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Souvenir of Their Visit to America is the first of three Beatles EPs released in the United States and the only one released by Vee-Jay Records (catalogue number VJEP 1-903.) The EP features four songs that had previously been released by Vee-Jay on the Introducing... The Beatles album. This EP did not chart.
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Capitol Records, a unit of EMI and sister label to the Beatles record label Parlophone, had first refusal rights to any material released by an EMI label. Capitol in the USA repeatedly turned down the Beatles for most of 1963. So The Beatles' first two 1963 singles and an altered version of their first album were released by Vee-Jay Records. Vee-Jay Records was a small company with few resources. As a result of little publicity or promotion, the records sold poorly. Vee-Jay lost the rights to the Beatles for nonpayment of royalties. The smaller Swan Records received the rights to the "She Loves You" single. When the Beatles were booked to perform on the popular Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, Capitol finally exercised its option and said yes to the Beatles in November 1963. In a legal settlement with Capitol Records, Vee-Jay received rights to market the Beatle recordings they possessed until 10 October 1964, at which point all rights to all EMI Beatle recordings in the United States were assigned to Capitol Records. Vee-Jay's offering, an EP titled Souvenir of Their Visit to America, was a great success. It is by far the most common Beatles EP of all the US releases. However, because part of the EP's sales were through mail-order offers, the trade magazines refused to chart the EP.
