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| Pressed in mono by Quality Records, Canada. |
While no Vee Jay Beatles' records were released here a small number found their way into Canada from the U.S. and a Canadian collector can expect to come across a few.
Many Canadians live close to the border and shopping trips and longer holidays to the U.S. are common events. As a result many U.S. Beatles' pressing, including Vee Jay records, were brought back to Canada and will occasionally be found. In my experience the "Introducing the Beatles" album is the most common Vee Jay pressing likely to be found in Canada. Counterfeit copies of this album are also commonly found in here.
This copy of Vee Jay 581 "Please Please Me / From Me To You" was sourced from a long time collector in Montreal who purchased it in 1964 in a local store. Apparently the local store brought the records in from the United States. Given Montreal's proximity to the U.S. and the huge demand for Beatles' "product" in 1964 I believe this scenario to be very plausible.
In Nanaimo I acquired a VJ promotional EP from a family that had operated a jukebox company for a number of decades. The E.P. came from a western Canadian 45 RPM supplier. Luckily this E.P. had a slight warp and as a result had been spared endless jukebox plays leaving it in excellent condition.
In the mid 1970's I came across a sealed stereo copy of "The Beatles VS The Four Seasons" in an A&A Records outlet in suburban Vancouver. At the time I was just beginning to collect Beatles LP's and this one seemed more of a novelty, so I passed on it. What is interesting is that this LP was released in 1964 and by the early mid 1970's Vee Jay was long defunct, so it remains a mystery how this LP ended up in a suburban Canadian record chain store in the mid 1970's
Just to put the record straight, Vee Jay Records in the 1950's and up to mid 1961 were released in Canada by a company called Phonodisc on one of their two labels, Delta or Regency. In mid 1961, Quality Records acquired Canadian rights to Vee Jay from Phonodisc and quickly began to issue the Vee Jay label in Canada. Likely the first Canadian Vee Jay 45 was "I'm A-Tellin' You" by Jerry Butler (Vee Jay VJ-390X) released circa July 1961. On January 1, 1962, the Canadian rights to Vee Jay switched to the Compo Company. The first Vee Jay 45 I remember seeing by Compo was "The Duke Of Earl" by Gene Chandler (Vee Jay VJ 416) released in January 1962, likely Compo's first Canadian Vee Jay release. Then in mid 1964 Vee Jay Records returned to Quality for roughly two years before they went out of business in 1966. My long winded point is Vee Jay did not issue any records in Canada in the decade of the 1950's as stated.
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