Between 1963 and 1964 Capitol of Canada, not as complacent as its American branch, released three Beatles albums. Copies of these, in the tradition of prohibition, were bootlegged over the border and bought by American Beatles fans before Capitol Records in the States realised the potential of the British band they had been neglecting. The three albums were Beatlemania With The Beatles, released in November 1963, Twist And Shout, released in January 1964 and Long Tall Sally in May 1964. Two singles, "Roll Over Beethoven" and "All My Loving" were also released. After Long Tall Sally, Canadian albums fell in line with their American Capitol Records counterparts.

In Canada, uniquely, two of the three Beatles albums released were named after songs that the Beatles themselves did not write.

Beatlemania With The Beatles

Beatlemania With The Beatles was essentially Britain's With The Beatles album renamed, to reflect the fact that even Canada was in the early stages of Beatlemania. The album was released at the same time in Canada as it was in the UK, some two months before its American counterpart's eventual release as Meet The Beatles in January 1964.

Twist And Shout

On the 13th January 1964, a week before Meet The Beatles was released in the USA and a fortnight before Introducing The Beatles' re-release, a second Canadian Beatles album was released. This was Twist And Shout.

Twist And Shout, one of only two Beatles albums named after a track the Beatles did not write, was essentially the Canadian equivalent of Please Please Me. All but two of the tracks, the more recent singles From Me To You and She Loves You, had been released on that album in the UK. These were included on the Canadian album to encourage sales of the album as they were more popular songs. The two songs they replaced on the Canadian version of the album, Paul's splendid I Saw Her Standing There and John Lennon's Misery, were hardly the weakest songs on the British album, but following what would later be America's Capitol Records standard practice, were held over until the next album. As a result, Anna is a poor opening replacement to Please Please Me's "I Saw Her Standing There".

The American branch of Capitol Records did not release a version of this album until The Early Beatles on the 22nd March 1965, although in America this album had been released as Introducing The Beatles by Vee Jay Records in July 1963.

Long Tall Sally

Long Tall Sally was the Beatles third, and final, Canadian Beatles album. Unlike the other two, it was not loosely based on a British album. Instead it seems to have found its inspiration from the American The Beatles' Second Album, which had been released in America in April 1964. It was, however, slightly longer than its American counterpart, having one more track.

This was the second Canadian Beatles' album to be named after a song the Beatles did not write.

Long Tall Sally was without doubt the least value of the three Canadian albums. Many of the tracks had already been released on Beatlemania With The Beatles. These included "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "Devil In Her Heart", "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Please Mr Postman".

Both "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Misery" were left-overs from the previous Canadian album, Twist And Shout.

"I Want To Hold Your Hand" was the ground-breaking American number 1 for the Beatles, having been released before Christmas there in 1963, and its British B-side, "This Boy", was also included on the record. "You Can't Do That" was the B-side to "Can't Buy Me Love", which although was not on this album and later appeared on the A Hard Day's Night album, it had been a succesful single released in the UK and America back in March 1964. "I'll Get You" had been the B-side to "She Loves You", which had appeared on the Canadian Twist And Shout album.

The title track "Long Tall Sally" and "I Call Your Name" were later released in the UK on the Long Tall Sally EP on the 19th June 1964, and did not appear on a UK album until Past Masters: Volume 1.

Singles:

In addition to these three albums, Capitol of Canada released two singles. The first one was "Roll Over Beethoven" with "Please Mr Postman" as its B-side, released on the 9th December 1963. The second was "All My Loving" with "This Boy" as its B-side, released on the 17th February 1964.