Beatles’ First Album Was Released 60 Years Ago Today – Then It Was Ruled Illegal!

The Beatles’ First U.S. Album Was Released 60 Years Ago Today – Then It Was Ruled Illegal!

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ first album in the U.S. – and it’s not the one you think it is. ‘Introducing… the Beatles’ was released on Jan. 10th, 1964 by Chicago-based label Vee-Jay Records, just ten days before Capitol Records released the ‘real’ Beatles debut, ‘Meet the Beatles!’. How Vee-Jay managed to get the record out is a complicated story of international song rights – but the album wasn’t 100% legal. It was soon hit with a restraining order which pulled it off store shelves. Vee-Jay reissued the album a month later, leading to a moment in February when ‘Meet the Beatles!’ and ‘Introducing… the Beatles’ were the #1 and #2 albums on the charts, even though they included mostly the same songs. Capitol finally won its legal battle a few months later – but not before Vee-Jay sold 1.3 million copies of ‘Introducing… the Beatles’.

What was the first album you ever bought?