Background
The release of this album was the result of EMI not having any new material by the Beatles for the 1966 Christmas season in the manner of the previous three years.
The sole new track, a cover of Larry Williams' "Bad Boy", had not yet appeared on a Beatles LP in the UK, but had already been released in the United States on the Capitol album Beatles VI.
The album only reached number 6 in the UK album chart, perhaps because most fans already owned most of the tracks on other releases. However, the album continued to sell reasonably well, remained in print for many years, and was only deleted when the compact disc age approached (and made obsolete by the Past Masters compilations). It was also the longest album that the Beatles had released to that point, totaling almost 40 minutes of music.
It is noteworthy that six of the tracks on this LP ("From Me to You", "We Can Work It Out", "I Feel Fine", "Day Tripper", "Paperback Writer" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand") make their debut here as both album tracks (they were previously issued only as singles) and with stereo mixes (some done so especially for this compilation). "She Loves You" also made its debut on a long-playing record here, but it was a re-processed stereo mix, as the multi-track tape had vanished and remains missing to this day. The song is complete on both the first pressing mono and stereo issues, the Fame budget label reissue from the 1980s, and the resequenced pre-recorded cassette.
The cover of this album contributed to the "Paul is dead" hoax as the road shown on the cover seems to lead into the head of the man sitting on the cover.
Read more about this topic: A Collection Of Beatles Oldies
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