Vinyl Nostalgia Back to The Beatles discography
Tracklist
Side A
- Two Of Us
- Dig A Pony
- Across The Universe
- I Me Mine
- Dig It
- Let It Be
- Maggie Mae
Side B
- I've Got A Feeling
- One After 909
- The Long And Winding Road
- For You Blue
- Get Back
Labels & dead wax
Visual reference for this specific pressing. Click any image to enlarge.
How to authenticate this pressing
Specific verification cues for this exact variant.
The Dutch number 5C 062-04433 operated within a shared, pan-European body of EMI numbering, common with the German market (1C) and the Odeon label (1J), so that an identical album was issued under different prefixes and on different labels depending on the country. This produces the attribution confusion typical of the period: the catalogue number alone does not always unambiguously indicate the country of pressing, which is why the "Made in Holland" print on the label is the deciding factor. What else can help us identify Dutch pressing?
How to verify authenticity
The checklist below confirms that a copy is the Dutch Apple 5C 062-04433 Y edition, rather than the German or British edition or a later reissue on the 1A prefix. Each step states what an authentic copy should show.
- Catalogue number on the label. The main catalog number is 5C 062-04433 Y, with the side noted in brackets below it: "(5C 062-04433-Y-A)" on side 1, "(5C 062-04433-Y-B)" on side 2. The 5C prefix identifies the Dutch market in EMI's regional numbering. If the main number in the label face is 1A, with the 5C number pushed into brackets, the copy comes from a later reissue in EMI's standardised numbering, not from the early edition.
- Rim text around the circumference. The label has a full perimeter print running around the whole circumference. At the top: "Apple Records, All Rights of the Manufacturer and of the Owner of the Recorded Work Reserved". At the bottom: "Unauthorised Public Performance, Broadcasting and Copying of this Record Prohibited". This is the continental Apple label standard. An absence of rim text, or a minimal perimeter print limited to one line at the bottom, indicates an edition from outside continental Europe, for example the Canadian one.
- Rights-society marking, with a caveat. Below the band name, above the "Made in Holland" print, is the marking of the collective rights-management organisation. Caution is needed here: Dutch EMI editions of this period are found with both "BIEM" and "STEMRA", and sources suggest that "STEMRA" alone may be a marker of a later pressing, from the mid-1970s, while "BIEM" marks an earlier variant. The presence of the "STEMRA" marking therefore does not confirm an early origin and should not be treated as doing so.
Historical context & other notes
In the Netherlands, Let It Be appeared in 1970 with the catalogue number 5C 062-04433, on the Apple label. The release was handled by Bovema, the Dutch division of the EMI group, operating out of Heemstede near Haarlem. The "5C" prefix in the number denoted the Dutch market within EMI's regional numbering system of the time; the same number body, 062-04433, appeared in parallel with the "1C" prefix for West Germany and on the Odeon label as "1J". The Dutch market got the album in a single, fully laminated sleeve, although a Dutch box set with the Get Back book on the same labels is also found in circulation.
The album reached the market in the year the band broke up. McCartney announced his departure in April 1970, and Let It Be, though recorded in January 1969, before Abbey Road, appeared only on 8 May 1970 as the last Beatles album to be released. In the Netherlands, as across continental Europe, distribution was handled by the national EMI divisions rather than the British head office. Bovema was one of the stronger divisions of the group, with its own pressing plant and its own publishing profile, serving both imported and local repertoire.
Pressing took place at the Bovema plant in the Heemstede and Haarlem area. Bovema ran a pressing plant in Heemstede, initially on Binnenweg, later on Blekersvaartweg; around 1970 part of the EMI Bovema operation moved to Tulpenstraat in Haarlem, where the pressing plant was named Interdisk. Dutch EMI releases of this period carry the licensing formula "Vervaardigd in licentie door N.V. Bovema, Heemstede, Holland". The disc did not use British YEX lacquers; the run-out shows numbers with the body 5C 062-04433-Y along with auxiliary numbers in the region of 13533 and 13534. [do uzupełnienia: data on the pressing run size of the Dutch 5C 062-04433].
On the collector market, the Dutch edition of Let It Be was never rare in terms of pressing numbers; the album sold across Europe in large quantities, and Bovema pressed it in successive variants through the 1970s. Collector value here is built not by numbers but by the precision of dating a specific label variant and by condition.
Other releases
This album's releases in other countries, or special editions within the same market. Full per-country chronology lives in each country's hub page.
