Rock And Roll Music, Parlophone PCSP 719.
Release June 11, 1976. Idea for this album, Rock And Roll, came from Bhaskar Menon, the head of Capitol Records in the USA. After trying unsuccessfully to contract one or all of The Beatles for approval of the track listing for this new double album, Menon eventually gave up and contracted George Martin, their producer. When Martin was told of the plan to release this compilation of old Beatles tracks as a new album he flew to the Hollywood office of Capitol. After hearing some of the older tracks with bad background noise and poor stereo Martin was appalled at the prospect of their reissue and set about filtering and remixing every track included on this album. On some of the older tracks, such as “Twist And Shout” and “I Saw Her Standing There”, he reversed the stereo and brought the vocal track away from the edge into the center, adding a slight echo for a more modern sound. He also filtered out the bass from the rhythm track and also placed that in the center of the stereo sound stage and with the aid of filters and equalisers, gave the recording a crisper sound. When he had finished his work, Martin took a copy of the revised tapes back to EMI Records in Britain. The company was horrified because The Beatles had issued official instructions that the tapes must not be “touched, added to, edited or mutilated in any way”. EMI Records took this edict rather too literally, assuming that if they were to be reissued, the tapes should be exactly as originally recorded. Thus George Martin’s remixed and filtered versions of the original tracks were not included on the Rock And Roll Music album when it was released in Britain.
Full laminated “Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd” gatefold sleeve. White paper EMI custom inner sleeve.
