Beat

Beat on vinyl: the guitar music of the sixties

In short: Beat is the guitar-driven pop of the early and mid sixties: short songs, harmony vocals, two guitars, bass and drums. Liverpool gave us Merseybeat and the Beatles, London bands like The Kinks – and soon beat was played in many countries. The Vinyl Room currently has 23 beat records.

What is beat music?

The Beatles are at the centre here – from their first album “Please Please Me” via “A Hard Day's Night”, “Beatles For Sale” and “Help !” to the US releases “Introducing... The Beatles” and “Yesterday And Today”. Alongside them The Kinks with “Face To Face” and The Hollies with “He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother”.

Beat without borders: singles by The Grains Of Sand and The Classmen, Diah Iskandar from Indonesia with “Suara Sunda” and the compilation “Le Jazzbeat!” with jerk, jazz and psychobeat from France show how far the sound travelled.

What to look for

Our beat records are mostly from the sixties and seventies, from the US, the UK and Germany; early Beatles albums were often repressed; label, catalogue number and year of release help you tell which edition you have – it’s noted with each copy.

From our stock

First pressings

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FAQ

What is beat music? Guitar-driven sixties pop, above all from Britain.

What is Merseybeat? Beat from Liverpool – named after the river Mersey, with the Beatles as its best-known band.

Why are there US and UK versions of Beatles albums? In the sixties the American labels compiled their own albums with different track lists, such as “Yesterday And Today”.

Which beat records do you have? Here, for example, the Beatles’ “Please Please Me” and The Kinks’ “Face To Face”.