Your Beatles '2' tracklist

That reached #2 in the EP chart.

 

How come there is hardly ever a mention of "For You Blue"? It hit #1 as part of a double-sided Billboard chart single. It actually is the only exclusion from 1 that qualifies in that compilation's (arguably arbitrary) track-selection criteria.

 

Wasn't like the Something/Come Together 45 where both got tons of airplay, not sure I remember hearing it at all. I guess technically it could have been included on 1.

 

No, it reached No. 2 in the Singles chart. It reached Number 1 in the EP chart.

 

Take the Red/Blue albums and remove the 27 tracks that were on "1". That would leave:

Please Please Me
All My Loving
And I Love Her
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Drive My Car
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Nowhere Man
Michelle
In My Life
Girl
Strawberry Fields Forever
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
A Day In The Life
I Am The Walrus
The Fool On The Hill
Magical Mystery Tour
Revolution
Back In The U.S.S.R.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Don't Let Me Down
Old Brown Shoe
Here Comes The Sun
Octopus's Garden
Across The Universe

I'm not sure this is the best of what's left, but at least it would render the Red/Blue albums as unneeded. Except that this would run just under 83 minutes, so we'll have to drop a track. I would drop one of the six Rubber Soul tracks, but those are all under 3 minutes so it might still be over 80 minutes. So maybe drop "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da".

On the other hand, it would probably be better to just condense the Red/Blue albums to two discs, instead of four.

 

I Saw Her Standing There
Please Please Me
All My Loving
And I Love Her
I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
I’ve Just Seen a Face
Drive My Car
Norwegian Wood
Nowhere Man
Michelle
In My Life
Taxman
Good Day Sunshine
Got to Get You In My Life
Strawberry Fields Forever
Sgt Pepper / With a Little Help from my Friends
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
A Day in the Life
I Am the Walrus
Fool On the Hill
Across the Universe
Revolution (45)
Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Don’t Let Me Down
Octopus’ Garden
Here Comes the Sun
Golden Slumbers/The End

 

No, I hadn't heard of it until your post. Looked it up on Wikipedia and sounds like something I'd enjoy. Not currently showing on anything available to me right now unfortunately.

 

Here is something I posted in the 1976's Best Of George Harrison topic:

 

Chart minutiae is far from my area of expertise, so I'll just quote what Wikipedia says about this:

…which clears up absolutely nothing.

 

I guess I'd follow the blueprint that Elvis' Second To None disc did, which was round up all the songs that hit the top 40 but weren't chart toppers. Using the same charts as they used for 1, which was the US and UK charts. I don't think the Elvis disc had enough hits so they added some popular tracks, but I'd think there would be plenty songs to fill a Beatles 2.

 

There were a LOT of Top 40 hits that weren't included on 2nd to None. According to the liner notes from the compilation:

 

Ob La Di
You Know My Name (Look Up My Number
Yellow Submarine
Mr. Moonlight
Don't Pass Me By
Maxwell SilverHammer
Old Brown Shoe
Yes It Is
Revolution 9
Dig It
For You Blue
Run For Your Life


Did I forget any?

 

Great post, I didn't know that. I guess I thought the whole point of 2nd to none was to gather the rest of the hits, but I guess it turned into a little deeper greatest hits disc. I'd like to see a release with all of Presley's top 40 hits from all over the world, though I suppose it would be a 3 or 4 disc set.

 

Well, he had 107 U.S. Top 40 hits for starters, so that's 4 discs right there.

 

Actually it does. Billboard changed its own listing rules in the middle of Something/Come Together's chart run. Each was listed separately and neither reached #1. IIRC one had peaked and the other was actually starting to drop, then suddenly the next week they were listed together as a number one single.

So basically they added their two airplay song stats together which made it a combined number 1.

Was this because it was an "official double A-side"? No.

In the US nothing was ever a true double A-side, in part because in a chart where airplay is factored in, the concept of a double A sided single makes absolutely no sense - unless of course both sides of the single get exactly the same number of radio plays per week.

Prior to Billboard introducing its new rule in the middle of Something/Come Together's chart run, the individual sides of each single were always charted separately, based on its own merit/airplay.

