The Beatles UK Tape Cassettes

Last updated October 2009, see here for details

Introduction
When I first began collecting The Beatle albums in the early 1980's, vinyl was already being dismissed as an old fashioned way of listening to music amongst teenagers. Tape Cassettes (or if you prefer, "Cassette Tapes"/ "Compact Cassettes"/ "Compact Audio Cassettes"/ "Musicassettes" etc. etc.) were free of pops and scratches and were easier to handle and by 1982 they were outselling vinyl. Yet I soon lived to regret the decision to buy the cassette versions once I saw the free posters given away with the vinyl White Album and the booklet that accompanied Magical Mystery Tour. It also has to be said that the UK Beatle cassettes did not have a very good reputation, mainly due to the curious decision by EMI to change the running order of the tracks (at least on the best known cassette versions available until the late 1980’s, See here.)
A year or so after I bought the CD versions (by which time I'd just about gotten used to the correct running orders!) my old cassettes were banished to a dark cupboard. Some 10 years later I gave most of them away to a friend. Now, for all their faults, I do miss those old tapes which had once took pride of place in my bedroom.

A UK history of the Beatles on cassette
There are basically six different types of Beatle cassette inlay designs that were issued between 1968-1987, for some large scans see our Gallery, but note that the label designs didn't always change at the same time as the inlays.

The Original Beatle Cassettes (1968-69)
Phillips introduced the Compact Cassette Tape in 1964 but EMI did not release any Beatle album on cassette until four years later, Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band being the first in 1968. Pepper cassettes were initially issued with green labels and included a distinctive Parlophone logo, the first pressings included a "Sold in the UK..." notice in the bottom right hand corner. In 1970 the labels were changed to yellow and by 1971 they were being stamped with a new black-boxed style Parlophone design with EMI's logo above it. The Abbey Road cassette also had green labels when it was first issued in late 1969 but did not include an Apple or Parlophone logo.
Unlike the 1970's inlays, these initial designs included some extra artwork other than just a reproduction of the front cover, the Pepper inlay foldover included black & white cut outs of the Beatles heads (as originally posed for the vinyl gatefold) whilst the Abbey Road foldover had a colour reproduction of the back cover of the vinyl jacket.
As with all Beatles cassettes issued until 1987, the cassette boxes (or to use the correct term, the Norelco cases) were clear plastic at the front and around the spine area (to reveal the inlay cover) and black plastic at the rear. The actual cassette shells were usually white/light grey (some may have been issued in black).

White Inlays (1970-72)
Let It Be was the next Beatle tape to be issued , perhaps a few weeks after the vinyl release, and was followed by Rubber Soul, Revolver and Oldies But Goldies in September 1970, then Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles For Sale and Help! in October 1970, and finally The White Album*. This left only Yellow Submarine unissued on cassette.
The 1970/71 cassettes all had white inlays and, aside from the small reproduction of the front cover, no artwork was included, nor were the original liner notes. The tracklistings were printed on the reverse of the inlay whilst the foldovers offered a list of other available Beatles/solo cassettes. The two exceptions to this rule were Revolver - which had a black spine and a black top above the front cover artwork - and The White Album - originally issued in mid-1971 inside a cigarrette type packet which slipped into the back of a large display card, it was only available for a short period before being replaced by a standard white inlay design (although this particular version didn't promote any other releases).
The tape labels during this period were yellow. Original prints of Let it be carried the old style Parlophone logo, the other albums either had the new style black-boxed Parlophone/EMI logo or no logo at all.
All Beatle cassettes issued by EMI before 1987 were stereo including the first four albums which would later be issued in mono on CD and 'XDR' cassette. At the time these original versions were issued, cassettes were only just beginning to challenge the long established Reel to Reel tape to become the second most popular method of listening to music, so I doubt many original cassettes were manufactured or sold. Originals in good condition should now command a reasonable price and in time could become highly collectable.

