The Beatles Mono Box Set Includes Previously Unreleased Mixes

The White Album

1968 was a year of transition as far as mono vs. stereo as more and more listeners were moving from mono playback systems to stereo playback systems. The US was ahead of the UK in this regard and this is why The White Album was released in both mono & stereo in the UK but only in stereo in the US.

This means that the copy of The White Album included in The Beatles in Mono box is actually the very first release of the mono mix of this awesome double album in the US.

Differences In The Mono Mixes

There are quite a few significant differences between the mono mixes and the stereo mixes on the Beatles self titled 1968 double album which makes this first release of the mono mixes that much more interesting to US based fans who have never had a chance to hear them before.

There are too many differences for me to list them all (and I'm sure I haven't found them all yet) but these are among those that have jumped out at me so far:

"Back in the USSR" - The plane noises sound a lot different in mono than in stereo. I read that they actually used a different sample for this so it's not just the mono vs stereo panning difference.

"Birthday" - The vocal edit mistake on "dannce--annnnce" isn't present in the mono version like it is in stereo.

"Helter Skelter" - In the mono mix it is just 3:39 long vs. 4:29 on the stereo mix. The mono mix includes different noises and does not include the "blisters on my fingers" bit at the end.

"Revolution #9" - It sounds a lot different in mono as the panning is pretty wild in the stereo mix.

Yellow Submarine

While the Yellow Submarine album is not included in the mono box set because the George Martin instrumentals on the album were never mixed in mono, the four new Beatles songs that were on that album are on The Beatles Mono Masters which is only available as a part of the box set (like all of the other albums in the mono box, it is not available for individual purchase.)

Since Yellow Submarine was originally only released in stereo (in both the US & the UK) "All Together Now," "Hey Bulldog," "Only a Northern Song," & "It's All Too Much" have never before been released in mono in any format which makes these four tracks the only truly previously unreleased mixes (in any format, anywhere) on both of the new remastered box sets.