ON THIS DAY IN 1964, THE BEATLES RELEASED EARLY EP, “SOUVENIR OF THEIR VISIT TO AMERICA”

The EP featured four previously released songs and therefore didn’t perform overly well in the charts, especially as this was the beginning of the boys careers. Despite being the most common Beatles EP in the US, many of those sales came from mail order and thus couldn’t be included when it came to tallying the charts. There was also trouble with the record label, Vee-Jay Records, a small company that ultimately couldn’t afford to promote, publicise or even pay royalties to the band and subsequently lost the rights to the Beatles after the EP’s release.

The EP was produced by George Martin and featured two McCartney-Lennon collaborations as well as an Arthur Alexander cover and a Ric Marlow/Bobby Scott cover. The EP is one of three US-released Beatles EP’s, all recorded at EMI Studios in London between 1962 and 63.

Nowadays, a 7” vinyl of the EP varies from $50 for a reissue to up to $400 for one of the original copies, an insane amount for an EP, but perhaps not so crazy to a collector.