Mono Masters (Mono - 2009 remaster)

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Disc 1

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Disc 2

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About

From the press release, April 7, 2009:

Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are delighted to announce the release of the original Beatles catalogue, which has been digitally re-mastered for the first time, for worldwide CD release on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 (9-9-09), the same date as the release of the widely anticipated “The Beatles: Rock Band” video game. Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original UK album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. On the same date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will also be released. […]

A second boxed set has been created with the collector in mind. ‘The Beatles in Mono’ gathers together, in one place, all of the Beatles recordings that were mixed for a mono release. It will contain 10 of the albums with their original mono mixes, plus two further discs of mono masters (covering similar ground to the stereo tracks on ‘Past Masters’). As an added bonus, the mono “Help!” and “Rubber Soul” discs also include the original 1965 stereo mixes, which have not been previously released on CD. These albums will be packaged in mini-vinyl CD replicas of the original sleeves with all original inserts and label designs retained. […]

‘The Beatles in Mono’ (boxed set only)
The mono albums have been remastered by Paul Hicks, Sean Magee with Guy Massey and Steve Rooke
Presented together in box with an essay written by Kevin Howlett
+ = mono mix CD debut

Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day’s Night
Beatles For Sale
Help! (CD also includes original 1965 stereo mix)+
Rubber Soul (CD also include original 1965 stereo mix)+
Revolver+
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band+
Magical Mystery Tour+
The Beatles+
Mono Masters […]

From the liner notes:

Disc One

Principal Engineer: Norman Smith

Remastered by Paul Hicks, Sean Magee, Guy Massey, Steve Rooke

Project Co-ordinator: Allan Rouse

Thanks to Simon Gibson, Pete Nash and Staffan Olander

This album has been created from the original mono analogue master tapes with the exception of ‘Love Me Do’, which was remastered from a mono disc.

Disc Two

Principal Engineers: Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott, Glyn Johns, Barry Sheffield, Jeff Jarratt & Martin Benge

Remastered by Paul Hicks, Sean Magee, Guy Massey

Project Co-ordinator: Allan Rouse

Thanks to Simon Gibson, Pete Nash and Staffan Olander.

This remastered album has been created from the original mono analogue master tapes.

Notes for Mono Masters album
Kevin Howlett

During The Beatles’ first trip to the USA in February, 1964, they met Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali), who was challenging Sonny Liston for the World Heavyweight Boxing Title. It seemed anything could happen in that momentous month. Dramatically and against the odds, Sonny Liston was beaten by Cassius Clay and, just as unlikely a few months before, America was completely knocked out by a British pop act. The Beatles’ all-conquering success in 1964 encouraged an insatiable demand for their records. Previously neglected songs flooded the US market along with their current releases. Between October, 1962 and the end of 1964, eight singles were released in the UK; yet in just twelve months, fifteen singles featuring EMI Beatles recordings entered the American charts.

At the end of 1964, The Beatles appeared on the BBC radio programme Top Gear. They were heard chatting to the host Brian Matthew and performing both sides of their new single – ‘I Feel Fine’ / ‘She’s A Woman’ – and four songs from the latest album Beatles For Sale.

Brian Matthew: I’ve heard it said that a lot of these would make good singles. Do you think there’s any likelihood at all of them being released?

John: You can’t release singles off an LP after the LP’s been out.

Brian: A lot of people do.

Paul: Well, in America they do …

John: Well, they’re different over there, aren’t they?

Paul: In America they do that, but it’s a bit of a drag. Yes, a bit of a drag, that!

Clearly, it was frustrating to The Beatles that they could not control their release schedule outside the UK. However, at home, the singles policy stated by John was strictly adhered to – with only one exception when ‘Something’ / ‘Come Together’ was released a month after Abbey Road in 1969. Five of their albums include no singles at all.

When The Beatles’ music was first transferred to compact disc in 1987, the opportunity was taken to standardize the catalogue globally by following the form of the British albums – except for Magical Mystery Tour. Through the addition of recent singles, that British double-EP had expanded to an LP in America and a CD version of the album entered the core catalogue. To round up the remaining 33 non-album Beatles tracks – ranging from classic A-sides to hits sung in German – two CDs were released in 1988 called Past Master Volume One and Volume Two. Although originally featuring a combination of mono and stereo versions, the remastered compilation contains only the stereo mixes, if they exist. This new Mono Masters collection is a variation on the theme of Past Masters and has been designed to complement the albums in The Beatles In Mono box set. Its track listing is missing ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko’, ‘Old Brown Shoe’ and ‘Let It Be’ because they were never mixed in mono. However, as explained later, in order for this box set to feature every Beatles mono mix, ‘Only A Northern Song’, ‘All Together Now’, ‘Hey Bulldog’, and ‘It’s All Too Much’ from the Yellow Submarine album have been added.

