The Beatles and Frank Ifield STEREO VJ Vee Jay

$

125

COLLECTOR’S CORNER – “JOLLY WHAT! THE BEATLES & FRANK IFIELD ON STAGE:” A VEE JAY ‘FLOP’ BECOMES A HIGHLY COVETED COLLECTOR’S ITEM.
During Vee Jay Records’ mad scramble to get as much Beatles product out while they still could, the troubled US record label came up with an idea for a new LP release for February 1964. Jolly What! The Beatles & Frank Ifield On Stage was a curious collection of tracks that I will discuss here, beginning with some preliminary information.
BACKGROUND By January 1964 Beatlemania had struck in America. Vee Jay already had three singles and a hit album out by the fabs. The first two singles, released in 1963, fell on deaf ears in America, during a time before anyone west of the Atlantic had heard of the band. These two singles were Please Please/Ask Me Me Why (VJ 498) and From Me To You/Thank You Girl (VJ 522). Shortly after Capitol Records released their initial breakthrough Beatles offering, the I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There single, Vee Jay quickly followed up by getting their Introducing The Beatles LP in the stores a good week and a half before Capitol’s Meet The Beatles! made it’s appearance. To compete further with Capitol, Vee Jay strategically combined the A sides of their initial two Beatles singles to create the double-sided hit single Please Please Me/From Me To You (VJ 581).
Vee Jay initially had control over 16 Beatles songs in the United States: stereo and mono mixes of all but two of the original 14 tracks from the British debut LP Please Please Me (“Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You” didn’t have stereo mixes) and the mono mixes of the two tracks that appeared on the British follow-up single to Please Please Me – “From Me To You” and “Thank You Girl”. The Introducing The Beatles album initially contained 12 of the 14 tracks on the British Please Please Me LP omitting “Please Please Me” and “Ask Me Why” which were already released on a Vee Jay single. In January 1964, one of 3 Beatles-related lawsuits issued against Vee Jay, prohibited them from distributing records containing “Love Me Do” or “P.S. I Love You.” This was because Vee Jay neglected to pay the required royalties to Beechwood Music Inc., the publishing company for these songs. Vee Jay quickly reconfigured the album by replacing these two tracks with “Please Please Me” and “Ask Me Why.” (From Beatles Rarity . com.)
62176 L25