Expert: Elizabeth - 8/24/2009

Question
I have this album, never played and still shrink-wrapped.  It does not say stereo on the cover.  The songs are:

I saw her standing there         P.S. I love you
Misery                           Baby it.s you
Please, please me                Do you want to know a secret?
From me to you                   A taste of honey
Chains                           There's a place
Boys                             Twist and shout
Love me do

This is not a 'gatefold' album.  On the reverse side are tinted picture of the 4 with hearts underneath each saying "picture here"
I found the same cover design on the internet but with gatefold.
What can you tell me about what I have?

Answer
Congratulations!  You have a counterfeit album!

The first Beatles LP in the US was called Introducing...the Beatles.  It basically had the same tracks as the Beatles' first UK LP, Please Please Me.  It was released by the Vee-Jay label, back when Capitol records didn't think the Beatles would be successful.

When the Beatles started to get huge in America, Capitol slapped Vee-Jay with a restraining order so they wouldn't have competing albums with the same songs.  Vee-Jay tried to get around that by altering the album.  One of those alterations was an album called "Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles."  (Notice the difference in title?)

Anyway, it was late 1964 by this time.  Capitol wouldn't release their own version of these tracks (As The Early Beatles) until next year.  So people wanted to get these tracks out, and get paid.  Hence the counterfeit versions of the Vee-Jay album.  It's the most counterfeited record of all the Beatles releases, and it's very noticeable due to the title mistake and the lack of a gatefold.

So, basically, you have a quirky piece of Beatles nostalgia that you can sell for a couple of bucks at a garage sale.  Enjoy.