Release
The compilation was released in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, France, Greece, Japan, Mexico and most of South America. It was also available to other countries as an "export" from Britain (Parlophone/Apple CPCS-106) but was not at first issued in Britain, although it was a popular import to the UK.The first issue in New Zealand was on the gloss black Apple label with the catalogue number CPCS-106.The matrix numbers were identical to those on the UK "export" issue. Because of its popularity worldwide, Parlophone released Hey Jude in Britain on 11 May 1979 (catalogue number PCS 7184.) (If a fan who owned all twelve studio British Beatles albums augmented his or her collection with Hey Jude, Magical Mystery Tour, A Collection of Beatles Oldies, and the British version of Rarities, his or her collection would include every official Beatles song recorded for EMI, although a number of officially-released alternate mixes would still be missing.) Until the release of 1967–1970 in 1973, Hey Jude was the only way to own the extremely popular "Hey Jude" single on LP or in a stereo mix. The songs "Lady Madonna", "Rain", and "Revolution" also appeared for the first time in stereo on this album. Prior to the release of the "Get Back" single in the spring of 1969, all Beatles singles were issued in mono in the US. If nothing else, this compilation showcased stereo versions of previously single-only mono Beatles songs. Several other countries wound up with the original The Beatles Again title, with Spain's perhaps being the most interesting—because "Ballad of John and Yoko" was clipped from the album, having been deemed offensive (either because of its reference to Christ, or to the fact of Lennon's reference to "Gibraltar near Spain" at a time when Spain's Franco administration was contending with the UK over the ownership of Gibraltar).
On the reel-to-reel and cassette tape releases, sides one and two are reversed. Although it is clear on the vinyl version that "Hey Jude" opens side two, when compiling this issue for audio tape, some compilers (at Capitol and Ampex) thought to make the change, which resulted in "Hey Jude" leading off the album. This was done because side two was the longer side, and it was the practice in some tape formats to lead the album with the longer side to avoid a large gap in the "middle" of the tape. The four-track tape, prepared by Ampex along with the reel-to-reel tape, has the songs in the original, chronological order. (The eight-track tape was treated to the usual re-ordering that eight-tracks received.)
The album was released in both stereo and mono in Brazil and Argentina. While the Argentine mono issue uses a reduction of the common stereo tapes, the Brazilian (Apple BTL 1009) is made of all original UK single mixes and is true mono, with the exception of "Ballad of John and Yoko" and "Old Brown Shoe", which are mono reductions of the original UK single mixes.
The CD era saw the standardising of The Beatles' discographies worldwide, but the Hey Jude album is not available on compact disc. All of the tracks contained on Hey Jude can be found on A Hard Day's Night and Past Masters.
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