masters albums and Yellow Submarine. It was only CD from then on.
I started collecting Beatles albums on both vinyl and cassette in roughly 1983. I don't remember a mixed up track listing on any of the cassettes I had though. And then of course, 1987 rolls around, and we get the standardized versions on CD for the first time. There are days I wish I held onto more of the records and cassettes I had instead of getting rid of them because I now had "everything" on CD. Love your channel and super informative and always entertaining videos, Andrew!
Glad you enjoyed it, Stephen!
Fascinating episode, Andrew! Back in the mid-to-late 70s, I had a copy of Sgt. Pepper on 8-track here in the States. Aside from the butchered track sequencing, my recollection of it was that the sound quality was crisp, clean, and warm, and I enjoyed listening to it on my dad’s hi-fi whenever I could. It was the closest thing to an audiophile experience a young teen in the New Jersey suburbs in those days could get. Now my preferred experience is on vinyl, at home anyway.
While I never owned an 8-Track, having a cassette player in your home stereo system was a must. Mine was a dual deck, where I could make my own compilation tapes from my album collection, then transfer them straight to other blank tapes for my friends. I didn't really start buying pre-recorded tapes until a got a player installed in my car.
One of my friends did have 8-Track, both at home and in his Mini Cooper. It was weird when a song would fade out in the middle, followed by a very audible click as the track switched, then the song would fade in again. One of Moody Blues tapes had the track listing so badly rearranged that one of my favourite albums became a very sombre and unlistenable affair.
Overall, while cassettes were convenient for playing in the car (radio drives me nuts for all the ads and the incessant talking) and for keeping my vinyl away from others at parties, I have always preferred the joys of my vinyl collection. It always seemed to be a better and warmer sound, while appreciating the artwork and reading the liner notes was so much easier from an album sleeve.
I’ve always felt that “Here Comes the Sun” was a better opener for “Abbey Road” than “Come Together.”
I always felt that Here Comes the Sun is the perfect palate cleanser to start side 2 after I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
Thank you for another great video! This one was especially fun since I know little of the cassette/eight track formatting history of the Beatles catalogue. Alot of my friends played Beatles/solo recordings on tape when I was growing up, but I was a vinyl purist, and didn't want to be cheated of all the amazing album cover artwork as well. Most published discographies of the Beatles (certainly book-wise) document the vinyl issuance history only, which added to my vinyl chauvinism. I always assumed in America, where I live, tapes were intended for car-obsessed Americans. I was surprised reading the accompanying comments that alot of folks bought tapes to listen at home, not just for their car stereo systems!
We had an 8 track player in the mid 70s. No Beatles cartridges, but we did have Wings At The Speed of sound, which I remember fondly…….fast forward, and literally this weekend I acquired a box of cartridges from a deceased estate - and in there is a copy of 1967-1970, with I Am The Walrus split over 2 programmes - sacrilege!
In the mid 70s, I was given a few Capitol 8-tracks of The Fabs albums. By this time, I was very familiar with the vinyl versions. I had a home system with an 8-track, and also a car system. To be honest, the 8-tracks I was given had already been played to death, and sounded like absolute rubbish. So I really cannot give an accurate review of their initial sound. Yet it gives you an idea of the downside of 8-track: inferior tape, high-speed tape duplication, baking in a parked car for hours on end which led to disintegration and of course...........the worst: the more you played the tape, the tighter the reel became. That meant breakage. I had to buy a tape-splicing kit from Radio Shack to repair most of my tapes. In the short (but extremely painful) 6 years that I had 8-tracks, I was so happy to move on to cassette. But I rarely bought pre-recorded cassettes, but I know from experience they were not much better. By this time, I had already seen the future, and it was CD. I was also a recording studio engineer at this time, so I knew that any format was a compromise. Today, most people listen to music on their smartphone or earbuds, so hi-fidelity is no longer an issue for most. This is a shame, but the underlying factor is that it is free. Yet, there remains a hard-core lot that fight the power, and want to hear music the way it was meant to be heard.......in a better format that is steps above AM radio. I heard a few years ago that albums would be released on SD cards, but that never happened. Oh well. So let's go back to 1966, when I dropped the stylus and heard......"Four! Well, she was just seventeen, and you know what I mean.............* Forever The Fabs
One cassete tape that I remember cleary to this day is my dad always playing The Beatles Capitol Yesterday and Today, really loved the songs on that album.
