I found a copy of this album at a yard sale in the early 80s. I think I paid $1 for it and it's imported from England. I always thought it sounded amazing. Many years later, through research on the internet, I discovered that the copy I have is a genuine first pressing. It's a great collection, and I think American fans unfamiliar with the album would enjoy having it reissued.
You've put together a truly fascinating story about an album I admittedly knew almost nothing about. I can't believe I didn't find your channel sooner. Subscribed!
I'm 62 years old, lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for the first 55 years, and have never seen this album. Didn't even know it existed. Thanks so much for educating me on this. :)
60, bay area as well, not a sighting all these years. interesting. very dated cover to my eye. interesting mix. bit of history. my favorite is still yel sub with the george martin orchestral score. bought that myself when it came out, my first album. not the best beatles songs, but it was MY album.
This was a UK only album release so unless you looked in the import Beatles section in certain record stores or were really into their record catalog it would have been easy to miss it.
I am from Argentina and I bought the local edition of this album in the late 70's. It was my second Beatles album after "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and I still have it almost intact. Thank you very much for the report. Greetings from Córdoba, Argentina
I'm 64 and born & raised in San Diego, CA. I have thousands of vinyl and never heard of this album! Thanks for an enlightened doc on this LP. It deserves to be re-released as a proper Beatles catalog album!
I bought this album and loved it. Here in Australia it was titled A Collection of Oldies BUT Goldies. It included Bad Boy written by Clarence Williams. A great collection. NB: the rear photo was in a very arty smoke filled black and white.
here in Australia, your Beatles record collection in the early 70s, wasn't complete without this one. it was a strange compilation, but still an essential part of your historic collection if you wanted people to know you were a true Beatlemaniac.
Thanks Andrew! This album was a very important one to me. As an American fan since their Ed Sullivan appearance, I'd bought every US LP release and many singles. During college time in the early '70s (after their breakup), I was flipping through the bins at my favorite record shop in downtown Wilkes-Barre, PA and stumbled upon several odd-looking Beatles albums with stunningly sharp & glossy cover images and 14 tracks per disc! What were these oddities? Turned out they were Parlophone imports from the UK. I decided to try a couple of them. It had taken me a while to convince myself that "Oldies" was an actual Beatles album due to the unusual painted cover image that had never appeared in the US and the collection of titles that I thought might have been covers by other artists. The biggest surprise and thrill was the discovery of a Beatles tune that I'd never heard before: From Me To You! The sound quality was also better than Capitol releases, on this album and ESPECIALLY on Revolver! That was the beginning of my effort to get their entire LP collection on imports, including German and Japanese vinyl as well as British. The sound quality put Capitol to shame! "Oldies" was responsible for starting it all for me.
I bought my first copy of "Oldies" from Probe Records in Liverpool when I was a kid, around 1982. The thing about Probe was they employed sales assistants who were quick to tell you if a record was any good or not. My seller was Pete Burns, he of Dead Or Alive fame. I passed the cover into him, he looked at it, sighed, and gave me a friendly snarl!!!
I had this when I was a kid in the period of the 70's just after the Beatles had split. There was real excitement in the tracks for me, as I was too young to go for their heavier stuff. Just perfect pop songs with the amazing raucous voiced John , rocking bad boy,. 16 pop tracks that went by so quickly that they never outstayed their welcome. I was also fascinated by the back cover photo. I hate to admit it, they made a haze of smoke look cool - along with their hair and clothes. A great album and a colourful pop art cover that signifies its time and still stands out today.
This was an album I thought I’d imagined. Remember seeing it in record shops back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, then it suddenly disappeared, not even released on CD. It’s album artwork must have influenced XTC for their Oranges and Lemons album in 1988. I just recently tracked down a copy through Discogs, not sure what pressing it is, but it is an early one. I guess the reason it hasn’t been reissued is down to the red and blue albums, which are probably seen as the definitive ‘best of’ albums, making A Collection of Oldies redundant.
I'm really surprised. If, like me, you're an XTC fan who knows the Oranges And Lemons album artwork connection, I would've thought you'd be a Beatles fan too.....and if you bought Beatles records as a kid, this album would surely have surfaced every time you'd flick through. This album has nestled in my Beatles record collection between Revolver and Sgt Pepper for the last forty years!!! :)
Thank you! I knew the cover looked familiar. Never listened to XTC Oranges and Lemons but my first boss had a cassette of it setting on his desk. I knew I had seen that somewhere.
I own this album. It was my very first album I ever bought (probably around 1977). My mom helped me select it. I didn't even own a record player at the time. I had to ask my brother's permission to play it on his stereo. I still have it to this day.
I have the UK budget 'Fame' reissue of that album on both Cassette and LP and they both still sound great. As their first official 'Greatest Hits' compilation to be released in Britain (as well as many other countries), it certainly deserves to receive more love from both fans and critics alike.
This was my very first album I bought. It was in 1971! I bought it because it had 16 songs. 16! I knew very little about The Beatles. Since then I have bought many records but this album has great memories of my youth! Thank you for the memory.
As for me, all the BEATLES albums are Greatest Hits Albums to me. Thank for posting Beatles music will still be playing a hundred years from now. "Love❤, and peace ✌
My take on this album: this was the first recording I ever bought, back in '73. Spanish pressing. I was just 13 years old. I rushed back home to play it when I sadly discovered that one song was included in both sides and so, another was missing. A stamping error, no less! I can't remember which were the reepeated song nor the missing one but quickly went back to the records store to complain. I got another copy with the correct songs in their correct places. Had I kept that misprinted album, now I'd be the owner of a rare and collectible sample, hahaha... I still have and cherish this first album of mine!
This was the first album I bought as a 10 year old newly minted drummer and Ringo devotee in 1975. My dad drove me 50 miles to a record store and when I saw the song selection and cover it was straight to the checkout line. We were visiting my aunt who let me play it on her Hi-Fi console the entire visit.😊
I remember taking this out of the local library in the very early 80's when I was 10. But then I discovered to abandon the greatest hits type of compilations and dive deep into the actual albums!
Being an American, I had never heard of the album until I saw it in the record store as an import. I then read more lengthy stories about it in books. There weren't any songs that I didn't already previously own, though differently mixed, but the album cover was one of the coolest that I had seen. Thank you for this great upload. Once again, excellent job!
@@vinylrichie007 I think any rare recordings release needs to be widely available for all fans. RSD releases tend to be limited and appeal to the niche collectors. The "Oldies" comp fits the bill nicely.
It's amazing that you know everything about this record. I never even heard of it until you mentioned it. I live in the USA. I'm a Beatles fan from early childhood- when I first heard their recordings around the age of 5 years old (1964). Thanks for an amazing historical update. *DuraSaxon*
Me too! Except I was 5 and living in Southern California. I remember hearing I want to hold your hand being played over and over with nothing played in between it. I suspect it was KRLA 1100 AM and for sure it was from a small tube style radio. Imagine the fidelity! I misinterpreted the phrase “when I feel that something” as “when I feel that sunburn”. Lol. Still some heat involved anyway you slice it.
I'm really glad you've put this album in the spotlight. It was my first Beatles album, bought in 1976, and holds great affection. I played it so much as a 12 year old that even to this day there will be times when I am listening to the tracks in different contexts and my brain predicts the next track based on the Oldies... running order! I have always loved the cover, and agree totally that it's a companion piece to Revolver. A record store day release is a brilliant idea!!
Even when I started listening to the Beatles as a kid in the 80s I had no idea of this album. I do think the cover is cool, though it doesn't feel like it has much to do with the Beatles at all. Thanks for the enlightening video, I like being educated on new "old" things, especially where the Beatles are concerned.
