A real timepiece from the first year of Beatlemania in America… a Capitol Records Beatles ’65 promo display dating to December 1964, the month this album was released.

This item is simply a large cardboard blow-up of the LP cover, without the benefit of any added words or elements. It’s a dead ringer for the actual LP cover put out by Capitol.

This particular Beatles ’65 window display is nicely framed, all in black, to better accentuate the colors found on the LP cover itself. Most dramatically you have the album’s title in large, red block letters across the top.

Bob Whitaker is the photographer responsible for the photos of the Fab Four present here. He pictured them in each of the four seasons… winter up top, and then spring, summer and fall across the bottom.

I love the way all four Beatles are name-checked across the top of this Beatles ’65 record-store display. “Great new hits by John, Paul, George and Ringo,” it states… the typical sequence for their names, as it was also the order in which the four joined the group (starting with the Quarry Men).

And then the 11 songs are listed below their name, including the new single “I Feel Fine” / “She’s a Woman,” and two Carl Perkins cover versions, “Honey Don’t” and “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” – which the Fab Four could certainly relate to.

A lot of collectors probably wish that this Capitol Records Beatles ’65 store display had more wording on it… any fun stuff such as “New Beatles album on sale here, now!”

But surely others really appreciate the fact that the cover art was left alone and allowed to speak for itself. Just the great, big LP cover staring back at you, and in 1964, this was an unusual sight to behold.

It’s fun that both this Beatles ’65 countertop display and a small-ish paper poster were made by Capitol to promote the new album… and I’ve already blogged the poster in a previous video blog from years past, you can easily find it.

That poster was noteworthy because it also pictured The Beatles’ Story, a slap-dash Capitol album from ’64 that the group decided to bury and ignore forevermore going forward. (For the record, I thought it was a fun document that still has value, and nostalgia galore.)

This Beatles ’65 point-of-purchase display is shown to you today by first-gen Beatles fan Pete Howard, who proudly bought this record back upon its release. That would be me, of course, and I can be reached via (805) 540-0020 or via pete@postercentral.com. I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone who has this piece, because I still need it for my collection and I pay the BEST PRICES IN THIS HOBBY, PERIOD, for original sixties Beatles store displays and promo posters from Capitol.

And to read my Goldmine magazine story on collectible Beatles promo posters and displays, just slip your cursor right over to this page: http://www.postercentral.com/goldmine-promoposters.htm