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The Beatles / 1967–1970

1967–1970 (widely known as "The Blue Album") is a compilation album of songs by the English rock band the Beatles, spanning the years indicated in the title. It was released with 1962–1966 ("The Red Album"), in 1973. 1967–1970 made No. 1 on the American Billboard chart and No. 2 on the British Album Chart. This album was re-released in September 1993 on CD, charting at No. 4 in the United Kingdom.

The album was compiled by Beatles manager Allen Klein.[5] The album liner notes state that all songs were produced by George Martin, except "Across the Universe" and "The Long and Winding Road" produced by Phil Spector, meaning that George Martin was credited as producer of the song "Don't Let Me Down" which usually has no official producer's credit.[6]

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. Print advertising for the two records made a point of declaring them "the only authorized collection of the Beatles

Album covers

For the group's 1963 debut LP Please Please Me, photographer Angus McBean took the distinctive colour photograph of the group looking down over the stairwell inside EMI House (EMI's London headquarters in Manchester Square, demolished in 1995).

In 1969, the Beatles asked McBean to recreate this shot. Although a photograph from the 1969 photo shoot was originally intended for the then-planned Get Back album, it was not used when that project saw eventual release in 1970 as Let It Be. Instead, another photograph from the 1969 shoot, along with an unused photograph from the 1963 photo shoot, was used for both this LP and 1962–1966.

The inner gatefold photo for both LPs is by Don McCullin from the "Mad Day Out" photo session in London on Sunday 28 July 1968.

The album cover was designed by Tom Wilkes.

International versions

Unlike the 1962–1966 collection, the Blue Album was largely the same in the US and UK, although there were some variations.

The US edition had "Strawberry Fields Forever" in its original 1967 stereo mix while both "Penny Lane" and "Hello, Goodbye" were presented in fake stereo, and "I Am the Walrus" with a four-beat electric piano introduction; the UK version had the more common six-beat beginning.

The albums had several other variants and anomalies. "Get Back" was described as the album version in the US liner notes, although it was in fact the single version. In both countries, "Hey Jude" was around nine seconds shorter than it had been on the original single, although the full length was restored for the 1993 compact disc edition.

The original vinyl version faded in during the crowd noise at the beginning of "A Day in the Life". The fade in was different on both the UK and US versions. The original compact disc edition, meanwhile, featured a clean version previously heard on the Imagine: John Lennon soundtrack album in 1988.

Release variations

• Original 1973 UK release: Apple PCSP 7181-2
• Original 1973 release: Apple SKBO-3404 (Whole and sliced apples in blue background)
• Second 1976 pressing: Capitol SKBO-3404 (Capitol target label on back of album cover, blue label with "Capitol" in light blue letters at bottom)
• 1978 first blue vinyl release: Capitol SEBX-11843 (Capitol dome label on back of album cover, large dome logo at top of light blue labels)
• 1980 East German release. Amiga 8 55 742. One disc only with 14 tracks mostly from disc one of the original version.
• 1993 CD release. Apple 0777 7 97039 2 0 (Whole and sliced apples in blue background)
• 2010 remastered CD release. Apple 5099990674723 (Whole and sliced apples in blue background)

Track listing

• The single versions of "Get Back" and "Let It Be" make their album debut in this compilation.
• All tracks written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney except where noted.