The cover fits in with the 'Paul is Dead' storyline, along with Paul's shirt on the back being colored in black, and the fact that the album already classifies songs from 1966 as "oldies" and seems to signify that The Beatles will no longer be the same going forward
The very first Beatles album I bought at the ripe old age of 15 was the "Hey Jude (The Beatles Again)", which contained those singles that hadn't made it onto other albums before all hell broke loose. Sadly, when I began to rebuild my Beatles albums on CD years later, "Hey Jude" was never included, those songs instead being included on the "Past Masters" Vol 2. Now as a senior citizen on a fixed income trying to get back into vinyl, I have missed several opportunities already to buy a decent copy of that album on Discogs due to lack of funds because of so many factors, including COVID. That album means so much to me, and I think I'd die happy if I could finally retrieve it. Yes, I can hear those songs off the CD's, but hey, that's not the point, is it? Those CD's and now streaming just don't provide the physical joy a good vinyl record provides as well as, in many ways, a superior listening experience. And, No, I never even heard of these beatles "greatest hits" albums.......wonder why.....LOL!
I do agree that the fake stereo on "She Loves You" was bad, but it's important to remember that, while Capitol had its "Duophonic" system, RCA had developed the "electronic stereo" process to start with, back in 1961. This process was used on most of the reissues of Elvis' 1950's albums. In addition, it's also important to remember that, here in the US at the time, if yoiu were lucky to get a copy, you would have had "I Feel Fine", "Can't Buy Me Love", "A Hard Day's Night", "Paperback Writer", and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in true stereo, which weren't at the time. Another good candidate for a video would be the US "Hey Jude"/"Beatles Again" compilation.
I usually dislike fake stereo, but I think it works with the "She Loves You" fake stereo mix that Capitol made. The extra reverb they added also helps to obscure the numerous edits within the song, while they stand out more prominently on the original mono single mix. They're still audible, but not so obvious.
Fascinating - many thanks Andrew! I bought this lp back in the early 1970s just for Bad Boy which had not been released before in the UK. The psychedelic sleeve was eye-catching though including an image of the lads as prohibition-era Chicago gangsters seemed completely wrong ("mobtops"?). Another quirk to the history of this record is that the photo on the back which was taken when the group was in Tokyo, is reversed. This was spotted by the distributors in Japan because of the writing on Paul's kimono. For the Japanese release, the image was accordingly reversed back with George on the left and John on the right!
I bought this album back in the 80's on the Fame label. Not the Beatles album I’ve played the most. Still I think this album should have been made available again. Was actually thinking this would have made a perfect RSD release just before you mentioned it in your video ;) Keep up your brilliant work :)
I bought this album around 1975 from a record store in the Philly area that had a deep selection of imports. I particularly liked it for the back cover photo of the band. Also, I really thought the album was worth the trouble in order to get the stereo mixes. Since the mid 80s, stereo has gotten a bad name, but it's far and away my own preferred format. Why? Better separation of sounds. You can pick out instruments better. We have two ears. Real life is heard in stereo. Why not music?
I have relied on stereo for thirty years, for the very reason you mention. Not for music, but for family sound documentary audio recording of my Uncle Ken. I recorded us; my brother Brian, and Ken's son George Jr. hanging out together for 15 years. We have two ears, and that's how I want to hear those recordings; Ken laughing on one speaker, and Brian and Little George on the other. (Walter Mallard Photography).
The Beatles & their production team intended us to hear their work up & through 1967 in mono; that includes Sgt Pepper; limited tracks didn’t allow for good stereo mixes; the early stereo mixes were done to satisfy audiophiles of the era; some, like the early Capitol stereo ‘mixes’ were flat out mistakes as the 2 track masters, with the music on 1 side & the vocals on the other, we’re supposed to be mixed into mono
Thanks for the fascinating insight into this compilation. I love this album's track listing, Andrew, especially the rear cover photo (which was shot on my fourteenth birthday.) When I bought it in '79, I named this compilation the Woodcote Green Album as I lived on Woodcote Green Estate in Epsom from September 59 (when I was 7) until October 66 (when I was 14) and this album covers that era nicely (plus the bonus 'Bad Boy', of course.) We had a month at my grandmother's house and on November 23, 1966 my parents, sister and I flew to Toronto and nothing was ever the same again.
I am 70 love the BEATLES but have never seen this LP. Thanks for the update.best baand in the world.and know one has come close.☮✝💝 all you need is LOVE 💞
I think this album would be a great candidate for a more experimental remix (a la Yellow Submarine Songtrack) alongside the original mixes. It’ll probably never happen, but it’d be cool. Great video as always Andrew!
I'm so happy this video is doing so well! because even before I started watching this channel I never knew this album existed. Let alone have such a rich history and importance.
Yeah, you're probably right. But what's better than making money. Answer - Making even more Money. We did get the three U.s versions of the Beatles as well as the Japanese set.
Interesting, I always assumed that this was an album put together after the Beatles broke up. I picked this one up in the mid 70s when I must have been around 9 or 10 years old. I think it was either at The Warehouse or Licorice Pizza in Southern California hitting the record shops on a Saturday afternoon with my dad. I remember first noticing it in a Beatles import section and what struck me first was the song list and the variety of songs. It was a little more expensive than some of the other Beatles albums I was looking at and figured I might be able to pick it up in a week or two after saving up but as we were about to leave the store my dad had a handful of vinyl in his hands and then told me if you see anything you like, pick it up and I’ll buy it for you. I live in Tokyo now and run across this album quite often, I’ll have to take a look at the reversed photo in the back. I always knew that the photo was reversed even when I first purchased the album as a kid but just wrote it off as whoever designed the back of the album had made a mistake. Great video Domo arigato!
I'd be up for a RSD special release. Especially since now we will be have the "benefit" of the Mono box set remasters, which everyone seems to love, when putting the album back together again.
My very first Beatles album, given to me by my cousin, in 1974, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He started me and my brother on the Beatles when we were 6 years old! I still listen to this album to this day! Gracias Fernando!
My first copy of A Collection of Beatles Oldies was on Capitol Records which I picked up in the early 1980’s in Tijuana Mexico. I would occasionally drive down from Los Angeles to pick up unique Mexican pressings of EPs, 45s, and LPs. I always thought it a little strange how Capitol would release things in Mexico but not the U.S. I still have my Mexican records. I later found the UK “Fame” pressing and picked it up. I would definitely buy a RSD copy if it became available.
First Beatles record I bought way back in 1980. Second was Rock and Roll Music. After that started buying the official albums in chronological order. Still listen to the Beatles most days
I bought a copy of this album back in about 1977 or 78. It was in the foreign release section that I would browse from time to time, in order to find odd ball albums.
I’m soo glad you brought up this album! Because I was originally gonna request this album review but someone else brought it up first lol. But thank you for this great review! I also recently found a near mint uk 1967 pressing of help and collection of Beatles oldies in stereo for $76 at a record shop which I couldn’t believe
Bought my copy in 1970. Listening to the true stereo, (especially“I Feel Fine”) recordings was a treat for me back then. Thank you for making the video. An education in musical history.
Another great video, Andrew. As an American first generation fan, I Feel Fine and a few of the other first time stereo mixes included here were an absolute revelation sound wise. Certainly turned my attention to the British catalog after so many years of Dexter echo and reverb. Thanks once again.
This was my introduction to the Beatles back in the early 80s, being the only Beatles album in my parent's record collection. The track order (including the pre-echo distinctly heard on some tracks, likely due to the thin track walls 8 tracks per side gave it) remained burned into my brain for years afterwards. It was the best LP I had ever heard back then, and probably still is a top contender today.
Great video. That album cover is so evocative, it's out of time but of the time as well -- it really jumped out when you flicked through a record collection. And the fact that they were calling relatively new songs "oldies" just goes to show how quickly the Beatles had evolved in such a short period. By the way, have you done a video on the 'Hey Jude' album? That one's a really random listening experience.
I bought it in 1977. I live in Canada where the US albums were available, but I made a point of buying the UK imports of all their albums. They were more expensive and I was a teenager . All my allowance and even my lunch money went to the purchase of those imported album. That's right, I'd staved myself because I couldn't wait to get all the Beatles music. I wish i could relive the moments when I was listening to a Beatles' song for the first time!
