THE BEATLES' ALBUMS: BEATLES VI

BEATLES VI
(ST 2358)
Released: June 14th, 1965 

From Wikipedia and thebeatlesbook.com ― 

Capitol Records pulled off the ultimate feat in 1964. Since they had passed up the opportunity to release any Beatles music in America in 1963, it made available to them enough music to fill a total of four albums the following year, all of which sold in the millions. In fact, it is estimated that Capitol sold over 15 million records throughout the year.  And this was without hardly touching their first British album "Please Please Me."

As 1965 began, the question was whether Capitol could release four albums during this year also. Since The Beatles were only planning on recording two albums during the year (as they had the previous year), it might be a difficult task to squeeze those songs into four American albums. One thing in Capitol's favor was their acquiring of the rights to the first album on October 15th, 1964, winning the lawsuits against Vee Jay Records who originally released this material in the US. This being the case, Capitol released "The Early Beatles" on March 22nd, 1965, exactly two years after these songs were released in Britain. That makes one Beatles album for 1965.

Since the soundtrack album to their second feature film "Help!" wasn't due to be released until August of 1965, that would be a long gap between album releases in the states. Not to mention the six songs from the British "Beatles For Sale" album that Capitol was holding in reserve for the next album. Of course, six songs is not enough for a new album, but where would they get at least five more to fill out this proposed second album of 1965?



Make-Up Of The Album ― 

In actuality, Capitol was already in possession of five other Beatle titles that they hadn't issued on any album up to that point. First of all, they had just issued their latest single "Ticket To Ride" which had just debuted on the American singles charts as of the first week of May, 1965. While this song was earmarked for their upcoming soundtrack album, its b-side, "Yes It Is," was not, and therefore could be included in this make-shift album.

The other four spots on this album could also easily have been filled. There were three songs from their 1963 recordings that Capitol had yet to include on an album, these being "From Me To You," "Misery" and "There's A Place." Capitol omitted these songs from their recently released "The Early Beatles" album, so they may have been considered for this one. Also, EMI duly dispatched both German-language recordings The Beatles made in January of 1964 to America, Capitol only releasing "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" on the "Something New" album. Therefore, Capitol still had "Sie Liebt Dich" ("She Loves You") in their vaults and could easily have included this on the new album as well.

Luckily for all of America, Capitol decided against issuing the album with these last four titles. Instead of regurgitating songs from two years ago, most of which American audiences had heard before, they instead wanted to premier a new Beatles album in the states. This meant that they had to contact EMI in Britain to see what new Beatles tracks were available for release in the US. Since George Martin was happy to comply with their request the year before, resulting in him sending "Long Tall Sally" and "I Call Your Name" for inclusion on the US album "The Beatles' Second Album" months before they were heard in Britain, Capitol didn't hesitate to ask again.

As it turned out, The Beatles had just recorded four songs that were not slated to be on the upcoming soundtrack album, which the exact number of songs Capitol needed. Two of these, Lennon and McCartney's "Tell Me What You See" and George Harrison's "You Like Me Too Much," were deemed suitable for sending to America. Unfortunately, the other two songs, "That Means A Lot" and "If You've Got Trouble," weren't viewed as good enough songs. It was even questionable at this time whether they would be released at all. So, another idea had to be hatched for supplying Capitol with two more songs.

The solution was that The Beatles would enter EMI recording studios to record two new songs specifically for Capitol to include on their new album. After The Beatles completed a days' shooting for the movie "Help!" at the Cliveden House in Berkshire (shooting scenes for the inside of Buckingham Palace) on May 10th, 1965, they spent that evening in EMI Studio Two recording two songs for the American album. To play it safe, John Lennon suggested they record two cover songs they were well acquainted with from their formative touring days. Both of these were Larry Williams rockers, "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Bad Boy." After the session, mono and stereo mixes of the songs were made and were duly dispatched to Capitol Records the next day by air freight.

Cover Art ― 

As soon as Capitol found out what the four new song titles were, they wasted no time in preparing the cover for the new album. After all, they wanted to make sure the album was in the stores well before the "Help!" soundtrack album was released. On the back cover, they included four pictures of The Beatles in EMI Studio Two from September of 1964 recording the "Beatles For Sale" album. The most noteworthy picture was of Ringo playing the timpani during the recording session for "Every Little Thing," which just happened to be included on "Beatles VI."

An interesting detail that many of the early purchasers may have noticed is that Capitol hadn't even decided the running order of the album when they put together the back cover. The first edition of the album shows the sentence "(See label for correct playing order)" above the list of songs. They were in such a hurry to get this together that they even misspelled "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" as "Lizzie" on the front and back covers as well as the actual record label. The second edition of the back cover showed the proper running order of the songs, but they never corrected the misspelling of "Lizzy."

The front cover also has some interesting details. Capitol was so proud to be the first to premier four new Beatles songs to the world that they listed them first on the front cover, followed by the recent number one single "Eight Days A Week" and then the others. One large photo of The Beatles is contained on the front cover, which was taken on the same day as the pictures that graced the "Beatles '65" album (note the same clothes they're wearing). 

