The Beatles versus Capitol Records and ‘the greatest marketing hype in history’

In 1963, Capitol Records considered the Beatles “a band who looked and sounded weird with an odd name and no leader” and refused to release their records in America, despite being owned by EMI. As author Andrew Cook points out, “the truth is stranger than fiction”. New correspondence unearthed in his fascinating Capitol Gains maps out the tortuous wranglings of the deal-makers and “pantomime bad guys” behind the greatest and most successful marketing hype in history, all jockeying to take credit and manage their reputations. Some highlights here …

… the truth behind Epstein’s mythical phone calls

… “the more successful the Beatles were, the more Capitol were proving themselves wrong”

… why 1966 was the band’s “Last Supper”

… “from the Battle of Hastings to World War 2 to the Beatles ... it’s the winners who rewrite history”

… the American 12-track rule and how they repackaged product “to give it more grab”

… the Beatles’ commercial fate if they’d never been successful in the States

… the pitiful (standard) original EMI deal – “18.75 of a penny per group member for every album”

… the “Butcher sleeve”: how 750,000 were printed and the fortune lost in “Operation Retrieve”. And the Capitol exec whose kids made $1.5m from copies stashed in his garage

… how Epstein was contracted to make 25 per cent of all Beatles monies ‘til 1975

… Bob Dylan’s tangential role in the signing of the Beatles to Capitol

… and the “cowboy film” that nearly happened.

Order Capitol Gains here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Capitol-Gains-Beatles-Conquered-America/dp/1803997281

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