„A Taste of Honey” – compilation (USSR)

In 1986, the Soviet label Melodija released the compilation album A Taste of Honey, containing tracks from The Beatles’ first three albums (excluding the film version, A Hard Day’s Night). The album gained considerable popularity, and between 1986 and 1991, Melodija pressed several new editions, identifiable by their covers and labels. There were probably five or six of them.

Tracklist

P.S. Я Люблю Тебя = P.S. I Love You
Хочешь Узнать Тайну? = Do You Want To Know A Secret?
Вкус Меда = A Taste Of Honey
Я Увидел Ее = I Saw Her Standing There
Она В Трауре = Baby’s In Black
Ответа Нет = No Reply
Я Пойду За Солнцем = I’ll Follow The Sun
Восемь Дней В Неделю = Eight Days A Week
Не Хочу Испортить Вечер = I Don’t Want To Spoll The Party
Рок-н-ролл = Rock And Roll Music
Мистер Почтальон = Please Mister Postman
Это Не Надолго = It Won’t Be Long
Пока Была Ты = Till There Was You
Детка = Little Child
Злое Сердце = Devil In Her Heart
Хочу Быть Твоим = I Wanna Be Your Man

On some versions of the cover, there’s a typo in the composer’s name for „Rock and Roll Music.” Chuck Barry is misprinted instead of Chuck Berry. Additionally, on some pressings (even where the Barry error is corrected), there’s an error in the title of the song B1: Spoll is replaced by Spoil.

Cover

On the front, in the upper right corner, are the logos of both record labels (EMI and Melodija). On the back of the cover, the song titles are listed first in Russian and then in English. A yellow box at the very bottom center contains information about the DMM technology, as well as the year of release, the pressing location, and the price. This section (along with the labels) is the easiest way to identify the year of release.

Labels

My copy is from 1989. It has red labels with a square logo (the letter M) in the upper left corner. The copyright „выпуск 1989 r” appears only on the reverse side of the disc. The song titles on the labels are only in Russian. At the very top of the label, the words „Ministry of Culture of the USSR” appear.