The collection opens with ‘Love Me Do’ [Disc One Track 1] – the first Beatles Parlophone single released on 5^th October, 1962. Early pressings featured the version recorded on 4^th September, 1962 with Ringo playing drums. Later copies of the single used the recording made a week later with session man Andy White drumming and Ringo on tambourine. That version was also included on the album Please Please Me and eventually became an American number one. The original single rose no higher than number seventeen in the various British charts. Both sides of the first disc were original compositions – a remarkable statement of intent from a group making their first steps in the record business. In fact, their producer George Martin had urged them to record Mitch Murray’s ‘How Do You Do It?’, which he felt was a sure-fire hit. They had reluctantly agreed to try it but were able to persuade George to shelve the recording in favour of their own songs. Just one example of how The Beatles’ story might have been so different with a less open-minded record producer.

George Martin’s faith in The Beatles and their songwriters was soon vindicated by the release of ‘Please Please Me’/’Ask Me Why’ on 11^th January, 1963. The single topped all but one of the UK charts, including the BBC’s list used for its Pick Of The Pops programme. For British fans, if DJ Alan Freeman announced that it was a number one, then a genuine number one it was. Both songs are on the Please Please Me album. The follow-up was released on 11^th April, 1963 but neither side was included on their first LP or its successor. Once again, John’s harmonica playing was an essential part of the Beatles’ sound on ‘From Me To You’ [D1 Track 2] and its B-side ‘Thank You Girl’ [D1 Track 3] – both recorded on 5^th March, 1963.

Released on 23^rd August, the fourth single left no one in any doubt that, in the UK, 1963 belonged to the ubiquitous Beatles. At the time, one of the most famous things about ‘She loves You’ [D1 Track 4] was how frequently they sang the word ‘yeah’ (29 times!). It was an uncontrived use of a colloquial word but in an England that was not quite yet ‘swinging’, it seemed a novelty … daring even. Recorded on the same day – 1^st July – the equally catchy B-side ‘I’ll Get You’ [D1 Track ‘5] also features regular repetitions of ‘yeah’. In this year, The Beatles defined the word prolific. Between the session for ‘She Loves You’ and the release on 29^th November, 1963 of their next number one, the group recorded fourteen songs for their second album of the year With The Beatles. Such was their confidence that not one track was lifted from it as a single. Instead, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ [D1 Track 6] succeeded ‘She Loves You’ as the number one single and remains one of the biggest sellers of all time. The session to record it was held on 17^th October, 1963 and gave The Beatles their first opportunity to take advantage of four-track tape. From the same day’s recording, ‘This Boy’ [D1 Track 7] is a perfect example of the high quality of Beatles B-sides. Their love of American girl groups such as the Shirelles and Marvelettes with their exciting call-and-responses and harmonies had always permeated The Beatles’ arrangements. The intricate and tender three-part vocal blend of John, Paul and George on ‘This Boy’ showed another side of their impressive harmony singing.

In this era, the international music market was much less homogeneous. Hits sung in English were less likely to break into the parochial markets of non-English speaking countries. For this reason, The Beatles were asked to record German language versions of their two biggest hits – translated as ‘Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand’ [D1 Track 8} and ‘Sie Liebt Dich’ [D1 Track 9). The German version of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ consisted of the original instrumental track taken from the four-track tape with new overdubbed vocals and handclaps. The English vocal could not be separated from the recording of ‘She Loves You’ so their German version is a completely new performance. During this unusual session held on 29^th January, 1964 at EMI’s Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris, they also recorded their next number one single ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’. It became a worldwide hit – proof that foreign language versions were now irrelevant to The Beatles – and was also featured on their next album A Hard Day’s Night. The title track was issued as a single on the same day as the LP in July, 1964.

However, The Beatles did record four songs in the first half of 1964 that would not surface on a UK album. The EP (Extended Play) format had proved very popular with Beatles fans, who may not have been able to afford a long player. With usually two songs on each side of a seven-inch disc running at 45rpm, an EP was a more expensive alternative to a single but much cheaper to buy than a deluxe album. It also boosted a glossy picture sleeve rather than a standard paper cover. Four Beatles EPs had been released by February, 1964, which all contained previously issued songs. When a fifth EP arrived on 19^th June, 1964, it proved to be an essential purchase because none of the tracks was released on any other British record during the sixties.

