The First And The Best Of The Beatles, ISRAEL LP,

	€		123
	$		142

The Beates. The First And The Best Of The Beatles LP, Extremly Rare

Cat. No. Israel
Polydor / 635056 Unatex
Original Label : White/Red Polydor

Year of release in Israel 1968

Let's open the book "Anthology of The Beatles Records" by Alex Bagirov. Todays the only source for all Israely Beatles Records.

(You can find more information about the book here: )

This is a highly mysterious and legendary Israeli LP. It is practically elusive. This Beatles record is one of the rarest in the world. The record was released by “Unatex” (Symphonia Ltd, Tel-Aviv). This sound-recording company from Tel Aviv, now no longer with us, also decided to try its luck with the release of records by the legendary Beatles. Not having had a chance to secure the rights to the release of official Beatles albums (remember that was in 1968 and all rights to Beatles releases in Israel at the time belonged to “Isradisc”), “Unatex” approached West German company “Polydor”, which had the rights to the Hamburg recordings of the Beatles (with Tony Sheridan). As a result, the record appeared in Israel under the intriguing name of “The First And The Best Of The Beatles”, including compositions by the Beatles with another English singer, Tony Sheridan (or the other way around: Tony Sheridan with the Beatles). It is interesting to note that on the label (on the vinyl) a different name appears - The Beatles In Hamburg. Considering that this is not quite the Beatles that we got used to hearing, and considering that, at the time, the same records were on sale in Israel (The Beatles With Tony Sheridan or Tony Sheridan With The Beatles), but of better quality than the Israeli records – records from England, the USA, Canada and West Germany – sales of this album from “ Unatex “ were very sluggish. However, something quite unforeseen happened. British-owned firm Apple Corps caused a storm. Its official representatives demanded that “Unatex” refrain from selling the LP, threatening to hold the Israeli firm legally liable if it did not do so. So what happened? The fact was that the Israelis, in order to boost the sales of the very sluggish record, did not only simply the popular name: The First And The Best Of The Beatles, to which they had full rights– but also colour photographs of the Beatles during the period from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” to “Yellow Submarine” period, i.e. the period from 1967 to 1968. In addition, here on the front side of the album sleeve we also see Ringo Starr - and in close up too. Meanwhile, Ringo was not involved in the recordings heard on the record, since at the time, in 1961, he was still not a member of the Beatles. Here on these recordings you can hear the drums of drummer Pete Best, who at the time was the official drummer for the group. And so, considering all this, Apple Corps asked that the sale of the album be stopped at once. The threat was indeed very large, and “Unatex” immediately did everything they were asked to do by the representatives at Apple Corps. However, this scandal only came to light after records had already gone on sale and a certain number had already been sold. According to experts, around 100 copies were sold in total. Not that many, is it? As we were told by one Israeli collector, if ever this album now appears on sale from private collections, you will probably see this happening once every 10 years. And if you want to find one in MINT condition, it is impossible. Such a record will be snapped up at once, to be coveted by many collectors of Beatles recordings.

Now let's talk about condition.

As you can see at the foto the cover missing some small part near Lennon. So I can give VG/VG- to Cover

Record has some scratches. Condition is between VG+ and VG

Condition: Cover : VG / Vinyl VG.