While The Beatles looked quite bored for the photo session with the umbrellas and other props as seen on the previous album (Bob Whitaker being the photographer), they all seem smiling and enthusiastic in the cover picture for "Beatles VI" (Bill Francis being the photographer). Maybe they liked the props for this photo shoot (credited to "Fabulous Magazine - Fleetway Publications Ltd.) better than the last one.

However, the only question is: What is the prop in this picture? Many fans have wondered what the heck the four Beatles all have their hands on in this photo. This question can be answered by viewing the other pictures taken during this photo shoot, as well as this full picture before it was cropped for the album cover. It shows all four Beatles grasping a long knife cutting a cake. To prove that this wasn't the product of "Photo Shop," there are other pictures showing them with the cut cake as well as eating it. So, the mystery is solved!

Recording The Album ― 

Since "Beatles VI" was a composite album created expressly for the American market, as Capitol's merchandizing vice president Brown Meggs explained in the June 5th, 1965 issue of Billboard, the recording sessions were spread over nine and a half months. September 29th, 1964 was the first session for the album,

resulting in the song "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" being fully recorded, and the last session was on May 10th, 1965 when both "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Bad Boy" were recorded. Only nine sessions were held during this whole span of time that resulted in the complete "Beatles VI" album.

While this album contained some definite high spots, the recent US number one single "Eight Days A Week" being a prime example, the album is generally viewed in retrospect as one of their weaker American albums. The majority of the impressive cuts from their British "Beatles For Sale" album had already been placed on the previous "Beatles '65" album, so what was leftover needed some spunk to spruce things up. Unfortunately, the more recent tracks offered from EMI were ones that didn't quite make the cut for being in the upcoming soundtrack album, so they weren't the best they had to offer at the time.

Producer George Martin agrees with this conclusion. "They were rather war weary...One must remember that they'd been battered like mad throughout 1964, and much of 1963. Success is a wonderful thing but it is very, very tiring. They were always on the go. (The album) doesn't appeal to me very much now; it's not one of their most memorable ones. They perked up again after that..."

Nonetheless, America accepted the album with wide-open arms. Just after its release on June 14th, 1965, it took only three weeks to hit the number one spot on the Billboard album charts (from 149 to 48 to 1). It stayed in the top spot for six straight weeks and spent a further seven weeks in the top ten. The last four weeks of its stay in the top ten were the first four weeks that their follow-up album, "Help!", was at number one. Needless to say, America got a good dose of Beatlemania in the summer of 1965.

The Beatles VI Album Cover ―  

The Mysterious Case of the Beatle Brollies!

Back in January, 1998, Cecil Adams fearlessly accepted the challenge of the toughest Beatle question in his syndicated Straight Dope column. It began as follows:

Dear Cecil:

I have received a question pertaining to the Beatles from a friend. I have no idea what the answer is. What do all four Beatles hold on the cover of the Beatles '65 album? - Lee, via AOL

Dear Lee:

I have the album right here. You forget how big these things were - 12 inches by 12. (To be precise, 12-5/16 by 12-1/16.) Perfect for examining for hidden meanings while listening to the album on headphones. Can you do that with the dinky paper inserts on today's CDs? I think not. And there were hidden meanings, too. Beatles '65 is a good example. There are four photos, representing the four seasons. (No, I don't mean the group the Four Seasons. I mean the cycle of meteorological variation you might have noticed had you not been holed up in your room all the time listening to records.) In the largest of the four photos, the Beatles are holding umbrellas representing winter - winter as experienced in London, one feels obliged to say, not Minneapolis. In the other photos they're holding parasols and a knotted handkerchief for summer, brooms and leaves for autumn, and giant springs and a green shoot for spring. Springs for spring! The Beatles have grasped the pun! Truly these were multitalented guys... - Cecil Adams

Even though this essay is screaming out for further discussion, none of the Beatle fans I know - including the millions on the internet - raised an eyebrow at it. Guess it's up to me...

I don't know Lee from AOL. I don't know his friend. I do know that he meant to say Beatles VI, not Beatles '65. This shouldn't require a single word of explanation, but here goes.

1. Beatles VI and Beatles '65 can be easily confused as albums, neither being a "real" Beatles LP, both being Capitol concoctions, both drawing heavily on material from Beatles For Sale, both being released within a half-year of each other. Beatles VI was released smack in the middle of 1965. (Beatles '65 was not released in 1965.)

2. Beatles VI and Beatles '65 can be easily confused as album titles. They both have the form "Beatles" followed by a number. The number in each case is dominated by "six". Visually, they each show a prominent "five" as well. Another potentially confusing element is that they represent consecutive releases of new Beatle material in America - and were released out of numerical sequence, with 65 coming before 6. Brilliant titling, huh? (The fact that Capitol released The Early Beatles album in between these two early Beatles albums doesn't help much in nailing all of this down.)

3. If Lee were talking about Beatles '65, he would have said, "What are the Beatles holding...", not, "What do all 4 Beatles hold...", which is the appropriate question for Beatles VI.

