Hey Jude (Dr. Ebbett DBM-026)
Can’t Buy Me Love, I Should Have Known Better, Paperback Writer, Rain, Lady Madonna, Revolution, Hey Jude, Old Brown Shoe, Don’t Let Me Down, Ballad Of John And Yoko
Hey Jude was released in the US on February 26th, 1970. Originally to be titled Beatles Again, it was supposed to be a stop gag release between Abbey Road and Let It Be. But it proved so popular that it had almost two million in advance orders and peaked at number two in the charts. The brisk sales of import copies convinced EMI to issue it on May 11th, 1979. This LP collects together several singles that never made it onto any LP released in the States. Even though they cover a five year range from 1964 to 1969, it works very well as a cohesive whole. This transfer is flawless and is one of the best things issued on the silver Dr. Ebbett label and is highly recommended.
The Wiki article states: “The Hey Jude album was not compiled by Capitol, although many American fans wrongly assumed that this was the case. In actuality, the project was conceived by Allen Klein and the folks at Apple. Klein had negotiated a more lucrative contract for the group in 1969 and was anxious to sweeten the pot with an additional album. He directed Allan Stickler of Abkco/Apple to work on an album. Steckler chose songs that had not appeared on a Capitol album in the USA and which spanned the group’s career. He also focused more on more recent singles than on earlier material.
“The absence of the songs from a US Capitol album was partially a consequence of the Beatles’ unwillingness to include single releases on their contemporaneous albums, partially a consequence with their arrangement with United Artists in 1964, and partially due to the habit (of EMI affiliates worldwide) of recompiling the Beatles’ British releases for local markets. Steckler chose not to include ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, which had been released as a single by Capitol and was available on the United Artists soundtrack album, ‘I’m Down’, which was the B-Side of ‘Help!’, and ‘The Inner Light’, which was the B-Side of ‘Lady Madonna’. He also overlooked ‘From Me to You’, ‘Misery’ and ‘There’s a Place’, three early Beatles songs, the first of which was released as a single by Vee Jay Records and latter two of which had been included on the long out-of-print Vee Jay album, Introducing… The Beatles and on Capitol Star Line singles. ‘Sie Liebt Dich’, a German-language version of ‘She Loves You’ was also ignored.
‘The compilation was originally released in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, France, Greece, Japan, and most of South America. It was also available to other countries as an ‘export’ from England (Parlophone/Apple CPCS-106) but was not at first issued in England, although it was a popular import to the U.K. Because of its popularity worldwide, Parlophone finally released Hey Jude in Britain in 1979. (If a fan who owned all twelve studio British Beatles albums augmented his or her collection with Hey Jude, Magical Mystery Tour, A Collection of Beatles Oldies, and the British version of Rarities, his or her collection would include every official Beatles song, although a number of officially-released alternate mixes would still be missing.) Until the release of 1967-1970 in 1973, Hey Jude was the only way to own the extremely popular ‘Hey Jude’ single on LP or in a stereo mix.
“The songs ‘Lady Madonna’, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’, ‘Paperback Writer’, ‘Rain’, and ‘Revolution’ also appeared for the first time in stereo on this album. Prior to the release of the ‘Get Back’ single (45 RPM record) in Spring, 1969, all Beatles singles were issued in monophonic in the USA. If nothing else, this compilation showcased stereo versions of previously single-only mono Beatles songs. Several other countries wound up with the original ‘Beatles Again’ title, with Spain’s perhaps being the most interesting — due to the fact that ‘the Ballad of John and Yoko’ was clipped from the album, having been deemed offensive (either due to its reference to Christ, or to the the fact of Lennon’s referral of ‘Gibralter near Spain’, at a time when Spain’s Franco administration with contending with the UK over the ownership of Gibraltor. This is discussed further in the article for Ballad of John and Yoko).
“Steckler and Apple had become disappointed with the Capitol Records release schedules and determined to promote the new album themselves. Steckler also took the tapes to Sam Feldman at Bell Sound Studios (in New York), rather than delivering them to Capitol. He would do this for several releases thereafter.”
N.B. Although called Dr. Ebbett, these releases are silver pressed and only appropriate the name of the well known audiophile needle-drop CDR label. In fact they have nothing to do with the real Dr. Ebbett. However, it is good to have these releases on silver pressed commercially produced titles to make this elitist label available to all.
