Capitol Packages a Beatles Collectible

Clocking in at just 160 or so minutes of music, the contents of a Capitol Records CD box set released this week could almost fit on two $15 discs.

So why is Capitol spreading the music over 15 discs, requiring a list price of more than $100?

It’s a Beatles collectible: the first U.S. release in any form of the celebrated EPs (for extended play ) or mini-albums that were released in England in the ‘60s, and the first CD version of those albums available anywhere.

Back in the days of vinyl, teen-age pop and rock fans rarely bought 12-inch vinyl albums because they could buy four 7-inch singles for the same price, and few artists had enough interesting material to justify buying more than one of their singles.

To tempt teens to spend a bit more, record companies offered four-song EPs from selected artists, which would cost only a few cents more than a regular single. The first king of the EP was Elvis Presley, whose “Blue Suede Shoes” EP sold as fast in 1956 as a normal single.

And who better to continue the tradition in the ‘60s than the Beatles?

The Beatles EPs weren’t released in the United States because teen buying patterns had changed sufficiently to make albums rival singles as the format of choice. There was, however, still a market for Beatles EPs in Britain, and 13 were released through 1967, including the two-disc “Magical Mystery Tour” package. The final disc in the new box set, which is titled “The Beatles Compact Disc EP Collection,” was released in 1981 as a bonus feature in a set containing all the earlier EPs.

Among the songs featured in the new package: “Twist and Shout,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “All My Loving,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “Eight Days a Week,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Nowhere Man,” “I’ll Follow the Sun,” “Yesterday” and “I Am the Walrus.”

Each disc contains the original EP artwork, including the liner notes by Beatles publicist Tony Barrow. In view of the importance that the Beatles would assume in the rock world, it’s amusing now to see the exuberance of the liner notes. No self-respecting band in the angry ‘90s would open itself up to ridicule by featuring the kind of gushing lines that graced many of these discs.

Here’s one of Barrow’s opening passages:

“Each time I settle down to pen a set of paragraphs for the sleeve of another new Beatles release, I am able to recall fresh sets of honors and triumphs which have come the way of this fabulous foursome. . . .”

At the start of another package, he declares: “John . . . Paul . . . George . . . Ringo. Names which meant little or nothing 18 months ago. Today there is an almost legendary magic about John and Paul and George and Ringo. The very mention of any one sends sharp shivers of excitement down the spines of young girls.”

But the real fun is the music, which is still as bright and disarming as ever. An ideal, if expensive gift package for the Beatles fan who thought he or she had everything.