I bought this album from a supermarket in the mid 1970s because although I had all the singles the early ones weren't in very good condition and this seemed like an easy way to get 'new' copies. Another reason was having upgraded to semi decent stereo system I no longer had the trusty auto-change record player so this saved me having to play the singles one at a time! :-)
Can't believe I used to have this album and dumped it moving house, along with original 1967 Sgt Pepper's (mono and stereo with all the inserts), Magical Mystery Tour EP and the White album (1968).
As a young 14 year old sometime in the mid 1970s, I remember seeing this LP in the Beatles section at my local record store in Pennsylvania, USA, but always passed on it. Frankly, at the time, the artwork didn't grab me, and honestly looked like a bootleg ( I think it was an import on Odeon ). I had both the Red and Blue Albums, I didn't think I needed the songs on it, twice. Echo, no echo, back then I wouldn't had mattered to me that much.
Love learning all about the subtleties in the covers of all of these albums and records, getting a record player for christmas finally and being able to listen to everything in vinyl is an eye opening experience into the world of record owning especially learning that my Dad's copy is a PMC 7016 and that the Stereo section is in the stars great in depth videos about the history of these bad boys for new and old comers alike
An RSD release with it cut AAA like the mono box would be fantastic - mainly to finally be a good sounding mono copy! It’s the main reason I’ve never picked up an original. Such as shame as the 14 track Hollies’ Greatest from 1968 sounds fantastic in it’s mono cut, and this would make a lovely companion.
Hate to admit it, but I had never even heard of this album and I'm 62. Never comes up on list of Beatles records. Thank you for highlighting it. I would love to hear how some of the different pressings sound.
I bought this album, imported from the UK, when I lived in California in the early 80's. It was on the black and silver Parlophone label. I had just started collecting The Beatles UK albums in reverse chronological order. I may have played it once just to make sure it wasn't defective. The reason I didn't play it again was that I preferred listening to the Red, Blue and Rock n Roll music compilations, which were constantly on the turntable.
Fascinating stuff. As a kid I couldn't afford the Red and Blue albums and pre-1982 and the 20 Greatest Hits album this was my go to Best Of. Great memories. Thank You!
I decided to send an addendum to my previous comment. First of all, the Caldors store where I bought the Beatles UK collection was in Bedford, NY. I felt this album was special, because it was the first one to have the major early singles in one location, which is better than just having the singles. If nothing else, this baby is a huge collectible. I’m glad to have THREE versions. The fact that this was the first Beatles material legally available to Eastern Bloc Kids gives it incredible importance both historically and culturally. It’s with owning for that reason alone.
Great presentation. I bought a used copy of this album in the " import" section at Tower Records in the late 1980s. It had some true stereo singles as I was learning about the Beatles catalog. For that it is valid and it does have a great cover!
As far as I know, Oldies is the only AAA album that contains the 1966 remix of "Day Tripper". All the other AAA LPs I can think of use the original 1965 mix. All the vinyl versions of Past Masters are digitally mastered, obviously.
I would like to see a box set of all of the compilation albums (Oldies, Rock and Roll Music, Love Songs, Rarities (both UK and US versions), Ballads, Reel Music, 20 Greatest Hits (again, both UK and US versions - or is that just the 1 album?)). Okay, so there would be a lot of duplication, but like it or not, they kept the Beatles' flame burning in the 70s and 80s.
Terrific video Andrew! As an American fan, I didn’t know this album until reading about it in the discography book All Together Now. I did come across a Japanese copy in a record store in the 1980s and was intrigued by the cover. I did ultimately end up with a German copy as well as a stereo and mono copy. Thanks for sharing the history of this release!
@@Parlogram I bought the album in the early 1970s and played it a lot. Always enjoyed it as all the singles where on the one record. I liked the new song, Bad Boy. Don't know where the record went, but it's long gone. It probably won't be issued again as the Red and Blue double albums, are available, which contain their hit singles. I suppose it will always be a collectors item.
You are SO right in saying the 'RED' and 'BLUE' collections took any wind out of the sail for this one ('Beatles Again/Hey Jude' did as well). In the early-1970's I helped out at a local record store. We sold a LOT of imported vinyl, and always viewed this LP with a kind of disdain. It FELT too much like 'Yesterday and Today'. That view never left me, as I owned/own multiple copies of every release EXCEPT this (and the USA pressings). BUT your idea of it being a Record Store Day release is super smart : ) Come to think of it, 'Get Back' (2021) should have been an RSD goody.
This was the first album I ever owned, given to me by my aunty Maureen in the late sixties. I still have it, unplayed for a long time but am now going to dig it out and have another listen. Should be interesting after having binged on the Let It Be boxset for the last couple of weeks
I bought my stereo copy in February 1980 and it is a -3 -4 pressing. It sounds pretty good to me and significantly better than my red vinyl copy of 1962-1966.
Agreed. It was cut by Harry Moss (note the "HTM" in the deadwax) and sounds much better than the 1G. It's on the Parlophone "two box" label, preceding the Fame pressing.
@@davidsacco8521 That's the one. Most of my first Beatles albums were late 1979 or early 1980 because that's when I started working. I think they are some of the best UK Stereo cuts.
I believe I have one of the incarnations of this album. I'll have to dig deep into my vinyl collection to retrieve it. Thank you for opening my eyes and ears to the special significance of this album.
HOWARD WEBER > When I lived in Ottawa, Canada during the 60`s, the first stereo Beatles album I bought was the German -THE BEATLES GREATEST - in Dec. 1966. I was 15 at the time. It was also my first Beatles imported album. Not too long after that, I bought the British - A COLLECTION OF BEATLES OLDIES - in mono. Just for the record, the mono A COLLECTION OF BEATLES OLDIES was the only album at the time that had the mono mix of Paperback Writer. It would be years until the mono mix was available on an album again.
Andrew, it doesn't matter whether or not I'd buy this album, but rather its place in the band's history, which you so carefully laid out. The bandmembers' own opinions of it don't necessarily matter either. Paul and Ringo, having lived to see the effects of their work over half a century later, now have greater perspective than George or John, but none of them were as died-in-the-wool fans of other artists to see how that fandom applies to them. Bottom line: Thank you for your work!
This is one of those albums I never got around to buying. I started collecting in the early 80's, and once I had the Red and Blue compilations and Rarities, "Oldies" just didn't feel essential.
Watching in 2024 - I was at a record show this morning and saw a two-box EMI pressing for 20 and remembered you'd done a video of this album. I was floored when you said you hated the sound of it, since highs and lows were compromised to make room for 8 songs each side instead of the typical 7. BUT, oh, well...I have it now and I'm about to store it between Revolver and Sgt Pepper. It very well is apart of the Beatles canon - I'll play it later - I need a nap now.😅😅😅
I remember encountering this in a used record store in Florida back in the early 90s (don't remember what label). I turned it down because I already had all the tracks on it (and I thought the cover was hideous, which didn't help). Now that I'm older I wish I'd bought it.
Thanks for this video, along with all your other ones! One big difference I noticed about the UK and the US markets is that in the US nobody seemed to mind a recent single release being also released on an LP. So with this in mind, this album wouldn't have sold in the US because only 2 of the tracks had not seen LP release at the time. By contrast, I count half of the tracks on this album having no previous LP release in the UK: would that have been attractive to anyone back then? I find it amazing that in the marketing-mad US that no end-of-year LP release was made that year. Given Capitol's magic 11-track preference, I think there were exactly that many non-Capitol LP tracks they could have released: 1) Love Me Do (single version); 2) Misery, 3) There's A Place, 4) From Me To You, 5) Sie Liebt Dich, 6) Can't Buy Me Love, 7) A Hard Day's Night, 8) I Should Have Known Better, 9) I'm Down, 10) Paperback Writer, and 11) Rain. A weird collection to be sure, but they could have used the title Odds and Sods and beaten out the Who by 8 years!
