Capitol Records, having been taken largely by surprise in 1964 with the demand for Beatles albums, continued their short-sighted strategy of changing the UK Beatles albums for ones of their own devising in 1965, convinced that the Beatlemania which had swept America in 1964 was due to fade. Their strategy for 1965 was to try to keep selling as many Beatles albums and singles for as long as they could before the Beatles declined in popularity.

65 Beatles For Sale

Released in December 1964 by Capitol Records, the same label who called the fourth Beatles album The Beatles' Second Album the last album of the year in America was Beatles '65. This, released a week after its UK counterpart, was essentially a shorter version of the UK Beatles For Sale album, with fewer tracks and a hit single added.

The album cover showed them sitting down holding umbrellas in the main photograph, with the other photos beneath showing them in a variety of poses holding various random objects from witches' broomsticks, washing baskets and towels. The sleeve notes on the back promises that this is: their all new album of all new hits and: And now here's what you've all been waiting for, a new Beatles album with all new Beatles songs, when the truth was that one of the songs on the album had been on release in the UK over five months before.

The six songs on Beatles For Sale that were not on Beatles '65, namely the 'Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!' medley, 'Eight Days A Week', 'Words Of Love', 'Every Little Thing', 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party' and 'What You're Doing' all appeared later on the American Beatles VI album. 'I'll Be Back', which had been left off both the American A Hard Day's Night and Something New albums was included here. The other two songs, 'I Feel Fine' and its B-side 'She's A Woman', had been released as a single in the UK, and did not appear on a UK album at the time. 'I Feel Fine' was released on A Collection Of Beatles Oldies in December 1966, but 'She's A Woman' did not appear on a UK album until Past Masters: Volume One. 'Eight Days A Week', the strongest song on Beatles For Sale, was left off Beatles '65 and instead released as a single. Following its release in the US on 15 February, 1965, 'Eight Days A Week' became an American number one (for two weeks in the weeks commencing 13 and 20 March.

Beatles VI

The tenth American Beatles album, the one after Beatles '65, was Beatles VI. This was the seventh Beatles album released by Capitol records, after Meet The Beatles!, The Beatles Second Album, Something New, The Beatles' Story, The Early Beatles and Beatles '65. Wisely, Capitol Records did not release any more albums after this one with a number in the title. Although the main reason for the release of this record was to find the six songs left off Beatles '65 a home, it also included two songs specifically recorded for the American market only five weeks before.

On 10 May, 1965, in the Abbey Road studios John Lennon had led the recording of two songs especially for Beatles VI. These were two of his favourite songs by the American rock star Larry Williams; 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy' and 'Bad Boy'. As time was of the essence in delivering two songs for the American album, the Beatles had chosen two songs they were very familiar with, having performed them regularly since 1960¹. These were recorded between 8pm and 1:15am the following morning. The master tapes were posted by air-freight first thing the following day to Capitol Records, Hollywood. It was reported at the time that the two songs might appear on an EP in the UK at the end of the year. However, 'Bad Boy' was not included on a UK album, nor did it appear on an EP or single until A Collection Of British Oldies in December 1966. 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy' appeared on the end to finish the UK Help! album in August 1965.

The album cover consisted of a colour photograph of the four Beatles smiling against a plain backdrop with the words: The world's most popular foursome! John – Paul – George – Ringo plus a track listing on the front, and a track listing with four black-and-white photos — one of each of the Beatles — on the back.

Beatles VI

Date: June 1965

Side A:
• 'Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!'
• 'Eight Days A Week'
• 'You Like Me Too Much'
• 'Bad Boy'
• 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party'
• 'Words Of Love'

Side B:
• 'What You're Doing'
• 'Yes It Is'
• 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy'
• 'Tell Me What You See'
• 'Every Little Thing'

Capitol Records included the already successful 'Eight Days A Week' as the main song on the album to help promote sales. It also included three songs from the Help! sessions. 'You Like Me Too Much' and 'Tell Me What You See' were to appear on the UK Help! album one month later. The other, 'Yes It Is', had appeared in the UK as the B-side to the number one 'Ticket To Ride' single², and so the Beatles chose not to include it on an album so the public would not have to buy the same song twice. It did not appear on a UK album until Past Masters: Volume One.