Basically as I understand it, under the new (at the time) Billboard rule, airplay performance of both sides are combined and the result determined the listed chart position, no matter how big the real gap is between them.

For example if the A-side legitimately earns say a number three position and the b-side legitimately earns a position of for example #95, then its possible that once the airplay for both sides are added together, both sides of the single would be listed as a combined #1.

During this era, it is worth checking the Cashbox listings to find the real picture of how each side of a single "really" charted individually.

PS - in the UK, the concept of a double A-side single makes more sense since airplay had nothing to do with chart position, as their chart was ONLY based on physical sales of singles. Since by definition, both sides of a single always sell the exact same number of copies as each other then technically both (or even neither) sides could be designated as an A-side. Often the reason there were "official" double A-sides released in the UK was for reasons such as:

1 - if one side of the single (the actual preferred by the band side) runs the risk of a ban (Lets Spend the Night Together), then rather than risking the failure of the single, they can make it an "official" double A-side (Ruby Tuesday) since that song was pretty ban-proof.

2 - a band or member feels strongly enough about a song to push hard for A-side status (Lennon fighting for Day Tripper's A-side status when there was no way it was going to demote We Can Work It Out To B-side status, and the Yardbirds who insisted their own self written Still I'm Sad be elevated from B-side to a double A-side with the non-self-written, but far more likely to be a hit "Evil Hearted You"

3 - both sides are so good that the band/producer/label can't decide which one to make the A-side, so they promote both as being the A-side and let the DJs and fan reation make the decision as usually (but not always) one side will make a larger impact than the other.

 

All My Loving
Misery
Baby's In Black
If I Fell
I'll Be Back
No Reply
I'll Follow The Sun
I Don't Want to Spoil The Party
I’ve Just Seen a Face
Nowhere Man
In My Life
Taxman
And Your Bird Can Sing
Gotta Get You Outta My Life
I'm Only Sleeping
Only A Northern Song
Fixing a Hole
She's Leaving Home
Strawberry Fields Forever
Your Mother Should Know
Fool On The Hill
Sexy Sadie
Mother Nature's Son
Savoy Truffle
Octopus' Garden
Because
You Never Give Me Your Money
Across The Universe

 

Actually, the NME (New Musical Express) UK chart did list some Double A and B sides separately, though none by The Beatles. Here's a paragraph from Alan Smith's "50s & 60s UK Charts - The Truth" article http://www.davemcaleer.com/page26.htm :

The New Musical Express chart did have some aspects that set it apart from most of its competitors. Firstly, for many years, the paper's charts would list `B` sides to some popular records by well known artists such as Elvis Presley or Cliff Richard. This would be due to the title being asked for in shops [reporting] to NME. Particularly affected were Double `A` sides where sales could be split quite evenly per title, thus sometimes affecting peak positions in NMEs, chart. The most notable instance was Elvis Presley's `Rocka, Hula Baby / Can't Help Falling in Love`. This was a number 1 in all other charts for at least a month but in NME due to the split sales when both titles entered the chart, neither made the top, only making number 2 and number 3, respectively. Because fans asked for "The New Beatles Record" when the singles were released none of the Beatles double 'A 'sides were split by the paper, but many others were, the last known examples being the Rolling Stones `Let's Spend the Night Together / Ruby Tuesday` in February 1967 and Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood with `You Only Live Twice-Jackson` in July 1967.​

The NME chart along with Melody Maker were the 2 major national UK charts of the 60s. The other 2 charts Disc and Record Retailer were most minor in comparison, in terms of the number of record shops they sampled in putting together their charts. Another chart Record Mirror ceased in 1962 and just printed the Record Retailer chart in their music paper instead. The BBC chart was the average of all these. The so-called-but-not-really "official" UK charts decided to use the least worthy chart Record Retailer to represent the 60s, but there was no "official" chart of the 60s. Refer to the Alan Smith article link above for the truth about the UK charts, and be amazed !!

 

Just remove 'The Long And Winding Rd' and 'Eight days a week' from '1' (Because they were singles not officially sanctioned by Martin or The Beatles and add 'Please Please Me' and 'Strawberry Fields' IMO, a 100 times better IMO and how it should have been released!!