15:50 While not a ‘greatest hits’ package per se, Capitol’s ‘Yesterday … and Today’, from June 1966, contained three of the band’s recent US hit singles, and their flip-sides.
I live in the UK. Me and my brother were mad keen on the Beatles when we were growing up in the 70s. Mum and dad would drag us to the shops every Saturday and we'd make a break for the nearest record store and try and locate as many Beatles LPs as we could. We never came across this LP. In the late 70s our uncle who had emigrated to Australia returned with his record collection. This included an Australian double album compilation of Beatles hits. Inside where printed two rows of LP covers. The top row was Please, Please Me through to Revolver and the bottom row Oldies through to Let it Be: so it was between Revolver and Sgt Pepper. The bottom row included Hey Jude but not Magical Mystery Tour. Because we had never seen Oldies in the UK shops, we assumed it was only released in Australia. Having said that, I don't think we found the Hey Jude album in the UK shops either. It was years later we learned Hey Jude LP was a USA album. We did eventually obtain a copy of Hey Jude LP on the Parlophone label. Your video is very timely because a month or so ago I remembered Oldies but Goldies and wondered whether it had ever been released in the UK. It's funny, the album had laid dormant in my memory for 45 years, I remembered it and started asking myself some questions and literally a week later you release this video. What a coincidence. I found your video fascinating. Thank you.
I had bought a German pressing of this LP, about a year ago, but it arrived broke, unfortunately. Would like to find another one as I really like the sound of their pressings.
Hm.. I have a mid 70s blue Oden German pressing and it's a bit odd: "We can work out" and "I feel fine" are in fake stereo. But you have the 65 stereo mix of Day Tripper (with guitar starting only at left channel)
What . it arrived penniless ??.. i think you mean BROKEN , not broke.. I picked this album up second hand in about 1969 ... it only cost me $3.00 Aust.
I wish I could remember what my very first Beatles albums was added to my record collection, but I still own the Love Songs compilation double album. I will never forget the first Beatles 45 I bought. It was Yellow Submarine with Eleanor Rigby on the B-side. I'm fuzzy on the period of time when I bought this. I'm guessing that it was before I had seen the animated film because the images conjured by Eleanor Rigby were somewhat nightmarish . Being unfamiliar with slang or expressions not found in America I interpreted the lyrics literally and envisioned a faceless woman retrieving a "face she kept in a jar by the door." It scared the hell out of my as a kid. ...but I loved it and played it over and over again. It's still among my favourite Beatles songs. It is in that category of Beatles songs that deviates from their more crowd pleasing tracks. I would add Hey Bulldog to this list. I cannot imagine the reaction these songs got from the teeny boppers who screamed their throats raw during the Shea stadium concert. It must have a real WTF moment in their lives. Sadly I was too young to experience any of Beatlemania. I envy those who got to see it firsthand. It is a phenomenon that will never be replicated.
There's a video of American teens on "American Bandstand" reacting to the video of Strawberry Field. Some don't like the new image and "weird" music, some love it and are willing to follow their heroes anywhere.
Tx for yet again a great lecture. Love it. Yes, it should be released. It's a similar thing with the Yesterday And Today album. Never understood why it wasn't included on the Capitol boxes of 2004/2005. Same goes for the US Revolver release.
It was just a Greatest Hits collection, for goodness' sake. While I immensely love the cover artwork, you can find every single song on a real studio album or single from their catalogue.
Right? This title is some definite clickbait and I’m sure the uploader wanted people to think there was some actual unreleased Beatles material on here.
I was born on 16th September 1962 - I'm a reincarnation of a used tea bag from George's mug as he sat down with his egg and chips (one if his favourite meals) that sunny Sunday. I adored and adore the Fabs, soaking up all their albums through the bedroom wall of my elder brother in the 1960s... but it was THIS album that was my first Beatles purchase, on cassette(!) in the early 1970s, I guess. Ah... such memories, thanks Andrew.
As a gen x’er the red and blue balcony photo best of albums were my great introduction to the beatles. I had never heard this one! Thanks for the video.
Personally, I'd more interested in "Oldies" if Parlophone had just gathered up all of the singles tracks that hadn't yet appears on LP instead of repeating several songs that were already on the albums. Instead of including Help, Michelle, Yesterday, Yellow Submarine, Can't Buy Me Love, A Hard Day's Night, Ticket to Ride, and Eleanor Rigby, I would have replaced those eight tracks with these seven B-Sides: Thank You Girl, I'll Get You, This Boy, She's a Woman, Yes It Is, I'm Down, and Rain... plus throw in Long Tall Sally from the EP for an eighth addition. Had they done that, there would have been a better argument to keep it in print and include it with a "BC-14" set in the late 70s and early 80s.
I found a copy of this album at a yard sale in the early 80s. I think I paid $1 for it and it's imported from England. I always thought it sounded amazing. Many years later, through research on the internet, I discovered that the copy I have is a genuine first pressing. It's a great collection, and I think American fans unfamiliar with the album would enjoy having it reissued.
I have this álbum! It is wonderful!
@@mgtowchampion7961 Your trolling game is weak, bruh.
@@mgtowchampion7961 iron maiden kisses the soles of the beatles’ boots. give me a break
upload that to YT , its ur duty i think as a beatles fan.
Worth a lot now I would imagine
You've put together a truly fascinating story about an album I admittedly knew almost nothing about. I can't believe I didn't find your channel sooner. Subscribed!
Thanks & welcome aboard!
Love your content, You Can't Unhear This! :D
Do the rest of the medley!
@@daytonsMusicRoom You gotta love the people in the comments ordering the video creators around!
My two favorite Beatles content creators in one place!? 😮
I'm 62 years old, lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for the first 55 years, and have never seen this album. Didn't even know it existed. Thanks so much for educating me on this. :)
Thanks for watching, Jimi.
Yo have u ever met Arron kyro
60, bay area as well, not a sighting all these years. interesting. very dated cover to my eye. interesting mix. bit of history. my favorite is still yel sub with the george martin orchestral score. bought that myself when it came out, my first album. not the best beatles songs, but it was MY album.
This was a UK only album release so unless you looked in the import Beatles section in certain record stores or were really into their record catalog it would have been easy to miss it.
@@mattlowe1276 Who's that?
I am from Argentina and I bought the local edition of this album in the late 70's. It was my second Beatles album after "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and I still have it almost intact. Thank you very much for the report. Greetings from Córdoba, Argentina
Thank you for watching, Mariano.
This was the album that made me a fan of The Beatles in 1982, and I have my copy still
I'm 64 and born & raised in San Diego, CA. I have thousands of vinyl and never heard of this album!
Thanks for an enlightened doc on this LP. It deserves to be re-released as a proper Beatles catalog album!
I bought this album and loved it. Here in Australia it was titled A Collection of Oldies BUT Goldies. It included Bad Boy written by Clarence Williams. A great collection. NB: the rear photo was in a very arty smoke filled black and white.
here in Australia, your Beatles record collection in the early 70s, wasn't complete without this one. it was a strange compilation, but still an essential part of your historic collection if you wanted people to know you were a true Beatlemaniac.
Thanks Andrew! This album was a very important one to me. As an American fan since their Ed Sullivan appearance, I'd bought every US LP release and many singles. During college time in the early '70s (after their breakup), I was flipping through the bins at my favorite record shop in downtown Wilkes-Barre, PA and stumbled upon several odd-looking Beatles albums with stunningly sharp & glossy cover images and 14 tracks per disc! What were these oddities? Turned out they were Parlophone imports from the UK. I decided to try a couple of them. It had taken me a while to convince myself that "Oldies" was an actual Beatles album due to the unusual painted cover image that had never appeared in the US and the collection of titles that I thought might have been covers by other artists. The biggest surprise and thrill was the discovery of a Beatles tune that I'd never heard before: From Me To You! The sound quality was also better than Capitol releases, on this album and ESPECIALLY on Revolver! That was the beginning of my effort to get their entire LP collection on imports, including German and Japanese vinyl as well as British. The sound quality put Capitol to shame! "Oldies" was responsible for starting it all for me.
