In the fall of 1968, Beatles fans in Canada saw the end of their beloved "swirl" label when The Beatles issued their "Hey Jude / Revolution" 45 on their new Apple label; their last swirl label 45 in Canada had been "Lady Madonna / The Inner Light". In early 1969, Capitol in the USA and Canada announced that they would be phasing out the famous Capitol dome logo in favour of the new "target" Capitol logo. Perhaps The Beatles' move to the Apple label had something to do with this marketing move ? Had The Beatles caused this "Revolution" at Capitol in North America in 1969 ? As a young record collector in the 1960s, I was very aware of Capitol's label change at the end of that decade.
Well .. Capitol of Canada MUST have made a mistake with the new "target" labels. A few "oddball" 45s were issued between February and June of 1969. Two examples of these mistaken labels were Capitol 5476 Help / I'm Down and Capitol 2138 Lady Madonna / The Inner Light. Both of these records are shown here. As you can see, on both of the labels Capitol of Canada omitted the actual logo and just featured the correct colours for the larger red ring and for the smaller orange ring. The record labels were then stamped with the older "Dome" logo to the left hand side of the centre hole. Within weeks, these incorrect colour paper labels were replaced with the proper labels that feature the black "target" logo stamped to the left hand side of the centre hole. An example of the corrected label is also shown for Capitol 72146 Twist And Shout / There's A Place.
One possibility was that the manufacturers of the paper labels in Canada (eg Parrs or Modern Graphics or Evereddy) were in fact given the wrong design by Capitol and the logo was assumed to be part of the ink stamping process and not part of the label itself. The "workaround" was to use the incorrect target labels before the new "corrected" labels were available. We may never know what actually happened, but these "dome target labels" are very strange indeed.
Even stranger ... were the new colour paper Capitol 45RPM sleeves that accompanied the "dome red target" singles. As seen in the pictures of both Capitol 5476 and Capitol 2138, the sleeves also omitted the black target logo. Why ? Clearly the new Capitol target logo was not ready for prime time in Canada in early 1969 !
There have been references to other "dome red target" 45s in Canada in the Canadian Beatles Collectors Forum in the past few years. More information on these other titles would be appreciated. Two Canadian Beach Boys 45s were in fact also pressed with these odd dome red target labels; Capitol 2432 I Can Hear Music / All I Want To Do (there are both orange swirl and target copies of this release from February 1969) and Capitol 2530 Break Away / Celebrate The News (June 1969).
Note also other examples of dome red target labels from this period :
Capitol 2506 Terry Knight "(The Legend Of) William And Mary / Saint Paul"
Capitol 2562 Five Man Electrical Band "Sunrise To Sunset / Little Bit Of Love"
Capitol 2570 Buck Owens "Tall Dark Stranger / Sing That Kind Of Song"
Capitol 2573 Glen Campbell "True Grit / Hava Nagila"
Capitol 2592 Joe South "Don't It Make You Want To Go Home / Heart's Desire"
Capitol 72466 The Master Singers"Weather Forecast / Roadilore"
Capitol 72576 Jerry North "Time / Life's A Lot Like Movies"
Capitol 72583 Mother Tuckers Yellow Duck "One Ring Jane / Funny Feeling"
Capitol 72587 The Patmacs "River Is Wide / Verdant Braes O’Screen"
Capitol 72590 Jerry Warren "You Ain't Changed A Bit From Baltimore / Id Better Not See Her Again"
A very special romo with picture sleeve was also produced on this rare label. Pierre Lalonde (form Québec) had a promo single made, numbered PRO 101 (and PRO 102 on the flip side)and issued with a special pircture sleeve featuring miss Canada 1969. Songs were: I'll Catch The Sun / Put Your Head On My Shoulder
Following the use of the incorrect "dome red target" labels during the first half of 1969 for the Canadian Capitol 45s, the corrected new labels were used.
Just a few months later, Capitol of Canada would be surprised to see the reissued "correct green target" SPLHCB LP back in the top 10 of the RPM LP chart in late 1969 ... this strong chart showing for an "old" LP allowed Capitol of Canada to see the potential for The Beatles back-catalogue in a whole new light. The Beatles LP catalogue was issued on the green target label in 1969 and 1970 and then again in 1971 on the red target label.
The red target labels are of particular interest to collectors of The Beatles' Canadian records from the 1960s, and the oddball "dome red target" labels from early 1969 mark these records as unique.