The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26 May 1967 in the United Kingdom and 2 June 1967 in the United States, it spent 27 weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart and 15 weeks at number one in the US. It was lauded by critics for its innovations in production, songwriting and graphic design, for bridging a cultural divide between popular music and high art, and for providing a musical representation of its generation and the contemporary counterculture. It won four Grammy Awards in 1968, including Album of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honour.

In August 1966, the Beatles permanently retired from touring and began a three-month holiday. During a return flight to London in November, Paul McCartney had an idea for a song involving an Edwardian military band that formed the impetus of the Sgt. Pepper concept. Sessions began on 24 November at EMI's Abbey Road Studios with two compositions inspired by the Beatles' youth, "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", but after pressure from EMI, the songs were released as a double A-side single and not included on the album.

In February 1967, after recording the title track "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", McCartney suggested that the Beatles should release an entire album representing a performance by the fictional Sgt. Pepper band. This alter ego group would give them the freedom to experiment musically. During the recording sessions, the band furthered the technological progression they had made with their 1966 album Revolver. Knowing they would not have to perform the tracks live, they adopted an experimental approach to composition and recording on songs such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" and "A Day in the Life". Producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick helped realise the group's ideas by approaching the studio as an instrument, applying orchestral overdubs, sound effects and other methods of tape manipulation. Recording was completed on 21 April 1967. The cover, depicting the Beatles posing in front of a tableau of celebrities and historical figures, was designed by the British pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth.

Sgt. Pepper is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the use of extended form in popular music while continuing the artistic maturation seen on the Beatles' preceding releases. An important work of British psychedelia, the album incorporates a range of stylistic influences, including vaudeville, circus, music hall, avant-garde, and Western and Indian classical music. It is described as one of the first art rock LPs, aiding the development of progressive rock, and is credited with marking the beginning of the album era. In 2003, the Library of Congress placed Sgt. Pepper in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2003, and in a revised list published in 2012, Rolling Stone ranked the album number one in its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". As of 2011, it has sold more than 32 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time, and it remains the UK's best-selling studio album. Professor Kevin Dettmar, writing in The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, described it as "the most important and influential rock-and-roll album ever recorded". 

By 1966, the Beatles had grown weary of live performance. In John Lennon's opinion, they could "send out four waxworks ... and that would satisfy the crowds. Beatles concerts are nothing to do with music anymore. They're just bloody tribal rites." In June that year, two days after finishing the album Revolver, the group set off for a tour that started in West Germany. While in Hamburg they received an anonymous telegram stating: "Do not go to Tokyo. Your life is in danger." The threat was taken seriously in light of the controversy surrounding the tour among Japan's religious and conservative groups, with particular opposition to the Beatles' planned performances at the sacred Nippon Budokan arena. As an added precaution, 35,000 police were mobilised and tasked with protecting the group, who were transported from hotels to concert venues in armoured vehicles. The Beatles then performed in the Philippines, where they were threatened and manhandled by its citizens for not visiting First Lady Imelda Marcos. The group were angry with their manager, Brian Epstein, for insisting on what they regarded as an exhausting and demoralising itinerary.

The publication in the US of Lennon's remarks about the Beatles being "more popular than Jesus" then embroiled the band in controversy and protest in America's Bible Belt. A public apology eased tensions, but a US tour in August that was marked by reduced ticket sales, relative to the group's record attendances in 1965, and subpar performances proved to be their last. The author Nicholas Schaffner writes:

To the Beatles, playing such concerts had become a charade so remote from the new directions they were pursuing that not a single tune was attempted from the just-released Revolver LP, whose arrangements were for the most part impossible to reproduce with the limitations imposed by their two-guitars-bass-and-drums stage lineup.

