Description:

The Beatles & Frank Ifield on Stage Vee-Jay Portrait Cover (Mono)
One of the most highly sought after commercially released American Beatles albums is this October 1964, mono re-issue of Vee-Jay VJLP 1085, "The Beatles & Frank Ifield On Stage," featuring a portrait of the Beatles on the front cover. In February 1964, Vee-Jay Records released an LP entitled "Jolly What! The Beatles & Frank Ifield On Stage," with the misleading title implying it was a concert recording. It was actually just a compilation (or "copulation" as it amazingly says on the back cover!) of previously released tracks, including only four Beatles songs. The cover featured a drawing of an English statesman with a moustache sporting a Beatles wig. Obviously, this was simply a cash-in project and sold poorly. In October 1964, Vee-Jay's rights to issue any additional Beatles material were to expire, so in September, the label repackaged this album in a new cover featuring the Dezo Hoffman portrait of the Beatle that had been used on the "Love Me Do" picture sleeve. They simply inserted the same records into these new covers, which no longer featured the hokey "Jolly What!" slogan. This repackaged LP sold even more poorly than the previous one, selling perhaps a few thousand mono copies and a few hundred stereo copies, according to Bruce Spizer, author of "The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay," whose exhaustively researched series of books on American Beatles record releases are the definitive works on the subject. Consequently, surviving copies today are extremely rare, especially in top condition. This mono "portrait" cover is listed in the 2007 edition of Perry Cox's "Price Guide For The Beatles America Records" as #7 on the list of rarest commercially released Beatles albums. This example exhibits a cut-out hole in the upper left-hand corner, several .25" to 1" horizontal creases to the left-hand border, several 2" to 4' creases through the upper portion of the words "The Beatles," some ring wear along three borders, and typical corner wear. An exceptionally fine example of this extremely desirable album cover.

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October 21, 2009 2:00 PM EDT
Uncasville, CT, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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