Great memories, Bob.
So darned epic 😎 to hear the love flowing. Beatles forever 💛♥💙
U bought every album u habe a great album collection i do too & beatles books
"The Lost Beatles Greatest Hits Album" would have been a less click-baity title. But you got me! Congrats.
I bought my first copy of "Oldies" from Probe Records in Liverpool when I was a kid, around 1982. The thing about Probe was they employed sales assistants who were quick to tell you if a record was any good or not. My seller was Pete Burns, he of Dead Or Alive fame. I passed the cover into him, he looked at it, sighed, and gave me a friendly snarl!!!
Well you can discount the opinion of someone who only managed one top ten record in the UK.
@@ianz9916 that’s one more than anyone else likely to read this!
He sold me a record or two in Probe as well!!
Danny
I remember seeing him mainly in Lord Street, with his entourage. Or hanging outside Probe. I used to by my records at Cheverton.
@@stevena9305 But quite a few less than The Beatles or even Ringo Starr as a solo artist.
You truly do your research on various countries pressing and labels. Very informative
I had this when I was a kid in the period of the 70's just after the Beatles had split. There was real excitement in the tracks for me, as I was too young to go for their heavier stuff. Just perfect pop songs with the amazing raucous voiced John , rocking bad boy,. 16 pop tracks that went by so quickly that they never outstayed their welcome. I was also fascinated by the back cover photo. I hate to admit it, they made a haze of smoke look cool - along with their hair and clothes. A great album and a colourful pop art cover that signifies its time and still stands out today.
Well said, Inver.
My first ever pop album in the 70s, absolutely loved it and played it over and over again, still have it somewhere.
This was an album I thought I’d imagined. Remember seeing it in record shops back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, then it suddenly disappeared, not even released on CD. It’s album artwork must have influenced XTC for their Oranges and Lemons album in 1988. I just recently tracked down a copy through Discogs, not sure what pressing it is, but it is an early one. I guess the reason it hasn’t been reissued is down to the red and blue albums, which are probably seen as the definitive ‘best of’ albums, making A Collection of Oldies redundant.
I'm really surprised. If, like me, you're an XTC fan who knows the Oranges And Lemons album artwork connection, I would've thought you'd be a Beatles fan too.....and if you bought Beatles records as a kid, this album would surely have surfaced every time you'd flick through.
This album has nestled in my Beatles record collection between Revolver and Sgt Pepper for the last forty years!!! :)
Thank you!
I knew the cover looked familiar.
Never listened to XTC Oranges and Lemons but my first boss had a cassette of it setting on his desk.
I knew I had seen that somewhere.
I own this album. It was my very first album I ever bought (probably around 1977). My mom helped me select it. I didn't even own a record player at the time. I had to ask my brother's permission to play it on his stereo. I still have it to this day.
Spooky. I could have written your post almost word for word. Also 1977. But my mum wasn't involved.
I have the UK budget 'Fame' reissue of that album on both Cassette and LP and they both still sound great.
As their first official 'Greatest Hits' compilation to be released in Britain (as well as many other countries), it certainly deserves to receive more love from both fans and critics alike.
Time to return your brother's stereo.
This was my very first album I bought. It was in 1971! I bought it because it had 16 songs. 16! I knew very little about The Beatles. Since then I have bought many records but this album has great memories of my youth! Thank you for the memory.
Thank you for watching.
As for me, all the BEATLES albums are Greatest Hits Albums to me. Thank for posting Beatles music will still be playing a hundred years from now. "Love❤, and peace ✌
My take on this album: this was the first recording I ever bought, back in '73. Spanish pressing. I was just 13 years old. I rushed back home to play it when I sadly discovered that one song was included in both sides and so, another was missing. A stamping error, no less! I can't remember which were the reepeated song nor the missing one but quickly went back to the records store to complain. I got another copy with the correct songs in their correct places. Had I kept that misprinted album, now I'd be the owner of a rare and collectible sample, hahaha...
I still have and cherish this first album of mine!
Similar issue with The Beatles blue album.
I’m 64 years old. I bought this album in the 60’s. It was released in Brasil. I still have it. Thank you for such a vast information on this album
This was the first album I bought as a 10 year old newly minted drummer and Ringo devotee in 1975. My dad drove me 50 miles to a record store and when I saw the song selection and cover it was straight to the checkout line. We were visiting my aunt who let me play it on her Hi-Fi console the entire visit.😊
This was the first Beatles album I remember listening to as a child growing up in Central America in the 60s. My older brother had it when I was six.
I remember taking this out of the local library in the very early 80's when I was 10. But then I discovered to abandon the greatest hits type of compilations and dive deep into the actual albums!
Being an American, I had never heard of the album until I saw it in the record store as an import. I then read more lengthy stories about it in books. There weren't any songs that I didn't already previously own, though differently mixed, but the album cover was one of the coolest that I had seen. Thank you for this great upload. Once again, excellent job!
Record Store Day reissue of "Oldies" is good idea!! Hopefully pressed on beautiful high quality colored vinyl!
That would be cool!
If not for the Let It Be box, "Get Back" would have been a great RSD release.
@@vinylrichie007 I think any rare recordings release needs to be widely available for all fans. RSD releases tend to be limited and appeal to the niche collectors. The "Oldies" comp fits the bill nicely.
I think the cover art work reproduced on the disc would make it an iconic must have!!
It's amazing that you know everything about this record.
I never even heard of it until
you mentioned it.
I live in the USA.
I'm a Beatles fan from early
childhood- when I first heard their recordings around the
age of 5 years old (1964).
Thanks for an amazing
historical update.
*DuraSaxon*
Thanks for listening
Me too! Except I was 5 and living in Southern California. I remember hearing I want to hold your hand being played over and over with nothing played in between it. I suspect it was KRLA 1100 AM and for sure it was from a small tube style radio. Imagine the fidelity! I misinterpreted the phrase “when I feel that something” as “when I feel that sunburn”. Lol. Still some heat involved anyway you slice it.
I'm really glad you've put this album in the spotlight. It was my first Beatles album, bought in 1976, and holds great affection. I played it so much as a 12 year old that even to this day there will be times when I am listening to the tracks in different contexts and my brain predicts the next track based on the Oldies... running order! I have always loved the cover, and agree totally that it's a companion piece to Revolver. A record store day release is a brilliant idea!!
I really enjoyed this episode. I am already looking forward to next Sunday’s presentation. Thank you for your time and effort.
Glad you enjoyed it, Roger!
Even when I started listening to the Beatles as a kid in the 80s I had no idea of this album. I do think the cover is cool, though it doesn't feel like it has much to do with the Beatles at all. Thanks for the enlightening video, I like being educated on new "old" things, especially where the Beatles are concerned.
The cover fits in with the 'Paul is Dead' storyline, along with Paul's shirt on the back being colored in black, and the fact that the album already classifies songs from 1966 as "oldies" and seems to signify that The Beatles will no longer be the same going forward
The very first Beatles album I bought at the ripe old age of 15 was the "Hey Jude (The Beatles Again)", which contained those singles that hadn't made it onto other albums before all hell broke loose. Sadly, when I began to rebuild my Beatles albums on CD years later, "Hey Jude" was never included, those songs instead being included on the "Past Masters" Vol 2. Now as a senior citizen on a fixed income trying to get back into vinyl, I have missed several opportunities already to buy a decent copy of that album on Discogs due to lack of funds because of so many factors, including COVID. That album means so much to me, and I think I'd die happy if I could finally retrieve it. Yes, I can hear those songs off the CD's, but hey, that's not the point, is it? Those CD's and now streaming just don't provide the physical joy a good vinyl record provides as well as, in many ways, a superior listening experience. And, No, I never even heard of these beatles "greatest hits" albums.......wonder why.....LOL!
I had a cassette of it. It's a strange hotch-potch of an album, but it did have Rain on it, and the cover was from that last photo session.
