As a collector, sometimes you stumble onto an interesting vinyl album or CD variation that most (normal?) people would just look at and shrug but to you it’s so cool.
To the uninitiated out there this happens A LOT to record collectors. In fact I’d dare say it happens to collectors of all types.
Anyway, today I thought I’d do a post about a really fun variation for a Beatles CD that came out in 2014 – “Yesterday … And Today” by The Beatles.
The “Yesterday … And Today” album was part of the 50th anniversary celebration of The Beatles coming to America in 1964 and was part of The Beatles “U.S. Albums”; a multi-CD set that contained all the American released Capitol Beatles albums. Most of the CDs in this set were also released on individual CDs as well.
The CD’s that were sold separately from the “U.S. Albums” box set came with nifty black OBI like paper wraps and included all the cool original Capitol inner sleeves and detailed miniature album artwork that exactly replicated the Capitol vinyl pressings.
(Note: the lone CD not sold separately was “The Beatles’ Story” which was exclusive to the “U.S. Albums” box set)
The cool thing about the “U.S. Albums” set was that it took The Beatles American Capitol albums and used the same covers and track sequencing as the original 1960’s vinyl and updated the sound dropping all excess echo, fake stereo tracks as well as all fold-down stereo to mono tracks while keeping most of the unique Capitol mixes that were a part of those albums.
This updating of sound did not sit well with a lot of fans who wanted the EXACT Capitol mixes with added echo warts and all and I can see their point. BUT these U.S. album updates sound great to me and feature the 2009 remastered Beatles tracks in mono and stereo for each album in terrific sound – a win win situation in my eyes.
One of the highlights of these 2014 CD’s is the “Yesterday … And Today” album. Not only did it feature a replica of the infamous “Butcher Cover” but it also contained some of my favorite Capitol exclusive mixes including unique U.S. mono mixes of “I’m Only Sleeping”, “Doctor Robert” and “And Your Bird Can Sing” as well as unique US stereo mixes of “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work it Out”.
Well of course I own the “U.S. Albums” box set but I also have a set of the cool Obi stand alone releases as well. In fact the catalog numbers on the individual discs is different than the catalog numbers in the big set so these really are fun variations to collect.
Which brings me finally to the cool variation of the “Yesterday … And Today” CD that I received in the mail yesterday. I wanted another copy of the CD for my car so I ordered one from Amazon. Since these are out of print and will probably be disappearing I thought I might as well get one while I can.
When the CD arrived in the mail I was amazed to find that this copy of the “Yesterday … And Today” CD was pressed in Argentina! For some reason I thought that all the CDs for these US Capitol Albums collection were pressed in either the EU or the USA. I guess not.
Of course I was thrilled to get another variation and so I thought I’d share it here for anyone else who may care to see it.
There are a few differences on the Argentina pressed CD – the trunk cover of the album is just an insert and not a sticker like the US pressed CD and the disc itself has more of a matte finish and isn’t as glossy as the US pressed CD. Also the inner sleeve of the Argentina CD pressing isn’t quite as bright as it’s made from a thinner type of paper though still looks quite good.
For those Beatles freaks like me who want to see all small the differences I’ve posted several photos of the Argentina disc followed by the US pressed version as well. It’s the little things that excite collectors so pardon my madness and take a gaze above to see for yourself.
The U.S. Albums box set and individual titles are still available but the supplies must be getting pretty limited. If you have any interest in them at all I’d buy some sooner rather than later.
Well that’s all for now.
Until next time be well and see you soon!!!
Records, CDs and Music: 