Latest updates

February 2012

A great addition this month, we have scans of "The Beatles on Tape" catalogue,
presumably printed February/March 1975. Click on the images for full size.
(Thanks to Mark Boulton)

January 2012
Added a collection of book and VHS cover scans here.

November 2011
Added some images of the 1981 John Lennon Cassette box set.
(Thanks to Mark Boulton)

May 2011
A new site banner and gold backgrounds in keeping with the look
of the classic 1970's EMI cassettes.

Some inlays have been re-scanned in higher res, these include the 1963-65
albums as re-issued in gold in 1976, also the gold "Oldies But Goldies",
"Yellow Submarine", The Blue Album, "Rarities", "Hey Jude",
"Beatles Ballads" and most of the John Lennon solo cassettes.
Also uploaded larger images of the original "Abbey Road", "Please
Please Me", "Beatles For Sale", "Help!" and "Magical Mystery Tour".

April 2011
Many images have now been embedded into the text pages,
the gallery page is therefore surplus to requirements.
The full list of scans is now towards the foot of the home page.

January 2011
1970 "Revolver" scans added.
(Thanks to Mark Boulton)

July 2010
1970 "Rubber Soul" scans are now up, also "Some Time in New York City".
(Thanks to Mark Boulton)

May 2010
Added scans of the 1973 Gold top re-issue of "All Things Must Pass",
see the foot of the solo page.
(Thanks to Mark Boulton)

February 2010
Added scans of the original "John Lennon Plastic Ono Band" cassette.
(Thanks to Mark Boulton).

January 2010
Check out this link to a a July 1973 Billboard article on
EMI cassette "Dolbyising" and the new look packaging.
Also added an original green label "Off The Beatles Track" cassette here.
(Thanks to Mark Boulton).

Ocotber 2009
"20 Greatest Hits" & "Free As A Bird" scans are now up, note that there
are two versions of the "20 Greatest Hits" inlay with different EMI/Parlophone
logo's. (Thanks to Henry Bell for those).

September 2009
Added scans of the "All Things Must Pass" box (Thanks to Henry Bell) and
the 1980 MFP re-issue of "Mind Games" (Thanks to Mark Boulton)

August 2009
We now have the cassette running order for Ringo's "Beaucoups Of Blues" -
Thanks to Henry Bell who also has an original pressing of the "Sgt. Pepper"
cassette which can be identified by the inclusion of the "Sold in UK.." etc
notice in the bottom right of the green label and a cat no. printed
on the leader tape (PCS-7027-M8T). Green label pressings without
the "Sold in UK" notice will be from 1969 or early 1970.

July 2009
Added scans of the July 1972 cassette release of the 1970 Franck Poursel
album of orchestral instrumentals "Meets The Beatles", this was
released in EMI's Columbia label and has a terrific psychedelic cover design,
note also that the inlay template is the same as the gold versions but there
is no gold paint :- inlay / tape
(Thanks to Mark Boulton who now has his 8-track Beatles and Solo pages up here)

June 2009
Added scans of the original "All Things Must Pass" twin cassette set, the 2nd edition
of "Imagine" (early 1972 with a white inlay) and the gold version of "McCartney" (probably late 1972)
to the solo page (Thanks to Mark Boulton for those, see Mark's EMI cassette pages here)
All 1991 Beatles Cassette Singles are now up, as are the "Baby It's You" EP and "Real Love"
(Thanks to Paul Humbley)

April 2009
Added some scans of the 1991 Beatles Cassette Singles
(Thanks to Paul) and an original "Ram" inlay (Thanks Mark).
A copy of "Help!" circa mid-late 1970's has turned up on eBay with
no gold paint (just white where you'd expect the gold to be),
the cassette labelling is direct blue ink. A similar rogue
version of "Pepper" has been spotted in the past, we
suspect these were printed during the transition from
'metallic' paint to yellowly/brown print.
The 1981 MFP re-issue of "Blast From Your Past"
on cassette had the same running order as the original
vinyl edition (the 1976 cassette had a muddled track listing).

March 2009
At last, a scan of the original "Abbey Road" inlay!!!
Also an original "Beatles For Sale" and a rare cassette
edition of "The Beatles Concerto" with sleeve notes by
George Martin. Thanks to Mark Boulton for these.

February 2009
We have a delightful addition to the gallery this month - An "EMI Recorded
Tape Catalogue" circa 1975/76, many thanks to Mark Boulton who is
currently in the process of creating an excellent site on the history of
Parlophone Records with many interesting pics (check out the 1950's EMI
catalogue and the early purple labels), go here.

