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Beginning in 1963, the Beatles started a holiday
tradition of recording Christmas messages for their fans.
The recordings were edited and issued on flexi-discs through
the Official Beatles Fan Club in England. The records were
not available for sale, but were distributed free to fan
club members. In 1964, Beatles (U.S.A.) Ltd., the official national Beatles fan club in the United States, began sending the annual Christmas records to its members. This tradition continued through 1969, although the last two Christmas records were not group efforts, but rather were a series of separately recorded messages from each of the Beatles. |
| TITLE | THE BEATLES'
CHRISTMAS ALBUM |
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| CATALOG NUMBER | SBC-100 |
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| RELEASE DATE | Spring of 1971 /Not For Sale: Fan Club Members Only | ||||
| TRACK LISTING | SIDE 1 | SIDE 2 | |||
| DEC. 1963 (5:00) | DEC. 1967 (6:10) |
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| DEC. 1964 (4:05) | DEC. 1968 (7:55) | ||||
| DEC. 1965 (6:26) |
DEC. 1969 (7:42) | ||||
| DEC. 1966 (6:40) | |||||
| FRONT --> Click! | BACK --> Click! | SIDE 1 --> Click! | SIDE 2 --> Click! | DISK | |
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| INNER SLEEVE |
FRONT COVER CLOSE UP | BACK COVER CLOSE UP | |||
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The American version was packaged in a
blue background cover. The front side has five rows and five
columns of cubes that have black and white pictures of the
Beatles. |
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On the back cover, The Official Beatles Fan Club P.O. Box address and designer's name were printed. | |
| BACK COVER CLOSE UP | |||||
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The upper half of the back cover has black
and white images of the front covers to the 1964 through
1969 U.K. Christmas flexi-discs and "THE BEATLES" in
uppercase black letters outlined in white. The lower half has "CHRISTMAS ALBUM" in large uppercase white letters and black text in the lower left corner. Album design is credited to "GROCK IT!" and photo creations to Robert Bauman. |
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| LABEL CLOSE UP | |||||
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Both sides have the track selections and running times below the spindle hole. | |||
| LABEL CLOSE UP | |||||
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Catalogue
number "SBC 100" was printed at the left side of the spindle
hole. |
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The records were pressed with standard Apple labels that have Apple perimeter print on SIDE-1. | |
| LABEL CLOSE UP | |||||
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"NOT FOR SALE" and "All rights" information appears in the lower part of the apples on each side. | ||||
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OTHER ITEM
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| - |
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| LABEL | Apple label | ||||
| MIX | MONO | ||||
| VINYL COLOR | BLACK | ||||
| PRESS FACTORY |
Capitol's Whinchester factory | ||||
| MATRIX No. | SIDE 1 | SBC-1-100A.!. (hand etched) BellSounds logo (machine stamped) sf ─◁(hand etched) | |||
| SIDE 2 | SBC-2-100B.!. (hand etched) BellSounds logo (machine stamped) sf ─◁(hand etched) | ||||
| RECORD COMPANY'S NAME | Apple Records, Inc. |
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| RECORDING PUBLISHED CREDIT | Copyright 1970 |
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| COVER FORM | Single type. Housed in a cardboard jacket. |
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| INNER SLEEVE | Plain White sleeve | ||||
| COVER DESIGN/ PHOTO/ NOTES | Album Design: GROK IT! / Photo
Creations: Robert Bauman |
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| PRODUCER | Official Beatles Fan Club | ||||
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COMMENTS
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On December 18 1970,
The Beatles Fan Club still existed although the Beatles had
officially announced the break up of the band earlier in the
year. Since recording activity had halted for the group as a
collective unit, there would be no chance of a new Christmas
flexi being prepared. Therefore, The Beatles Fan Club
released a 12 inch vinyl compilation mailed out to it's
members entitled "From Then To You" in LP form. The
catalogue number for this LP is LYN 2153/54. "From Then To
You" was only released in the United Kingdom. In the U.S, the seven messages were issued as "The Beatles' Christmas Album" sent out by the fan-club around springtime 1971. It was the first time the 1964 and 1965 messages had been made available in the U.S. The American version was packaged in a blue background cover. The front side has five rows and five columns of cubes that have black and white pictures of the Beatles. The rows feature, from top to bottom, John, Paul, Geoge, and Ringo and the entire group. Moving left to right, the columns feature pictures are from 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970. The rower right cube does not have a 1970 picture of the band as no group pictures were taken in 1970. Instead, the cube has "THE BEATLES CHRISTMAS ALBUM" in uppercase letters. The upper half of the back cover has black and white images of the front covers to the 1964 through 1969 U.K. Christmas flexi-discs and "THE BEATLES" in uppercase black letters outlined in white. The lower half has "CHRISTMAS ALBUM" in large uppercase white letters and black text in the lower left corner. Album design is credited to "GROCK IT!" and photo creations to Robert Bauman. The records were pressed with standard Apple labels that have Apple perimeter print on SIDE-1. Both sides have the track selections and running times below the spindle hole. "NOT FOR SALE" and "All rights" information appears in the lower part of the apples on each side. The trail off areas contain the Bell Sound logo, the initials "sf" and a hand drawn Winchester logo, indicating that the record was masterd by Sam Feldman at Bell Sound and manufactured by Capitol's Whinchester factory. |
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