The Beatles In Mono: 14 LP Box Set

The Beatles Please Please Me album was rush-released by Parlophone on 22nd March, 1963 to capitalise on the enormous success of the title track which had been the group's second single and their first no. 1 in the majority of UK charts.

With The Beatles had advance sales of 270,000. Over half-a-million copies had been bought by the end of 1963, making it the year's most successful album. In 1965 it became the first British LP to register a million sales.

Under intense pressure, The Beatles had created a landmark album consisting entirely of Lennon-McCartney compositions. Music papers in the UK were enthusiastic about the group's achievement. A Hard Day's Night was 'way out ahead of its rivals' concluded New Music Express. A reviewer in Record Mirror was impressed by 'When I Get Home': 'true Beatle-ism with John apparently dislodging his tonsils as he blows the blues through the microphone'.

Following the release of their fourth British album on 4 December 1964, the Beatles' complete domination of the year's charts was indisputable. With an advance order from shops of 750,000, the biggest ever registered for an LP up to that point, Beatles For Sale immediately replaced A Hard Day's Night at number one.

A review of Help! in the British pop paper New Musical Express advised that 'this LP is the ideal cure for the depressions! It's a gay, infectious romp which doesn't let up in pace or sparkle from the start to the finish - with the exception of one slow track'.

The Beatles regularly faced competition from a fictional singing nun played by Julie Andrews on The Sound Of Music LP. In the UK, this soundtrack was the bestselling album of 1965, 1966 and 1968. Rubber Soul solved the problem of Maria for eight weeks, staying at number one until The Sound Of Music returned in February 1966.

What The Beatles achieved as musicians, songwriters and record makers in 1966 was revolutionary. The British pop paper Melody Maker recognized this, describing Revolver as 'a brilliant album which underlines once and for all that The Beatles have definitely broken the bounds of what we used to call pop'.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the result of The Beatles' decision to pursue a new direction. In an interview published in New Musical Express in December 1966, Paul explained: 'We feel that only through recording do people listen to us, so that is our most important form of communication. We take as much time as we want on a track, until we get it to our satisfaction.'

The music recorded for Magical Mystery Tour was as popular and adventurous as ever. 'The Beatles are at it again', reported New Musical Express, 'stretching pop music to its limits on beautiful sound canvases, casting wonderful spells beyond the clouds to turn the dullest plastic disc into a magical mystery tour of sounds fantastic, sounds unbelievable!'.

The Beatles was the last of the group's albums to be given separate mono and stereo mixes. A review of 'The White Album' in New Musical Express argued that 'What these two momentous LPs do is reflect The Beatles with Something for Everybody, representing the Gentle, the Genius, the Singalong, the Rocking - and the sheer good, bad and ugly of their work up to late October 1968'.