The Beatles 1962-1966 (a.k.a. The Red Album)

The Beatles 1962-1966 - LP Cover

The Beatles 1962-1966 - Gatefold Interior

Label	Apple
Catalogue No.	PCSP 717 PCSPR 717 (Red Vinyl) CDPCSP 717 (C.D.)
Release dates	19th April 1973 30th September 1978 (Red Vinyl) September 1993 (CD)
Total time
U.K. Album Chart Detail :	Entry Date : 5th May 1973 Highest Position : 3 Weeks in Chart : 114 (The 1973 original release) +34 from 20th December 1978 (Red vinyl issue ... reached number 37) +24 from 2nd October 1993 (CD release ... also reached number 3 !) + 2 from 28th October 2007 (reached no.71) === 174 Total weeks in chart.
Detail :	The Beatles fourteenth "official" album release, but the first after splitting, and this is where we stop counting these releases as official ! In 1973 E.M.I. (under the Apple banner) released two double albums of the "Best" of The Beatles, The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970. The package of this release has the catalogue number PCSP 717, but the two albums are individually numbered as PCS 7171 and PCS 7172, which actually fits in with the Parlophone numbering of the time. The album was also released on cassette tape, Catalogue number - TC2 PCSP 717. The estimated worldwide sales of this double L.P. are under 2 million. The gatefold sleeve features a shot on the front cover that was taken at the "Please Please Me" cover shoot, but is obviously different, and the rear cover is the shot that had originally been taken for the aborted "Get Back" L.P. The inner sleeves matched the colour of the front cover's outer border, and had the lyrics printed upon them. Unfortunately, nothing new on the album, every track had been previously released. And here we had a double L.P. with EVERY track written by Lennon & McCartney ! Five years later on 2nd December 1978 during the coloured vinyl boom, E.M.I. re-promoted the pair of L.P.s on coloured vinyl that matched the covers theme colour, e.g. the release of "1962-1966" was on red vinyl, and "1967-1970" on blue. Incidentally, my record catalogue also has an L.P. release of The red album in September 1991 on catalogue number PCSP 7231. In September 1993 the red and blue album's had their first release on C.D.'s, 1962-1966 had a catalogue number of CDPCSP 717 And on the same day, the record shop H.M.V. produced a special 12" numbered CD Box Set Comprising: The C.D. of "The Beatles 1962-1966" + A badge + A booklet of b/w photos + Extended notes about the L.P. This set had a catalogue number of BEA CD 25/11, and was in a limited edition. 14th February 1994 - E.M.I. released coloured vinyl editions of the new digitally enhanced Red and Blue albums and pressed just 20,000 copies. E.M.I. then deleted the release immediately. The album was also released on twin-cassette tapes (1⅞ ips) - Catalogue number - TC2-PCSP 717 The album was also released on twin 8-track stereo continuous play cartridges (3¾ ips) - catalogue no. 8X2-PCSP 717 I didn't notice any particular Beatles campaigns in 2007, but in October the "Red Album" hit the charts again. On 21st October it just about missed the Top 75 (the Official Chart) when it went from 193 to 77. But the following week on 28th October 2007 it entered the chart at no. 71. (The "Blue Album" narrowly missed out though, when on 21st October it went from 181 to 91, but didn't get into the Top 75.) 4th November 2007 - The Red Album dropped one place to number 72. 11th November 2007 - The Red Album dropped from number 72 out of the official chart to number 79. 18th November 2007 - The Red Album dropped further out of the official chart to number 88. 25th November 2007 - For it's final week in listings that I could see, The Red Album dropped from number 88 to number 99.

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