scarce records

welcome to 'scarce records,' a blog to showcase and discuss some of the most interesting vinyl releases ever pressed as well as the record collecting hobby itself. each post will feature a different record with information on the release, how i came across it, its supposed book value and anything else that might be relevant. new records are posted at least three times per week.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Beatles & The Four Seasons - The Beatles Vs. The Four Seasons (Vee Jay DX30)


This is one of the more humorous records I've come across. Vee Jay who is otherwise known as a record company for great blues and jazz from the 50s and 60s once owned the ever-coveted rights to The Beatles as they were distributed in the USA. Vee Jay ultimately squandered this huge financial opportunity but not before releasing a few different Beatles items including most significantly "Introducing The Beatles." This, the Beatles first American LP was essentially all they had the rights to distribute so they repackaged it as different records a few different times to presumably try to get people to buy the record again. Thus we have "Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles" and this record.
It is essentially "Introducing The Beatles" and "Golden Hits Of The Four Seasons." Literally. As in they literally printed extra copies of their records of ITB and GHOTFS with original titles intact and stuck them into this new cover, threw a poster in and started selling it.
All original Vee Jay releases of the Beatles are pretty rare but for those who likely realized "hey, I already have this record in ITB, I'm not buying it again" there is little appeal. I suspect, then, that this one is especially rare. Goldmine agrees, listing it at $800.
All Beatles and Elvis Presley records are listed higher than their actual value, a tax of sorts for their sheer bigness.
I actually found this one at a record show in Atlanta. It was purchased without the records themselves (cover only) but somewhere along the way I'd picked up the individual ITB and GHOTFS. Thus, this was especially exciting for me.
Unfortunately, my copy does not include the original poster that Vee Jay stuck in to these things. Goldmine lists the poster alone as being worth $300. Wow.
They also list the poster separately under the assumption that most copies are missing it.
Obviously the concept of the record is humorous in a "Gee, I wonder who won the battle between the Beatles and the Four Seasons?" sort of fashion. I am lead to believe that, at this record's release, the Four Seasons were in the lead (record sales? chart position?). Go figure. Although the Four Seasons don't get much credit compared to the Beatles nowadays, I feel obliged to point out that it's actually a quality 60s pop record.
I also love the billing "International Battle Of The Century."
Perhaps everything becomes ironic with time.

1 comment:

  1. when was this released? you can look up the charts on billboard and see if (for some god forsaken reason) the four seasons were actually doing better.

    i can think of some pretty decent battle royales of the century but i wouldn't mind seeing frankie valli and ringo starr go at it for a bit.

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