On the Beatles' return to England, rumours began to circulate that they had decided to break up. George Harrison informed Epstein that he was leaving the band, but was persuaded to stay on the assurance that there would be no more tours. The group took a three-month break, during which they focused on individual interests. Harrison travelled to India for six weeks to study the sitar under the instruction of Ravi Shankar and develop his interest in Hindu philosophy. Having been the last of the Beatles to concede that their live performances had become futile, Paul McCartney collaborated with Beatles producer George Martin on the soundtrack for the film The Family Way and holidayed in Kenya with Mal Evans, one of the Beatles' tour managers. Lennon acted in the film How I Won the War and attended art showings, such as one at the Indica Gallery where he met his future wife Yoko Ono. Ringo Starr used the break to spend time with his wife Maureen and son Zak.

While in London without his bandmates, McCartney took the hallucinogenic drug LSD (or "acid") for the first time, having long resisted Lennon and Harrison's insistence that he join them and Starr in experiencing its perception-heightening effects. According to author Jonathan Gould, this initiation into LSD afforded McCartney the "expansive new sense of possibility" that defined the group's next project, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Gould adds that McCartney's succumbing to peer pressure allowed Lennon "to play the role of psychedelic guide" to his songwriting partner, thereby facilitating a closer collaboration between the two than had been evident since early in the Beatles' career. For his part, Lennon had turned deeply introspective during the filming of How I Won the War in southern Spain in September 1966. His anxiety over his and the Beatles' future was reflected in "Strawberry Fields Forever", a song that would provide the initial theme, regarding a Liverpool childhood, of the new album. On his return to London, Lennon embraced the city's arts culture, of which McCartney was a part, and shared his bandmate's interest in avant-garde and electronic-music composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and Luciano Berio.

In November, during his and Evans' return flight from Kenya, McCartney had an idea for a song that eventually formed the impetus of the Sgt. Pepper concept. His idea involved an Edwardian-era military band, for which Evans invented a name in the style of contemporary San Francisco-based groups such as Big Brother and the Holding Company and Quicksilver Messenger Service. In February 1967, McCartney suggested that the Beatles should record an entire album that would represent a performance by the fictional band. This alter ego group would give them the freedom to experiment musically by releasing them from their image as Beatles. Martin remembered:

Paul said, "Why don't we make the album as though the Pepper band really existed, as though Sergeant Pepper was making the record? We'll dub in effects and things." I loved the idea, and from that moment on it was as though Pepper had a life of its own.

Ian MacDonald writes that when reviewing their rivals' recent work in late 1966, the Beatles identified the most significant LP as the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, which Brian Wilson, the band's leader, had created in response to the Beatles' Rubber Soul album. McCartney said he was highly impressed with the songs' "harmonic structures" and the choice of instruments used in Wilson's musical arrangements, and that these elements encouraged him to think the Beatles could "get further out" than the Beach Boys had. He added: "we were inspired by it and nicked a few ideas." According to author Kenneth Womack, the Beach Boys' subsequent release, the "Good Vibrations" single, was viewed by the Beatles and Martin as "a direct challenge" to their supremacy. McCartney identified Pet Sounds as his main musical inspiration for Sgt. Pepper, although he said it lacked the avant-garde quality he was seeking. He envisioned the Beatles' alter egos being able to "do a bit of B.B. King, a bit of Stockhausen, a bit of Albert Ayler, a bit of Ravi Shankar, a bit of Pet Sounds, a bit of the Doors". In a 1967 interview, Harrison said that the Beatles' ongoing success had encouraged them to continue developing musically and that, given their standing, "We can do things that please us without conforming to the standard pop idea. We are not only involved in pop music, but all music."

Freak Out! by the Mothers of Invention has also been cited as having influenced Sgt. Pepper. According to the author Philip Norman, during the Sgt. Pepper recording sessions McCartney repeatedly stated: "This is our Freak Out!" The music journalist Chet Flippo states that McCartney was inspired to record a concept album after hearing Freak Out!

Sgt. Pepper appeared on the Billboard albums chart in the US for 175 non-consecutive weeks through 1987. The album sustained its immense popularity into the 21st century while breaking numerous sales records. With certified sales of 5.1 million copies, it is the third-best-selling album in UK chart history and the best-selling studio album there. It is one of the most commercially successful albums in the US, where the RIAA certified sales of 11 million copies in 1997. By 2000, Sgt. Pepper was among the top 20 best-selling albums of all time worldwide. As of 2011, it had sold more than 32 million copies worldwide, making it one of the highest-selling albums of all time.