*The publishing credits on the early White Album cassettes suggest that it was originally issued in the Spring/Summer of 1969, but the IE number points to mid-1971
 

All Gold Inlays (1972-73) [re-issued with subtle variations until the mid-1980's]
All of the regular UK Beatle albums (plus Oldies but goldies but excluding Yellow Submarine) began to appear in the shops with all-gold inlays in 1972. As with the white inlays, there was no artwork on the gold inlays except for the front cover*. The tracklistings were now printed on the gold coloured foldover whilst the reverse of the inlay was now blank except for a copyright/printing notice and the assurance that; "This stereo 'Musicassette' also gives genuine monaural reproduction." The White Album and Let it be gold inlays both had the Apple logo added to the backflip and the legend "An Apple Record" printed on the foldover, but for some reason neither of these additions appeared on the Abbey Road inlay.
Magical Mystery Tour* joined the Beatles cassette catalogue in June 1973, this being the first British release of the American compilation, although it evidently used the German master as it contained true stereo mixes of "Penny Lane", "Baby You're a Rich Man" and "All You Need is Love". The British Parlophone vinyl edition of Magical Mystery Tour was not issued until 1976 (and this used the U.S. master and therefore contained reprocessed mono mixes of the aforementioned songs). The 1973 'Red' and 'Blue' compilations were also issued on cassette shortly before the next change of inlay design as they too had the all-gold look.
Gold variations
The all-gold inlays were originally accompanied by the same old yellow labelled tapes* before the label colour was changed to white (some being stuck on to black shells). In 1973 Dolby noise reduction was introduced to contemporary solo cassettes which appears to have co-incided with the introduction of white labels, but the regular Beatles albums were not manufactured with Dolby until later in the decade, by which time labels had been dropped in favour of printing the details directly onto the cassette shell (including a Dolby logo) but the inlay design remained unchanged***. The ink colour on the Dolby shells varied, bright blue (circa 1977-82), brown (1982/83), pink (1983-85) and finally black. All "direct ink" versions included a Parlophone/EMI or silhouetted Apple logo.
There are also different shades of gold inlays in circulation, the earlier prints have a darker metallic look to them which reveal fingerprints and commonly suffer from surface erosion to the foldover caused by the cassette rubbing against the gold paint when taken in and out of the case, later versions (probably first seen around 1976) are a lighter yellowy-brown although the 'Red' and 'Blue' compilation albums continued to be issued with metallic gold inlays until they were re-issued in 1993.
Mid 1980's pressings of the gold cassettes added a bar code to the back flip and the IE number was dropped from the spine, and from 1986/87 the tape shells were a creamy yellow.

* In the early 1970's, due to some sort of dispute, the Parlophone logo was airbrushed from the original "With The Beatles" and "Help!" cover designs for reproduction on the gold cassette inlays.

** Some people describe the yellow labels as "yellowy green". In comparison to the original late 1960's green labels, the early-mid '70s labels do appear to be a bona-fide yellow but some may actually be a chartreuse yellow.

*** I have yet to see any white labelled regular Beatle album cassettes with a dolby logo - this would suggest that Dolby versions of the Beatles albums first appeared in late 1976 or shortly afterwards.

All gold & 'Circular EMI' inlay designs include the legend "Also available on 8 track cartridge" - this early-mid 1970's rival to cassette was easily beaten off - particularly in Britain - and became obsolete by the end of the decade.

Gold Top with Circular EMI Logo (1973-1976)
Yellow Submarine was the last of the regular British albums to be released on cassette in August 1974 (likely prompted by the British television premiere of the film in April) and this had a cassette inlay design first seen with EMI tapes from mid-late 1973 - A gold band across the top third of the inlay and the 1970's circular EMI logo in the top right corner. The Dolby noise reduction logo also made an appearance on the front and the spine and there was a paragraph of advise about Dolby on the inlay reverse (alongside the customary copyright/mono playback notices). Regrettably, the front cover of the vinyl sleeve was once again the only artwork to be included on these 'Circular EMI' inlays.
Yellow Submarine was the only original Beatle album to be issued in this style, but there were a good number of solo Beatle albums released in this form as well as the 1976 Rock 'n' Roll Music compilation*. Original copies of Yellow Submarine had white labels (the first Beatle album cassette labels to carry the Apple logo) and metallic gold paint on the inlay.

*Rock 'n' Roll Music was issued as a "double play tape" with a re-arranged tracklisting, the compilation was later split into two separate volumes for budget MFP labelled re-issues in 1980 - these had tracklistings which matched the vinyl versions.

"Full Height" Covers (1977-1982)
1976/77 saw the introduction of "full height" inlay covers, which sometimes meant losing the left and right edges of the original artwork (as in the case of the 1979 UK cassette release of the American compilation Hey Jude) or filling up the space above/below with something in harmony with the look of the vinyl cover (as illustrated left by the 1980 compilation The Beatles Ballads).
No standard 1960's Beatles album was issued "full height" but a number of compilations were. These new designs still had a uniform look - in as much as the lettering on the spine and the basic layout of information was standard across all EMI tapes. This style continued until the mid 1980's when inlays finally began to expand into full colour multiple-foldover designs that attempted to appear as striking and unique as their increasingly lavish vinyl counterparts.

