What was the Yesterday & Today butcher cover and why was it changed?
This album was issued on June 20, 1966. It was to cause a great deal of controversy. The Beatles posed for the cover in Britain, wearing white smocks, with props of slabs of meat, and heads and torsos of dolls, which they placed on their laps and shoulders. This was the original cover print for Yesterday & Today, and was known as the “butcher” cover because of the meat and butcher smocks the Beatles wore. Once the album was released, Capitol Records was swarmed with complaints. Only in America was the cover found to be shocking. Capitol withdrew it and replaced it with a different picture: a shot of the group posed around a travelling trunk. Some of the recalled albums had the cover removed and the new one pasted on, however, some employees did not remove the original cover. They just pasted the new one on top of the offensive one. Years later, fans found out they were able to peel the cover off and reveal the original “butcher” cover. These “butcher” sleeves are now collector’s items.