Sgt. Pepper has topped many "best album" lists. It was voted in first place in Paul Gambaccini's 1978 book Critics' Choice: Top 200 Albums, based on submissions from around 50 British and American critics and broadcasters including Christgau, Marcus, Dave Marsh and Ed Ward, and again in the 1987 edition. In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), it appears in "A Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings. In 1994, it was ranked first in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. He described it as "the album that revolutionized, changed and re-invented the boundaries of modern popular music". Among its appearances in other critics' polls, the album topped the BBC's "Music of the Millennium" albums list in 1998 and was ranked third in Q's 2004 list "The Music That Changed the World". In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, honouring the work as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

In 2003, Rolling Stone placed Sgt. Pepper at number one in the magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", ranking the same upon a revised list in 2012, describing it as "the pinnacle of the Beatles' eight years as recording artists". The editors also said it was "the most important rock and roll album ever made", a point to which June Skinner Sawyers adds, in her 2006 collection of essays Read the Beatles: "[Sgt. Pepper] has been called the most famous album in the history of popular music. It is certainly among the most written about. It is still being written about." In 2006 it was chosen by Time as one of the 100 best albums of all time. Writing that same year, Dettmar described Sgt. Pepper as "quite simply, the most important and influential rock-and-roll album ever recorded". It is featured in Chris Smith's 2009 book 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music, where Smith highlights the album among the most "obvious" choices for inclusion due to its continued commercial success, the wealth of imitative works it inspired, and its ongoing recognition as "a defining moment in the history of music".

The album inspired the 1974 off-Broadway musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road, directed by Tom O'Horgan, and the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, produced by Robert Stigwood. In 1977, the LP won Best British Album at the inaugural Brit Awards. It has been the subject of many tribute albums, including a multi-artist CD available with the March 2007 issue of Mojo and a 2009 live album, Sgt. Pepper Live, by the American band Cheap Trick. Other tribute recordings include Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father, a multi-artist charity compilation released by the NME in 1988, and Big Daddy's 1992 Sgt. Pepper's album, a release that Moore recognised as "the most audacious" of all the interpretations of the Beatles' LP up to 1997. Mark Morris choreographed Pepperland to the Beatles' "Penny Lane" and four of the songs from Sgt. Pepper, arranged by Ethan Iverson, plus six original compositions by Iverson. This work received its world premiere in Liverpool on 25 May 2017, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the album's release.

Track listing

Original release

All songs written by Lennon–McCartney, except "Within You Without You" by George Harrison. Track lengths and lead vocals per Mark Lewisohn and Ian MacDonald.

Side one

1. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" McCartney 2:00
2. "With a Little Help from My Friends" Starr 2:42
3. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" Lennon 3:28
4. "Getting Better" McCartney with Lennon 2:48
5. "Fixing a Hole" McCartney 2:36
6. "She's Leaving Home" McCartney with Lennon 3:35
7. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" Lennon 2:37

Total length: 19:44

Side two

1. "Within You Without You" Harrison 5:05
2. "When I'm Sixty-Four" McCartney 2:37
3. "Lovely Rita" McCartney 2:42
4. "Good Morning Good Morning" Lennon 2:42
5. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" Lennon, McCartney and Harrison 1:18
6. "A Day in the Life" Lennon with McCartney 5:38

Total length: 20:02

The Beatles "1"

1 is a compilation album by the English rock band the Beatles, originally released on 13 November 2000. The album features virtually every number-one single the band achieved in the United Kingdom and United States from 1962 to 1970. Issued on the 30th anniversary of the band's break-up, it was their first compilation available on only one CD. 1 was a commercial success and topped the charts worldwide. It has sold over 31 million copies.

