Product Description
Super Rare Actual 1969 Japanese First Pressing Of The Classic Final Beatles LP On Original Dark Red “Everclean” Vinyl! Includes Insert With Lyrics In English, Plus Apple Records Black Paper Inner Sleeve. Also Sought After By Beatles Aficionados For Typo On Back Cover (Showing Track List Incorrectly, With “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” Before “Something”).
First Pressing: Does NOT have “Her Majesty” printed on Side Two label. All pressings after this did have “Her Majesty” printed on Side Two label.
Price on back cover also verifies first pressing: ¥ 2,000
Condition – Vinyl: VERY GOOD! Many would grade this as VG+, but playing it conservative here. Light surface marks do not affect play (definitely no skips or repeats), audible surface noise on quiet sections of “Here Comes The Sun’ & “Sun King”. Over 56 years old, still sounding wonderful!
Condition – Cover: VERY GOOD PLUS! Shelf and edge wear. Overall, nice, especially considering the vintage of this album. Insert has age spots and a burnt corner… what were they smoking?
Japanese vinyl pressings are highly sought after by audiophiles and collectors, due to their premium sound quality and beautifully presented packaging. The sonic quality of Japanese records is regarded as the best in the world. No wonder all the original Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab records were pressed in Japan! The covers are printed on better quality heavy stock paper too. Original Japanese pressings are becoming scarcer ~ and therefore more collectable and valuable every year.
Side 1:
Come Together
Something
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
Oh! Darling
Octopus’s Garden
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
Side 2:
Here Comes The Sun
Because
You Never Give Me Your Money
Sun King
Mean Mr. Mustard
Polythene Pam
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Her Majesty
AMG –
The most immaculately produced and most tightly constructed Beatles album... A fitting swan song for the group, echoing some of the faux-conceptual forms of Sgt. Pepper, but featuring stronger compositions and more rock-oriented ensemble work. The group was still pushing forward in all facets of its art, whether devising some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record (especially on “Because”), constructing a medley of songs/vignettes that covered much of side two, adding subtle touches of Moog synthesizer, or crafting furious guitar-heavy rock (“The End,” “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” “Come Together”). George Harrison also blossomed into a major songwriter, contributing the buoyant “Here Comes the Sun” and the supremely melodic ballad “Something,” the latter of which became the first Harrison-penned Beatles hit. Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles’ best work is debatable, but it’s certainly the most immaculately produced and most tightly constructed.
Geoff (verified owner) –
One of the finest albums ever recorded -- truly a classic LP in every sense of the word! ‘Abbey Road’ was the last album that the Beatles recorded together before splitting up in 1970 and going on to their own respective solo careers. They certainly went out on a brilliant note, as ‘Abbey Road’ is easily one of the finest albums ever recorded and contains many classic Beatles songs. John Lennon’s hard-rocking, “Come Together” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” make a very strong impression while the timelessly beautiful “Something” and “Here Comes The Sun” were penned by George Harrison. A series of song fragments edited together in suite form dominates side two; its portentous, touching, official close (“Golden Slumbers” / “Carry That Weight” / “The End”) is nicely undercut, in typical Beatles fashion, by Paul McCartney’s cheeky “Her Majesty”, which follows. ‘Abbey Road’ is truly a classic album in every sense of the word!