Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Just thought I'd let everyone know about a book called "The Beatles Digest, 2nd Edition". It is a high quality oversized "trade" paperback that I snagged last night at a Barnes and Noble for just $5.98 U.S. The names of some of the chapters intrigued me. At the back, there is a "price guide" with all of the recordings listed, including the Vee Jay. I have a couple of those LPs (great mono sound). The song's chart history is also noted. It also lists websites, fan clubs, etc. as of 2002.

Keep in mind that the vast majority of the Vee Jay Introducing the Beatles album (probably greater than 90%) are counterfeits.

They're not counterfeit's if'n I bought 'em 42 or 43 years ago!

Mine are also originals. My mom's female cousin gave them to me when I went nuts playing them in the early 70's when we visited. I was maybe around 10 or 11 at the time. That mono sounds great. I don't think Vee Jay touched the tapes.

There were lots of counterfeit copies sold as early as 1964. This is not my own conjecture, it's fact. Every time Capitol filed an injunction against Vee Jay and forced them to stop selling Beatles product, the counterfeiters jumped in and provided fake copies (that were sold in stores) to fulfill demand for the album.

Anyone who has copies of Introducing the Beatles should familiarize themselves with the characteristics of genuine Vee Jay product, and the identifiable features of fake albums. Here's a good place to start:

http://www.introducing.cjb.net/

Other counterfeited Vee Jay Beatles albums include: Songs, Pictures and Stories, Hear the Beatles Tell All, and The Beatles and Frank Ifield On Stage. I've never heard of a counterfeit copy of The Beatles vs. The Four Seasons. If you have a copy of that album, it's genuine.

I would say there are a lot of bootleg copies. But I've come across a lot of legit ones, too. And you've got to reckon that at least as many sold in '64 and 65 as sold in the 70s and such.

This is great info Kris! Thanks for posting it. I will check mine when I get home and report back.

On a related topic, the history of the implosion of Vee Jay is an interesting story in itself.

Ah, Vee Jay. I remember hearing "Please, Please Me" in early '63 on the radio in Chicago, and being mighty taken with the sound--I was 15 at the time. Yet everytime I mention this to someone in a Beatles-topic conversation, they look at me like I was from Mars (well, I am, but that's another story...).

It turns out that in March '63, VeeJay (a Gary, Indiana label who had lots of black artists as well as having recently had a #1 with the Four Seasons' "Sherry", did release the Beatles' "Please, Please Me", and it charted for a couple of weeks on Chicago's WLS-FM, a Top-40 station that was my main source of music back then.

Fascinating story:

http://www.dermon.com/Beatles/Veejay.htm

Thanks for the link Paul. That is a fascinating story indeed.

The Beatles second single Please Please Me / Ask Me Why was offered to Vee Jay by EMI after Capitol turned down the opportunity to release it in the U.S. Capitol had previously turned down Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You. EMI wanted to get the Beatles released in the States, so Vee Jay was chosen, and they put out the single in early 1963. Being a small company, Vee Jay did no promotion for the release, and it went nowhere. Stock copies of this single (VJ-498) are rare as hell (even promo copies are more common). When the Beatles third single From Me To You / Thank You Girl was released, Vee Jay got that one, too, and put it out - also a flop.

Vee Jay also had put together a Beatles album for release in July, 1963, called Introducing...the Beatles. Taking EMI's Please Please Me LP, they yanked two songs from the lineup, had cover art produced, mastered the album and had stampers made - then ran out of money. The album was shelved.

Because Vee Jay lost money on these two singles (coupled with internal financial problems), they didn't pay royalties to EMI for the small number of copies they did sell. So when the fourth single She Loves You / I'll Get You came out, EMI terminated Vee Jay's contract for non-payment, and offered the single to Philadelphia based Swan Records (Capitol was still refusing the Beatles singles). Swan had a small success with She Loves You in the Philly area and out in Los Angeles in the autumn of 1963.

Then things started to happen. Beatlemania spilled out of England and spread across Europe during the second half of '63. Capitol picked up on what was going on, so did Ed Sullivan. Sullivan booked the Beatles for three shows in February, 1964. Brian Epstein insisted on top billing. Capitol jumped at the chance to put out the fifth single I Want To Hold Your Hand / This Boy. EMI insisted that Capitol spend an unprecedented $50,000 in promotion. By November, 1963, The Beatles are coming ad campaign was in full swing with stickers and radio ads in most major American cities.

Remember Vee Jay? They saw what was going on, too. They saw a way to get some much needed capital for the company. Even without a contract, they pulled out the materials they had for Introducing... and started making albums. Vee Jay forced Capitol to rush release both the I Want To Hold Your Hand / I Saw Her Standing There single and the Meet The Beatles album, when they put out Introducing... on January 10th. Capitol scrambled to get an injunction against Vee Jay to stop selling Beatles product. Vee Jay's album sold for about two days, until barred by Capitol's injunction.

Vee Jay quickly counter-sued Capitol for the right to put out the songs they already had. They successfully lifted the injunction a day or two later. EMI got another injunction against Vee Jay a day later, because they claimed Vee Jay didn't have the rights to two of the songs on their album (Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You). Vee Jay quickly reconfigured the album, replacing those two songs with the two songs they had previously yanked (Please Please Me and Ask Me Why.

It's important to note that all this was happening during the week that Vee Jay had a Beatles album on the market, and Capitol did not! Vee Jay was the only game in town (along with the Swan single and a couple of singles imported from Capitol of Canada. And what about the few days that Vee Jay was barred form selling their album? You guessed it - Bootleggers and Counterfeiters filled the gaps!

This is how so many counterfeit copies were sold in the stores almost from day one. It's also how there are version 1 Introducing... albums with Love Me Do (rare), and version 2 albums with Please Please Me (more common).

OK, I'm back. This story gets stranger (cue 50's scary movie music), as I actually grew up for a bit in Gary, Indiana! Both of my parents went to high school there. We lived near the South Shore tracks way up on north side of the city in the Ambridge neighborhood.

I've checked my records using that website and my "Introducing the Beatles" definitely looks to be legit. I also forgot about another one I have called "Songs, Pictures, and Stories of the Beatles" - which was apparently aimed more at the female market as it was indeed bought by my mom's female cousin. Here is a link on that one:
http://www.geocities.com/flangehead2/LPs/SongsPicturesStories.html

I'm sort of glad I started the thread on the book, although we've actually talked more about Vee Jay. Didn't the guy who helped implode Vee Jay do the same thing at Motown - or at least cause problems there?

And (as Paul Harvey would say) is the rest of the story. Or at least an additional side note to the story.

It is Washington DC lore that a Maryland teenager was (partly) responsible for the Beatles success in the U.S. She asked a local disc jockey to play a Beatles record. The DJ actually got someone to fly in the record from England.

Here is a newspaper story about it from three years ago:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A21531-2004Jan15&notFound=true

The Beatles first concert in the U.S., btw, was in Washington. I've seen the film of it as I'm sure many of you have. It is something to see.

Yeah, I love how they played 'in the round' - Play a couple of songs. turn the drums and amps 90°, play a couple more songs, turn the drums and amps...

The photos of them hanging out on the frigid Mall, reporters and photographers a few feet away, and confused passersby glancing back, are priceless, too.

Cool, she has the BOAC copy.