1967–1970

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  On the 31st of December 1973, 1967-1970 had already sold 1,294,896 copies in the United States alone. Known to its listeners as the Blue Album, it was a double LP released in April 1973 alongside its companion record 1962-1966. The Blue Album topped the Billboard albums chart in the United States and peaked at number 2 in the United Kingdom. By the end of that decade, American sales had reached 5,850,026. Print advertising for both compilations staked a direct claim: they were 'the only collection of the Beatles.' That declaration needed a context. Before the official records arrived, an unauthorized collection had already been finding its way into living rooms.

• 2. The Bootleg Trigger

  ›

  Apple Records manager Allen Klein set the compilations in motion during his final months before being dismissed from that role. Alpha Omega, the bootleg collection he was countering, had been sold on television the previous year. Apple and EMI/Capitol Records worked together to produce an official response.

  Six of the singles collected on the Blue Album were appearing on an official studio album for the first time. Among them were 'Strawberry Fields Forever,' 'Penny Lane,' 'Hey Jude,' and 'The Ballad of John and Yoko.' The B-sides 'I Am the Walrus' and 'Revolution,' along with 'Don't Let Me Down' and 'Old Brown Shoe,' also had no previous studio album home.

  Endless Summer, a Capitol Records repackaging of the Beach Boys' 1960s hits, appeared in 1974. The commercial momentum of both Beatles compilations had directly inspired it.

• 3. A Shot Taken Twice

  ›

  For the Beatles' 1963 debut LP Please Please Me, photographer Angus McBean took a colour photograph of the group looking down over a stairwell. The location was EMI House, EMI's London headquarters in Manchester Square. In 1969, the Beatles asked McBean to recreate that image. The intention was to use the 1969 photograph on the then-planned Get Back album. When that project reached release in 1970 as Let It Be, McBean's 1969 image went unused for that purpose. A different photograph from the 1969 session was paired with an unused frame from the 1963 shoot. Together they served as the cover for both the Blue Album and 1962-1966.

  Sunday the 28th of July 1968 was the date of the 'Mad Day Out,' a photo session held in London. That session supplied the inner gatefold photograph for both LPs. Credit for the image has been attributed to both Stephen Goldblatt and Don McCullin. Tom Wilkes designed the finished album cover. EMI House, where McBean had taken his original 1963 photographs, was demolished in 1995. In Austria, the Blue Album topped the albums chart outright in 1973. The record inside the sleeve, however, was not identical from one country to the next.

• 4. Not Quite the Same

  ›

  In Spain, 'The Ballad of John and Yoko' had been banned from radio airwaves after its 1969 release as a single. The ban followed the song's lyrical references to 'Christ' and 'Gibraltar.' On the Spanish edition of the Blue Album, 'One After 909' replaced it.

  'Strawberry Fields Forever' appeared on the US edition in its original 1966 stereo mix, while 'Penny Lane' and 'Hello, Goodbye' were presented in mono. 'I Am the Walrus' opened differently on each side of the Atlantic. American copies began with a four-beat electric piano introduction; British copies had the more common six-beat beginning. The US liner notes also contained a factual error. 'Get Back' was described as the album version, though it was in fact the single version.

  'Hey Jude' ran around nine seconds shorter on both the US and UK pressings than it had on the original single. The full length was not restored until the 1993 compact disc edition. 'A Day in the Life' carried its own anomaly. The original vinyl opened the song with a fade in over crowd noise, and that fade differed between the UK and US pressings. The 1993 CD version used a clean opening that had previously appeared on the Imagine: John Lennon soundtrack album in 1988.

  The 1980 East German release, issued on the Amiga label, reduced the entire compilation to a single disc. It contained just 14 tracks, drawn mostly from disc one of the original. When the Blue Album was re-released on compact disc in September 1993, it reached number 4 in the United Kingdom.

• 5. The Record Reopened

  ›

  On the 10th of November 2023, the Blue Album returned in a deluxe expanded edition. Nine additional tracks were added, among them 'Now and Then,' described as the final original single by the group. On CD and digital editions, each new song was inserted in chronological order of its original release. The vinyl edition was organized differently. The first two LPs kept the 1973 track listing intact, while the nine new tracks appeared on a third LP.

  Six tracks received new stereo mixes created specifically for the 2023 release. They were 'I Am the Walrus,' 'The Fool on the Hill,' 'Magical Mystery Tour,' 'Revolution,' 'Hey Bulldog,' and 'Old Brown Shoe.' The remaining tracks drew on mixes from earlier anniversary reissues. These ranged from the 2015 edition of 1 to the 2021 Special Edition of Let It Be. The 2023 edition was also made available in Dolby Atmos surround sound.

  Two tracks received adjustments that set them apart from their album counterparts. Both 'A Day in the Life' and 'Dear Prudence' appear on the 2023 edition without the crossfade heard on their original albums. Each had been connected to the preceding track on its source LP. The dialogue introduction that had been added to the 2021 mix of 'Don't Let Me Down' for Let It Be: Special Edition was also removed. The 2023 vinyl edition was available in coloured vinyl, pressed in the blue that gave the compilation its informal name.