The Beatles Rarest Collectible Records and VJ
The rarest of all the Beatle LPs and some singles are those on the black owned record label called Vee-Jay records which went out of business by 1965. At one time, it was bigger than Motown Records, having a predominantly Black artist line up like, Jonny Lee Hook, Little Richard.
In 1963, British label EMI offered Vee-Jay a group that had been turned down by Capitol Records — The Beatles. Vee-Jay did not really want the Beatles. It wanted another EMI hit, "I Remember You" by Frank Ifield, which was a monster smash worldwide at the time. EMI told Vee-Jay it could have the hit but only if it also agreed to take the other group. The LP released was simply called Introducing The Beatles, England's No.1 Vocal Group. It was VJ's first all white pop artist and soon was followed by The Four Seasons. Of the two, in 1963, the Four Seasons were WAY more popular than this different English group, which most Americans had never heard of. The Beatles LP print run came to around 5000 copies for the US. A grim indicator of how unpopular in sales the Beatles' music was the first time they tried to invade America. The cover even showed how they were still trying to deal with the now infamous "beatle hair cut". Ringo still combed it back, John combed it straight forward, Paul simply looked "preppy". The songs were the ones that drove England into a Beatlemania, yet not in America, at least, not in 1963.
VJs LP in stereo, in VG or mint condition can sell for as high as $8000 now, then, it sold in stores for $4. The other VJ LPs released included one that folded out with all of the Beatles secret likes and dislikes. The songs were nearly the same. They also released early interviews of The Beatles called, The Beatles Tell All, this is extremely rare to find since there are no songs on it. VJ released an LP where The Beatles vs. The Four Seasons, again, the songs were the same. When the Beatles did conquer America in early 1964, the group had changed, their hair, the Beatle look, defined, something that one sees all over the world even today-the look identified youth with its hair on the forehead. Before then, most guys combed their hair off of their forehead.
Collecting any of the VJ records shown here is worth it. Beware of fraud, because some of the VJ records were not original. If in VG or mint condition, they are indeed worth thousands of dollars in today's market.