In addition, 1 is the fourth best-selling album in the US since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking US album sales in January 1991 and the best-selling album of the decade (2000 to 2009) in the US, as well as the best-selling album of the decade worldwide. 1 was remastered and reissued in September 2011, and was remixed and reissued again in several different deluxe editions in November 2015, the most comprehensive of which is a three-disc set entitled 1+, which includes video discs of the band's music videos.

As of June 2015, 1 is the sixth best-selling album of the 21st century in the UK, having sold over 3.1 million copies.

Compiled by producer George Martin and the (then) three surviving members of the band, 1 includes the 27 Beatles songs that went to number one in the United Kingdom on the Record Retailer Top 50 chart or in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It is worth noting, however, that the song "For You Blue" was listed on Billboard chart at number 1, along with the A-side "The Long and Winding Road", but Capitol Records treated "For You Blue" as strictly a B-side and did not promote it as an A-side. Meanwhile, "Day Tripper" was included on 1, since it charted at number 1 in the UK as a double A side with "We Can Work It Out", while in the US, only "We Can Work It Out" was number 1. Two notable singles released in both the UK and US that did not reach number 1 in either country, and were therefore ineligible for inclusion on the album, were "Please Please Me" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" (both reached number 2 in the UK charts, while in the US the former peaked at number 3, and the latter at number 8). The former was largely known as "The Beatles' first UK number one single"; however, it reached the top spot in the musical magazines New Musical Express and Melody Maker but not on the chart published by Record Retailer (now Music Week). On the other hand, "Strawberry Fields Forever" was part of a double A-side single along with "Penny Lane". This single had peaked at number 2 in the charts, behind Engelbert Humperdinck's single "Release Me".

This album is essentially a combination of both the US and UK versions of the earlier album 20 Greatest Hits, with the addition of "Something" (which was left off 20 Greatest Hits because of time constraints). On 1, "Hey Jude" was released in its original full-length version (slightly over seven minutes); on the American version of 20 Greatest Hits it had been released as a shortened version

The package of 1 was intended to be simplistic and ambitious at the same time. Its cover was designed by Rick Ward, and consists of a pop-art yellow number one on a red background. The emphasis on the 1 digit was used on many of the compilations of number-one hits by different artists that followed this album; for example, ELV1S by Elvis Presley or Number Ones by the Bee Gees. The album's back cover features the famous photos of the Beatles taken by Richard Avedon and copyrighted on 17 August 1967. The design exclusively uses variations of the Helvetica typeface.

1 was released worldwide in CD and cassette. The vinyl format was released only in the United Kingdom. The CD includes a 32-page booklet with a coloured page with international picture covers (a total of 163 covers are displayed on the whole booklet) and details (recording date, location, release date, chart stats) for each of the singles. It also includes on its first two pages a collage with 27 1s in different colours (all of them following the same art as the cover) with the sentence "27 No. 1 singles = 1" (which was used as a catch phrase for the promo ads for the album), and a foreword by George Martin.

The LP and cassette keep the main art of the CD version, but in a different form. The double vinyl record version was not released in the US, but the imported British edition was available. The vinyl version features a large full-colour fold-out poster showing 126 picture sleeves (37 fewer than on the CD), and reproductions of the four Richard Avedon photos. The Avedon portraits also appear on the inside of the gate-fold cover. The records have custom labels featuring the same graphics as the front cover and are packaged in custom inner sleeves. The deluxe packaging of the vinyl album, with its four portraits and poster, is reminiscent to that of their titular 1968 album. The cassette included a 20-page insert, including the collage, the George Martin commentary and paged Avedon's portraits on its inlay and the whole description for the tracks as a total of 36 covers on its inlay reverse.

