In addition to the utter genius of their songwriting and performance, The Beatles were often celebrated for their innovative use of new musical technologies and production techniques within their work. From employing an early tape sampler on tracks like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ to essentially inventing Artificial Double Tracking while recording vocals, this pioneering spirit allowed the group to stand out among the incredibly saturated pop scene of the 1960s. However, not all of these innovations went down without a fight.
The issue with a group like The Beatles is that there are four gifted musicians, all fighting for their voices to be heard. Inevitably, this led to some disagreements between the band members, particularly during their later material and, most notably, during the Let It Be sessions, which eventually led to the dissolution of the band. On the other hand, this tension and these arguments often led to the creation of some of the band’s greatest work and most notable musical innovations.
Although the band were regularly celebrated for these innovations, which usually ended up having a lasting impact on the music industry as a whole, not all of them were welcomed with open arms by the band. George Harrison, for instance, worried that one particular advancement in sound technology would be the ruin of The Beatles’ distinctive sound. Harrison recalled in The Beatles Anthology, “When they invented stereo I remember thinking ‘Why? What do you want two speakers for? Because it ruined the sound from our point of view”.
“We had everything coming out of one speaker,” the guitarist continued, “Now it had to come out of two speakers – it sounded pretty naked”. His complaints about stereophonic sound – or stereo, to you and me – seem to be at odds with the original intention of the technology, but he was certainly not the only one to be sceptical about stereo. For years, the mono mixes of The Beatles have been sought after by collectors as the definitive sound of the band.
Put simply, when sound is recorded in ‘stereo’, there are two independent audio channels working in tandem to create a multi-directional listening experience. The technology was first developed in the 1930s by EMI, but it did not get rolled out into the public until the late 1950s. As such, even the earliest Beatles records were available in both mono and stereo, but most music buyers tended to go for mono recordings, as that was what their turntables were equipped to play at the time.
The result of this is that stereo first pressings of The Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me are incredibly rare and can set you pack up to £5,000 for a decent copy. However, many Beatles fans are in agreement with Harrison; much of the band’s music was made to be heard in mono. In 2009, EMI took on the painstaking task of remastering all the band’s material in mono audio for the release of The Beatles in Mono box set, which was largely received with open arms by fans.
The debate over stereo versus mono when it comes to The Beatles will likely rage on for years to come. As the band progressed into their psychedelic era, with records like Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the stereo mixing became an essential aspect of the listening process. Listening to tracks like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ through a mono output simply does not create the same all-encompassing audio experience, despite Harrison’s worries.