Compilations on Cassette 1977-1987
The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl 1977, Love Songs* 1977, Rarities 1979**, Hey Jude 1979, The Beatles Ballads 1980, Rock 'N' Roll Music Volume 1 1980***, Rock 'N' Roll Music Volume 2 1980***, The Beatles Box 1980****, Reel Music 1982 and 20 Greatest Hits 1982.
* Love Songs was issued as a "double play tape"
**Rarities was also included in The Beatles Collection which was a box set containing all of the Beatles regular albums (excluding Magical Mystery Tour but adding a new 'exclusive' compilation entitled Rarities) the box set was made available in vinyl form on 2nd December 1978, but owing to demand (as well as unscrupulous dealers taking the albums out of the box and selling Rarities for an extortionate price) Rarities was officially made available separately from October 1979 with the cassette version appearing a month later (presumably the cassette box set was also released in November 1979).
***Rock 'N' Roll Volumes 1 & 2 were budget priced "Music for Pleasure" re-issues of the originally combined 1976 double album.
****The Beatles Box was an eight LP/Cassette mail-order compilation, it was made available again in 1987 but this time on cassette only.

Marks & Spencer's "Their Greatest Hits" Compilation
In November 1984, the high street retailer Marks & Spencer released The Beatles: Their Greatest Hits on cassette only, it was part of an exclusive Beatles package that also included a book (mostly featuring material first published in the "Story of Pop" series in 1973) . As with all Marks & Spencer products, the cassette was branded with a St Michael logo and, although the cover was a new design (see here), the contents was a track for track replica of Oldies But Goldies (presented here in the same order as the vinyl edition, not the re-arranged order as found on all previously available cassette versions of the 1966 compilation). The set was only on sale at larger branches of M&S and for a limited period of two months, it was then re-promoted the following year (again for a limited period).

The Orbis Cassette
Collectors of the magazine series "The History Of Rock" were also offered the chance to collect a series of mail order albums in either vinyl or cassette format, The History Of Rock Volume 26 - The Beatles (released in December 1984) was a 'double play tape' which combined Oldies But Goldies on one side with The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl on the other, the cover was a minimalist design matching the other volumes which would total 30 in number.

Heineken "Only The Beatles" Compilation
In June 1986, Heineken Beer launched a promotion in which you could order an exclusive Beatles compilation (on cassette only) in exchange for Beer can ring pulls. The tape included a previously unreleased stereo version of Yes It Is (later included on Past Masters). Within weeks of the offer first being made, Apple sued and the tapes were withdrawn resulting in Only The Beatles becoming perhaps the most collectable Beatles cassette of all.

XDR [eXtended Dynamic Range] Cassettes (1987-)
The "XDR Quality System" tapes were the final generation of UK Beatle cassettes, they were issued during the same year the Beatles albums were first issued on Compact Disc (1987 - see article below) and, for the first time, all the cassettes presented the tracks in the correct running order*.
The XDR inlays were mainly white but included all of the original artwork found on the back covers and gatefolds of the vinyl editions. Sgt. Pepper was the exception as this boasted a full height cover and a red foldover/spine as well as a reproduction of the gatefold. The White Album, which had previously been issued as a single "Double Play Tape", was now issued on a pair of cassettes (so like the vinyl version, it was now spread over 4 sides).
The XDR tape shells were clear plastic with details printed in white ink (including a Parlophone logo) and the cassettes were all housed in completely clear boxes (front AND back). As with the CD's, original XDR tapes (including The White Album through to Let it be) did NOT include any Apple logo's on the inlay or the shell, it was only from around 1992/93 that re-pressings of Beatles cassettes and CD's began to include the full colour Apple logo's.
By 1993 Compact Discs (which had been introduced to the High Street a decade earlier) were outselling cassettes. With the advent of Mini Disc, CD-R and MP3 players at the turn of the Millennium, the cassette era was now at an end.

*Incredibly, Capitol in the USA inexplicably used the old re-arranged orders (and gold inlay designs) for the first 7 XDR cassette albums. Perhaps they took instructions to issue ''all future releases in identical fashion to the British versions" too literally.