As a kid in the US in the late 70s, I became a Beatles fan solely because my parents had the red greatest hits albums on 8-track in the car. I could either listen to bad country music on the AM radio, or listen to Drive My Car again for the 500th time; I always made the right choice.
That was fun! I never liked eight tracks myself. Mind youI'm so old, that the first car my Dad bought was a used 1952 Austin A40 Somerset which didn't even have a radio in it!
I had a black 1954 A40 Somerset in the late '80s. It had such character. I loved its big column gear change and trafficators.
@@Parlogram Brilliant! Ours was SPF254 and it was black, too! They were built like tanks, I remember that it relly struggled with the hills in Exmoor on our summer holiday in '62, I heard a lot of Frank Ifield and Joe Brown on the radio. In retrospect, it seems that we were all just waiting for the Beatles! 🙂
That's quite weird, I was clearing out a cupboard the other day and found a box of my old tapes, lots of them, including my Beatle ones, and started playing and cleaning them up, and then you post this, wow
I am slightly older than 50, and I can say that the first TWO cars I owned came with 8 track players in them, so I had friends and relatives give me their old 8 tracks, and it was fun to here the .. ca-chunk .. sound when the program switched to the next one.
When I was really young, my grandmother had a 8 track recorder player in her house, so my dad and I would often go to her place and make mixed tapes from our vinyl that we could listen to in the car.
At one point, my mom got a Lincoln Towne Car and it had a Quadraphonic 8 track player in it, and DAMN, it sounded great for the 2 tapes we had for it (one had a quad version of Money by Pink Floyd I believe) and I've not had a better car sound system until I recently bought a late 90's Mercedes E320. Of course, the 8 track tape version of Animals by Pink Floyd had an otherwise unreleased guitar solo linking Pigs on a Wing part 1 and 2.
Great memories!
Excellent episode as usual! I was pretty much strictly albums on vinyl, but recorded Rubber Soul and Sgt Pepper’s to 8-Track after checking them out from the library. Those were the only two I listened to in the car. I still remember the “chunk” between songs as the tracks changed to the next one.😁
The covers for the cassettes remind me greatly of the old extended boxes CDs were sold in before they developed the plastic security frames.
My dad was a young man with a car in 1970s America, so he had more 8-tracks than vinyl records. Like you said, that was the big portable format here. Cassettes were available in the US, but not nearly as popular until the 80s. I remember as I was growing up, he would often say, "Oh yeah, I had that one on 8-track."
I became a vinyl record nut as a young kid because my dad was still playing records in the 90s when everyone else's parents were onto CDs and cassettes (due more to his "thriftiness" than anything, haha). But I never shared his warm feelings for 8-tracks. I got a bit into them, but it didn't last because of the tracklist butchering and split songs. Plus they usually sounded like crap (although that often came down to unmaintained players, worn-out tape, and crumbling pads).
Every time I hear Ramble On by Led Zeppelin, I remember where it was split on the 8-track I first heard that album on.
The real crime is that reel-to-reel tapes sometimes suffered from this "make every program/side the same length" obsession. I know Grand Funk Railroad's "red album" had shortened versions of some songs. What a waste of that format's potential. Too bad the guy in charge couldn't first seek therapy before making that decisions!
A fascinating look at these two formats, Andrew! The only Beatles related cassette I have is Mind Games, which I seem to remember was being sold cheaply in WH Smith's in the mid 70s! The XDR versions look interesting though.
My Beatles introduction was through cassettes. My dad would buy them so he could listen in the car as well. The only 'real' album he had was Hard Days Night, so, for me, the tracklisting on that is what I always think of, ending with You Can't Do That (one of my faves). He also had red and blue from the same series, the ones with the gold/brown background, which I think we're programmed correctly.