1. Love me do
2. Please Please Me
3. From me to you
4. She loves you
5. I want to hold your hand
6. Can't buy me love
7. A hard day's night
8. I feel fine
9. Ticket to ride
10. Help!
11. Yesterday
12. Day tripper
13. We can work it out
14. Paperback writer
15. Yellow submarine
16. Eleanor Rigby
17. Penny Lane
18. Strawberry Fields Forever
19. All you need is love
20. Hello, goodbye
21. Lady Madonna
22. Hey Jude
23. Get back
24. The ballad of John and Yoko
25. Something
26. Come together
27. Let it be

 

Just for a change, how about a CD of songs done after the split. I would call it, The Beatles Apart:

Live And Let Die
Mull Of Kintyre
Come And Get It
Hi-Hi-Hi
Jet
My Sweet Lord
Give Me Love
Bangladesh
Got My Mind Set On You
Photograph
Back Off Boogaloo
It Don't Come Easy
You're Sixteen
Snookeroo
Give Peace A Chance
Imagine
Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
(Just Like) Starting Over
Mind Games
Jealous Guy

A 20 track CD of post Beatle hits, they don't have to be in that order, but you get the idea.

 

1 always left me cold.

Got to have the albums (ideally with the singles as bonus tracks----i don't care for Past Masters either).

Bring on the Blu Rays!

 

I made one once that had 27 songs...can only remember 26:
Please please me
Twist and shout
I saw her standing there
I should have known better
And I love her
No reply
She's a woman
Yes It Is
I'm Down
Nowhere Man
Michelle
In my life
Drive my car
Rain
Got to get you into my life
Strawberry Fields
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Baby you're a rich man
Magical Mystery Tour
Fool on the hill
Revolution
Back in the USSR
Obladi oblada
Don't let me down
Here comes the Sun
Free As a bird

 

I saw her standing there
Please please me
Do you want to know a secret
Twist and shout
All my loving
I wanna be your man
I should've known better
If I fell
Things we said today
You can't do that
No reply
Baby's in black
You've got to hide your love away
You're gonna lose that girl
Drive my car
Nowhere man
Norwegian wood
Michelle
In my life
Taxman
Got to get you into my life
Sgt. pepper lonely hearts club band
With a little help from my friends
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Magical mystery tour
Strawberry fields forever
I am the walrus
Back in the USSR
Dear prudence
While my guitar gently weeps
Revolution
Across the universe
Here comes the sun

 

Great thread idea. If a "Beatles 2" album was ever released, I could see it focusing on standout album cuts, plus singles/b-sides that didn't make "1".

I Saw Her Standing There
Please Please Me
Twist and Shout
And I Love Her
I'll Follow The Sun
I'm Down
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Nowhere Man
I'm Looking Through You
In My Life
Rain
For No One
Tomorrow Never Knows
Strawberry Fields Forever
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
A Day In The Life
The Fool On The Hill
I Am The Walrus
Revolution
Hey Bulldog
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Don't Let Me Down
Across The Universe
Here Comes The Sun
The End

Man, that was difficult! This is my closest vision. I had to cut a lot of favorites, but it's a neat playlist. I think anybody interested in The Beatles should hear their entire catalogue.

 

My list is a hybrid of the Red/Blue idea and a few tweeks:

Please Please Me
I Saw Her Standing There
Twist And Shout
All My Loving
And I Love Her
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Drive My Car
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Nowhere Man
In My Life
Taxman
Strawberry Fields Forever
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
A Day In The Life
Magical Mystery Tour
I Am The Walrus
The Fool On The Hill
Revolution
Back In The U.S.S.R.
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Don't Let Me Down
Here Comes The Sun
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
Across The Universe

 

A suggestion:

Since the original '1' album was advertised as '27 #1 hits on one album', maybe a '2' album could be 'other hits/songs on two albums'.

i.e. A double-CD, similar to how Bob Dylan's 'Greatest Hits Vol.2' was a double album, compared to the single album 'Vol.1'