Track listing

CD/First DVD/Blu-ray

"Love Me Do" – 2:21 (Lennon-McCartney)
Released in the UK on 5 October 1962, and in the U.S. on 27 April 1964. Reached No. 1 in the U.S. for one week on 30 May 1964. This is the version released in the U.S. with Ringo Starr on tambourine and session musician Andy White on drums. First included on Introducing... The Beatles (1964) and Please Please Me (1963), depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD track is from The Little Theatre, Southport, Merseyside, England, 27 August 1963 recorded for the BBC documentary The Mersey Sound; it aired on 9 October.
"From Me to You" – 1:55 (Lennon-McCartney)
Released in the UK on 11 April 1963, and in the U.S. on 27 May. Reached No. 1 in the UK for seven weeks on 2 May 1963. First included on The Beatles/1962-1966 (1973) and A Collection of Beatles Oldies (1966), depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD track is from the Royal Variety Performance, Prince of Wales Theatre, London, England, 4 November 1963, aired on 10 November.
"She Loves You" – 2:21 (Lennon-McCartney)
Released in the UK on 23 August 1963, and in the U.S. on 16 September. Reached No. 1 in the UK for four weeks on 14 September 1963, then again for two weeks on 28 November. Reached No. 1 in the U.S. for two weeks on 21 March 1964. First included on The Beatles' Second Album (1964) and A Collection of Beatles Oldies, depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD track is from the Swedish television pop music show Drop In, recorded 30 October 1963, aired 3 November.
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" – 2:24 (Lennon-McCartney)
Released in the UK on 29 November 1963, and in the U.S. on 26 December. Reached No. 1 in the UK for five weeks on 12 December 1963. Reached No. 1 in the U.S. for seven weeks on 1 February 1964. First included on Meet the Beatles! (1964) and A Collection of Beatles Oldies (1966), depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD track is from Studio Four, Granada TV Centre, Manchester, England, 25 November 1963 filmed for Late Scene Extra, aired two days later.
"Can't Buy Me Love" – 2:11 (Lennon-McCartney)
Released in the U.S. on 16 March 1964, and in the UK on 20 March. Reached No. 1 in the UK for three weeks on 2 April 1964, and in the U.S. for five weeks on 4 April. First included on respective territorial versions of A Hard Day's Night (1964).
The DVD/BD track is from the Beatles' television special Around the Beatles, music recorded on 19 April 1964, performed lip-synched on 28 April (at Studio 5 A/B, Wembley Studios, London, England), and aired on Rediffusion 6 May.
"A Hard Day's Night" – 2:33 (Lennon-McCartney)
Released in the UK on 10 July 1964, and in the U.S. on 13 July. Reached No. 1 in the UK for three weeks on 23 July 1964, and in the U.S. for two weeks on 1 August. First included on respective territorial versions of A Hard Day's Night (1964).
The DVD/BD track is from the Palais des Sports, Paris, France, 20 June 1965, recorded/filmed for a 31 October broadcast of Les Beatles.
"I Feel Fine" – 2:18 (Lennon-McCartney)
Released in the U.S. on 23 November 1964, and in the UK on 27 November. Reached No. 1 in the UK for five weeks on 10 December 1964, and in the U.S. for three weeks on 26 December. First included on Beatles '65 (1964) and A Collection of Beatles Oldies, depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD track is a promo video filmed at the Twickenham Film Studios, Middlesex, England, 23 November 1965.
"Eight Days a Week" – 2:43 (Lennon-McCartney)
Released in the U.S. on 15 February 1965, where it reached No. 1 for two weeks on 13 March. First included on Beatles VI (1965) and Beatles for Sale (1964), depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD track is a montage of footage of their famous concert at Shea Stadium, New York City, New York, 15 August 1965.
"Ticket to Ride" – 3:08
Released in the UK on 9 April 1965, and in the U.S. on 19 April. Reached No. 1 in the UK for three weeks on 22 April 1965, and in the U.S. for one week on 22 May. First included on respective territorial versions of Help! (1965).
The DVD/BD track is a promo video filmed at Twickenham Film Studios, Middlesex, England, 23 November 1965.
"Help!" – 2:18
