Recorded: 29, 30 September; 6, 18, 26 October 1964; 16, 17, 18 February; 10 May 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 14 June 1965
Personnel
John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, tambourine, handclaps
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass guitar, piano, electric piano, handclaps
George Harrison: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, güiro, handclaps
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, cowbell, claves, timpani, percussion, handclaps
George Martin: piano
Tracklisting
‘Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!’‘Eight Days A Week’
‘You Like Me Too Much’
‘Bad Boy’
‘I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party’
‘Words Of Love’
‘What You’re Doing’
‘Yes It Is’
‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’
‘Tell Me What You See’
‘Every Little Thing’
Beatles VI was released by Capitol Records in North America in June 1965. In the USA it was issued less than three months after The Early Beatles.
The title was inaccurate, since it was the seventh Beatles album released in the USA by Capitol Records, and their ninth overall including Vee-Jay’s Introducing The Beatles and United Artists’ A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack. It seems likely that Capitol was not including the documentary album The Beatles’ Story in its count.
Beatles VI contained six songs originally released on the UK albums Beatles For Sale: ‘Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!’, ‘Eight Days A Week’, ‘I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party’, ‘Words Of Love’, ‘What You’re Doing’, and ‘Every Little Thing’.
‘Yes It Is’ had been the b-side of the ‘Ticket To Ride’ single, released worldwide in April 1965, and was included again on Beatles VI.
On 10 May 1965 The Beatles recorded two Larry Williams songs specifically for Capitol to release on Beatles VI: ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’ and ‘Bad Boy’. ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’ was subsequently chosen as the closing song on the UK Help! album, and ‘Bad Boy’ was included on the 1966 compilation A Collection Of Beatles Oldies.
Beatles VI contained two other songs later released on the non-soundtrack half of the UK Help! album: ‘You Like Me Too Much’ and ‘Tell Me What You See’. For Capitol to be releasing them prior to Parlophone in the UK was unusual and something of a coup.
The release
Beatles VI was released on 14 June 1965 in mono (Capitol T-2358) and stereo (Capitol ST-2358), in both the USA and Canada.
The album topped the Billboard Top LPs chart for six consecutive weeks from 10 July. It sold sold 899,025 copies in the US by 31 December 1965, and 1,094,707 copies by the end of the 1960s.
Initial copies of Beatles VI had the song titles listed in an incorrect order on the back cover, and carried the statement “See label for correct playing order”. The songs as listed were: ‘Eight Days A Week’, ‘Kansas City’, ‘Words Of Love’, and ‘Yes It Is’, followed by a line break and ‘I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party’, ‘Every Little Thing’, ‘What You’re Doing’, ‘You Like Me Too Much’, ‘Tell Me What You See’, ‘Bad Boy’, and ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzie’.
The medley ‘Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!’ was listed as ‘Kansas City’ on the front and back covers of Beatles VI. Lawyers for Venice Music notified Capitol of the omission, which was rectified on the record label but not on the cover. Beatles VI also retained Larry Williams’ original title ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzie’, whereas on Help! it was amended to ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’.
The album was also released in stereo in New Zealand in 1966 as Parlophone PCSM 6042. The title was erroneously printed as Beatles IV on the labels.
Beatles VI was first released on compact disc in April 2006 as part of the box set The Capitol Albums, Volume 2. The single disc included both mono and stereo versions.
It was issued again in 2014, individually and as part of the box set The US Albums.
It’s not their 7th Capitol Album: Meet the Beatles, Beatle’s 2nd Album, Something New, Beatles 65, The Early Beatles, then Beatles VI. That’s 6. If you want to count the documentary The Beatles Story, OK, but obviously Capitol Records didn’t see it that way when they named the album. Cheers!