Reorganizing the Beatles Catalog to Match the Cartoon Chronology

The Beatles' catalog has always been a mess, and my hope with this thread is to straighten it out.

For context:

The Beatles burst onto the scene in Sept. 1965 with their cartoon, which was an immediate hit. Early on, the show's producers realized that releasing Beatles records would represent a lucrative tie-in to the cartoon.

But the musicians behind the cartoon had their own ideas.

Instead of releasing the show's theme, "A Hard Day's Night," as their debut single, the group chose a somber ballad, "Yesterday," which was never even featured during the entire first season of the cartoon.

A few months later, the group released their debut album, Rubber Soul, containing 12 tracks, none of which had even appeared on their TV show. This must be the first time that a soundtrack album didn't contain any music from the movie or TV show it was meant to represent. Songs from this album were not featured on the show until the second season.

The (real) Beatles kept releasing singles and albums, defiantly containing new music that was not previously featured on their TV show. To keep up with demand, producers retroactively assembled LPs containing music from earlier episodes of the cartoon, under such titles as Meet the Beatles, The Early Beatles and Beatles '65.

All of this came to a head in 1968. The Beatles had written and recorded a lot of new music for what they assumed would be the fourth season of their cartoon, but the show was cancelled. The Beatles were very sad. In addition to all the songs that John and Paul wrote, George and Ringo had written scripts for the fourth-season episodes. "What are we going to do?" the Beatles asked. "Say, I've got an idea," said the group's producer, George Martin. "Why don't you do a DOUBLE LP with all the songs that would have been on the cartoon?"

And so it was decided. The White Album contained all the songs that would have been on the fourth season of the cartoon. But the group broke up shortly afterward, because they no longer had the cartoon series as the organizing principle behind their music.

But anyway, I would like to propose album track listings that would match the chronology of the cartoon episodes, so that we may finally place this catalog into a reasonable sequence and context.

For example, the first album of season 1 may have looked like this:

1. A Hard Day's Night
2. I Want To Hold Your Hand
3. Not A Second Time
4. Devil In Her Heart
5. Do You Want To Know A Secret
6. If I Fell
7. Please Mr. Postman
8. Slow Down
9. Baby's In Black
10. Misery
11. I'll Get You
12. Chains

In retrospect, this may have been a better choice than Rubber Soul.

Anyway, it would be great if we could once and for all get this catalog untangled.

 

I don't find their catalog "tangled" in the least. A ton of comps to be sure, but I think their "proper" catalog is pretty well intact in people's mind, both UK and U.S. I find The Stones' catalog infinitely more confusing and hard to keep in line, mentally. I think the idea of a comp based on the cartoon show is pretty interesting...but again...how is their catalog a "mess"??

 

Huh?

 

When even @ShockControl starts a Beatles thread, you know that anything can happen.... Anything...

 

Nice story, by the way. At least this thread is creative. Crediting George Martin for the double album idea is the ultimate irony.

 

@ShockControl , I thought you didn't pay attention to teenybopper stuff anymore? What gives? You alright?

 

Does ‘Yellow Submarine’ still happen in this timeline?

 

For example, the first album of season 1 may have looked like this:

1. A Hard Day's Night
2. I Want To Hold Your Hand
3. Not A Second Time
4. Devil In Her Heart
5. Do You Want To Know A Secret
6. If I Fell
7. Please Mr. Postman
8. Slow Down
9. Baby's In Black
10. Misery
11. I'll Get You
12. Chains

I like it!

 

They cruelly froze Yoko and her art out of the cartoon. No wonder it failed.

 

We have never found the scripts that George and Ringo wrote for what would have been the fourth season. We don't know if Yoko would have been included or not, although, to my knowledge, no other Beatles' wives, girlfriends, or boyfriends appeared during the cartoon's three seasons.

 

It could have used a dose of Barbara Bach!

 

That would have been in late 70s revival series. The Beatles would have been doing yacht rock at that point.

 

As George and Paul both did.

Yoko did appear in the Pinky And The Brain cartoon. Which seems appropriate.

 

"Arrow Right Through Me" is very yacht rock. When I saw the video, I remember thinking that Paul was morphing into Billy Joel with that hair.

 

By 1966, the cartoon had become so popular, the that "real" Beatles began to look like the cartoon Beatles!

 

And Giles Martin could remix the whole new catalogue. Using a little bit of compression and digital extraction!

 

I have read you are a big Beatles cartoon fan and want you to know I am too....made my sixties Saturday mornings. In my Beatles memorabilia collection, I have the cartoon paint set and the cereal Beatles cartoon blow up dolls.

 

Lest ye forget...mind games-Lennon side of double fantasy was totally yacht rock...exclude wings back to the egg as was more power pop rock.

 

this thread and the timey wimey-ness of it all just makes me want a Rutles cartoon

 

Arrow through me is really more pop r n b...so he morphed into a white stevie....Harry styles would later discover the coolness of ...arrow through me.

 

I’d buy that compilation!

 

I don't remember the Rolling Stones cartoon series.

 

This is hilarious. First we get George Martin, then we get Dave Dexter...now we got Al Brodax! Finally - somebody who can straighten this mess out for us!

 

I don’t understand the original question. You want to organize the catalogue in the form of a cartoon because it is disorganized?