Another great video. I didn't know that the original cassette versions completely changed the running order of the albums, I think it's an interesting way to hear the albums in a different order. I had a copy of Please Please Me on cassette bought new around 1985 whilst on holiday in Scotland. It was in full stereo, I must have listened to it many times on my personal Alba stereo with the lovely orange headphones. I was amazed with the two track stereo on Twist and Shout as a 10 year old I was overwhelmed with the experience. One thing I can't tell you is the running order of the album. I assume it was different to the LP version. Sadly I don't think I have the cassette anymore
Omg.....I still have my Teleton 8 track home player - £66 - from the 70s, my Pioneer car 8 track player from 1971- £41.18s - ( which was branded as Lear in the US ) and hundreds of 8 track "cartridges".
The players still work perfectly and so do all the Beatles cartridges as I serviced everyone of them recently with new sponge and chrome joints.
The 1962-1966 8 track has half of nowhere man on program 3 and " conclusion" on program 4, where 1967-1970 has half of I am the walrus on program 1 and "conclusion" on program 2.
I found a used US 8-track of Wings Wild Life at a thrift store in the late 80’s when I first got into the Beatles. It sounded pretty good. I remember the high hat on “Dear Friend” being crispy! It kept on breaking, and I got frustrated and scrapped it out.
I love cassettes. But being born in 1990 i never experienced the 8-track. I recall my parents had a copy of the Beatles 20 greatest hits on cassette. And when I first was showing interest in them when I was 7 or 8 my dad dubbed a custom cassette of introducing the Beatles vinyl on side a and the let it be cd (which was a recent gift for me) on side b so we could listen to it in the car as the car had a cassette deck but no cd player. I still have that cassette in my room. I may make a playlist of the tape track lists to experience it. And as for with the Beatles, devil in her heart might be my personal favorite on the album.
My first car, which I bought in 1980, had an 8-track player, so of course, I had to have all of the Beatles’ 8-tracks. My next car had a cassette deck, so I gave all of my 8-tracks to a friend, and replaced them with cassette copies. I regret giving them away now, but I still have the Beatles cassettes. They are a little worn, but they are pretty cool.
When I was in high school, I listened over and over again to the tape version of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, which also has a completely different track order. I've never heard the original order, and I suspect that if I did it would break my brain.
i still have boxes full of tape cassettes from the 1980s, but no cassette player to play them on as they're hard to come by now, i stupidly traded my old cassette player for cash long ago.
I've enjoyed picking up 8 tracks in recent years after I got given a load and I then picked up a player to test them. Obviusly I have a decent stereo setup so I didn't give them much credence. But that changed once I got it all setup.
Yes, you don't get a lot of high end, but the bass is just lovely, as it's twice the speed of cassette, has a nice compression and a decent warm sound. It's a curio, sure, but i enjoy listening to them from time to time. When setup well and serviced, they can sound particularly good.
Ha, before I came to check this week's video, I thought, "What's next, cassette tapes?"
I vaguely recall 8-track as a format being advertised but as someone who grew up on reel-to-reel tape I wanted a machine that I could record on and make my own programmes (including my voice). When audio cassette machines came along these fitted the bill nicely. Once I realised 8-track machines were only players they had no appeal for me. At least I've never heard of an 8-track machine that people used to record on. As for the Beatles music I would have difficulty recognising the vinyl sequence of their albums with the exception of Sgt Peppers, Abbey Road, White Album and possibly Revolver, mainly I suppose because Sgt Pepper's was the first vinyl Beatles album I'd heard from start to finish. Also its only recently that I've bothered to acquire some Beatles albums on cassette and started to notice their different track sequence. I'd never bought anything on cassette previously because I never owned a really good player until a few years ago after retiring when I was able to afford a new Nachamichi Cassette Deck2.
