1976 single recuts
When EMI’s contract with The Beatles expired in early 1976, the company launched a worldwide campaign to reissue the group’s official singles. EMI (Australia) joined the campaign, but only one of the first 18 Australian singles remained in print: the perennially popular ‘Rock And Roll Music’/‘Honey Don’t’. The other 17 had been deleted and would need to be reissued alongside the 12 later singles that were still available.
In June 1976, EMI (Australia) decided to recut six of the deleted singles:
‘From Me To You’/‘Thank You Girl’
‘She Loves You’/‘I’ll Get You’
‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’/‘This Boy’
‘Love Me, Do’/‘I Saw Her Standing There’
‘I Feel Fine’/‘She’s A Woman’
‘Ticket To Ride’/‘Yes It Is’
Most of the tracks were cut in stereo. ‘From Me To You’, ‘Thank You Girl’ and ‘I’ll Get You’ remained in mono, while ‘She Loves You’, ‘Love Me Do’ and ‘Yes It Is’ appeared in fake stereo. Documentation indicates that locally held tapes were used for some singles, with stereo sources selected because these were the versions EMI (Australia) first located. Other recordings—including at least ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ and ‘This Boy’—were freshly supplied by EMI UK.
Along with the standard stereo mix of ‘This Boy’, EMI UK inexplicably sent the October 1963 stereo mix of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, rather than the later November 1966 mix prepared for A Collection Of Beatles Oldies. EMI (Australia) dutifully used the tape it received, apparently concerned only that it contained the correct recording. In doing so, it created the first—and only—single release anywhere in the world to feature that particular stereo mix.
Two EMI (Australia) engineers were responsible for the recuts, one of whom was Richard Mott. Five of the six singles retained their original UK matrix numbers, but without the trailing lacquer identifiers—for example, “7XCE 17329” rather than “7XCE 17329-1N”. This has sometimes led collectors to assume that the records were pressed from UK mothers. The matrices, however, were handwritten, unlike the machine-stamped matrices found on UK cuts, confirming their Australian origin.
The six newly cut singles were reissued on 19 July 1976.
1979 EP recuts
EMI (Australia) deleted all EPs from its catalogue in December 1978. In June 1979, the ten titles in the GEPO 70000 series were recut in preparation for reissue.
Most were sourced from existing stereo LP tapes but mastered in mono, ostensibly to “maintain the feel of the original sound”. The more practical explanation was that EMI had temporarily misplaced PARLO 99, the original mono compilation tape containing the EP tracks.
Only five tracks appeared in stereo: ‘Long Tall Sally’ and ‘I Call Your Name’ from Requests; ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ from Further Requests; and ‘No Reply’ and ‘I’m A Loser’ from Beatles For Sale. The Help!, Norwegian Wood and Penny Lane EPs were recut from their original tapes and therefore appeared in true mono.
The GEPO 8000 series EPs were not recut because they were not included in the reissue program.
1982 single recuts
In preparation for The Australian 20th Anniversary Singles Collection, released in October 1982, the remaining 11 deleted singles were recut by EMI (Australia) engineers Allan Parsons and Otto Ruiter. ‘This Boy’ was also recut because its existing mother had been damaged.
Bruce Hamlin assisted EMI (Australia) in selecting the stereo sources used for the new cuts. Most received matrices consisting of the single’s catalogue number followed by an “A” or “B” to identify the side. ‘This Boy’ was the exception: it retained its 1976 matrix number but was assigned a new sequential lacquer number.
The circumstances surrounding ‘This Boy’ were particularly unusual. EMI (Australia) had sent its master-tape copy to the United States without first making a replacement, leaving no tape source available locally. The 1982 recut therefore had to be made from a dub of the 1976 Australian vinyl single.
For reasons of cost, EMI (Australia) considered the existing masters for the other singles adequate and did not recut them. This produced a curious reversal: from 1982, most of the 1963–1966 singles were available in stereo, while those from the supposedly more advanced 1967–1970 period remained in mono.
Please visit the dedicated LP, EP and singles pages for further information about the individual recuts and the sources used.
