Note that on the coloured vinyl pressing the labels utilise a slightly different blue and the ladies are flesh coloured.
Seems there were all sorts of old label designs being used up on pressings around 1978 before Virgin standardised with green & red.
Thanks for the correction and the interesting additional info James. I guess I'd heard the later singles before I first heard the album. You Beat The Hell Outta Me however is the same recording as the 45, but with echoed lead vocal that was, oddly enough, present on the A-side Be What You Gotta Be, but not the original B-side. It's a much better mix on the original 45. A check by combining both single and album versions resulted in phasing, confirming they are actually the same recording.
That's fascinating to learn the re-issue LP came out in November 1978. I wondered why it bared the new Virgin logo on the sleeve, yet the album labels are the older style blue ones. I can only guess they had plenty of the special stamped labels to use up.
When the album was first released (28/04/78) technically only 'Sensation' was previously available on a single. 'You Beat the Hell Out Of Me' was a re-recording of a 1977 B-side (inferior IMO), other singles came later 'Airport' (26/05/78), 'Forget About You' (11/08/78) and 'Today' (17/11/78). The album with the new sleeve was released the same day as 'Today' which was re-mixed for the 45, but I don't know about a different mix for the actual album.
I remember Sounds disliking this album. In retrospect they were right seeing four of the tracks were previously available as singles and are the best tracks on the album. Virgin issued a fifth number "Today" towards the end of 1978. Having said that, the Sensation re-write Breathless and Dreaming Your Life Away are outstanding numbers.
Virgin withdrew the original release, re-issued it with a new cover and on red vinyl. Rumour has it it was remixed. Certainly the re-issue sounds warmer and less "raw" but could be my imagination. I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than the original release.
The original issue has A1 and B1 matrixes. The red vinyl issue I have has A2 and B3 ones.
According to "Top Of The Pops - 1978: Big Hits" recently shown on BBC 4 "The album 'Approved By The Motors' was re-issued with a new sleeve after audiences refused to buy the original because it made the band look like 'ugly criminals'.
Here is the new sleeve.