Well, Andrew, we have a little generational divide on this one. Being American, I had, until 1987, access only to the Capitol versions rather than the EMI ones, and CDs were expensive then. So my Beatles albums were Capitol vinyl versions recorded onto 90m cassettes. I think the only store-purchased cassettes were The Beatles (Part I and II on cassette), Rock 'N' Roll Music Vol 1 and 2 (at 14 in 1987, the Capitol budget line was helpful) and Sgt Pepper. And because my Rubber Soul was Capitol vinyl, I've Just Seen A Face is definitely my opening song. I have a Hey Jude/Yesterday And Today vinyl dub on cassette, which was mostly listened to in 1987-1990. But those 8-tracks are long before my time. My father remembers having The Beatles on his reel to reel (though he was more a vinyl person, and the Magical Mystery Tour album was my intro to the Beatles entirely) but not sure whether it was a home recording off air or an actual release.
My final Beatles cassette was With The Beatles, sometime in the early 1990s, but it was a mimic of the EMI release.
Andrew, to be honest, Capitol's cassettes weren't really spectacular. They were fine for a teenager in the late 1980s and a Walkman, but don't waste ant time on them.
There are songs i can't forget from my 8 Track tapes that were split and continued on a different track. We never had Beatles 8 tracks but I had many other tapes from other bands with split tracks.
A friend of mine had an 8-track tape player in the late 70s- early 80s, and I heard some of the Beatles tapes. When a song was cut into 2 programs, it would fade out, then you would hear the loud "CLICK!" and then it would fade back in. "Tomorrow Never Knows" was cut in half, right in the pause in the backward guitar solo. It's greatly preferable to hear the song all the way through, uninterrupted.
Man, that brings back memories. I had the US Revolver 8-track in my car. "Tomorrow Never Knows" was chopped in half between program 3 and 4. This now seems criminal. // Maybe I had a cheap auto 8 track player, I recall the playback frequently going wonky and having to jamb a cardboard matchbook in the side of the tape slot to make it play properly. Yes, those were the days.
Thank you Andrew - this was highly enjoyable and informative- the last couple shows missed the mark but now you are back on tracks-Cheers!
I love Beatles tapes, man. I just listened to several this weekend, tapes I’ve had for so many years. My favorite of all time is “The Beatles Ballads,” Singapore version. It has “For No One” starting Side 2. I also like “Hey Jude” and “Live At The Hollywood Bowl.” Man oh man tapes rule.
This channel has a big help to me trying to expand my Beatles listening experience and library so definitely I will be looking into cassette and eight tracks along with my cds
The only cassette I ever bought of the Beatles was Help! Way back in 1976 I just assumed that 'I Need You' would be first on the vinyl as well. I quite liked that running order, improved both sides.
Ah, the memories. Buying Beatles cassettes in the early '90s as a pre-teen, I remember thinking, "All right, now I'm getting the proper UK releases! Not like those other American suckers who came before me." Yeah, about that. I rolled with the weird Please Please Me and Hard Day's Night running orders, but Revolver was so mangled, I made a cassette copy with the proper running order and kept that copy in my commercial cassette case. That said, Rubber Soul and Abbey Road were a different story.
Historical purity be damned, to this day, I think I prefer "Norwegian Wood" and "Here Comes the Sun" as the opening tracks. Hear me out. "Drive My Car" doesn't sound too different from a Help! song, but "Norwegian Wood" says "Welcome to our new style, sit down, relax, have a cup of tea." I think "I've Just Seen a Face" on the US version works nicely as well, but I'm telling you, the cassette order had something. Likewise, with Abbey Road, yes, it's ridiculous putting the two George songs back to back, but I think John had already mentally left the Beatles by that point, so to me, "Here Comes the Sun" is a better introduction to the album's unstated theme of "Making Get Back was brutal, and this might be the end, but we're going to put the friction aside and make one last beautiful thing" than "Come Together" is.
