These so-called British export LP’s were anything but that. EMI’s policy of strict control over stereo masters of hit singles led to the making of these albums. With the policy of never placing a hit single on an upcoming album meant that the audiophile that favored stereo got cheated because singles were only mono. However countries other than the UK very often did not market that way. So EMI’s Strategic Marketing Department instituted a policy of “selective distribution” where stereo masters for hit singles were concerned. That is why some stereo versions of some songs appeared in one country and other hit single stereo masters appeared only in another. This was done initially to prevent massive imports from being brought into the UK and flooding their market and in EMI’s view having the royalties ride the merry-go-round. However the plan was not fool-proof and British merchants brought tons of US pressings into the UK. It was then decided that it would be more cost effective to produce a sub-catalogue of US albums under a special nomenclature to keep the British Pound at home. Keeping in mind that the hit single stereo masters were territorial, EMI in England could not by agreement manufacture a stamp to press these US knockoffs, they actually had to get their pressing stamps from Capitol US. Proof in point, if you examine the vinyl between the runout grooves it shows the Capitol matrix number crossed out with a new YMX matrix number added in. All the so-called British export albums are the same, even the Beatles, although their export counterparts feature a YEEX lettering prefix. Since these albums did not appear in the regular British catalogue, did the artists in question get royalties from their sales?
My understanding is that these were pressed for export from the U.K. to other countries with a demand for the U.S. albums, like these Beatles issues on Parlophone: https://www.45worlds.com/vinyl/album/cpcs101
um; what breed of animal is a "british export issue of u.s.a. capitol lp." ?
this looks very much to this ppint. as a perfectly ordinary uk columbia label emi lp.
(the stereo version, so some of the tracks mayn't match the sound of the mono singles, as was common in this era - but that's a very different kettle of fish. . .)