The Beatles released an impressive 13 albums in a mere seven years. This was an astonishing achievement considering the quality and creativity of nearly every release.

The first four Beatles vinyl albums differ based on their location of release. Those released in the US were of lower sound quality and had some of their songs omitted. Additionally, even though the first four Beatles albums were originally released as both monaural and stereo recordings in the United Kingdom, stereo phonographs were quite rare in England at the time. Naturally, then, Martin and the Beatles only spent a lot of time on the mono mixes. Many early songs were later remastered by Capitol Records for the US as artificial stereo with bass on one side and treble on the other side, with loads of added echo, much to the disgust of fans today.

When it came time to release the Beatles catalog on CD, the decision was made to use the original British versions of the albums, since those were the "way the Beatles originally intended them to be." The first four CDs are of the original mono mixes. No official stereo mix of the first four albums has been released on compact disc, but there are plenty of "official looking" bootleg CDs floating around that include the US stereo mixes and even bear the "Apple" logo. Martin and the Beatles started to spend more time on stereo mixes by 1965.

Table of contents
1 In The U.K.
2 Compilations and other releases
3 Christmas Albums
4 In The U.S.
5 Filmography

In The U.K.

Originally signed to Parlophone/EMI in the UK, the Beatles' (UK) official studio albums (not including compilations and the like) were:

Compilations and other releases

Note: The reason for the Past Masters compilations are so that every song the Beatles released in 1962-1970 could be on a CD. They include singles and B-sides, two songs sung in German, the contents of an EP released in 1964 that had four additional songs, the "single" versions of the songs "Get Back" and "Let It Be", and a version of "Across the Universe" that had bird-like sound effects.
  • Live at the BBC, 1999 (Contains 36 songs the Beatles recorded for various BBC radio shows that never were recorded for Capitol/EMI. This collection only emphasizes how much the Beatles as the #1 band on the globe worked like dogs in 1963 and 1964, sometimes recording 18 songs in a session for the Beeb.)
  • The Beatles Anthology Volume 1, 1995 (Containing rarities, demos, out-takes and the first "new" Beatles song since the band broke up in 1970.)
  • The Beatles Anthology Volume 2, 1996 (Containing rarities, demos, and out-takes)
  • The Beatles Anthology Volume 3, 1996 (Containing rarities, demos, and out-takes)
  • 1 2000 (A collection of the Beatles' #1 hits on the Billboard [US] and Melody Maker [UK] charts, including both sides of their double-A sided singles if both hit the top slot. The collection has 27 songs in it.)

Christmas Albums

The Beatles also recorded annual Christmas albums for their fan club members. These remain largely unavailable today, with the exception of one track, "Christmastime Is Here Again", being released on a CD single in the 1990s:
  • The Beatles Christmas Record, 1963
  • Season's Greetings From The Beatles, 1964
  • The Beatles 3rd Christmas Record, 1965
  • Everywhere It's Christmas, 1966
  • Christmas Time Is Here Again, 1967
  • Beatles 1968 Christmas Record, 1968
  • Happy Christmas 1969, 1969

In The U.S.

In the United States, as noted above, the Beatles albums were rearranged, retitled and remixed. Some of the US releases were nearly identical to one another, often times only varying by one or two songs. Most releases contained songs that were also found on other records, which made things difficult for the American Beatles fan trying to purchase the band's entire catalog. Some of the US releases included:

See Beatles Bootlegs for a run down of some of the more popular unauthorized, illegal bootleg material.

Filmography