The Beatles Mono CD Box Set

Back when The Beatles were recording their classic songs in the '60s just about everyone listened to music in mono. Because of this The Beatles and their producers rarely spent much time or energy on the stereo mixes of their albums but they would spend countless hours perfecting their mono mixes. It was very rare for The Beatles themselves to show any interest in the stereo mixes at all.

Up through 1968 all of The Beatles albums were mixed in mono. All of those original mono mixes are included in the The Beatles Mono Box Set. That's a total of 10 albums from 1963's Please Please Me through 1968's The Beatles (AKA The White Album.) To Beatles "purists" this is a massively huge deal because to them this is how their music was really meant to be heard in the first place.

But you shouldn't have to be a so called "purist" to be interested in hearing the mono mixes. Over the years lots of people have said that the mono versions of albums such as Revolver and Sgt. Pepper actually sound better than the more well known stereo versions. One such person that made that claim was John Lennon. It actually makes sense that the mono mixes might sound better because so much more time was spent on getting them right and stereo was really a new way of mixing at the time, so The Beatles stereo mixes were often very "experimental."

Regardless of whether the mono versions actually sound better than the stereo mixes (that's a matter of taste) there is still a very good reason to be interested in hearing the mono mixes. That reason is that there are many notable differences between the mono and stereo versions that are intriguing due to the fact that they highlight different elements of the songs. In some cases the songs are even slower or faster. For example "She's Leaving Home" is faster on mono! There are also effects which were a part of the mono mix which were not included in the stereo mix.

Along with all of The Beatles albums from 1963 through 1968 there is also another very important set of songs included in this mono box set: The "Mono Masters" compilation. This compilation includes 2 discs and contains all of The Beatles songs which never made it onto an official Beatles album and which were originally mixed in mono. While you may assume that such songs aren't particularly good since they never made it on an album you would be very wrong to make that assumption!

The Beatles often didn't include some of their biggest hits on their albums. They actually felt like they would be "cheating" their fans to include a song on a single and then to later include it on their album as well. So big hits like "She Loves You," "Hey Jude," "Paperback Writer," "Lady Madonna," & "I Want to Hold Your Hand" were never included on any of their albums, but they are included as a part of this Mono Masters set.

Also included on Mono Masters are great b-side gems like "This Boy" and "Rain" which I think are definitely worth a listen! Don't dismiss them just because they are b-sides because they are fantastic songs as well.

You may be wondering why the band's albums which were released in 1969 and 1970 (that's Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, & Let It Be) are not included as a part of this box set. The reason is that they were never mixed in mono because by '69 stereo had completely taken over. All of The Beatles albums are included as a part of companion set, The Beatles Stereo Box Set.