But as I said, the Beatles were only a couple of months away from putting out a new Beatles album that was going to include Get Back and Across the Universe. They wouldn’t have wanted Capitol to put these songs on an album that was going to appear first, regardless of the mixes being different. Putting on I’m Down and Inner Light would have made all the tracks new to LP, though you’d still have the conceptual problem of the wide timespan.... maybe they felt that was too many b-sides, but there would still have been four hit singles on there.
Not to mention, "Across the Universe" had been donated to a charity album. It would have been kind of a d**k move to put the exact same recording on a Beatles album just a few months later, and thereby reduce sales of the charity record. As it is, the World Wildlife Fund may have been none too pleased about the inclusion of a remix on Let It Be. Neither album says anything about the mixes being drastically different.
I take your point, but the WWF album was UK only wasn't it? And Hey Jude was US only (for the first ten years).
True, but imported copies of Beatles albums were moving around - hence MMT making the UK top 40 in 1968.
I feel blessed that my Grandmother (from the U.K.) sent my brother and I the Beatles UK releases. We enjoyed the MMT EP; but admittedly... we were a little jealous seeing the LP version around town. With that being said, I didn't buy it, until '71.
I was only 3 in 1970 and remember hearing this album in the early '70s. Not knowing much about the Beatles, or in the concept of compilations, there was a time when I thought the entire album was recorded at the same time. It wasn't explicity labeled as a greatest hits or a compilation, so how would that very young version of myself know? It probably wasn't until 1975 that I understood the history (of this album, and of the entire 1960s) a little better.
Beyond making it less confusing with cds, it was already canon as a tape or vinyl in 1976. The UK accepted it as an official album due to it's success in North America and that EPs were no longer as common if at all by then in the UK. But also, The Beatles are the ones who gave the go ahead to Capitol to allow it to be an album.
Why no "I'm Down" or "The Inner Light," or "Misery" or "There's A Place"? Well, in the case of "The Inner Light," much as I love the song, even I have to admit that it just would not have fit with the rest of the album; regarding the others, as well as "The Inner Light," you have to realize that each Beatles song, in each format, represented a multi-million dollar property over time, not even necessarily in terms of its own value but in terms of what its presence and existence, as a previously unexploited Beatles track on LP, could represent, should the need and occasion arise for yet another long-player -- you don't want to pull the trigger on an opportunity, unless it's the right opportunity, and I expect that Klein and company guessed that there might be compilations to come, and other tracks, besides, to consider. (Klein might also have had in mind the near-over-exploitation of "Let's Spend The Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday," which by the fall of 1969 had graced three separate Rolling Stones long-players in America -- using them each time was a good decision, under the circumstances on each occasion, but they had also neared the upper limit of what could be done with them in a meaningful way, that limit finally reached on Hot Rocks).
It was rhetorical. They didn't include I'm Down or the Inner Light because Klein didn't have access to stereo masters of either song. They didn't include There's a Place or Misery because they assumed they'd already been on an album.
So - I've always wondered about this myself. And - me being me - put way too much thought into it. I've always thought that the US track might be based on what would happen if you put the two British discs on a US record changer. This means that disc 1 has sides 1 & 4, and disc 2 has sides 2 & 3. This gives us a track listing of: Magical Mystery Tour (Disc 1, Side 1) Your Mother Should Know (Disc 1, Side 1) The Fool On The Hill (Disc 2, Side 1) Flying (Disc 2, Side 1) (Flip the stack over) Blue Jay Way (Disc 2, Side 2) I Am The Walrus (Disc 1, Side 2) See? Almost the exact US order - except for Your Mother Should Know. If we extend this just a hair further - if you really got used to the Your Mother Should Know to I Am The Walrus transition, then that last move makes sense. Otherwise - I really have no idea. Cheers, Paul
Good question ...here in the states in 1995 when I was a teen and first discovered the Beatles from watching anthology, MMT was known to me as the album after sgt pepper and before white album. Never heard of hey jude album until recently because past masters served its purpose.
The Beatles themselves gave the okay to Capitol for it to be an album in 1967 after their new contract prevented Capitol from releasing unique versions. As well, by 1976, when EMI made MMT canon, it had been a major seller in other parts of the world besides the U.S. They included with the cds in 87 because it was already canon since 76.
It was already cannon in 76 as an album and tape. They didn't just decide to include it as a cd. It had been an official album to EMI for a decade. Past Masters has nothing to do with it.
Curiously, the Magical Mystery Tour LP apparently wasn't considered "canon" enough to be included in the 1978 BC-13 blue box.
Because it was an official EP filled out by singles from the time. Hey Jude features singles and stray tracks none of which was never authorized by The Beatles (it was authorized by Allen Klein) to full fill the new higher rate royalty contract that Klein had negotiated.
The album would have been almost perfect with "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out" instead of "Can't Buy Me Love" and "I Should Have Known Better"; but Capitol had already included those songs in Yesterday And Today. Anyway, I understand that "cannon" is a word reserved to essential albums including material that was not released in other original records. Magical Mystery Tour certainly accomplishes that; but the supposed function of Hey Jude was better approached by Past Masters 2.
Take it up with the thread starter. I was offering my opinion on why it wasn't released on CD until 2014.
What about jettisoning the A Hard Day's Night tunes, and throwing in a couple outtakes the band had on hand to pad out a 66-69 non-LP tracks album? Would a HEY JUDE LP like this not have done incredibly well in the US in 1970? Side A 1. Revolution 2. Paperback Writer 3. Lady Madonna 4. Old Brown Shoe 5. Don't Let Me Down 6. Ob-La-Di, Ob-la-Da (take 5 - Anthology 3) Side B 7. Rain 8. The Inner Light 9. The Ballad of John & Yoko 10. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (take 1 - Anthology 3) 11. Hey Jude 12. What's the New Mary Jane (take 4 - Anthology 3)
