The Beatles Albums – The Beatles/1967–1970, “The Blue Album”

For all intents and purposes, The Beatles album entitled The Beatles/1967—1970 could have been titled The Singles, Volume Two.   

Released in April of 1973, this companion piece to The Beatles/1962—1966 essentially picks-up where the former leaves off–presenting all the single A-sides released in the U. K. during those latter years. Like the so-called “Red Album,” the “Blue Album” features the familiar shot of the Beatles looking down over the stairwell in EMI’s London headquarters—this time sporting the much longer hairstyle they came to be noted for–and adopted by Hippies from Haight-Ashbury to Greenwich Village; Paris to Hong Kong.   

Compiled by Beatles manager Allen Klein in response to the popular four-album, two-hour boxed-set bootleg Alpha Omega sold on TV via mail-order the year before, (and undoubtedly to capitalize on the continued momentum of the Beatles’ final albums), this 28-track, two LP (or CD) collection gives listeners a comprehensive overview of the creative genius that made the Beatles the most popular group of musicians in modern history. And while The Beatles/1967—1970 is no substitute for the masterful albums that spawned these phenomenal hits, it is a fine addition to any Beatles music library, or a great foundation from which to build one.   

From “Strawberry Fields Forever” to “The Long and Winding Road,” The Beatles/1967—1970 revisits the chart-toppers from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, the “White Album,” Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, the Apple Records release Let it Be, and a number of other international releases. Interestingly, it includes “Hey Jude,” “Revolution,” “Lady Madonna,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Ballad of John and Yoko,” and “Old Brown Shoe” which, while great additions, had already appeared on the 1970 Hey Jude album, a collection of non-album Beatles singles and B-sides commonly regarded as a compilation, brought about by Apple Corps manager Allen Klein (and Apple Records).   

Unlike The Beatles/1962—1966, which contained all Lennon-McCartney compositions, the “Blue Album” reflects the Beatles’ expanding songwriting talents, with contributions from George Harrison (“While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Old Brown Shoe,” “Here Comes the Sun,” and “Something”) as well as one from Ringo Starr (“Octopus’ Garden”).   

Unlike Beatles/1962—1966, which has noticeable differences between the U. S. and U. K. versions, 1967—1970 has only minor variants: the U. S. version uses the double-mono version of “Penny Lane” and “Hello, Goodbye” instead of the stereo and the four-bar electric piano intro for “I Am the Walrus,” while the U. K. the more common six-bar. Also, in both LP versions, “Hey Jude” is nearly nine seconds shorter than the original single, but expanded to full-length by the 1993 remastered CD. (Fans have also noted some incidental inconsistencies in the liner notes.) It should also be noted that there are discernible differences in tone quality between the original Beatles/1967—1970 LPs and later digitally-remastered LPs and CDs released in 1993 and 2010 (with many vinyl lovers preferring the warmth of the original LPs to the “thin-sounding” CDs), and in that this collection is chronological and not conceptual, listeners should not expect the thoughtful song-to-song continuity common to all the original Beatle albums.