“I was asked by EMI to give my opinion, and my advice was not to put them out the way they were doing. They were going to issue fake stereos—the bane of my life for the past two decades—and I said, ‘Well, these were recorded in mono, so why do this?'
“I told them that the first two should go out in mono, and that if they had to issue the others in stereo, the mixes should be cleaned up and re-equalized for CD. Unfortunately, there was a deadline to be met, so they said, ‘Look, we’ll release all four in mono, and if you like, perhaps you can prepare stereo mixes for A Hard Day’s Night and Beatles for Sale later on.'
“They went back and just transferred the original mono masters directly to CD. When they sent me the copies, I was delighted.”
[George Martin, Billboard, 1987]
Yesterday, 26th February 2017, marked 30 years since the first Beatles records were issued on CD, with the release of their first four U.K. albums: Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night and Beatles for Sale. Here’s the TV advert from 1987.
30 years! Doesn’t that make you feel old? Most of you probably weren’t born yet! For the record, I was 6. ...I stick to vinyl anyway!