The Vinyl Thread | Page 11 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

My son and his gf were in town yesterday, and looked through the family collection of 200+, mostly pre-1970 vinyl.  I thought all the Beatles albums had been appropriated during a rough time in my early 20s when I was living from couch to couch, but we found one that I had never heard of.  I’ll tell the story of discovery in some detail, first because it’s exciting, and second to possibly help new collectors identify exactly which albums they have and how rare they are (I know with us, the monetary value isn’t a big deal, as we probably aren’t going to sell them).

First off, look for multiple cites with the same information.  There were an incredible number of Beatles albums released, and the difference between very rare and very common can be as minor as the order of the credits on the label (author – singer or singer – author).  Some sites had more detail while others missed some, and some had conflicting info.  I searched on the (sleeve) record number, SW-385, and the (sleeve) album name, Hey Jude.  Many of you will know this is an early 1970 USA release.  The Apple label identified it as an early release.  The fact that the label and the matrix number were SO-385, not SW, means it was the first pressing.  And finally, the label had the album title as “The Beatles Again” (as opposed to the spine title).  Determining exactly what this meant took careful comparison of lots of similar labels.  It identified it as a very early version that was pulled from the shelves, as the album’s title had just been finalized as Hey Jude as the first copies were shipped (the sleeve had been corrected but not the vinyl).  One source indicated this version could be found on shelves as late as 1973, but it’s still quite rare.  An unopened copy with the rarest sticker just sold on ebay for $2k USD!  It doesn’t have one of the very rare alternate back sleeve pictures, but that’s the kind of thing you might discover you own by doing the research.  And yes, I know this doesn’t happen very often, but there are so many slightly different Beatles releases, and you can never know just how rare a particular copy is.  To me it’s part of the excitement of being a Fabfan.

Fortunately, my dad took good care of his albums.  I’m not a record grader, but considering there are no visible scratches, and not any pop and crackle, I think the vinyl is NM.  Unfortunately, 40 years of sometimes poor storage conditions has left the sleeve in G condition at best. (the scale is NM (near mint), EX/VG+ (EX is the European designation and VG+ the equivalent US grade), VG, G, F, and P).  Each notch down in condition cuts the value in half.  I’m not sure given the widely different conditions of the sleeve and vinyl, but it should worth at least $100 USD based on the vinyl alone.  Again, I won’t be selling it – my oldest son collects vinyl too so it will go to his collection once his life stabilizes after college.  I got him a fairly rare copy of Revolver for his birthday.  When I can afford it, I’m going to get the best of our vinyl digitized to preserve the vinyl “sound” as well the vinyl itself.

Some songs sound like different mixes than I’ve ever heard (and some comments I found on boards indicated that others noticed the same thing with different versions of stuff), so I’m not sure what that means.  It was produced by George Martin.  The track listing follows:

Can’t Buy Me Love, I Should Have Known Better, Paperback Writer, Rain , Lady Madonna, Revolution

Hey Jude, Old Brown Shoe, Don’t Let Me Down (definitely not the Let it Be or Naked mix there, and I don’t think the single or Anthology versions either), and Ballad of John and Yoko.  I promise to get a needle-drop version to share via youtube when I get the money!

So that was my excitement for the week (other than my son and his very cool gf driving the 3 hours to visit).  For fun and learning, research your vinyl! 

If you’re interested, the other albums in the collection are mostly average, in average condition and many are re-releases.  By far the most valuable is a 78 of my father at age 10 (1948) playing the piano.  It’s the only time my kids have ever heard either grandfather’s voice.  There are a few that may have some monetary value, but again, they are practically family heirlooms at this point.  I stupidly slit open the cellophane on Rush’s Moving Pictures to play for my son, who didn’t care for it.  Another highlight is the box set of conductor George Szell’s seminal work, Beethoven’s 9 symphonies with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.

EDIT: xposted to the thrift store finds thread

Mr. Kite said
@Matt Busby So you didn’t lose them all! That’s exciting, maybe there’s another original hanging around that you haven’t found.

I’m interested in how your father got the recording of himself on the vinyl. Did he ever tell you?

He played over the radio, and his mother had it recorded.  Not on those cheap military “hi dad” things, a thick 78.  The one we have is when he was 8, there is/was another from when he was 10 but we haven’t seen it in years  

Dad was a severe alcoholic and most of the stuff I know about his childhood came from his mother to my mother.