4. The point of the Straight Dope column is to answer tough questions. Even 2-year-olds know what an umbrella looks like. Surely, Cecil can put his not inconsiderable investigative powers to better use than that. What all four Beatles are holding on Beatles VI is far from obvious - if not downright impossible to determine - making it a somewhat more interesting question.

I've heard what the Beatles are holding on Beatles VI - Scott Muni answered this question on his Ticket To Ride radio series - but I'll leave it to someone who can actually direct us to the uncropped photo to tell us. When I was a kid, I thought maybe it was a microphone with a cord hanging down. Nope.

Notice that Cecil tries to humiliate poor Lee for his CD collection, but I'm willing to bet that his collection - like everybody else's - does not include Beatles '65. [At least as of 1998. In 2006 maybe Lee went nuts with his money and grabbed up the cds of the Capitol Beatle albums.]

Cecil brought up the Four Seasons pop group in a half-hearted stab at jocularity, but totally fumbled a chance to make hay with the infamous, but wholly legitimate, VeeJay double album, "The Beatles vs. the Four Seasons".

Also, I wonder where Cecil got those album jacket measurements, a quarter inch out of square. I just stuck a ruler on all the old Capitol jackets and they seem to be as square as you can hope to chop cardboard, averaging about 12 3/8 inch on a side. One dimension might differ from the other by up to 1/16 inch on a given jacket.

Experts . . . Man, I sure hope they do better in fields you don't know anything about. You can see the whole column, in which Cecil rambles on about the Butcher Cover, at the Straight Dope web site.


Addendum I, Dec 28 2006

All right, all right. Here it is going on January 2007, and nine years is much too long to keep everybody in suspenders. Click on the following to hear the transcript from Scott Muni's Ticket To Ride radio show:

This week we got a letter from Michelle Boomer from Visalia, California. She writes, "Dear Scott, what is it the Beatles are holding on the cover of Beatles VI?"

Thanks for the question, Michelle. Although you can only see the handle, the lads actually have their hands on a knife. The picture is cropped to conceal the weapon, but I saw a full shot and it's a knife - and it's stuck in a cutting board!

(A cutting board??? Oh, dear!)


Addendum II, Jan 21 2007

Well, after adding Addendum I, things kicked into high gear for this page. Within days, I got a nice email from the Michelle Boomer, herself! It's hard to know which of us was the more surprised. Imagine finding a transcript on the web of a letter you sent to a radio station almost 20 years earlier (I figure about April 1988) when you were a 12-year-old kid! I hope nobody out there is taking this miraculous internet thingie for granted yet, or ever will.

And then, a few days later, I got another nice email from Michael B. providing links to other, uncropped photos from the same session, solving the mystery once and for all. Let us call the photos Beatles VI.2 and Beatles VI.3. Now, visit the fine page that shows these pictures in the context of the Robert Whitaker photo shoot from late 1964, including the album cover version that caused all the trouble in the first place (Beatles VI.1).

It's a birthday cake! SCOTT MUNI YOU HAVE MISLED ME! (Experts, urrgghh . . . )

I know that people have said before it was a birthday cake, but my web searches on the obvious keywords never turned up any photos backing up the claim. On top of that, at least one person out there claimed that the cake photo was a fraud; that the cake was edited in for a certain publication. That could easily be the case for the second photo, but definitely not the third. It would be nice to find a fuller version of the album cover shot showing the cake. Until then, Scott Muni's lawyer can argue they were using a cutting board on some practice shots before the cake arrived.

Luckily, I am only responsible for spreading the cutting board misinformation to the world for less than a month. Whew.

Finally, let me draw your attention to the weirdest photo from the Robert Whitaker session. It was used for the Beatles '65 album cover. This is truly strange. The Beatles are holding up these batons, or cue sticks, or pointers, or somethings... And what it looks like, is, near the end of the stick is a bicycle wheel with the rim removed, so just the spokes are left. And then, there's something stretched over the spokes, like rubber, I guess, that's so tight it actually puts a curve in the spokes(!) Maybe it's an antenna of some sort? Anyhow, if anyone thinks he can identify these strange devices and offer up any sort theory of what they might be used for, no matter how implausible, please contact me and I'll definitely record your speculation here.

ME: Much ado about nothing!

Track Listing ― 

Side one

1. "Medley: "Kansas City"/"Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller/Richard Penniman) McCartney 2:30
2. "Eight Days a Week" (Lennon with McCartney) 2:43
3. "You Like Me Too Much" (George Harrison) Harrison 2:34
4. "Bad Boy" (Larry Williams) Lennon 2:17
5. "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" (Lennon with McCartney) 2:33
6. "Words of Love" (Buddy Holly) (Lennon and McCartney) 2:10

Side two

1. "What You're Doing" (McCartney) 2:30
2. "Yes It Is" (Lennon with Harrison and McCartney) 2:40
3. "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" (Williams) Lennon 2:51
4. "Tell Me What You See" (McCartney with Lennon) 2:35
5. "Every Little Thing" (Lennon with McCartney) 2:01