Norwegian singles: She Loves You

Probably safe to say that this single is what started Beatlemania here in Norway. It was the fourth Beatles single to be released over here, but it took off like a rocket. Kids everywhere were screaming the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s after this. And the performance on the swedish Drop In TV-show helped a lot.

The letters for the name of the band and the song titles were designed by a norwegian illustrator of “cowboy” pocket books. 

This single is found in several editions with different shades of green, but by far the rarest is the red one.

The red She Loves You is one of those 1966 re-releases. Even if we call them 1966 editions, they may have been pressed at any time between 1966 and 1969. Notice that this is not just an adjustment in the colour departement, but the image of the Beatles’ heads peeping out from behind a door is more clearly defined, with lighter shades in their hair. This image was used on several of the early norwegian Beatles singles. The original green She Loves You singles had red Parlophone labels while the red edition has black labels in the new (post 1965) style.

The copy depicted above was sold in an internet auction and brought the seller a whooping NOK 20.500 (£2.000 or roughly $4.000). The earlier green sleeve pressings typically sells for around NOK 500 (£50 or $100). A single without a sleeve is almost worthless.

This 1963 souvenir programme from a Beatles concert may be where the norwegian singles manufacturer got the image used on several of those early singles.