Plus, artistic credibility aside, switching the two songs meant that the lengths of the two Abbey Road cassette sides were now almost exactly the same. And I mean EXACT. On vinyl, side one ran to 24:53, side two ran to 22:10. A cassette mimicking that running order would have featured almost three minutes of silence at the end of side two. No, no, no. But with one simple switch, both sides came out to almost precisely 23:30. Sure, it's not what the Beatles WANTED, but never mind. My Walkman had a handy “reverse” switch, and let me tell you, when I pressed it the very moment “Her Majesty” ended, I'd hear the opening acoustic strums of “Here Comes the Sun” like a split-second later. Same with “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Come Together.” It was a modern miracle of science.
Excellent video as always Andrew! Here in America since I was born in 1983 and didn’t start buying albums until 1995; the Capitol cassettes were the only way I could buy the US albums new because LPs were already discontinued. I still have a sentimental attachment to the 1987 CDs and 1995 “Limited Edition” LPs. Nevertheless, the C4 series which followed the XDR Capitol cassettes sound phenomenal. As for 8-Tracks, they never sounded great new; especially decades later if they even survived not be eaten or snapped during playback. Unfortunately Capitol never issued their 8-Tracks with Ampex shells that has pad glued to more robust metal tongs.🫡
Growing up in the 70s and 80s I remember cassettes generally being a little more expensive than vinyl which seemed a poor deal given that you got so much more for your money with a vinyl in terms of album sleeve etc. I did collect most of the Beatles cassettes with the brown or gold covers and the tracklistings were odd to say the least and seemed just a random shuffle. Eventually got rid of them when I found most of the XDR releases for a bargain price in a second hand shop! Still have them but as for a cassette player... well, maybe I'll make the effort to find a good one some day!
Andrew, here's an idea for a future video:
The bonus inserts in the Sgt. Pepper LP Magical Mystery Tour EP, and the White Album, and then why there was nothing for Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road LPs.
I proudly own all the main Beatle albums on cassette tape. Don't hardly play them, but they're displayed and cool to look at.
A very interesting video, thanks Andrew! I'll keep a look out for the cassettes.
Great episode! The Capitol Sgt. Pepper 8-track is perhaps the only instance of a Beatles song being extended specifically to fill the 8 track release: the Sgt. Pepper Reprise has another "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely, Sgt Pepper's Lonely.... " verse added after Paul's "woooo!" I'm not sure if this is the case with the UK version.
Thanks! Sadly the UK 8 track wasn't extended.
As usual, you are right about the origin of the Stereo 8 cartridge, and its backing by Lear Jet and Ford. But one major adopter was overlooked: RCA Victor. In 1965, RCA partnered with Lear Jet, with an initial release of 175 Stereo 8 tapes drawn from the RCA catalog, to be issued the following September. As RCA would be the main Stereo 8 producer at the time, they made tapes for other labels, such as United Artists and US Decca.
The very first Beatles Stereo 8 cartridge released was "A Hard Day's Night", (United Artists UA8T-3006), manufactured and distributed by RCA, and packaged in the "clamshell" packaging commonly used for RCA-manufactured Stereo 8's at the time. Of course, this is impossible to find now!
This was fun to view! The USA Capitol albums on cassette, certainly those produced for sale after 1987, sound excellent and up until the 'Capitol Albums Vol. 1 & 2' CD sets in 2004-06 were the last time the US analog issues were sold in bulk/tandem with the then "new" standardized UK albums. Coincidentally, there was overlap in the states between the US and UK cassette/LP/CD issues in 1987-1994 where you could walk into a chain or independent music store and see both versions for sale side by side. It was completely a preference, where if one wanted to buy 'Rubber Soul' or 'Revolver' on cassette, you would pay around $14.99 for either a US or UK album, the US albums of course having the shorter or omitted track order verses the full, randomized order of the UK issues. Earlier US cassette releases, both pre and post Dolby sound decent, but cassette deterioration is a common encounter 40 years on, so those releases are often hit and miss if you find them in the wild for a listen.
I recall having The Blue Album 67-70 on cassette. The opening Strawberry Fields Forever was rewound again and again till the tape broke (LOL...I was obsessed) . I think they even took out the part where the song fades in again at the end out of the cassette part for running time
That false fade/fade-in was such a surprise to me when I heard the Blue Album on vinyl! It sounded like a train going by.
