First released: 1963, July 22

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Clay I have two Vee Jay albums one #LP1062 and one #VJLP1062 they both have 'Ask Me Why' last song side one and Please, Please Me first song on side two on both records. The VJ LP1062 has the red VJ inner sleeve. The record is a microgroove, VJLP1062 Long Playing. The logo is in brackets [VJ] with Vee Jay Records under the VJ part. rainbow around the record Introducing The Beatles, then across the spindle hole 'The Beatles' My brother call's it the holy grail because I purchased it when I we about 13 I am no 67, I told him it's still not for sale lol. Donna

The story that I have found from research goes like this: Vee-Jay was gonna release Introducing The Beatles on July 22, but they had several other issues going out at the same time. Financial troubles at the label forced them to choose which records would be released in July and Introduceing.. The Beatles was not one of them. From Me To You, released as a single on Vee Jay in May, and Please Please Me, released as a single at the end of February had not sold well, and Vee- Jay did not consider the Beatles release a priority. Besides that, Vee-Jay did not pay out royalties for sales on either of these two singles which resulted in their license to distribute Beatles records being suspended. The album was ready to release in July, but Vee- Jay had some of its administrative folks quit at the end of July and nothing was done with The Beatles album. Capital records had said they would not release The Beatles album in early 1963, and it wasn't until November '63 that they decided to put any money into promotion of The Beatles in the United States. Vee-Jay released Introducing The Beatles only after Capital records had decided to promote the group and after Capital had released "I Want To Hold Your Hand". As Far as the count in on " I Saw Her Standing There", I have heard that the removal of 1,2,3 was because an engineer at the disc mastering plant thought the count-in was an error and snipped it off of Vee-Jay's master.

Clay -- VeeJay Records original intended to release Please Please Me as-is, but later dropped "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why" (which had been previously released in the US as singles) to reduce the track-count to the American-standard twelve. This first version of the album was released on 10 Jan. '64, and was immediately slapped with a court challenge from Capitol over distribution rights to "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You". Vee-Jay replaced those tracks with PPM and AMW and re-released it on 2 February. You appear to have the re-release. BTW, for some unknown reason, the engineers at Vee-Jay excised Paul's four-count at the beginning of "I Saw Her Standing There". This is perhaps my favorite Fab Four album, not just because it was my introduction to the Beatles, but because nothing they did since quite captured the raw exuberance and energy of those early years.

From all my research, there is no question this album WAS NOT released in July63, but rather, on 10Jan64. I haven't found one shred of evidence this album was released in 63. One of the many proofs of this (and I'll give just one) is that three days after the release, on 13Jan64, an injuction was filed by Capitol against Vee Jay to halt production and release of this album. If it was released in 63, then why would Capitol wait six months to do this? One month later (and three weeks AFTER the Capitol release of Meet the Beatles on 20Jan64, a revised edition of this Vee Jay album was released on 10Feb64 (Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You were replaced by Ask Me Why and Please Please Me). I hope that clears up the confusion.

Comment - I have Introducing The Beatles.. original vinyl VJLP 1062 purchased in the US (Washinton DC area) about Feb-Mar 1964. My copy DOES have "Ask Me Why" and "Please Please Me" contrary to your "All Music Guide" review. Is this a rare LP?

I have Introducing the Beatles with Please Please Me and all 12 tracks are what I would have expeckted form a Beatles LP. It does have a cover which I have not seen before can some one help me the cover is (SONGS AND PICTURES OF THE FABULOUS BEATLES) VEE-JAY RECORDS 1092.

Not quite up to the level of Please Please Me, of course. But it's still an interesting listen although Please Please Me would get a better release a year later in the form of The Early Beatles.

The first Beatles album released in the U.S., Introducing The Beatles is a slightly abridged version of Please Please Me, which had been released in the U.K. four months earlier. It includes two fewer tracks than its British counterpart, deleting "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why." Today, of course, there's no reason to prefer it to Please Please Me, which was released in the U.S. in 1987, but from 1963 to 1965, when Capitol Records belatedly released the material on The Early Beatles, this (plus some inferior Vee Jay repackagings) was the only American album containing some of the Beatles' initial recordings. — William Ruhlmann