Cassette Singles
The first release of a Beatles single on tape did not occur until 13th July 1987 when EMI added a cassette version of All You Need Is Love/Baby You're A Rich Man to the the list of formats being made available to co-incide with the single's 20th anniversary (EMI had been issuing anniversary picture discs of each Beatles single since 1982, there were a handful of 12" singles too). Both sides of the All You Need Is Love single were recorded onto each side of the short-play cassette (apparently in mock mono!) but the tape did not prove popular enough to warrant EMI issuing further cassette versions of the remaining Beatles singles until 12th August 1991 when all 22 singles were issued in one go, a display case was produced but this was not officially on sale to customers who were expected to purchase them all separately. In keeping with the 3" CD re-issues, the true mono single mixes were used for the cassette singles up to and including Get Back/Don't Let Me Down whilst the covers for these cassettes (housed in slip case boxes rather than Norelco cases) matched the 3" CD Single sleeves (therefore Hey Jude/Revolution had the 'Mad day out' parrot photo rather than the Revolution promo-film shot that was used on the 1980's vinyl picture sleeve). In 1994 the four track BBC Radio sessions EP Baby It's You was released on cassette, Free As A Bird/Christmas Time (Is Here Again) and Real Love/Baby's In Black were issued as two track cassette singles in 1995 & 1996.

Beatles Monthly Book Magazine April 1983 - "Letters from Beatle people"
WHY CHANGE THE ORDER?
Dear Johnny (Editor),
I have a serious complaint to make against EMI regarding the sequence of songs on the original Beatles' LPs issued in cassette form. I don't know if the matter has been raised in these columns before, but I think it is an absolute disgrace that the order of numbers on many Beatles tapes has been tinkered with.
As far as I am concerned, each original Beatle album is a work of art, and no one should be allowed the license to rearrange it in any way. But even if one doesn't subscribe to that idea, it is nevertheless a fact that the memory of certain LPs is etched into the mind in a particular way, and should not be distorted, especially without good reason. For example, I always associate the beginning of Revolver with the coughing/tuning sounds before the lads launch into "Taxman"; but when I recently purchased the tape of Revolver, I was appalled to find that it began with "Good Day Sunshine", which actually should be the first song on Side Two!
The same treatment has been meted out to other albums, though the excuse of balancing out the sides doesn't hold. EMI has every right to issue new albums of incongruous Beatle songs every year, but could they please leave the originals alone, concentrating on keeping them in the market rather than playing around with the order of songs?
Mahir Ali, Oxford.
Editors reply: We quite agree, Mahir. None of the Beatles albums have one side particularly longer than the other, so there is no reason why the original running order of albums should be altered when they are issued on cassette. As you say, the Beatles planned their albums carefully from start to finish (one of the reasons why they disliked the American issues of their early tracks) and I would have thought that they would have been horrified to discover that the original order of the songs has been altered.

Beatles Monthly Book Magazine November 1987 - "Beatles '87 - A Diary of Recent News and Events"
By Mark Lewisohn
Stuck for a Christmas present for a Beatles fan? Hardly likely, bearing in mind the glut of new product on the market! But there's more. As predicted in the July issue of this magazine, EMI Records has turned its attention to the cassette marketing of Beatles product. Now that U.K sales of this format far outstrip sales of vinyl, EMI has certainly made the right move. Until now the Beatles' cassettes were shoddily packaged, with good to poor audio quality, and - amazingly - album songs in the wrong order (this was standard practice in the early Seventies, to make the musical content of equal length on both sides of a tape). The entire set of thirteen Beatles albums is being reissued by EMI (U.K.) on November 19, all manufactured on high quality XDR tape, all taken from the same digital masters featured on the compact discs, and all including whatever there was in the way of sleeve notes or photographs on the original LPs. In keeping with the CD issues, the first four cassettes are in mono (the remainder are in stereo). Catalogue numbers as follows: "Please Please Me" (TC-PMC 1202), "With The Beatles" (TC-PMC 1206), " A Hard Day's Night" (TC-PMC 1230), "Beatles For Sale" (TC-PMC 1240), "Help! " (TC-PCS 3071), "Rubber Soul" (TC-PCS 3075), "Revolver" (TC-PCS 7009), "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (TC-PCS 7027), "Magical Mystery Tour" (TC-PCS 3077), "The Beatles " (TC-2 PCS 4501), "Yellow Submarine" (TC-PCS 7070), "Abbey Road" (TC- PCS 7088) and "Let It Be" (TC-PCS 7096). ("Sgt Pepper" has been available in the XDR range since June 1.)