Truly one of your best, Andrew. I was in rapt attention, every second.
I'm glad you actually presented the hideous, shocking split of "Got A Feeling " on the 8-track. Just imagine- some engineer deliberately did that. In the US, I've heard many a divided track on 8-track. I am 58. I was there... And always, there was a very fast fade down, and fade up, to avoid that suddenly chop-silence-blast effect. I can clearly remember, it was annoying, but I always noticed that at least care had been taken to do fades.
I remember the robust sound of 8-tracks. But, the sound coming from the cartridge, the tape actually spinning in it's plastic case, was always audible to my sensive young ears, and very distracting. 8-tracks were the coolest format with kids, from 1975 to 1979. And then, suddenly, cassettes were preferred. I didn't like cassettes either, the sound was not as good as 8-track, and the tape stock and duplication quality was insulting. Even as a kid, I knew they were a waste of my limited money. I considered records to be "forever " and tapes were handy but destined to be thrown away after they failed. I still have every record I ever owned. Kids who bought tapes have only the memories.
Andrew, your attention to detail on the track variations makes a fascinating documentary, thank you for this excellent presentation.
Thanks Craig. Much appreciated!
This reminds me that I used to have several Beatles albums on cassette by 1973 and always remembered Good Day Sunshine as the opening track for Revolver and that I'd recalled Here Comes the Sun opening Abbey Road. This also explains why I had Magical Mystery Tour on cassette long before the record came out, which always used to confuse me.
I really like the track listing for Rubber Soul as it not only has good opening songs for both sides but keeps the variety of lead vocalist going.
Another cracking video! Thanks Andrew, really appreciate the amount of work and professionalism you put into your posts 😊🙏🏼
Thanks Ady. I appreciate your comments 😊
In the US, “For You Blue” was split into 2 halves on the “Let It Be” 8 track. it fades out after George says “Elmore James got nothing on this thing.”
I had several of the 70's cassettes and 8-track tapes (U.S.) "Abbey Road" was unusual but an interesting feel as George's two songs were back-to-back and the 8-track I owned had "Her Majesty" on one of the middle programs while the last track on program 4 was "The End" which really should have been the last track anyway. The U.S. "Yellow Submarine" tapes also had as a bonus track "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" to open side two of the cassette, preceding George Martin's score. The United Artists issued "A Hard Day's Night" soundtrack had The Beatles songs and George Martin's score mixed on the tracks in a rather haphazard manner, also. I played all those tapes until they wore out, though. Sadly, 8-track cartridges didn't have a long shelf life between the thinner tape, the heat from the player and of course the clicks from the changing of the tracks. Enjoyed this presentation a lot. Brought back some nice memories.
Glad you enjoyed it!
And the US cassette running order was its own beast. Between myself and a friend we had several of the Beatles' albums on tape, mostly the Capitol XDR versions (so I got used to that booping at the beginning of side 1). The White Album had yet a different track order. Let It Be was similar to the vinyl, but I Me Mine opened side 2 (I prefer this sequencing). Yellow Submarine was mostly intact but for some reason they added "Lucy in the Sky" at the beginning of side 2.
Man, I knew 8 tracks were poorer in fidelity, but this was a surprise for my vinyl and cd trained ears 😂! Even cassettes had better high frequency responses, well, at least mine did. As always, this video was a real delight to watch! Can't wait for more
Thanks for watching. Glad you enjoyed it!
As a kid I was given an original Apple 1962-70 and an original Capitol R"n"r music cassette (in about 81). It's been a while but the 62-67 tape sounded top heavy, lots of treble. Since I didn't have the Help album for some years, that loud James Bond music on side two before Help used to startle the shit out of me! Not sure if they were using dolby yet. The ink on the label is almost all wiped off unfortunately from being handled. Not so the R'n'r music cassette, the ink is fine on it. I remember it sounding pretty beefy but I had a US vol.1 and a UK vol.2 reissue of that comp on albums which I played more often than the tape.
