JANUARY 10, 1964 – The Beatles’ first US album, “Introducing The Beatles” was released by Vee-Jay Records. The album cover showed John, Paul and George with their now famous “mop top” haircuts, but Ringo had yet to convert. Vee-Jay thought they had obtained the legal rights from EMI affiliate, Trans-Global Records, but Capitol Records slapped Vee-Jay with an injunction against manufacturing, distributing, advertising, or otherwise disposing of records by the Beatles. After a trial, Vee-Jay was allowed to release any Beatles records that they had masters of in any form until October 15th, 1964. After that time, they no longer had the right to issue any Beatles product, but by then over 1.3 million copies had been sold. Today, the first pressing of the Vee-Jay album remains a highly sought after collector’s item, although many counterfeit copies are easily available.