January 2009
There were two big-money cassette eBay auctions in December, an all-white
inlay version of the White Album from 1971/72 was sold for a staggering £207, whilst
an original copy of "Abbey Road" (with the colour reproduction of the vinyl sleeve back cover
on the foldover) sold for £156. Both appeared to be in excellent condition.
An original copy of "Revolver" has turned up, the first one I've ever seen, and it
has a black spine and a black top on the cover.
Another "Let it be" cassette has also surfaced with the same Parlophone logo design which
can be seen on the original "Sgt. Pepper" tapes, I'd previously assumed this to be
Australian in origin but it now looks as though "Let it be" was
originally released with the old style Parlophone logo's in the UK and the
black-boxed Parlophone logo's only first appeared on cassette labels around the time
EMI began issuing the Beatles back catalogue in the Autumn of 1970.

December 2008
A display card/'cigaratte packet' version of the White Album cassette was recently
sold on eBay for £64 - This version most likely preceded the regular all-white inlay
issue and it looks similar to a description of the original "Imagine" cassette, so
it was probably only available for a short period as an experimental design during
mid-late 1971.

November 2008
Added scans of the original "Help!" inlay/cassette from 1970/71 and
a 'metallic gold' "Revolver" inlay - the cassette is a direct blue ink
version , so this must be among the last batch of metallic gold inlays
circa 1976/77. (See 'More Cassette Scans' towards the foot of the gallery page).
Thanks to Mark for those.
Also added an original "Abbey Road" green labelled cassette from 1969/70, an
"Every Man Has A Woman" cassette from 1984 (see solo page).
We now think the White Album was not issued on cassette until 1971, the publishing
credits & the lack of a 'resale' notice had suggested 1969, but the IE number and other
inlay features point to a 1971 release (between Ram and Imagine).
Thanks again to Mark Boulton.

October 2008
Added re-issue scans of "Red Rose Speedway" (1987) and
"McCartney" (1990) (see the foot the solo page), thanks to Mark Boulton who also
explains the "Magical Mystery Tour" catalogue number being placed between
"Rubber Soul" & "Revolver"... "Parlophone had two numbering series for LPs in 1966,
PMC (mono) and PCS (stereo).  The PMC numbers had started at 1001 and PCS at 3001.
 However, the numbers did not run in parallel because not ALL LPs were issued in stereo.
Therefore the PCS 3000+ number would always be lower than the PMC 1000+ number.
 EMI reorganised this in 1966 by starting a new number series at 7000 and
running these in parallel for mono/stereo versions.
However, for some reason, perhaps after the Parlophone label ceased to be used as a
'brand' by EMI (except for the Beatles) someone forgot to use the 7000 series and
picked up from the last number used in the 3000 series.  In 1971, a Best of Pepe Jaramillo
LP got the number PCS 3076.  Then, as we know, the MMT tape got (TC-) PCS 3077.
The 7000 series therefore falls in the middle of 307(something) and 3076."

September 2008
Added scans of "Ringo", "Walls & Bridges" &
"Tripping the Live Fantastic", thanks to Gary for these.
A 1970 "Oldies but Goldies" cassette (white inlay/
yellow lables) was recently auctioned on eBay and fetched £70!!!!!

August 2008
Added scans of "Live at the BBC", "1", Lennon's "Rock N Roll",
plus "Woman" and "Watching the Wheels" Cassingles.
Check out Moptop's web-page here for a detailed look at
Beatle cassette labels.

July 2008
More scans added to the Gallery and Solo page,
latest additions include 'Ringo's Rotogravure', 'All Those Years Ago' (single),
an original 'Yellow Submarine' shell with Apple logo'd white label,
Gold top 'Rock N Roll Music', Reel Music and others.
Check out the Heineken cassette gift card variations too!
Thanks again to Gary and Ian.

June 2008
Another batch of inlay and tape scans have been added,
thanks to Gary and Ian.

May 2008
The mystery of cassette track orders solved?
I've had an e-mail from Steve Binnie who has an interesting and seemingly
very plausible explanation for the bizarre nature of cassette track re-ordering.
He says; "8-track cartridges used an endless loop of tape divided into four 'programmes'.
The first time around the loop, the player would play programme 1; on returning to the
start of the loop the playback head would move down to programme 2, and so on.
For this reason the four programmes had to be of equal length, which explains why
tracks were often juggled around for timing purposes. A quick scan through
http://www.beatlesvinyl.com/uk/uk8.htm shows that many of the cassette versions
use the same jumbled tracklistings as the 8-track cartridge versions. This explains, for
example, why "Goodnight" ends up in the middle of side two of the White Album
cassette - it was the last track on programme 3 of the 8-Track!"
One exception to the identical cassette/8-track orders is "Abbey Road",
see the tracklistings page here.
 

