Happy Nat w/1st State Mono Yesterday And Today 'Butcher Cover' album

The Collector’s Corner is a special place set up for articles describing a rare collectible Beatles-related release straight from the Happy Nat collection. Each entry is complete with background information, why it’s rare, if it’s valuable and, if so, how valuable. And there’s lots of photos. Read about the “butcher cover” and other such gems here. For more information about the Collector’s Corner, read the initial announcement put out about it here. To browse/read about one of the releases already covered, choose one by clicking on it in the list below. To read all of them, click here.

Collector’s Corner articles by Happy Nat:

• Introducing The Beatles (Vee Jay VJLP 1062) – Early in the initial onslaught of Beatlemania in America, this album was the first U.S. Beatles album (released about 10 days before Capitol’s Meet The Beatles)and it did exactly what it’s title suggests for millions of people. Some pressings are now quite rare. It is the world’s most counterfeited album.
   
• Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You (Parlophone R 4949) – A detailed look at the first issuance on the British “Love Me Do” single.
   
• My Bonnie/The Saints (Decca 31382) – While VJ 498 (below) was the first time The Beatles were credited on an American vinyl record, this Decca My Bonnie single is an even earlier U.S. disc that has The Beatles playing with lead singer/guitarist Tony Sheridan as the front man. The artist was credited as Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers. It was released in very limited quantities on April 11, 1962 and is now one of the scarcest Beatles records in existence.
   
• Please Please Me/Ask Me Why (Vee Jay VJ 498) – This was the first single released in America credited to The Beatles (although initial labels spelled the bands name incorrectly). It was released in February 1963 and no one was interested. It was quickly lost to obscurity, re-issued with a new number 11 months later, making originals now very collectible.
   
• The Beatles Christmas Album (U.S.) – One week before Christ­mas Day, 1970, mem­bers of The Beatles Official Fan Club received in their mailboxes an entire vinyl album containing seven special Christmas messages from the group to their fans. The disc was a compilation, accumulating all of the individual Christmas me­ssages that had been distributed each year to the fan club between 1963 and 1969. Since it was only issued within the fan club, authentic copies have become quite rare.
   
• Yesterday And Today (Capitol T/ST 2553) – Everything you wanted to know about this June 1966 LP release in America, that caused quite a stir over the controversial “Butcher Cover” that fronted the first and now, quite rare, copies.