Here is a mid-sixties Beatles Rubber Soul standee distributed by Capitol Records to retailers, to help market the group’s brand new LP at the time.

Capitol also made a traditional paper promo poster to serve the same purpose, with much of the same wording, but not in full color like this.

The popular “accidentally stretched” photo of John, Paul, George and Ringo graces this Beatles Rubber Soul record-store display. Shot by photographer Bob Freeman, It’s one of the most admired Beatle album covers ever.

It’s interesting how they chose to use the stereo version of the LP cover on here, even though monaural copies were far outselling stereo ones at the time.

One thing really distinguishes this Beatles Rubber Soul promotional display as being American… “The Beatles Sing 12 Brand New Songs!” That’s indeed how many songs you got on the shortened U.S. version of the album, but in Britain, the record was fuller at 14 tracks.

Speaking of Britain, the EMI/Parlophone label apparently never made its own promo piece for this LP over there. Or at least, I’ve never seen one, and I’ve been seriously collecting these things for a couple of decades.

You just gotta love the main marketing slogan used on this Beatles Rubber Soul countertop display… “Great for Giving! Or Just Groovy Listening!” Boy, does that ever set it off as being from the sixties.

Capitol actually used that phrase throughout its marketing of this LP, so it also appeared in trade magazine ads such as Billboard, and the aforementioned promo poster.

One of the most admired aspects of this album was its highly stylized logo, so it’s really cool that it appears not once, but twice, in big size, on the Beatles Rubber Soul window display. It’s weird to see that logo in red, on the flap, when we’re so used to seeing it in brown.

Another thing proclaimed here is, “Never Before Available in the U.S.A.” Virtually no import copies of the record had reached America yet, because it was released in England just three days before U.S. release (December 3, as opposed to December 6 in America).

Notice the holiday theme of the Beatles Rubber Soul large standup… besides the “Great for Giving!” line, the side flap has is all in red & green – obviously, Christmas colors.

It wasn’t unusual for the Beatles to have new album releases just in time for the holiday shopping season… witness Beatles ’65 the year before, Magical Mystery Tour in 1967 and The Beatles (the white album) in ’68.

This Beatles Rubber Soul in-store display has dimensions of 30” wide by 22” tall, so it really struck an imposing figure on any retailer’s counter.

Capitol also made a version, however, without the white side panel – or else that flap was removed from some copies, leaving just the large square album cover for stores to use.

This big, heavy Beatles Rubber Soul display, which is beautifully framed, is discussed by veteran Beatles fan Pete Howard. That’s me, and I can be written to by email at pete@postercentral.com or telephoned on 805-540-0020. The display you see in the video isn’t mine, so I will pay THE BEST PRICE, PERIOD for one of these, if you happen to know who has one.

And to read my lengthy Goldmine magazine cover story on collectable promo displays and posters from the 1960s, including plenty of Beatles, just tap over to this page right here on my Web site: http://www.postercentral.com/goldmine-promoposters.htm