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The "original" Parlophone sleeve, as far as the Beatles are concerned, is much more colorful than those which followed. The sleeve issued with "Love Me Do" and "Please, Please Me" lists several "wonderful" Parlophone LP's on the back. Because the sleeve is uncommon, people often mistake the green sleeves (below) as being original for the early singles, but that is incorrect.
The first of the "green" sleeves, which accompanied Parlophone singles from mid-1963 until about mid-1965, has a lone lone Parlophone logo at the bottom. The sleeves were generally cut straight across the top, although there were copies with a slight curve to them. On the back are ads for EMI record tokens (in values starting at 6 shillings), the EMITEX record cleaner, and the Record Mail.
By 1965, EMI was trying to bring a unifying look to their records worldwide. Just as Capitol in the USA added the EMI logo to their own, so did Parlophone in the UK. At the bottom of the sleeve is the Parlophone-EMI logo mentioning the manufacturer as "The Parlophone Co. Ltd.." The top of the sleeves were now ruffled; the ruffling would continue through 1968.
From late 1965 or early 1966 until after the Beatles moved to Apple, Parlophone singles sleeves greatly resembled the sleeves above. One difference, however, is the change in manufacturer's name to "The Gramophone Co. Ltd.," a change which can be seen here. The prices of EMI record tokens increased as well, with the least valuable being 7s3d.
When Apple was formed in 1968, Parlophone was still having "ruffled" sleeves manufactured, as shown in the photograph above. This practice continued until the following year, possibly through "Get Back" or "The Ballad of John and Yoko".
The last few Beatles singles for Apple were issued in the newer "thumb tab" sleeves. The purpose of both the ruffling and the thumb tab was to make it easier to slip the record in and out of the sleeve, and so the thumb tab was seen as an improvement on the earlier design.
The two picture sleeves manufactured for "original" issue Parlophone/Apple Beatles singles in England were "Penny Lane" and "Let it Be." These singles sleeves conform in construction roughly to the construction of plain company sleeves.
The sleeve for "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a ruffled paper sleeve, with the paper feeling approximately the same as the paper on the "green" sleeves. On the back, at the bottom of the sleeve, are the words "E.M.I. RECORDS (The Gramophone Company Ltd)," along with the general location of the Company and the words "Made and Printed in Great Britain." The EMI logo does NOT appear anywhere on the sleeve.
There have been reissues of the sleeve, notably in 1982 for the 20th anniversary collection, so make note of the characteristics of an original.
The sleeve for "Let it Be"/"You Know My Name" is a "thumb tab" sleeve, but the paper is composed of a much heavier stock. Like the "Penny Lane" sleeve, the catalog number does not appear anywhere on the picture sleeve. In this case, however, there is no identifying information apart from the Apple logo and the words "Apple Records."
There have been reissues of the sleeve, notably in 1982 for the 20th anniversary collection, so make note of the characteristics of an original.