That was a nice trip down memory lane. Oh, the joy ive had rewinding tape back into its casing with a pencil because my cassette player chewed them up, annoying at the time but i remember it with some affection. My cassettes probably sound terrible now, if i could find them. Really enjoyed this video thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
A couple of years ago, I bought the Capitol 8-track release of the “White Album”($25 US)on Discogs…the tapes and cardboard sleeve are black!
Thanks for another awesome video, Andrew!
The first North American cassettes of the White album came with the same black slip case design as the 8 track.
@@dano5876 Thanks, Dano! I didn’t think about the cassette version! Cheers!
i was 5 or 6 years old when i asked my dad about a cassette with "men standing in a mountain" of course it was Yellow Submarine, and yes I KNOW its the least beloved one but, im very fund to it, anyway, the tracks were exactly the same, then (after listening to it 2 or 3 times a day every day) he gave me magical mistery tour, difference was with all you need is love and im the walrus, first one was the end of side A and second one was end of side B; BTW im from Mexico maybe thats a reason.
then he went to the States and brought the white album, sgt peppers and the red album. i dont remember the track list for TWA, but i do recall the XDR sound at the beginning and end of each side and that in the red album, side B, before Help! kicks in there was the "james bond" intro.
thanks Andrew!
Great memories. Thanks for sharing them!
This may be my favorite video from you, well informed, well produced and perfectly written great job.
Thank you, Josh!
It's bizarre that my teenage nieces now engage in tape compilation swapping with their friends (something I did throughout the 1980s/90s and considered as dead as the proverbial dodo) but I guess giving someone a tangible object, with decorated cases and inserts with personal comments on the tracklisting is much more satisfying than sending files or handing over a memory stick.
My first Beatles album was Rubber Soul, on a cassette I bought in a WHSmith sale in the earl 1980s. That was the track order I was used to from the start, and I love it too.
I understand the need to swap song order to fit the tape, but it should still be possible to start out with the intended opening track. Artistically it sets the tone for everything that follows… especially on an album like A Hard Day’s Night. Also it seems equally wrong not to end Sgt. Pepper with “A Day in the Life.” That song is clearly the big finale to the album.
I’m glad I didn’t have 8-track as my first exposure to these albums. In cases where they had to break up songs, I suspect those breaks are still ingrained in the memories of former 8-track listeners.
Thanks for the videos! It has re-ignited my love of the Beatles and I’ve started collecting again!
That's great to hear!
Thank you for another fascinating video. I grew up in the middle east in the 1980s and never heard of eight tracks until really late, but still enjoyed this video very much.
Also, i can not believe the americans did what they did to 'I've got a feeling'. That's so disrespectful. Not to mention, one of my personal top 10 Beatles songs.
Andrew, interesting video, as always. I don't believe we really cared the record order back in the early and mid-60s. The idea of the LP came only with Zappa and Sergeant Pepper later in the 60s.. In our Karmann Ghia or VW Beatles, those cassettes were a way to carry the songs with us. Portable music. That was fun. With our AMs portable radios. And then the Walkman... Of course, the cutting of the songs was a downer. As was the CD cutting of Side 2 of Abbey Road. As teenagers, I believe we really did not care. We did not own great sound systems. We were glad our Grundig gave us decent stereo. It is only recently that we started to realize, Oh Gee, that record sounded awful... And this is when King Crismon and Pink Floyd sounded like heaven on earth soundwise. So thank you for your educational insights.
One thing I noticed about the eight track format, was the tracks/programs were too close together, such that when the end of one program was done, there would be a few seconds of space before the next track/program would click over and start. During that dead space, if you listened closely, you could hear muffled music coming from one of the programs. The tape head was picking up part of one of the programs. it was hard to figure out which song was being played.
I started listening to The Beatles in 92, when I was 10.
At the time, I started collecting tapes and got some with the correct track order… but my dad also gave me some of his tapes.
One of those is a US Capitol Revolver tape that has some songs missing… I’m Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing and Dr Robert.
The others I owned were 70’s tapes from Odeon Brazil, and they did have the correct order.