The Beatles 1967-1970

1967–1970 (widely known as The Blue Album) is a compilation of many of The Beatles' most popular tracks from 1967 to 1970. It was released with 1962–1966 (The Red Album), which covered their earlier period. 1967–1970 made #1 on the U.S. Billboard chart and #2 on the U.K. Album Chart. The cover art shows the band once again looking down the stairwell of EMI's Manchester Square headquarters in London; the same pose, camera angle, setting and photographer (Angus McBean) as used for the cover on the Please Please Me and 1962–1966 albums, which used different photos from the same photo session. The image was originally shot for the Get Back album, which later became Let It Be, but in the end the photograph was not used for that project. The Beatles themselves participated in selecting the songs for inclusion, as well as the colours and pictures. Songs performed by the Beatles as solo artists were also considered for inclusion, but like the cover songs on 1962–1966, limited space resulted in this idea having to be abandoned. As with 1962–1966, this compilation was produced by Apple/EMI at least partially in response to a bootleg collection titled Alpha Omega, which had been sold on television the previous year.

Release variations

Original 1973 release: Apple SKBO-3404 (Whole and sliced apples in blue background) Second pressing: Capitol SKBO-3404 (Capitol target label on back of album cover, blue label with "Capitol" in light blue letters at bottom) First blue vinyl release: Capitol SEBX-11843 (Capitol dome label on back of album cover, large dome logo at top of light blue labels)

Notes

The first side comprises popular selections from the Sgt. Pepper recording sessions along with "All You Need Is Love" which was released within the same summer as Sgt. Pepper. While the first 3 tracks of Sgt. Pepper are in order, for CD release a unique 'clean' edition of "A Day in the Life" is included, without the cross-fade from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)". On vinyl editions the track starts with a fade-in before the cross-fade. The 1966 stereo version of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is used on the first side of this vinyl. On CD, it was replaced by a different stereo version made in 1971. The single versions of "Get Back" and "Let It Be" make their album debut with this compilation (The latter erroneously shows the LP running time of 4:01) The US version has "Hello Goodbye" in mono and "I Am The Walrus" with the four-beat intro. This was changed for the CD release.