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 Mark Boulton
The original Abbey Road inlay, late 1969.
See the tracklisting on the reverse here.

Let It Be 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 and into 1971 (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.

Courtesy of Ian Hossack
The 'White Album' cassette originally came in a cigarette type packet/card box in mid-1971,
it was re-issued with this standard inlay design shortly afterwards (probably
by the end of the year).

Courtesy of Ian Hossack
All but one of the regular Beatle albums were re-issued with all-gold inlays from around 1972.
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.
The inlay reverse is blank except for a copyright/mono playback notice.

Courtesy of Paul Humbley
The 1973 cassette release of Magical Mystery Tour had true stereo mixes of
Baby You're A Rich Man, Penny Lane and All You Needs Is Love.
The US version had reprocessed mono versions of those songs and it was the US
master that was later used for the British vinyl version issued in 1976.
 

The 1974 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
1968-1969 pressings of the Sgt.Pepper tape appeared with the
distinctive Parlophone logo on a green label as shown above.
The initial batches included a "Sold in the UK..." notice in the
bottom right corner of the label and the leader tape was stamped
with the catalogue number, see examples here and here.
Linked images courtesy of Henry Bell

Courtesy of Henry Bell
Early-mid 1970 pressings of Sgt. Pepper & Let It Be had yellowy-green
labels and retained the old style Parlophone logo.

Courtesy of Mark Boulton
From late 1970 until 1973 the labels were yellow and usually
inlcuded a black boxed Parlophone logo, those that didn't left
a blank space.

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).
Black ink came into favour around 1985/86 and about a year later
EMI introduced creamy yellow shells (also with black ink).

Catalogue

Courtesy of Mark Boulton
The "EMI Recorded Tape Catalogue" circa 1975/76,  packed into a case the size
and shape of a cassette case, the pages 'fan out' from a hinge in the corner.
Here it is opened at the front to reveal the The Beatles listings.
For a larger image click here.
To see the reverse click here.

"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.

A History of The Beatles UK Cassettes
The 1970's Re-arranged tracklistings
Solo Beatle UK Cassettes 1970-76

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