I do agree that the fake stereo on "She Loves You" was bad, but it's important to remember that, while Capitol had its "Duophonic" system, RCA had developed the "electronic stereo" process to start with, back in 1961. This process was used on most of the reissues of Elvis' 1950's albums.
In addition, it's also important to remember that, here in the US at the time, if yoiu were lucky to get a copy, you would have had "I Feel Fine", "Can't Buy Me Love", "A Hard Day's Night", "Paperback Writer", and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in true stereo, which weren't at the time.
Another good candidate for a video would be the US "Hey Jude"/"Beatles Again" compilation.
I usually dislike fake stereo, but I think it works with the "She Loves You" fake stereo mix that Capitol made. The extra reverb they added also helps to obscure the numerous edits within the song, while they stand out more prominently on the original mono single mix. They're still audible, but not so obvious.
I recall RCA ruining Spike Jones' catalog with fake stereo... :P
Funny that they insisted on the UK albums for the cd's, yet they left this one out.
Thanks Andrew. Another brilliant video. Your knowledge is astonishing and my attention never wanders when I'm immersed in your videos.
Thank you, Robert!
Fascinating - many thanks Andrew! I bought this lp back in the early 1970s just for Bad Boy which had not been released before in the UK. The psychedelic sleeve was eye-catching though including an image of the lads as prohibition-era Chicago gangsters seemed completely wrong ("mobtops"?). Another quirk to the history of this record is that the photo on the back which was taken when the group was in Tokyo, is reversed. This was spotted by the distributors in Japan because of the writing on Paul's kimono. For the Japanese release, the image was accordingly reversed back with George on the left and John on the right!
Thanks for watching, Mark.
I bought this album back in the 80's on the Fame label. Not the Beatles album I’ve played the most. Still I think this album should have been made available again. Was actually thinking this would have made a perfect RSD release just before you mentioned it in your video ;) Keep up your brilliant work :)
Thanks for watching, Åsmund
It should have been included in the "Beatles Box" (BC-13). As it would have fit as well as the "Hey Jude" album. Oh Well.
My brother Juan, while he was studiying in Brasil, in 1976 bought this álbum. I don t know why it isn t in the oficial discography.
@@Parlogram I love your "Day Tripper" intro theme!
Upload PLEASE
I bought this album around 1975 from a record store in the Philly area that had a deep selection of imports. I particularly liked it for the back cover photo of the band. Also, I really thought the album was worth the trouble in order to get the stereo mixes. Since the mid 80s, stereo has gotten a bad name, but it's far and away my own preferred format. Why? Better separation of sounds. You can pick out instruments better. We have two ears. Real life is heard in stereo. Why not music?
I have relied on stereo for thirty years, for the very reason you mention. Not for music, but for family sound documentary audio recording of my Uncle Ken. I recorded us; my brother Brian, and Ken's son George Jr. hanging out together for 15 years. We have two ears, and that's how I want to hear those recordings; Ken laughing on one speaker, and Brian and Little George on the other. (Walter Mallard Photography).
My sentiment exactly when buying these, it was true stereo without all the reverb burying the mix and it was clean imo.
Would that have been 3rd Street Jazz & Rock in Olde City ?..... I loved that place !!
🚬😎
The Beatles & their production team intended us to hear their work up & through 1967 in mono; that includes Sgt Pepper; limited tracks didn’t allow for good stereo mixes; the early stereo mixes were done to satisfy audiophiles of the era; some, like the early Capitol stereo ‘mixes’ were flat out mistakes as the 2 track masters, with the music on 1 side & the vocals on the other, we’re supposed to be mixed into mono
Thanks for the fascinating insight into this compilation. I love this album's track listing, Andrew, especially the rear cover photo (which was shot on my fourteenth birthday.) When I bought it in '79, I named this compilation the Woodcote Green Album as I lived on Woodcote Green Estate in Epsom from September 59 (when I was 7) until October 66 (when I was 14) and this album covers that era nicely (plus the bonus 'Bad Boy', of course.) We had a month at my grandmother's house and on November 23, 1966 my parents, sister and I flew to Toronto and nothing was ever the same again.
Great memories, Graham.
I am 70 love the BEATLES but have never seen this LP. Thanks for the update.best baand in the world.and know one has come close.☮✝💝 all you need is LOVE 💞
I think this album would be a great candidate for a more experimental remix (a la Yellow Submarine Songtrack) alongside the original mixes. It’ll probably never happen, but it’d be cool. Great video as always Andrew!
That's a great idea!
The Beatles 1 has them all remixed with the exception of Michelle and Bad Boy
I'm so happy this video is doing so well! because even before I started watching this channel I never knew this album existed. Let alone have such a rich history and importance.
I doubt we’ll ever see it released again because the “Past Masters” set replaced it.
and thank god for that^
I would rather say that the 1962-1966 compilation replaced it.
Yeah, you're probably right. But what's better than making money. Answer - Making even more Money. We did get the three U.s versions of the Beatles as well as the Japanese set.
@@MIB_63 Everything replaced it, thankfully.
Interesting, I always assumed that this was an album put together after the Beatles broke up. I picked this one up in the mid 70s when I must have been around 9 or 10 years old. I think it was either at The Warehouse or Licorice Pizza in Southern California hitting the record shops on a Saturday afternoon with my dad. I remember first noticing it in a Beatles import section and what struck me first was the song list and the variety of songs. It was a little more expensive than some of the other Beatles albums I was looking at and figured I might be able to pick it up in a week or two after saving up but as we were about to leave the store my dad had a handful of vinyl in his hands and then told me if you see anything you like, pick it up and I’ll buy it for you. I live in Tokyo now and run across this album quite often, I’ll have to take a look at the reversed photo in the back. I always knew that the photo was reversed even when I first purchased the album as a kid but just wrote it off as whoever designed the back of the album had made a mistake. Great video Domo arigato!
I'd be up for a RSD special release. Especially since now we will be have the "benefit" of the Mono box set remasters, which everyone seems to love, when putting the album back together again.
My very first Beatles album, given to me by my cousin, in 1974, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He started me and my brother on the Beatles when we were 6 years old! I still listen to this album to this day! Gracias Fernando!
Thanks for watching, Fernando!
My first copy of A Collection of Beatles Oldies was on Capitol Records which I picked up in the early 1980’s in Tijuana Mexico. I would occasionally drive down from Los Angeles to pick up unique Mexican pressings of EPs, 45s, and LPs. I always thought it a little strange how Capitol would release things in Mexico but not the U.S. I still have my Mexican records. I later found the UK “Fame” pressing and picked it up. I would definitely buy a RSD copy if it became available.
First Beatles record I bought way back in 1980. Second was Rock and Roll Music. After that started buying the official albums in chronological order. Still listen to the Beatles most days
So good these vids. I was always dissatisfied with the cover art work as a youngster I just didn't get it. Love it now. Very 1920s. Thanks Andrew.
I bought a copy of this album back in about 1977 or 78. It was in the foreign release section that I would browse from time to time, in order to find odd ball albums.
I’m soo glad you brought up this album! Because I was originally gonna request this album review but someone else brought it up first lol. But thank you for this great review! I also recently found a near mint uk 1967 pressing of help and collection of Beatles oldies in stereo for $76 at a record shop which I couldn’t believe
Bought my copy in 1970. Listening to the true stereo, (especially“I Feel Fine”) recordings was a treat for me back then. Thank you for making the video. An education in musical history.
Thanks for watching, Glenn.
@@Parlogram You are most welcome
Another great video, Andrew. As an American first generation fan, I Feel Fine and a few of the other first time stereo mixes included here were an absolute revelation sound wise. Certainly turned my attention to the British catalog after so many years of Dexter echo and reverb. Thanks once again.
Thanks again for watching, Bob.
This was my introduction to the Beatles back in the early 80s, being the only Beatles album in my parent's record collection. The track order (including the pre-echo distinctly heard on some tracks, likely due to the thin track walls 8 tracks per side gave it) remained burned into my brain for years afterwards. It was the best LP I had ever heard back then, and probably still is a top contender today.