Side one of the EP Long Tall Sally featured two songs recorded on 1^st March, 1964. Little Richard’s 1956 hit ‘Long Tall Sally’ [D1 Track 10) was captured in Just one take and the session had then progressed to the Lennon/McCartney composition ‘I Call Your Name’ [D1 Track 11}. The song was originally given to Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas, who placed it on the B-side of another gift from their label mates, the 1963 number one ‘Bad To Me’. The other side of the EP featured two rock ‘n’ roll favourites from The Beatles’ early repertoire. The Larry Williams composition ‘Slow Down’ [D1 Track 12] was found on the other side of his minor American hit ‘Dizzy, Miss Lizzy’ from 1958. The Beatles had learnt ‘Matchbox’ [D1 Track 13] from a 1957 record by Carl Perkins, who has proudly recalled watching the group revive his song in Studio Two on 1^st June, 1964.

During the sessions for their second album of that year, Beatles For Sale, the group worked on two songs that were eventually saved for a single released on 27^th November. Beatles singles always had ear-catching openings; for example, their previous hit ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ immediately struck the listener with the chime of its unusual first chord. In that vein, ‘I Feel Fine’ [D1 Track 14] began with distinctive feedback and distortion before the riff kicked in – a pioneering transformation of a technical problem into something mysterious and futuristic. The song was recorded on 18^th October, ten days after the B-side ‘She’s A Woman’ [D1 Track 15) was completed during the afternoon of 8^th October. The single topped both the UK and US charts at Christmas bringing their tally of American number ones during 1964 to six.

With one exception, the songs completed in The Beatles’ sessions from the first half of 1965 were released on their fifth album Help! and as two B-sides. The track that slipped through the net in the UK was ‘Bad Boy’ [D1 Track 16). This Larry Williams cover version was recorded on 10^th May, 1965 and appeared on the US album Beatles VI just a few weeks later. However, British fans were unable to buy ‘Bad Boy’ until it was interspersed with hits on A Collection Of Beatles Oldies released in December, 1966.

Released on 9^th April, 1965, ‘Ticket To Ride’ was the first new single of the year and was then followed by the title song of their second movie Help!. Issued on 23^rd July, that record preceded the soundtrack album by two weeks. Both singles were world-wide number ones and had B-sides that could not have been more different. Flip over ‘Ticket To Ride’ and there was the sensitive ballad ‘Yes It Is’ [D1 Track 17] – similar to ‘This Boy’ because of its 12/8 time signature and three-part harmony vocal but also distinguished by on alluring new guitar sound created by a foot-controlled volume pedal. George also used the effect on ‘I Need You’ recorded on the same day as ‘Yes It Is’, 16^th February. Turn over the ‘Help!’ single and ‘I’m Down’ [D1 Track 18) explodes with Paul’s Little Richard-style high-pitched vocal. After it was recorded during the afternoon of 14^th June, 1965, Paul calmed things down in the evening session when he gently sang one of the most famous and well-loved songs of the twentieth century, ‘Yesterday’. Now that’s versatility!

‘Yesterday’ was an American number one during October but not released as a single in the UK until 1976. The final Beatles single of 1965 was their first double A-side – ‘Day Tripper’/’We Can Work It Out’. Its release date of 3^rd December, 1965 was shared with their second LP of the year Rubber Soul. ‘Day Tripper’ [Disc Two Track l) was recorded on 16^th October during sessions for that album and is a tough sounding rocker built around a recurring riff. Four days later the group began work on ‘We Can Work It Out’ [D2 Track 2). The song is an uplifting plea for reconciliation and its arrangement includes the unusual touch of John playing a harmonium. The single earned The Beatles their third Christmas number one in the UK. The songs were listed separately on the American chart, which was influenced by the amount of radio plays received, and ‘We Can Work It Out’ proved to be the more popular side by reaching the top in January, 1966.

There was on unprecedented break of six months before the next British release. Both sides of the new single were recorded in April, 1966 during the making of the album Revolver and, when released on 10^th June, they gave a tantalising taste of how the group was progressing. ‘Paperback Writer’ [D2 Track 3) startled listeners with its opening vocal harmonies followed by an energetic riff and the loudest bass on a Beatles record to that date. The song’s literate lyric written in the form of a job application was equally arresting. The B-side ‘Rain’ [D2 Track 4) was soaked in sounds that came to be described as ‘psychedelic’ – most notably, a snatch of John’s vocal heard backwards. Ringo’s drum part on ‘Rain’ is an outstanding demonstration of how perfectly his style meshed with the group’s music.

