Gallery
This page was last updated July 2008
A history
of The Beatles UK Cassettes
The 1970's
Re-arranged tracklistings
Solo
Beatle UK Cassettes 1970-76
Inlays
Courtesy of Mark Boulton
The first UK Beatles cassette release was of the Sgt. Pepper
album in 1968,
the tracklisting appears on the reverse (see here).
Courtesy of Ian Hossack
The original (glossy) 'White Album' cassette inlay
The Apple publishing credits for George and Ringo's songs plus the
lack of a
"Sold in U.K subject to resale price conditions" notice suggests that
this
inlay was printed around the summer of 1969.
Following the release of Abbey Road on cassette came Let
it be in 1970, this inlay design
was to be the template for the release of the Beatles back catalogue
on cassettes
issued throughout the remainder of 1970 (except Yellow Submarine).
The inlays were white with a promotion of other available Beatles cassettes
on the foldover,
the tracklistings were on the reverse.
Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road continued to be sold with
their slightly more
elaborate inlays which included extra artwork other than just the album
cover.
The original Oldies But Goldies inlay from 1970
The reverse of the 1970 Oldies But Goldies inlay
Courtesy of Ian Hossack
All but one of the regular Beatle albums were re-issued with all-gold
inlays from around 1971/72.
Originals have this metallic gold look to them rather than the more
common yellowy/brown print.
Notice that the Parlophone/EMI logo has been airbrushed from the original
Help!
album artwork, this was also done to With the Beatles due to
a dispute over
whether to label the cassettes with Apple or Parlophone logo's.
The inlay reverse is blank except for a copyright/mono playback notice.
Courtesy of Paul Humbley
The 1973 cassette edition of Magical Mystery Tour (three years
before the UK vinyl release),
this tape version had true stereo mixes of Baby You're A Rich Man,
Penny
Lane and
All You Needs Is Love.
The mid 1970's Yellow Submarine cassette inlay with the circular
EMI logo.
Yellow Submarine was the only Beatle tape to be issued with
this design but
there were many solo
albums released in this style.
Again, the inlay reverse is blank except for a copyright/Dolby/mono-playback
notice.
The Dolby noise reduction logo appears for the first time -
Dolby editions of the other Beatles cassettes were issued from around
1976
but they all retained the old style all-gold inlays and it was in this
form that
the Beatles cassettes were sold until around 1985 when bar codes
were added and the IE/OC numbers were dropped from the spines..
Labels
Courtesy of Ian Hossack
Original 1968 pressings of the Sgt.Pepper tape appeared with
the
distinctive Parlophone logo as shown above.
In 1969 the Parlophone logo was changed, it was now
placed inside a black box with the EMI logo above it (see below).
Courtesy of Mark Boulton
From (roughly) 1970 until 1973 yellow labels became more common.
Courtesy of Ian Hossack
The next label colour change occurred around the time
the first Dolby solo cassettes began to appear in 1973,
Yellow Submarine was first issued on cassette soon afterwards
and
included Dolby noise reduction (which basically meant less hiss).
The other Beatle albums began to appear with white labels around the
same time but none were issued with Dolby.
Here we see a cassette with the ink printed directly onto the plastic
(first seen in 1976/77). All 'direct-ink' cassettes would have Dolby
noise reduction.
Blue ink appears to have been standard until 1982, followed by
a batch of brown inked versions.
Another example of a 'direct-ink' Beatle cassette tape,
this time with the Parlophone logo and pink ink (first seen in 1982/83).
Around 1985 EMI introduced creamy yellow shells printed with black
ink.
"XDR" versions
An example of the XDR re-issues with the proper track orders restored
and the inclusion of all original artwork, these first appeared in
1987.
The cassette shells were now clear plastic and printed with white ink,
all were stamped with the Parlophone logo, the Apple logo only
appears on inlays printed after 1992/93.
