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The Beatles in Mono is a boxed set compilation comprising the remastered monaural recordings by the Beatles. The set was released on 9 September 2009, the same day the remastered stereo recordings and companion The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings) were also released, along with The Beatles: Rock Band video game. The remastering project for both mono and stereo versions was led by EMI senior studio engineers Allan Rouse and Guy Massey.[7]
The boxed set was remastered, this time from the actual tapes and not the digital process, again on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl, and was re-released on 8 September 2014.[8]
The Beatles in Mono was released to reflect the fact that most of the Beatles' catalogue was originally mixed and released in the monophonic format. Stereo recordings were a fairly new concept for pop music in the 1960s and did not become standard until late in that decade. This explains why the Beatles' initial album releases were mixed for mono. By the late sixties, however, stereo recording for pop music was becoming more popular and, thus, the new standard. Therefore, the last few Beatles albums were mixed and released only in stereo - "Yellow Submarine" "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be". Many feel that the mono mixes reflect the true intention of the band. For example, in the case of George Harrison commented:
Amazon.com advertised the set as a limited edition item in the United States, and less than a month prior to the set's release announced the site had sold out of units.[11][12] Less than two weeks before 9 September, many other online retailers announced the selling out of units from their inventories, including the Canadian Amazon.ca site.[13]
EMI announced on 3 September that more mono boxed sets were to be pressed due to high demand from online pre-orders.[14] It will still to remain a "limited edition", but since it has already been certified platinum by the RIAA, it was not limited to 10,000 copies as originally stated.
The thirteen-disc collection contains the remastered Mono Masters, which compiles all the mono mixes of singles, B-sides and EP tracks that did not originally appear on any of the United Kingdom albums or Magical Mystery Tour.
The albums Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be are not included in this set, as no true mono mixes of these albums were issued. The same holds true for the songs "The Ballad of John and Yoko", "Old Brown Shoe", and the 45 single mix of "Let It Be" which were also omitted. A mono version of the Yellow Submarine album was released in the UK, but it was simply a fold-down (two stereo channels combined into one channel) from the stereo mix, not a unique, separate mono mix. The previously unavailable true mono mixes of the four new Beatles songs released on the Yellow Submarine album ("Only a Northern Song", "All Together Now", "Hey Bulldog" and "It's All Too Much"), originally intended for a separate, but ultimately scrapped mono EP which would have also included a mono mix of "Across the Universe", are included on the Mono Masters compilation.
Abbey Road and Let It Be were issued in the UK in mono on reel-to-reel tape and on LP in Brazil and other countries, but again, only as fold-downs from the respective stereo versions.
Also omitted from this set, but included in the Stereo box, is a DVD containing the mini-documentaries included with the stereo remasters of the different albums.
The Beatles ("the White Album"), was originally released in mono and stereo in the UK and several other countries, but in the United States, it was only released in stereo. However, the mono mixes of "Don't Pass Me By" and "Helter Skelter" had been previously issued in the US in 1980 on the Capitol Records Rarities compilation album.
All CDs replicate their original album labels as first released, from the various Parlophone Records label variations, to the Capitol Records label (for Magical Mystery Tour) and the UK Apple Records side A and B labels for discs 1 and 2 respectively for The Beatles. For Mono Masters, disc 1 uses a mid-1960s Parlophone label design and disc 2 uses the unsliced Apple label design.
The set also includes a 44-page booklet which includes an essay on the important role that the mono mixes played in the Beatles' recording career, plus a track-by-track listing of the recordings.
The set debuted at number 40 on Billboard's Top 200 chart and the magazine reported that 12,000 copies were sold in its first week of release.[15][16] In Japan, it debuted at number 10, selling over 20,000 copies in its first week on the Oricon album charts.[17] The set was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 2010.[18]
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