Collecting the Beatles: Canada: Solo Beatles and Apple Friends: Hard to find Canadian issues!

Paul McCartney's My Love/The Mess was released in 1976 as the lead single from the Red Rose Speedway album. In Canada 1000 copies of the single in a Capitol of Canada custom sleeve were distributed as a promotion at the Mosport Raceway near Toronto.

Printed on the sleeve were coupons for the vinyl album and the cassette or 8 track at the four Target Tape stores located in the greater Toronto area. The reverse side of the sleeve was blank. Only 1000 copies were distributed to raceway attendees and many sleeves were destroyed when the coupons were clipped. As a result the sleeve is a hard to find unique Canadian solo Beatles' collectible.

In recent years only a few copies of the sleeve have come up for sale. Copies in VG+ to excellent condition have sold in the $45 to $120 range.

In December , 1975, "This Guitar" backed with "Maya Love" was released on Apple 1885 in Canada. The single is very hard to find. In 2017 a NM copy sold for $51.

In June, 1983, Ringo released the album "Old Wave". The LP was released by RCA in just seven countries, including Canada and on the Bellaphone label in Germany. It was never released in the U.K. or U.S. The album was not successful and was never reissued, although appreciation for it grew in subsequent years. Canadian copies are often found with a delete punch hole and are hard to find. An excellent to NM copy with no delete hole sells in the $60 to $80 range.

Current values for Old Wave

While George Harrison's Canadian issue of "Electronic Music" is hard to find the Canadian 8 track version, 8XT-3358, in a white shell is quite rare. I guesstimate a decent copy would sell for between $50 and $100.

The Canadian pressing of John Lennon's "Two Virgins" is quite rare. The vinyl was pressed by RCA and distributed by Tetragramaton Records. In the U.S. the outer brown wrapper was a sleeve that the record slid into while the Canadian brown cover wrapped around the record. On most Canadian copies the outer wrapper was sealed with an orange day-glo sticker while a few got a yellow or red sticker. The U.S. copy was sealed with a white sticker. Interestingly, some Canadian wrap around outer brown sleeves were sent to the U.S. when they ran short and a white sticker was used to seal it. It has also been reported that Canadian covers were shipped to the US and used on U.S. pressings when U.S. covers were seized by authorities.

Canadian copies of "Two Virgins" in excellent condition sell for between $75 and $120. A sealed copy sells for $175 to $250.

Lennon's Plastic Ono Band L.P. was released in late 1970 on the light pale green Apple label and pressed by both Compo and RCA. A few copies were pressed using Dynaflex vinyl (which created a much thinner and flexible record) and the more familiar green Apple label was used. The small run Dynaflex pressed discs with the green Apple label is a hard to find collectible.

Regular pale green label (left) and the rarer Dynaflex green Apple label (center and right)

A reissue of John Lennon's Imagine L.P. on the green Apple label is also quite rare.

A reissue of John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band on the green Apple label is another hard to find issue.

Regular issue pale Apple label (below) and the scarce green Apple label reissue (above).

In 1968 Capitol of Canada pressed a small number of Mary Hopkin's "Those Were The Days" sung in French, for the Quebec market and titled "Les Temps De Fleurs". As both the English and French versions were released at the same time the French version was given the British catalogue number - Apple 2. It was released in the unique Canadian white Apple sleeve. The small pressing run of the French version makes this a hard to find Canadian Apple release.

Another rare Canadian Apple release is James Taylor's "Carolina On My Mind" which was withdrawn due to a label error. The record was re-released with the corrected title, "Carolina In My Mind" and a different B-side. In mid 2020 a NM copy sold for approximately $890 CA.

Withdrawn pressing (top) and corrected release (below)

Values for the withdrawn James Taylor 45 RPM

In 1976 McCartney released "Maybe I'm Amazed" backed with "Soily" on Capitol 4385 with custom label. The majority of the singles were pressed on black vinyl, however, a very small number were pressed on blue vinyl. The blue vinyl discs are quite rare and only a few have ever been offered for sale. One recent sale of a VG copy sold for $90.

In 1983 Capitol reissued John Lennon's 1976 Shaved Fish L.P. on the retro rainbow Capitol Label. As this was nearing the end of the vinyl L.P. era not many copies were pressed, creating a hard to find collectible.