1966: In a photo session, the Beatles pose in butcher’s smocks with dismembered doll parts and pieces of meat. The lads decide to use that photo as the cover for an American album called “Yesterday… And Today.”
For the boys, it’s a cheeky commentary on what their American label, Capitol Records, did to their British albums, cutting them up, omitting some songs, adding other tracks never intended for a particular album and changing the playing order of other songs.
American parents are horrified when the album hits the stores. Capitol pulls the album. It replaces the photo with a more sedate shot of the group sitting in and around a steamer trunk.
However, many of the original “butcher covers” were simply pasted over with the new photo, creating a collector’s item that is still highly sought after today.