Great video. That album cover is so evocative, it's out of time but of the time as well -- it really jumped out when you flicked through a record collection. And the fact that they were calling relatively new songs "oldies" just goes to show how quickly the Beatles had evolved in such a short period. By the way, have you done a video on the 'Hey Jude' album? That one's a really random listening experience.
That used to be a thing - when the "Oldies But Goodies" radio format was invented in LA in the 1950s, most of the songs were only six months old!
Me and my longtime friends are now actually BECOMING A "Collection of Beatles oldies ! "
I bought it in 1977. I live in Canada where the US albums were available, but I made a point of buying the UK imports of all their albums. They were more expensive and I was a teenager . All my allowance and even my lunch money went to the purchase of those imported album. That's right, I'd staved myself because I couldn't wait to get all the Beatles music. I wish i could relive the moments when I was listening to a Beatles' song for the first time!
Let me just say that your delivery is a balm to the Rubber Soul of my Beatles zeitgeist.
I bought this album from a supermarket in the mid 1970s because although I had all the singles the early ones weren't in very good condition and this seemed like an easy way to get 'new' copies. Another reason was having upgraded to semi decent stereo system I no longer had the trusty auto-change record player so this saved me having to play the singles one at a time! :-)
Fascinating back ground on my beloved Beatles and their "lost" album. Thanks for posting... :)
Thanks for watching, Mark.
Can't believe I used to have this album and dumped it moving house, along with original 1967 Sgt Pepper's (mono and stereo with all the inserts), Magical Mystery Tour EP and the White album (1968).
As a young 14 year old sometime in the mid 1970s, I remember seeing this LP in the Beatles section at my local record store in Pennsylvania, USA, but always passed on it. Frankly, at the time, the artwork didn't grab me, and honestly looked like a bootleg ( I think it was an import on Odeon ). I had both the Red and Blue Albums, I didn't think I needed the songs on it, twice. Echo, no echo, back then I wouldn't had mattered to me that much.
Not possibly The Gallery of Sound, which is where I would see and.pass on it regularly and now regretfully.
It looked like a cheap kocko off to me. I'm honestly shocked that this reviewer gives it so much credence. And the titles is awful too.
Love learning all about the subtleties in the covers of all of these albums and records, getting a record player for christmas finally and being able to listen to everything in vinyl is an eye opening experience into the world of record owning especially learning that my Dad's copy is a PMC 7016 and that the Stereo section is in the stars great in depth videos about the history of these bad boys for new and old comers alike
An RSD release with it cut AAA like the mono box would be fantastic - mainly to finally be a good sounding mono copy! It’s the main reason I’ve never picked up an original. Such as shame as the 14 track Hollies’ Greatest from 1968 sounds fantastic in it’s mono cut, and this would make a lovely companion.
Hate to admit it, but I had never even heard of this album and I'm 62. Never comes up on list of Beatles records. Thank you for highlighting it. I would love to hear how some of the different pressings sound.
one of the best Beatles videos despite no music. Still intriguing,
I bought this album, imported from the UK, when I lived in California in the early 80's. It was on the black and silver Parlophone label. I had just started collecting The Beatles UK albums in reverse chronological order. I may have played it once just to make sure it wasn't defective. The reason I didn't play it again was that I preferred listening to the Red, Blue and Rock n Roll music compilations, which were constantly on the turntable.
Fascinating stuff. As a kid I couldn't afford the Red and Blue albums and pre-1982 and the 20 Greatest Hits album this was my go to Best Of. Great memories. Thank You!
Wonderful! A record day release! I would get it !!!
You and me both, Andy!
I decided to send an addendum to my previous comment. First of all, the Caldors store where I bought the Beatles UK collection was in Bedford, NY. I felt this album was special, because it was the first one to have the major early singles in one location, which is better than just having the singles. If nothing else, this baby is a huge collectible. I’m glad to have THREE versions. The fact that this was the first Beatles material legally available to Eastern Bloc Kids gives it incredible importance both historically and culturally. It’s with owning for that reason alone.
Great presentation. I bought a used copy of this album in the " import" section at Tower Records in the late 1980s. It had some true stereo singles as I was learning about the Beatles catalog. For that it is valid and it does have a great cover!
Thanks for watching, Dennis!
As far as I know, Oldies is the only AAA album that contains the 1966 remix of "Day Tripper". All the other AAA LPs I can think of use the original 1965 mix. All the vinyl versions of Past Masters are digitally mastered, obviously.
I would like to see a box set of all of the compilation albums (Oldies, Rock and Roll Music, Love Songs, Rarities (both UK and US versions), Ballads, Reel Music, 20 Greatest Hits (again, both UK and US versions - or is that just the 1 album?)). Okay, so there would be a lot of duplication, but like it or not, they kept the Beatles' flame burning in the 70s and 80s.
I bought a box set of Dr.Ebbit cds and all the lps you listed were in that set. All compilation lps from the US and UK plus other countries.
Ballads is super underrated
@@wesleysexton9865 it is. And it has that beautiful John Byrne cover painting too.
Right?? The whole presentation is stellar and it has 10 songs on each side
It would be great to have this on CD with the mixes originally used.
Terrific video Andrew! As an American fan, I didn’t know this album until reading about it in the discography book All Together Now. I did come across a Japanese copy in a record store in the 1980s and was intrigued by the cover. I did ultimately end up with a German copy as well as a stereo and mono copy. Thanks for sharing the history of this release!
Thanks, Bill. The Japanese pressing sounds OK.
@@Parlogram I bought the album in the early 1970s and played it a lot. Always enjoyed it as all the singles where on the one record. I liked the new song, Bad Boy. Don't know where the record went, but it's long gone. It probably won't be issued again as the Red and Blue double albums, are available, which contain their hit singles. I suppose it will always be a collectors item.
You are SO right in saying the 'RED' and 'BLUE' collections took any wind out of the sail for this one ('Beatles Again/Hey Jude' did as well). In the early-1970's I helped out at a local record store. We sold a LOT of imported vinyl, and always viewed this LP with a kind of disdain. It FELT too much like 'Yesterday and Today'. That view never left me, as I owned/own multiple copies of every release EXCEPT this (and the USA pressings). BUT your idea of it being a Record Store Day release is super smart : ) Come to think of it, 'Get Back' (2021) should have been an RSD goody.
This was the first album I ever owned, given to me by my aunty Maureen in the late sixties. I still have it, unplayed for a long time but am now going to dig it out and have another listen. Should be interesting after having binged on the Let It Be boxset for the last couple of weeks
Great information! I grew up to The Beatles and didn’t know much about this release. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for watching, Michael.
I bought my stereo copy in February 1980 and it is a -3 -4 pressing. It sounds pretty good to me and significantly better than my red vinyl copy of 1962-1966.
Agreed. It was cut by Harry Moss (note the "HTM" in the deadwax) and sounds much better than the 1G. It's on the Parlophone "two box" label, preceding the Fame pressing.
@@davidsacco8521 That's the one. Most of my first Beatles albums were late 1979 or early 1980 because that's when I started working. I think they are some of the best UK Stereo cuts.
I believe I have one of the incarnations of this album. I'll have to dig deep into my vinyl collection to retrieve it. Thank you for opening my eyes and ears to the special significance of this album.
Thanks for watching, Dan.
HOWARD WEBER > When I lived in Ottawa, Canada during the 60`s, the first stereo Beatles album I bought was the German -THE BEATLES GREATEST - in Dec. 1966. I was 15 at the time. It was also my first Beatles imported album. Not too long after that, I bought the British - A COLLECTION OF BEATLES OLDIES - in mono. Just for the record, the mono A COLLECTION OF BEATLES OLDIES was the only album at the time that had the mono mix of Paperback Writer. It would be years until the mono mix was available on an album again.
