Tracks
Side 1: Long Tall Sally / I Call Your Name
Side 2: Please, Mister Postman / Boys
Matrix Information
Side 1: (mono) 7AXPA695
Side 2: (mono) 7AXPA696.2
June 1979
Side 1: (stereo) 7AXPA695
Side 2: (mono) 7AXPA696
Overview
Released in the midst of the Beatles' 1964 Australian tour, Requests marked EMI (Australia)'s move to exploit the EP market with locally compiled releases, much as it had already been doing with singles.
It is often stated that the first two tracks were simply taken from the UK Long Tall Sally EP. That is only partly correct. EMI (Australia) certainly adopted the track sequence from side one of the British EP, but the company was unwilling to wait for a UK reference disc to arrive. Instead, with a copy of the US The Beatles' Second Album already on hand, it dubbed 'Long Tall Sally' and 'I Call Your Name' directly from the American vinyl. The front cover artwork was also adapted from that US album, with the reverse using photos from the November 1962 Astrid Kirchherr "chair session".
To complete the EP, EMI added 'Please, Mister Postman' from the With The Beatles LP and 'Boys' from the Please Please Me LP.
Thus Requests was born, and, remarkably, was released in Australia at least one day before the UK release of Long Tall Sally.
The timing could hardly have been better. With Beatlemania at fever pitch during the group's Australian visit, Requests reached the top of the singles charts in most capital cities, driven particularly by the popularity of 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Boys'.
By the time the follow-up, More Requests, was prepared, EMI (Australia) had received a copy of the UK Long Tall Sally EP. The company therefore took the opportunity to use its artwork and to include the two tracks from side two of the British EP.
Requests remained in print until December 1978. In June 1979, EMI (Australia) recut this EP and the other Australian 70000-series Beatles EPs for reissue with revised artwork. For the recuts, EMI (Australia) went back to stereo tapes but mastered in mono, ostensibly to “maintain the feel of the original sound”. The more practical explanation was that EMI had temporarily misplaced PARLO 99, the original mono compilation tape containing the EP tracks. Oddly though, for this EP, both 'Long Tall Sally' and 'I Call Your Name'—taken from the Rock 'N' Roll Music album production master tape PARLO 419—play in stereo. This reissue first appeared in September 1979.