Revolver was released on 5^th August, 1966 and, on the same day, two tracks from it – ‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ – were released as a double A-sided single. It became their twelfth consecutive UK number one since the sequence began with ‘Please Please Me’. The string of chart toppers was broken by their next single, which was released on 17^th February, 1967 following another relatively long gap for this prolific era. The artistic achievement of the double A-side ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’/’Penny Lane’ is undeniable but it was stuck at number two behind the UK’s biggest selling single of the year – ‘Release Me’ by Engelbert Humperdinck. The Beatles soon returned to the top of the chart in July with ‘All You Need Is Love’ and again in December with their final single of the year ‘Hello, Goodbye’. In 1967, The Beatles’ schedules ran parallel in the UK and America for singles but their album releases continued to differ. Five of the songs featured on their 1967 singles were used to create an album version of the British double-EP Magical Mystery Tour. ‘I Am The Walrus’ appeared on the EP package and the B-side of ‘Hello, Goodbye’.

The Beatles released just two singles in 1968. The first of the year was ‘Lady Madonna’ [D2 Track 5]. Propelled by Paul’s boogie woogie piano playing and featuring a lead vocal reminiscent of rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Fats Domino, it was recorded on 3^rd and 6^th February, 1968. It was released on 15^th March when The Beatles were scheduled to be studying transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India. Appropriately enough, the instrumental backing for the B-side was recorded at EMI’s recording studio in Bombay on 12^th January, 1968 and featured local musicians assembled by George Harrison to play soundtrack music for the film Wonderwall. Written at the request of Cambridge Sanskrit scholar Juan Mascaro, George’s song ‘The Inner Light’ [D2 Track 6] was infused with his deep interest in Indian religion and culture.

The Beatles returned to recording on 30^th May, 1968 and sessions continued with hardly a break until the middle of October. The expectant wait to hear a new collection of Beatles songs stretched until the double album The Beatles was released on 22^nd November. During that long interval, two songs were released on 30^th August, 1968 on the first Beatles single to be pressed with the Apple label. ‘Hey Jude’ [D2 Track 7] was recorded from 31^st July to 2^nd August at Trident – an independent recording studio that was attractive to the group because it had an eight-track tape machine when they were still restricted to four-track at EMI. The extra tracks were certainly an advantage because 36 orchestral instruments and a vocal chorus were added to the repeating ‘Na-na-na-na-na-na-na’ refrain. The single’s B-side was the thought-provoking rocker ‘Revolution’ [D2 Track 8]. Although this was the first version to be released, the song had originally been recorded with a more laid-back arrangement on the first day of the ‘White Album’ sessions. Entitled ‘Revolution 1’, this slower rendition opened side four of The Beatles. They began recording the single version on 10^th July with a completely different approach. John’s urgent lead vocal is driven by a backing track featuring fine electric piano playing from session man Nicky Hopkins and two distorted electric guitars. Their fuzzy sound is more pronounced in the mono mix; even prompting on first play of the single, many fans to check for fluff on the needle of their record players! ‘Hey Jude’ topped the charts in the UK and around the world. In the USA, it became The Beatles’ biggest selling single and stayed at number one for their longest run of nine weeks.

The group then released two albums in quick succession. The double-LP The Beatles yielded no singles. Released two months later in January, 1969, the soundtrack album Yellow Submarine included just four previously unreleased Beatles songs. One of them ‘Only A Northern Song’ [D2 Track 9] – had undergone such a complex recording process that only a mono mix had been completed in April, 1967. An artificially enhanced – or fake – stereo version had to be created from this for the stereo album. The mono LP was produced during the cutting process by a ‘fold down’ mix – simply combining the left and right channels from the stereo master tape. The previously unreleased mono mix of ‘Only A Northern Song’ is now available for the first time on the remastered Yellow Submarine and on this compilation.

Although released in ‘fold down’ mono, each of the other previously unreleased songs on the soundtrack album had actually been given a unique mono mix. When there was a plan to make the four songs available on a seven-inch EP running at LP speed, a mono master tape for the proposed record was compiled in March, 1969. Interestingly, this tape did not feature the ‘fold down’ versions of the mono LP but the proper mono mixes. There they are, at last: ‘All Together Now’ [D2 Track 10] mixed in May, 1967, ‘Hey Bulldog’ [D2 Track 11] mixed in February, 1968 and ‘It’s All Too Much’ [D2 Track 12] mixed in October, 1968 – seventeen months after it was first recorded.

