American Releases
The first appearance of “You Can’t Do That” in the states was on March 16th, 1964 (four days before it was released in Britain) as the b-side to “Can’t Buy Me Love.” The picture sleeve Capitol used for the single contained the same Dezo Hoffmann picture that was used for their first Capitol single“I Want To Hold Your Hand.” As the a-side of the single raced to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (only taking two weeks to do so), the b-side peaked at the respectable position of #48.
Interestingly, the Savoy printing plant was asked by Capitol to help with the pressing of this fast selling single. They printed a small amount of these singles on yellow / black vinyl, as well as straight yellow vinyl, as souvenirs, all of these being highly collectable today.
The next appearance was less than a month later (April 10th, 1964) on the Capitol LP “The Beatles’ Second Album.” Capitol was then enjoying the chart success of The Beatles’ latest single “Can’t Buy Me Love” but could not include the song on this album because it was earmarked for the upcoming movie soundtrack for “A Hard Day’s Night,” which was then licensed to United Artists Records for album release. Since it had been determined at this point that the singles' b-side, “You Can’t Do That,” would not be on that soundtrack album, they could include it here.
Capitol was so anxious to release this album that they decided not to wait for a stereo mix of the song. All they had was the mono mix that was used for the single. In order to get the ball rolling, they released the album with the track in mono only, creating a duophonic stereo mix for use on the stereo copies of the album. Therefore, most treble frequencies are heard on one channel while all of the bass frequencies appear on the other. Even though George Martin did create a stereo mix on June 22nd, 1964, Capitol never bothered to replace the duophonic version all the time that “The Beatles’ Second Album” was in print. On January 21st, 2014, this album was released as an individualcompact disc for the first time, the mono and stereo mixes being contained on a single CD.
The song “You Can’t Do That” was included on a limited edition single entitled “Music City / KFWBeatles,” which was released on June 5th, 1964. This single was created for Wallichs Music City in Canogo Park, California in conjunction with radio station KFWB. Released on “Capitol Custom Services” record label, it was used for promotion of the grand opening of the Wallichs store, being distributed to all those who attended on that day.
Side one of this single featured a 1:40 interview segment by The Beatles entitled “The Beatles Talking,” while side two featured the b-side of their recent single. Copies of this disc are highly collectable, especially if preserved in their original tan mailers.
August 10th, 1964, saw the next release of this song on a compilation album released by Capitol entitled “The Big Hits From England & USA.” Prepared to capitalize on the recent British boom in the US, the album contained both sides of The Beatles’ March single, as well as other British Capitol artists Cilla Black and Peter & Gordon.
"You Can't Do That" did get a partial American release on the Capitol documentary album, "The Beatles' Story," on the track "Who's A Millionaire?" The double album was released on November 23rd, 1964. Surprisingly, "The Beatles' Story" was also released on compact disc on January 21st., 2014, but only as contained in the 13-album box set "The US Albums."
Sometime in 1967, Capitol released Beatles music on a brand new but short-lived format called "Playtapes." These tape cartridges did not have the capability to include entire albums, so two truncated four-song versions of "" were released in this portable format, "You Can't Do That" being on one of these releases. These "Playtapes" are highly collectable today.
Interestingly, when Capitol released their 8-track version of the album "Beatles '65" in 1969, they included "You Can't Do That" as a bonus track in order to flesh out its eleven songs to twelve, these being more easily divided between the four channels on the tape.
The next release of the song takes us all the way to June 7th, 1976 with the release of the Capitol double album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music.” This album marks the first time a stereo version of the song was available in the US. The stereo mix of the song made on June 22nd, 1964 graced this album but, because George Martin was thereby consulted regarding the preparation of this album, he decided to reverse the left and right channels. Therefore, the first time American fans could domestically own a stereo version of "You Can't Do That," it was actually a mirror image of the actual original stereo mix as heard in Britain and elsewhere.
On October 27th, 1980, the album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” was divided into two separate albums, “You Can’t Do That” appearing on “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, Volume 1.” Once again, the reversed stereo mix can be heard on this album, making this the only American release that contained a stereo version of this song for many years.
February 26th, 1987 was the date that the original British "A Hard Day's Night" album was released on compact disc for the first time, a vinyl edition being released on July 21st, 1987. This album was only in mono for many years, but the September 9th, 2009 remastered version restored the stereo mix to its rightful place on CD, a vinyl edition coming out on November 13th, 2012. Gratefully, the stereo version of "You Can't Do That" is now readily available in the US.
In February of 1994, Capitol reissued the "Can't Buy Me Love / You Can't Do That" single for use in jukeboxes. This 45, which was printed ongreen vinyl under the Cema series with the words "For Jukeboxes Only" printed on the label, is becoming highly collectable.
November 21st, 1995 saw the next release of the song on the “Anthology 1” album. "Take six" from the original recording sessions on February 25th, 1964, can be heard in its entirety, which is notable for its lack of background vocals and different lead guitar solo.
November 15th, 2006 saw the release of the box set “The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1,” which contains the song in mono and duophonic stereo as originally heard on "The Beatles' Second Album."
The original mono mix was also remastered and then released on September 9th, 2009 in the box set "The Beatles In Mono."
On November 11th, 2013, the album "On Air - Live At The BBC Volume 2" was released, which included yet another BBC version of "You Can't Do That." This version was recorded on July 14th, 1964 for the radio program "Top Gear."
On July 24th, 2012, the iTunes Store, in partnership with EMI Records, released a new Beatles compilation album entitled "Tomorrow Never Knows," the purpose of which was to highlight the group's influence on the history of rock music. The album had the approval of Paul and Ringo, as well as the board of directors for the estates of John and George, and was successful enough to peak at #24 on the Billboard album chart. "You Can't Do That" was a unique but fitting choice for this release.
On September 9th, 2016, the long-awaited remastered release of "Live At The Hollywood Bowl" became available, Giles Martin taking those original tapes and bringing them to life as never heard before. Their Hollywood Bowl performance of "You Can't Do That" from August 23rd, 1964 was included on this release as a bonus track.
A 50th Anniversay edition of the compilation album "The Beatles / 1962 - 1966" (aka "The Red Album") was released on November 10th, 2023. This expanded release included 12 additional songs for a total of 38 tracks, including the new mix of "You Can't Do That" detailed above, and was made available as a double CD and as a triple vinyl release on both black and red vinyl
On March 31st, 1964, The Beatles lip-synced the song during the “television performance” sequence of the film before 350 screaming fans assembled at the Scala Theatre in London. Phil Collins (of Genesis fame) was one of the 350 fans that day who recalls “You Can’t Do That” being part of that performance. This selection may have been cut from the film, as mentioned above, but this sequence was broadcast on The Ed Sullivan Show on May 24th, 1964 and is featured in the 1994 video “The Making Of A Hard Day’s Night,” hosted by Phil Collins.
Sometime during 2023, Giles Martin