Capitol Records deliberately chose to use songs that had been recorded for the UK Help! album which were not performed in the film. This meant that the American Help! album could include instrumental tracks in a similar way to the American A Hard Day's Night soundtrack album, thus freeing up more valuable Beatles tracks to fill more albums and singles. Released on 14 June, 1965, Beatles VI spent six consecutive weeks at number one in the American album chart.

Help!

The Beatles' second film Help! was filmed in early 1965, with the resulting accompanying album released in the UK in August. Once again the US version of the Help! album was different to the UK one. It consisted of seven songs included in the film, and George Martin instrumentals based on the Beatles' songs. As the album was released by Capitol Records in America and not a rival record company, unlike with A Hard Day's Night, Capitol Records did not have a competing album on the market.

Record Record

When placing the initial order for copies of Help!, Capitol Records broke a record by ordering one million copies — the largest initial album order to date. Capitol Records' faith was rewarded, as the album was number one in the album charts for nine weeks and sold over three million copies.

In America, Good Help! Is So Hard To Find...

The American album curiously opens with a brief extract of the James Bond theme. This, which was not written by the Beatles, unsurprisingly does not feature on the UK album. Indeed, James Bond himself was not a fan of the Beatles — in the Bond film Goldfinger (1964), Bond complained that warm champagne was 'like listening to the Beatles without ear muffs.'

Two of the songs left off the American Help! album were later released on the American Rubber Soul album, although Capitol Records had special plans for 'Yesterday' and 'Act Naturally', which were later released on 'Yesterday' ...And Today. As previously mentioned, 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy', 'You Like Me Too Much' and 'Tell Me What You See' had been released on Beatles VI.

Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul was one of the most experimental, yet also personal, Beatles albums. It marked the beginning of the transition away from the naïve songs of the early days of the Beatles. The UK version contained the song 'Nowhere Man', the first Beatles song not to be about love and relationships. It also contained three very personal songs by Paul McCartney about his relationship with Jane Asher, who had moved to Bristol to pursue her career as an actress rather than stay with Paul in London. 'We Can Work It Out', 'You Won't See Me' and 'I'm Looking Through You' all show how the strain of the long distance relationship affected Paul at this time³.

Album Differences

When choosing which songs to put on their Rubber Soul version, Capitol Records chose to give their product a more folk feel than its UK counterpart by removing the faster-paced songs. The American Rubber Soul album contained two songs from Help!: 'I've Just Seen A Face' and 'It's Only Love', both of which were soft, slow love songs, and given special prominence by opening both the A- and B-sides of the album.

Despite the album cover closely matching its UK counterpart, the American Rubber Soul left out four songs from the UK album. These, 'Drive My Car', 'Nowhere Man', 'What Goes On' and 'If I Needed Someone', were later included on the 'Yesterday' ..And Today album. This removed most of the Beatles' new, non-romantic songs from the album, which meant that in America the Rubber Soul album was seen as a sign that the Beatles were continuing to be the soft, romantic love-song singers they had always been. In fact, having been influenced (especially by Bob Dylan), they were trying to convey a harsher sound through such songs as 'Drive My Car' and 'Nowhere Man'.

What really infuriated the Beatles was how Capitol Records put two false-start outtakes on the beginning of the 'I'm Looking Through You' track. They felt that, despite having spent a great deal of time trying to ensure each album was polished to perfection, the inclusion of this gave listeners the impression that the band were sloppy and unprofessional about their music. The American version of Rubber Soul was a commercial success for Capitol Records, having been released in time for Christmas on 6 December, 1965. Over four million copies were sold, and it was top of the album chart for six weeks.

1965 Success

The release of the American Rubber Soul brought to an end another highly successful year for Capitol Records. In 1965, they had released four Beatles albums⁴ and five number one singles, including a Double A-side⁵, when in the same year EMI in the UK had released two albums⁶, three singles⁷ and three EPs⁸, yet at a price of alienating and offending the Beatles themselves.