The idea of an EP was abandoned and, soon after, The Beatles’ next seven-inch record was released on 11^th April, 1969 and featured another guest keyboard player. The group had first met Billy Preston in 1962 when he was in Hamburg with Little Richard’s band. In January, 1969, he came to London for a concert with Ray Charles and was invited to play with the group in the basement studio of the Apple building at 3, Savile Row. On 28^th January, they recorded both sides of the disc credited to ‘The Beatles with Billy Preston’. This is the only occasion when The Beatles chose to have another musician’s name alongside theirs on the label of a single. ‘Get Back’ [D2 Track 13] was a rocker inspired by their ‘back to our roots’ attitude of that time. The same take of ‘Get Back’ was released on the Let It Be album over a year later, although the LP did not include the vamping fade-out heard on the single after the false ending. John’s tender ballad on the B-side – ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ [D2 Track 14] – was not featured on Let It Be.

‘Get Back’ was the first American stereo single by The Beatles but in the UK it was the last to be mixed into mono. After six weeks at the top with ‘Get Back’, The Beatles rapidly returned to that position seven days later with their first British single released in stereo, ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko’. The A-side related the news of the couple’s recent wedding, honeymoon and Amsterdam ‘Bed-In’ for peace. It may have been the up-to-date lyric which required the song to be recorded as soon as possible – even if that meant only John and Paul were able to attend the session. Completed on 14^th April, 1969, all the instruments heard on the song are played by the two of them. For a second time, a George Harrison composition appeared on the B-side of a Beatles single. He had written ‘Old Brown Shoe’ during the Apple Studio sessions in January, 1969 but it was eventually recorded by the group at Abbey Road on 16^th and 18^th April.

Taken from the album Abbey Road, their third single of the year was the first with an A-side composed by George. Coupled with John’s ‘Come Together’, ‘Something’ reached number one in America in November, 1969. When released in the UK on 31^st October, it broke The Beatles’ previously inviolable rule of no British singles to be taken from an already available album. As it rose no higher than number four, its chart success may have been affected by this duplication. However, there was an opportunity to buy a fresh Beatles recording on 12^th December, 1969. The Beatles donated ‘Across The Universe’ [D2 Track 15] to a compilation album to raise funds for the World Wildlife Fund called No One’s Gonna Change Our World. The song had been recorded in February, 1968 during a week of sessions that also produced ‘Lady Madonna’. Although only released in stereo at the time, the song had been mixed in mono on the day recording was completed. This mix had sound effects added to the beginning and end of the song in January, 1969 and was intended to accompany the four Yellow Submarine songs on the projected EP mentioned earlier. This previously unreleased mix of ‘Across The Universe’ is exclusive to Mono Masters.

When mixed, ‘Across The Universe’ was speeded up by a semi-tone. The same take was eventually used for the Let It Be album but slowed down with orchestral and vocal overdubs added by producer Phil Spector. Another version of the song, with neither the Spector embellishments nor sound effects, can be heard on the 2003 album Let It Be … Nakes. This also runs at a different speed – the same as that of the four-track master tape.

The final Beatles single while the group was still officially an entity was released on 6^th March, 1970. Recorded as long ago as 31^st January, 1969, ‘Let It Be’ was now selected for release to promote a forthcoming documentary film and album with that title. The B-side – ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’ [D2 Track 16] – was an even older recording. The Beatles began work on this lampoon of cabaret crooners on 17^th May, 1967 and the following month Rolling Stone Brian Jones played alto saxophone on the song. Recording was completed by John and Paul on 30^th April, 1969 and the final edited mono mix was produced on 26^th November, 1969. At this point, it was intended to be on one side of a single by John’s side-project the Plastic Ono Band. That plan was vetoed and it eventually found its way into the shops on the back of ‘Let It Be’. Although the A-side was in stereo, there was no attempt to make a stereo mix of ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’ for the B-side.

For the second time in the UK, a Beatles single was presented in a picture sleeve. Previously, a cover featuring photographs of the group as infants was given a limited edition for the childhood-themed combination of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’. Just like that record, ‘Let It Be’ failed to make number one in the UK. It was held at number two by one of 1970’s best-sellers – ‘Wand’rin’ Star’ by Lee Marvin. However, in the States ‘Let It Be’ stepped up to the top after waiting behind ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ by Simon & Garfunkel. A week before the release of the Let It Be album in America, ‘The Long And Winding Road’ was issued as a US single and became their final number one seven weeks after ‘Let It Be’ ended its run at the top.

One of the remarkable things about this Mono Masters collection is, because they were not included on their British albums, many of The Beatles’ best-known and most acclaimed songs are present. We are also reminded of the vast amount of work that was created in a little over seven years. This was an era when even a pause of six months between single releases could be viewed as career-threatening. The way that The Beatles kept up the pace while consistently delivering innovative and memorable music is an extraordinary accomplishment. Indeed, viewed from the perspective of the 21^st century, it is nothing short of miraculous.

Kevin Howlett
February 2009

Last updated on May 6, 2021