individual photos of the band members, taken by photographer Joe Cavello, above a Union Jack. The album spent 17 weeks on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It peaked at number 7 on 2 January 1965 and remained in that position for three further weeks while the band's new studio album, Beatles '65, was number 1. The Beatles' Story was certified a gold record by the RIAA on 31 December 1964. It was the Beatles' fifth Capitol album, all of which had been released within a year of the band's commercial breakthrough in the US. Author Barry Miles comments that the documentary record was "blatantly exploitative" but this was insufficient to deter American fans. The album was also issued in Canada. It was released by Toshiba EMI in Japan on the Apple label (in stereo) in a box set with a deluxe 24-page 12"x12" booklet that contains the entire text of the script in English and Japanese. The album was being prepared for release on digital audio tape in 1996, but when the format failed commercially the plan was scrapped. In 2014, The Beatles' Story was made available on CD for the first time as part of the Beatles' box set The U.S. Albums. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic describes it as "a tedious neo-documentary record" and "cornball show biz, with radio announcers delivering a spit-shined script designed to bridge segments between canned interviews". In his review for the Toronto Sun, Darryl Sterdan said The Beatles' Story was a "cash-grab" by the record company and a "50-minute mish-mash ... dashed off for early Christmas shoppers". He added: "Amazingly, it went gold. This one is also new on CD. Really, they needn't have bothered." Track listing Songs Portions of the following songs appear on the album: "I Want to Hold Your Hand" "Slow Down" "This Boy" "You Can't Do That" "Can't Buy Me Love" "If I Fell" "And I Love Her" "A Hard Day's Night" "Twist and Shout" (live) "Things We Said Today" "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" "Little Child" "Long Tall Sally" "She Loves You" "Boys" Charts and certifications Chart performance Certifications References Sources External links The Beatles' Story on DAT and cassette 1964 albums The Beatles albums Capitol Records albums Albums recorded at the Hollywood Bowl Documentaries about music Spoken word albums by British artists