New scans are still being added to the Gallery and Solo page.
Further scans for inclusion would be much appreciated,
send them to urthepob@hotmail.com

April 2008
Details of the rare 1984 cassette "Their Greatest Hits" have been
added to the History page. Thanks to Paul for the scan.

Other new scans have been added which can be accessed via the foot
of the Gallery page. There are also a number of Solo inlay links
to be found on the Solo page.

February 2008
"Yellow Submarine Songtrack" is confirmed to have been officially
released in the UK on cassette in 1999.

Correction to the January update, George Martin's "Off The Beatles Track"
was actually issued on cassette during the first half of 1969. The inlay includes
the "Sold in the UK..." notice and the tape label is lime green with the
boxed Parlophone logo. (Thanks Paul).

January 2008
George Martin's August 1964 album "Off The Beatles Track" was issued
on cassette in 1971 with a slightly different cover (using just the one
photo as included on the far right of the vinyl sleeve montage).
Sides One and Two were reversed for the cassette release and
"I Feel Fine" was added as a bonus track  - this track was
originally released as a single by George Martin in 1965
(Parlophone R5256)
thanks Paul....

Side one
1. FROM ME TO YOU
2. THERE'S A PLACE
3. THIS BOY
4. PLEASE PLEASE ME
5. LITTLE CHILD
6. I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
7. I FEEL FINE

Side two
 7. ALL MY LOVING
8. DON'T BOTHER ME
9. CAN'T BUY ME LOVE
10. ALL I'VE GOT TO DO
11. I SAW HER STANDING THERE
12. SHE LOVES YOU

The UK version of the "Rock 'N' Roll" cassette was issued with
a gold top/circular EMI logo style inlay (not - as previously stated -
with a 'full height' cover). Thanks Gary!

A version of the "Let it be" cassette with an old style Parlophone
logo on yellow labels has been sold for £26 on eBay.

The "Live Jam" cassette is confirmed to have had the same
track-listing as the vinyl version. Thanks Paul!
We're still looking to confirm the running orders for the
"Some time in NYC" studio cassette and Ringo's
"Beaucoups of Blues"

October 2007
Thanks to John Carfizzi for pointing out that the first 7 Beatle cassettes
re-issued on XDR format in the USA in 1987 inexplicably had the re-arranged
British tracklistings!!! How on Earth did they allow that to happen???
The cat numbers for the re-arranged US cassettes are:-
Please Please Me (C4J-46435)
With The Beatles (C4J-46436)
A Hard Day's Night (C4J-46437)
Beatles For Sale (C4J-46438)
Help (C4J-46439)
Rubber Soul (C4J-46440)
Revolver (C4J-46441)

There's also been a general tidying up of the text on the main page.

August 2007
George's "Extra Texture" cassette label included the unique 'munched' Apple logo -
as found on the vinyl version, but unlike the vinyl cover the cassette inlay was not textured.
The cassette tracklisting is identical to the vinyl version. Thanks Paul!

Ringo's "Sentimental Journey" cassette tracklisting has been added.

June 2007
Jeff Russell's 1982 book 'The Beatles Album File and Complete Discography' claims that:
"In 1973 EMI decided to issue a cassette version of the Magical Mystery Tour album".
This would explain why MMT has the all gold look and not the circular EMI logo design
as one would have expected to see had it been released at the same time as the
vinyl version in 1976. Thanks to Gary for this very important piece of info.

A yellow labelled edition of the Sgt.Pepper cassette has turned up with
the original Parlophone logo stamped on it, this begs the question -
which came first, green or yellow? Perhaps both were produced
concurrently with the colour depending on the factory it was produced.

George's 1974 "Dark Horse" cassette included a lyrics booklet,
this was slightly smaller than the cassette so that it could be tucked
inside the cassette case.

The "Venus and Mars" cassette tracklisting is identical to the vinyl.

April 2007
We now have an original White Album cassette inlay scan,
the publishing credits for the Harrison tracks suggests that this
was from mid-1969, thanks to Ian Hossack for the photo.

March 2007
The site now includes a page on solo cassettes.
The 'full height' inlay era now has its' own section and
details of cassette singles and compilation albums have
also been added.