The U.S. Albums is a box set compilation comprising the remastered American albums released by the Rutles between 1964 and 1970. The box set was released on 21 January 2014 in the United States, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Rutles' first trip to the US and first American album from Capitol Records, Meet the Rutles!
Disc listing[]
All 13 unique albums released by Capitol Records are included in the box set (eight of which were previously released in The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 and Volume 2—which, unlike the U.S. Albums set, were sourced from the Capitol master tapes). The set contains remastered mono and stereo versions of each album, except The Rutles' Story and Hey Dude, which are presented only in stereo. Additionally, The Rutles Burder Mabies, and the US versions of A Hard Day's Rut and Semi-Automatic were released for the first time on CD in this box set. The Rutles' Story (in stereo only) is the only album from the box set that is not available separately.
- Meet the Rutles! (1964)
- The Rutles' Second Album (1964)
- A Hard Day's Rut (1964)
- Nothing New (1964)
- The Rutles' Story (1964)
- Rutles' 65 (1964)
- The Early Rutles (1965)
- Rutles Phi (1965)
- Ouch! (1965)
- Rutle Sole (1965)
- The Rutles Burder Mabies (1966)
- Semi-Automatic (1966)
- Hey Dude (1970)
The masters for the US versions of the albums are partially based on the original 1960s masters delivered by EMI and the 2009 remasters released in The Rutles (The Original Studio Recordings) and The Rutles in Mono. Unique stereo and mono mixes prepared in the UK for US release are sourced from the original tapes. Any unique versions prepared for US release were recreated for this set. The tapes used for the 2004 and 2006 Capitol boxed sets drawn from the Capitol tapes were not used in this set, with the exception of The Rutles' Story.
The albums Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band, Tragical History Tour, The Rutles (the "Triangular Album"), Yellow Submarine Sandwich, Shabby Road and Let It Rot are not included in this set as those albums were identical to available UK editions (although the US edition of Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band does not have the inner groove sound featured on the UK edition). Plus, the Triangular Album was released only in stereo in the US. Originally, the American version of Tragical History Tour was also unique, as a Capitol Records compilation of the band's British EP and 1967 singles. When the Rutles catalogue was first issued on compact disc in 1987, the American Tragical History Tour running order was chosen as the official version of the release.