Introducing The Beatles

Background

In 1962, EMI records tried on a couple of occasions to get their American label Capitol Records to release The Beatles' first British album Please Please Me in the U.S. When Capitol refused to release any Beatles material, manager Brian Epstein offered the rights to other record labels in America with no luck. Finally, Chicago-based Vee Jay records agreed, and the Beatles very first American album was released in the states.

Up until 1964, Vee Jay's biggest pop stars were five young men from Hoboken New Jersey called Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Around this time however, the Four Seasons changed labels and ended up on the Phillips label. With Capitol records not interested in the fab four, Vee Jay jumped on the Beatles bandwagon with the album Introducing the Beatles, as well as releasing singles from this album. All told, five singles (and one EP with four songs) were released. Coming out just a week after Capitol Records released their first Beatles album (titled Meet The Beatles!), Introducing the Beatles sped up the charts stopping at Number two on both Billboard and Cash Box, while slipping past Meet the Beatles on Record World to land at Number one

During 1964, while Beatlemania was in full gear, Capitol records took Vee Jay to court to obtain the Beatles songs Vee Jay had. It wouldn't be until October 1964 that Capitol records would finally win out in court to secure the Vee Jay Beatles recordings. Meanwhle, Vee Jay tried to make more Beatles "product" for the U.S. by re-releasing the Beatles songs they had as new albums. With titles like The Beatles and Frank Ifield, The Beatles vs.The Four Seasons, and Songs, Pictures, and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles , Vee Jay didn't have any more new Beatles' material to release. The American public didn't buy it and these other Beatles' albums would end up not making the top 40.