Released in the U.S. on 19 July 1965, and in the UK on 23 July. Reached No. 1 in the UK for three weeks on 5 August 1965, and in the U.S. for three weeks on 4 September. First included on respective territorial versions of Help!.
The DVD/BD track is a promo video filmed at Twickenham Film Studios, Middlesex, England, 23 November 1965.
"Yesterday" – 2:05
Released in the U.S. on 13 September 1965, where it reached No. 1 for four weeks on 9 October. First included on Help! and Yesterday and Today (1966), depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD track is from The Ed Sullivan Show, recorded 14 August 1965, aired 12 September.
"Day Tripper" – 2:48
Released in the UK on 3 December 1965, and in the U.S. on 6 December. Reached No. 1 in the UK for five weeks on 16 December 1965. A tape drop-out that appears in previous stereo releases of this song has been corrected here. First included on the albums Yesterday and Today and A Collection of Beatles Oldies, depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD track is a promo video filmed at Twickenham Film Studios, Middlesex, England, 23 November 1965.
"We Can Work It Out" – 2:15
Released in the UK on 3 December 1965, and in the U.S. on 6 December. Reached No. 1 in the UK for five weeks on 16 December 1965, and in the U.S. for two weeks on 8 January 1966, and for another week on 29 January. First included on the 1966 albums Yesterday and Today and A Collection of Beatles Oldies, depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD track is a promo video filmed at Twickenham Film Studios, Middlesex, England, 23 November 1965.
"Paperback Writer" – 2:16
Released in the U.S. on 30 May 1966, and in the UK on 10 June. Reached No. 1 in the UK for two weeks on 23 June 1966, and in the U.S. for one week on 25 June, and for another week on 9 July. First included on A Collection of Beatles Oldies and Hey Jude (1970), depending on the territory.
The DVD/BD is a promo video filmed in colour at Chiswick House, Chiswick, London, England, 20 May 1966; later aired in black and white on Top of the Pops.
"Yellow Submarine" – 2:37
Released in the UK on 5 August 1966, and in the U.S. on 8 August. Reached No. 1 in the UK for four weeks on 18 August 1966. First included on respective territorial versions of Revolver (1966).
The DVD/BD track is montage of footage from the animated film Yellow Submarine (1968).
"Eleanor Rigby" – 2:06
Released in the UK on 5 August 1966, and in the U.S. on 8 August. Reached No. 1 in the UK for four weeks on 18 August 1966, as part of a double-A-sided single with "Yellow Submarine". First included on respective territorial versions of Revolver.
The DVD/BD track is a sequence originally found as a part of Yellow Submarine.
"Penny Lane" – 3:00
Released in the U.S. on 13 February 1967, and in the UK on 17 February. Reached No. 1 in the U.S. for one week on 18 March 1967. First included on the U.S. release of Magical Mystery Tour (1967).
The DVD/BD track is a promo video filmed on 5 & 7 February 1967 in England (Stratford, London; Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent; Liverpool (non-Beatles footage)); later aired on Juke Box Jury, Top of the Pops (both from the BBC), and The Hollywood Palace (in the U.S.).
"All You Need Is Love" – 3:46
Released in the UK on 7 July 1967, and in the U.S. on 17 July. Reached No. 1 in the UK for three weeks on 19 July 1967, and in the U.S. for one week on 19 August. First included on the U.S. release of Magical Mystery Tour.
The DVD/BD track is a live broadcast from Studio One, Abbey Road Studios, London, England, 25 June 1967 for the Our World special. The pre-recorded backing track was done on 14 June as the orchestra, vocals, drums, bass, and guitar solo were recorded and filmed live in the studio. Famous guests who appeared included Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (of The Rolling Stones), Eric Clapton, Keith Moon of The Who, Graham Nash of The Hollies, Mike McGear (McCartney's brother), and Gary Walker of The Walker Brothers. The orchestra can be heard playing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto and the traditional song "Greensleeves" (which Martin was paid £15 for) during the extended fade-out in the 6-minute broadcast.
"Hello, Goodbye" – 3:26
Released in the UK on 24 November 1967, and in the U.S. on 27 November. Reached No. 1 in the UK for seven weeks on 6 December 1967, and in the U.S. for three weeks on 30 December. First included on Magical Mystery Tour.
