page_title: Yesterday and Today
section_title: Cover controversy and Operation Retrieve
hierarchical_section_title: Yesterday and Today / Cover controversy and Operation Retrieve
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the famous Capital Records building
context_page_description: Yesterday and Today is a studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released in the United States and Canada in June 1966, it was their ninth album issued on Capitol Records and twelfth American release overall. Typical of the Beatles' North American discography until 1967, the album contains songs that Capitol had withheld from its configurations of the band's recent EMI albums, along with songs that the group had released elsewhere on non-album singles. Among its 11 tracks are songs from the EMI albums Help! and Rubber Soul, and three new 1966 recordings that would appear on Revolver in countries outside North America.
  Yesterday and Today is remembered primarily for the controversy surrounding its original cover image. Known as the "butcher cover", it was taken by photographer Robert Whitaker and shows the band dressed in white coats and covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of raw meat. Although the photo was intended to be part of a larger work critiquing the adulation afforded the Beatles, the band members insisted it was a statement against the Vietnam War.
context_section_description: In the United States, Capitol Records printed approximately 750,000 copies of Yesterday and Today with the "butcher cover". The album was scheduled for a 15 June release. Around 60,000 copies were sent to US radio and the print media and to Capitol branch offices for marketing purposes. Reaction was immediate; disc jockeys were outraged by the cover image, and most retailers found it so distasteful they refused to stock the LP. Livingston contacted Epstein, who conceded to having the cover replaced with the trunk photo.
  On 10 June, Capitol launched "Operation Retrieve", recalling all copies of the LP from distributors to replace the offending image, as well as items such as promotional posters. The total cost to Capitol of replacing the cover and promotional materials was $250,000 (equivalent to $1.97 million in 2019), wiping out the company's initial profit. All copies were ordered shipped back to the record label, leading to its rarity and popularity among collectors. On 14 June, Capitol sent a memo to reviewers asking them to disregard the artwork and quoting Livingston's explanation that "The original cover, created in England, was intended as 'pop art' satire. However, a sampling of public opinion in the United States indicates that the cover design is subject to misinterpretation."
  In Britain, the same photograph had been used to promote the "Paperback Writer" single, starting with a full-page ad, in black-and-white, in the 3 June issue of the NME. A different photo from the shoot appeared in full colour on the cover of the 11 June edition of Disc and Music Echo; lacking the doll parts but retaining the raw meat, the image was accompanied by a caption reading, "Beatles: What a Carve-Up!" The picture attracted an unfavourable response from many of the magazine's readers, and the UK music press were similarly offended by the ads for the single. To the public, the Beatles' celebration of the grotesque was something that had previously been evident only in Lennon's books of nonsensical verse and drawings. Some US commentators and music industry executives viewed the cover imagery as a statement on Capitol's policy of "butchering" the Beatles' albums for the North American market. In her study of the band's contemporary audience, sociologist Candy Leonard says that some fans recall interpreting the "butcher cover" in this way and supporting the Beatles "and their sense of humour".
  The backlash against the butcher cover in the US was reported in the 25 June issue of Billboard. The cover controversy marked the first time that the Beatles' judgment was criticised by the media and distributors. At the time, Lennon's political directness was unusual for a pop star; he said the butcher sleeve was "as relevant as Vietnam", adding that "If the public can accept something as cruel as the war, they can accept this cover." McCartney called their critics "soft". When interviewed on 15 August during the band's 1966 US tour, however, Lennon called the image "unsubtle", and he and Harrison said they might have fought the recall decision had the photo been better. In The Beatles Anthology, Harrison dismissed the butcher cover as "gross" and "stupid", adding: "Sometimes we all did stupid things thinking it was cool and hip when it was naïve and dumb; and that was one of them." In 2007, Martin recalled that the cover had been the cause of his first strong disagreement with the band. He added: "I thought it was disgusting and in poor taste … It suggested that they were madmen. Which they were, but not in that way."
caption: Capitol Records' headquarters in Los Angeles (pictured in 2018). The company launched a nation-wide operation to recall all copies of the butcher sleeve.
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