Capitol Records released their second and final Beatles EP on this day. 4 By The Beatles had the catalogue number Capitol R-5365, and was released only in mono.
The EP contained four songs, all from the albums Beatles For Sale (UK) and Beatles ’65 (US): ‘Honey Don’t’, ‘I’m A Loser’, ‘Mr Moonlight’ and ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’.
Capitol had previously issued the similarly-titled EP Four By The Beatles on 11 May 1964. The “4 By” series was intended to showcase four songs by an artist which wouldn’t otherwise be issued as singles, although the demand for EPs in the United States proved limited and the idea was soon dropped.
Page last updated: 28 January 2019
I always read that demand for EPs was limited here in the US, but I must say that I never saw an EP for sale. If EPs didn’t sell here it’s probably because the record companies didn’t promote them, maybe because they figured to make more money from singles, or they wanted to make a clear distinction between singles and LPs and promote album sales. I’m sure I would have bought EPs had I seen them and probably many others would have too.