Beatles – Reel Music (DBM-054)

1. A Hard Day’s Night (Lennon/McCartney) 2:33 2. I Should Have Known Better (Lennon/McCartney) 2:43 3. Can’t Buy Me Love (Lennon/McCartney) 2:11 4. And I Love Her (Lennon/McCartney) 2:28 5. Help! (Lennon/McCartney) 2:19 6. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (J. Lennon/P. McCartney) 2:11 7. Ticket To Ride (Lennon/McCartney) 3:11 8. Magical Mystery Tour (Lennon/McCartney) 2:50 9. I Am The Walrus (Lennon/McCartney) 4:36 10. Yellow Submarine (Lennon/McCartney) 2:38 11. All You Need Is Love (Lennon/McCartney) 3:47 12. Let It Be (Lennon/McCartney) 4:03 13. Get Back (Lennon/McCartney) 3:07 14. The Long And Winding Road (Lennon/McCartney) 3:37  

According to Wikipedia, “Reel Music is a compilation album featuring a selection of songs by The Beatles that were featured in their films. The album was released nearly simultaneously with the theatrical release of the film, A Hard Day’s Night, which had been “cleaned” and re-edited with stereo Dolby sound. Reel Music cracked U.S. Billboard top twenty, peaking at No. 19.

The album featured a number of stereo mixes that had previously been unavailable or rare.
   – the British stereo mix of “I Am The Walrus”, which had previously only been available on stereo copies of the British Magical Mystery Tour EP.
   – the official American debut of the songs “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Ticket To Ride” in true stereo.
   – a unique stereo mix of “I Should Have Known Better”, which differs slightly from the version used for the 1970 Hey Jude collection.

The album was accompanied by the single, “The Beatles Movie Medley” b/w “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You”, which came with a picture sleeve featuring the same artwork as the album cover. The A-Side of the single featured an artificial medley, in which excerpts from seven songs from Reel Music were edited together to make a single track. The seven songs featured were;
   – “Magical Mystery Tour”
   – “All You Need Is Love”
   – “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”
   – “I Should Have Known Better”
   – “A Hard Day’s Night”
   – “Ticket To Ride”
   – “Get Back”

Originally, the single’s B-Side was supposed to be an interview with the group dubbed “The Fab Four On Film”, which was recorded during the filming of “A Hard Day’s Night”. Capitol/EMI Records, however, could not obtain the necessary permission to utilize the interview on the single, and “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You” (which appeared in the A Hard Day’s Night film but which was not included on the Reel Music album) was substituted as the B-Side shortly   before the single was released.”

DBM-054 represents a clean needle drop transfer that is flawless. There is some fluctuation in loudness between some of the tracks, but, overall, this Dr. Ebbetts release is enjoyable and comes packaged with standard inserts and OBI strip