BEATLES CDs: GOING STEREO

The Great Beatles Stereo/Mono Debate is over. Unlike the controversial mono format of the first four Beatles CDs, the next three--”Help!,” “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver”--are all being released Monday in stereo.

But some adjustments are still necessary for anyone who grew up listening to the U.S. versions of those LPs. To standardize Beatles albums worldwide, Capitol/EMI is issuing the LPS with the same song selection found on the original English packages.

“Help!” benefits the most from that decision. The skimpy U.S. version of that 1965 sound-track album contained seven songs totaling 17 minutes, plus 12 minutes of instrumentals. Instead of the latter, the new 34-minute CD contains seven additional songs, including “Yesterday”--perhaps the most popular of all Beatles songs. The differences between the U.S. and English versions of “Rubber Soul” (1965) and “Revolver” (1966) are less severe. Two of the songs from the U.S. “Rubber Soul” (“It’s Only Love” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face”) are now on “Help!,” but the CD offers four additional cuts, including the Dylan-flavored “Nowhere Man.” All 12 songs from the U.S. “Revolver” collection are on the CD, joined by the frisky “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “Doctor Robert.”

Both albums are splendid moments in rock, and are arguably the most exciting of the Beatles LPs because they clearly showcase the group’s artistic impulses at work. At the center of an intoxicating social/cultural explosion, the Beatles were not simply absorbed with their own popularity. They struggled to improve and redirect their music. It was an amazing degree of ambition at a time when even rock’s strongest supporters would have been too timid to suggest rock was an art form.

Aside from the heightened clarity and force of the CD sound, the most inviting aspect of listening to the landmark albums again is seeing the competing creative instincts of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. There’s an intimate, introspective tone at the heart of “Rubber Soul” that is shaped by four dominant Lennon compositions, including “Norwegian Wood” and “In My Life.”

At the same time, it’s McCartney’s songs (including “Eleanor Rigby” and “Got to Get You Into My Life”) that make “Revolver” such a natural link with the studio sophistication and almost self-conscious musical experimentation that was eventually celebrated in “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band.” On a scale on 100, “Help!” gets 91, “Rubber Soul” 95 and “Revolver” 95.