Andrew, it doesn't matter whether or not I'd buy this album, but rather its place in the band's history, which you so carefully laid out. The bandmembers' own opinions of it don't necessarily matter either. Paul and Ringo, having lived to see the effects of their work over half a century later, now have greater perspective than George or John, but none of them were as died-in-the-wool fans of other artists to see how that fandom applies to them. Bottom line: Thank you for your work!
Thanks for watching, Jim!
By the way! Music is the perfume of the soul! And Scent is the melody left behind by those who wrote it ! Yours truly!
This is one of those albums I never got around to buying. I started collecting in the early 80's, and once I had the Red and Blue compilations and Rarities, "Oldies" just didn't feel essential.
Watching in 2024 - I was at a record show this morning and saw a two-box EMI pressing for 20 and remembered you'd done a video of this album. I was floored when you said you hated the sound of it, since highs and lows were compromised to make room for 8 songs each side instead of the typical 7. BUT, oh, well...I have it now and I'm about to store it between Revolver and Sgt Pepper. It very well is apart of the Beatles canon - I'll play it later - I need a nap now.😅😅😅
I remember encountering this in a used record store in Florida back in the early 90s (don't remember what label). I turned it down because I already had all the tracks on it (and I thought the cover was hideous, which didn't help). Now that I'm older I wish I'd bought it.
Still the cover is definitely uninspiring and hideous. You could tell the Beatles had ZERO interest in it.
Thanks for this video, along with all your other ones! One big difference I noticed about the UK and the US markets is that in the US nobody seemed to mind a recent single release being also released on an LP. So with this in mind, this album wouldn't have sold in the US because only 2 of the tracks had not seen LP release at the time. By contrast, I count half of the tracks on this album having no previous LP release in the UK: would that have been attractive to anyone back then? I find it amazing that in the marketing-mad US that no end-of-year LP release was made that year. Given Capitol's magic 11-track preference, I think there were exactly that many non-Capitol LP tracks they could have released: 1) Love Me Do (single version); 2) Misery, 3) There's A Place, 4) From Me To You, 5) Sie Liebt Dich, 6) Can't Buy Me Love, 7) A Hard Day's Night, 8) I Should Have Known Better, 9) I'm Down, 10) Paperback Writer, and 11) Rain. A weird collection to be sure, but they could have used the title Odds and Sods and beaten out the Who by 8 years!
15:50 While not a ‘greatest hits’ package per se, Capitol’s ‘Yesterday … and Today’, from June 1966, contained three of the band’s recent US hit singles, and their flip-sides.
AKA the Butcher Cover (if you have the original picture cover)
I live in the UK. Me and my brother were mad keen on the Beatles when we were growing up in the 70s. Mum and dad would drag us to the shops every Saturday and we'd make a break for the nearest record store and try and locate as many Beatles LPs as we could. We never came across this LP. In the late 70s our uncle who had emigrated to Australia returned with his record collection. This included an Australian double album compilation of Beatles hits. Inside where printed two rows of LP covers. The top row was Please, Please Me through to Revolver and the bottom row Oldies through to Let it Be: so it was between Revolver and Sgt Pepper. The bottom row included Hey Jude but not Magical Mystery Tour. Because we had never seen Oldies in the UK shops, we assumed it was only released in Australia. Having said that, I don't think we found the Hey Jude album in the UK shops either. It was years later we learned Hey Jude LP was a USA album. We did eventually obtain a copy of Hey Jude LP on the Parlophone label. Your video is very timely because a month or so ago I remembered Oldies but Goldies and wondered whether it had ever been released in the UK. It's funny, the album had laid dormant in my memory for 45 years, I remembered it and started asking myself some questions and literally a week later you release this video. What a coincidence. I found your video fascinating. Thank you.
Thanks for watching and sharing your memories, Kevin.
I had bought a German pressing of this LP, about a year ago, but it arrived broke, unfortunately. Would like to find another one as I really like the sound of their pressings.
Hm.. I have a mid 70s blue Oden German pressing and it's a bit odd: "We can work out" and "I feel fine" are in fake stereo. But you have the 65 stereo mix of Day Tripper (with guitar starting only at left channel)
What . it arrived penniless ??.. i think you mean BROKEN , not broke.. I picked this album up second hand in about 1969 ... it only cost me $3.00 Aust.
The german release trimmed the Ticked to Ride intro.
I picked up the Japanese red vinyl version just to be a completest, but now listen with a new understanding. Thanks so much!
I wish I could remember what my very first Beatles albums was added to my record collection, but I still own the Love Songs compilation double album. I will never forget the first Beatles 45 I bought. It was Yellow Submarine with Eleanor Rigby on the B-side. I'm fuzzy on the period of time when I bought this. I'm guessing that it was before I had seen the animated film because the images conjured by Eleanor Rigby were somewhat nightmarish . Being unfamiliar with slang or expressions not found in America I interpreted the lyrics literally and envisioned a faceless woman retrieving a "face she kept in a jar by the door." It scared the hell out of my as a kid. ...but I loved it and played it over and over again. It's still among my favourite Beatles songs. It is in that category of Beatles songs that deviates from their more crowd pleasing tracks. I would add Hey Bulldog to this list. I cannot imagine the reaction these songs got from the teeny boppers who screamed their throats raw during the Shea stadium concert. It must have a real WTF moment in their lives. Sadly I was too young to experience any of Beatlemania. I envy those who got to see it firsthand. It is a phenomenon that will never be replicated.
There's a video of American teens on "American Bandstand" reacting to the video of Strawberry Field. Some don't like the new image and "weird" music, some love it and are willing to follow their heroes anywhere.
Tx for yet again a great lecture. Love it. Yes, it should be released. It's a similar thing with the Yesterday And Today album. Never understood why it wasn't included on the Capitol boxes of 2004/2005. Same goes for the US Revolver release.
It was just a Greatest Hits collection, for goodness' sake. While I immensely love the cover artwork, you can find every single song on a real studio album or single from their catalogue.
In the '60's, in the UK, it was the only place to find Bad Boy!
Yes, until the Past Masters CDs in 1988.
In the US, "Bad Boy" was on "Yesterday and Today." Good to hear Capitol in the US did something right.
yes i have every 45
Right? This title is some definite clickbait and I’m sure the uploader wanted people to think there was some actual unreleased Beatles material on here.
I was born on 16th September 1962 - I'm a reincarnation of a used tea bag from George's mug as he sat down with his egg and chips (one if his favourite meals) that sunny Sunday. I adored and adore the Fabs, soaking up all their albums through the bedroom wall of my elder brother in the 1960s... but it was THIS album that was my first Beatles purchase, on cassette(!) in the early 1970s, I guess. Ah... such memories, thanks Andrew.
Great times.
Great video. That section about the stereo mixes was especially interesting
Glad you enjoyed!
I'm 34 and I love old school music especially stuff like the Beatles and prog rock from the 60's-80's and this video was on my recommendations
this is a super great and well made video! i love the editing and whatnot!
Thank you so much, Jack!
As a gen x’er the red and blue balcony photo best of albums were my great introduction to the beatles. I had never heard this one! Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching, Thad.
Personally, I'd more interested in "Oldies" if Parlophone had just gathered up all of the singles tracks that hadn't yet appears on LP instead of repeating several songs that were already on the albums. Instead of including Help, Michelle, Yesterday, Yellow Submarine, Can't Buy Me Love, A Hard Day's Night, Ticket to Ride, and Eleanor Rigby, I would have replaced those eight tracks with these seven B-Sides: Thank You Girl, I'll Get You, This Boy, She's a Woman, Yes It Is, I'm Down, and Rain... plus throw in Long Tall Sally from the EP for an eighth addition. Had they done that, there would have been a better argument to keep it in print and include it with a "BC-14" set in the late 70s and early 80s.
I'm with you I agree . Tnx for a well said comment
I'm a longtime Beatles fan and was never aware of this album. Thank you!
This was the first album I ever bought. 1972. I was eleven years old. I still have it.