By the early 1960s, the 78 rpm record had been replaced by the 45... except in a few technologically primitive countries. Legend has it that the scarcity of electricity, and the large number of existing acoustic, wind-up phonographs, made it feasible to continue 78 production in the Philippines, Argentina, Colombia and India, where the 10" disks stayed in print longer than anywhere else. The nation still had residual ties to Great Britain, so when EMI decided it no longer needed its 78 presses, they were sent to the company's factory in Dum Dum, India.
For years, the "best" information online was this site (from 1996!) and this Japanese site (last updated in 2014). My interest was renewed during a 2022 trip to India, which came just a few months after Parlogram produced an excellent overview of the Beatles' first two Indian 78s.
Below is the commonly accepted list of Beatle 78s, followed by notes from my research:
*Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You (Parlophone R 4949)
*Please, Please Me/Ask Me Why (R 4983)
The group's first two UK 45s were duly issued on 78 in India, as outlined by Parlogram, on red labels. Catalog numbers are the same as their British counterparts, except no "45" prefix.
*From Me To You/Thank You Girl (R 5015)
For reasons we might never know, India didn't issue the group's third UK 45 on 78. A black label Indian 45 does exist. A user on the 45cat site (vinyldave), who seems quite knowledgeable on the Indian 78s, posted in 2022 that he'd never seen a copy of this on 78, despite seeing numerous copies of earlier and later Indian 78s. He did find two "From Me To You” 78 releases in the Philippines: 61017 and 8883-1.
*I Saw Her Standing There/Hold Me Tight (Parlophone DPE159)
*Long Tall Sally/I Call Your Name (DPE164)
The next two 78s are odd couplings: DPE159 takes a song from each of the group's first two UK LPs. DPE164 takes two songs from the "Long Tall Sally" EP. The DPE prefix seems to be reserved for couplings which had no UK counterpart.
At this point, UK 45s were regularly released in India on red label 78 and black label 45, alongside some couplings from the U.S. and Europe:
*She Loves You/I'll Get You (R 5055)
*I Want to Hold Your Hand/This Boy (R 5084)
*Can't Buy Me Love/You Can't Do That (R 5114)
*Hard Day's Night/Things We Said Today (R 5160)
*If I Fell/And I Love Her (DPE167)
*I Am Happy Just to Dance With You/I Should Have Known Better (DPE168)
*I Feel Fine/She's a Woman (R5200)
*Tell Me Why/I'll Cry Instead (DPE172)
*Eight Days a Week/I'm a Loser (DPE178)
*Rock and Roll Music/No Reply (DPE179)
*I'll Follow the Sun/Words of Love (DPE180)
*Ticket to Ride/Yes It Is (R 5265)
*Help!/I'm Down (R 5305)
*Dizzy Miss Lizzy/The Night Before (DPE183)
*Yesterday/Act Naturally (DPE184)
The next single released in India, on 45, was:
*Tell Me What You See/You Like Me Too Much (45-DPE185)
This appears to have been skipped on 78. However, the fact that a "45-" prefix was specifically used gives some hope that a “78-” prefix disk is out there.
The black label 45 and red label 78 issues continued in India for the following:
*Norwegian Wood/Drive My Car (DPE186)
*We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper (R 5389)
*Michelle/You Won't See Me (DPE187)
Indian 78 releases seem to have ended in late 1965/early 1966. The following releases are commonly on lists of Indian 78s… yet none of them seem to actually exist:
*Nowhere Man/Girl (DPE188)
*Paperback Writer/Rain (R 5452)
Black label Indian 45s exist, but no visual evidence of 78s. Two knowledgeable 45cat.com users (liskeard78s and vinyldave) do not feel these disks exist on 78.
*Good Day Sunshine/Here, There and Everywhere (DPE189)
The black label Indian 45 of these songs has been confirmed... but as DPE190. Catalog number DPE189, in India, is actually assigned to a black label 45 by Johnny Mathis (The Shadow of Your Smile/Moment To Moment).
*Hey Jude/Revolution (DPE190)
As noted above, DPE190 is a completely different Beatles release… from two years earlier. The only evidence of these songs on an Indian disk is DP.570. Note that it’s DP, not DPE, and is a black label 45 as opposed to having an Apple label (likely due EMI not yet securing the Apple copyright in India).
*Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da/While My Guitar Gently Weeps (DPE192)
An Apple label 45 in India. Strangely, this reverts to the DPE19_ sequence, which seems to be almost exclusively for the Beatles, and related content, starting with #178. Other disks in that sequence which haven't been mentioned yet:
#193: Beatles: I’m Looking Through You/What Goes On (unconfirmed in any format, and a strange choice for 1969)
#191: Mary Hopkin: Those Were the Days (Apple)
#182: unknown
#181: actually a Manfred Mann single (Oh No, Not My Baby/What Am I Doing Wrong?)
Back to “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da,” the only evidence of this on 78 is a very fake looking image of a white-label promo, posted almost 20 years ago on eBay. Similarly fake evidence has been seen online for the "Hey Jude" 78.
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