Editing Capitol Records (section)

=== The Beatles ===
Possibly the best-known treatment of an international artist's recordings was the label's release pattern for various albums by [[the Beatles]]. This began with Capitol's release of ''[[Meet the Beatles!]]'', the first album by the band to be released by Capitol in the United States. It was based on the British album ''[[With the Beatles]]'', which contained 14 tracks and a running time of around 35 minutes. Capitol removed five tracks ("Money", "[[You've Really Got a Hold on Me]]", "Devil in Her Heart", "Please Mister Postman", and "Roll Over Beethoven") and added both sides of the band's first American hit single ("[[I Want to Hold Your Hand]]" c/w "[[I Saw Her Standing There]]") and the British single's B-side, "This Boy". "I Saw Her Standing There" was on the Beatles' first British album, ''[[Please Please Me]]''. This resulted in Capitol releasing ''Meet the Beatles'' as a 12-track album with a duration of around 30 minutes and made it comparable with other American pop albums. It also provided Capitol with unreleased tracks for use in later US Beatles albums such as ''The Beatles' Second Album.''

Capitol also issued "[[duophonic]]" stereo releases of some recordings where the original master was monophonic. Capitol engineers split the single master mono track into two, boosted the bass on the right channel, boosted treble on the left channel and added a split-second delay between channels to produce a "stereo" release. This duophonic process meant that the Beatles' American fans occasionally heard a slightly different song from that heard by the rest of the world if they listened to the stereo version.<ref>{{cite web|title=Capitol Albums Finally Coming Out on CD|url=http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/spizeressay.html|work=Abbeyrd's Beatles Page|publisher=Steve Marinucci|access-date=April 18, 2013|first=Bruce|last=Spizer|year=1995–2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120090905/http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/spizeressay.html|archive-date=November 20, 2012}}</ref>

This trend in the Beatles' American discography continued until 1967 when a new recording contract with EMI was signed. Unhappy with the way Capitol in the US and other companies around the world were issuing their work in almost unrecognizable forms, beginning in 1967 the Beatles gained full approval of album titles and cover art, track listing and running order in North America. Starting with ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'', Beatles' albums were released unmodified. The issue of 45 RPM singles featuring album tracks was also stopped. Instead, non-album tracks were issued as singles between album releases.