The DVD/BD track is a promo video filmed at the Saville Theatre, London, England, 10 November 1967 featuring The Beatles in their Sgt. Pepper outfits (unlike the other two videos found on the disc). It later aired on the Sunday 26 November episode of The Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace two days later. Due to the Musicians' Union's ban on miming during performances in the UK, the video was replaced by a montage of shots from the film A Hard Day's Night (1964) for 23 November broadcast of Top of the Pops and the film Magical Mystery Tour (1967) two weeks later.
"Lady Madonna" – 2:15
Released in the UK on 15 March 1968, and in the U.S. on 18 March. Reached No. 1 in the UK for two weeks on 27 March 1968. First included on Hey Jude.
The DVD/BD track is a promo video filmed in Studio Three, Abbey Road Studios, London, England, 11 February 1968 and at Chappell Studios, London, England three days later. It included shots of the band recording "Hey Bulldog" (with its accompanying video found on the second disc).
"Hey Jude" – 7:03
Released in the U.S. on 26 August 1968, and in the UK on 30 August. Reached No. 1 in the UK for two weeks on 11 September 1968, and in the U.S. for a record nine weeks on 28 September. First included on Hey Jude.
The DVD/BD track is a promotional recording made on 4 September 1968 at Twickenham Film Studios, Middlesex, England, with live vocal from McCartney. It later aired on Frost on Sunday (by David Frost) on 6 October 1968, and a month later on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
"Get Back" – 3:12
Released in the UK on 11 April 1969, and in the U.S. on 5 May. Reached No. 1 in the UK for six weeks on 23 April 1969, and in the U.S. for five weeks on 24 May. While a different version was included on Let It Be (1970), this version was first included on The Beatles/1967-1970 (1973).
The DVD/BD track is a promo video featuring filmed footage at the famous Apple rooftop concert in Saville Row, Mayfair, London, England, 30 January 1969. Edits and mash-ups of the three times they played the song were done by Apple Films for later broadcasts such as Top of the Pops.
"The Ballad of John and Yoko" – 2:57
Released in the UK on 30 May 1969, and in the U.S. on 4 June. Reached No. 1 in the UK for three weeks on 11 June 1969. First included on Hey Jude.
The DVD/BD track is a promo video created by Apple Films with outtakes from the film Let It Be (1970) and footage shot at places like London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Vienna.
"Something" – 3:01
Released in the U.S. on 6 October 1969, and in the UK on 31 October. Reached No. 1 in the U.S. for one week on 29 November 1969. First included on Abbey Road (1969).
The DVD/BD track is an Apple-produced promo video filmed in October 1969 featuring the four Beatles and their wives at Tittenhurst Park, Ascot, Berkshire, England (the Lennons); "Kinfauns", Esher, Surrey, England (the Harrisons); "Brookfield", Elstead, Surrey (the Starkeys); and Mull of Kintyre, Scotland (the McCartneys).
"Come Together" – 4:16
Released in the U.S. on 6 October 1969, and in the UK on 31 October. As the B-side of a double-A-sided single with "Something", it reached No. 1 in the U.S. for one week on 29 November 1969. First included on Abbey Road.
The DVD/BD track is a multimedia clip created by Melon Dezign for the launch of The Beatles' official website, which was done to celebrate the original release of 1.
"Let It Be" – 3:48
Released in the UK on 6 March 1970, and in the U.S. on 11 March. Reached No. 1 in the U.S. for two weeks on 11 April 1970. While a different version was included on Let It Be (1970), this version was first included on The Beatles/1967-1970.
The DVD/BD track is from the film Let It Be being synced with the single version for promotional release. It was of the recording sessions for said song at Apple Studio, Saville Row, London, England, 31 January 1969, a day after the Apple rooftop concert.
"The Long and Winding Road" – 3:36
Released in the U.S. on 11 May 1970, where it reached No. 1 for two weeks on 13 June. First included on Let It Be.
The DVD/BD track is from the film Let It Be, with footage being used from the same recording sessions as "Let It Be". The only exception with both videos is that the audio from the sessions was used in this video instead of the one for "Let It Be".