Off The Beatle Track

How many Beatles albums are there? That ought to be an easy question to the answer.

But it depends on (a) who’s counting, (b) when you were introduced to the band, and (c) which side of the Atlantic you lived.

I grew up a Beatles fan outside Philadelphia in the ’70s. When I was a kid, more than 20 Beatles albums had been released in the U.S. These were readily available:

1. Introducing… The Beatles*
2. Meet the Beatles!
3. The Beatles’ Second Album
4. A Hard Day’s Night
5. Something New
6. The Beatles’ Story
7. Beatles ’65
8. The Early Beatles
9. Beatles VI
10. Help!
11. Rubber Soul
12. Yesterday and Today
13. Revolver
14. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
15. Magical Mystery Tour
16. The Beatles
17. Yellow Submarine
18. Abbey Road
19. Hey Jude
20. Let It Be

And that’s just the albums that the band released while they were a going concern. I’m not even counting the Red and Blue albums, or Rock ‘N’ Roll Music or Love Songs, for example.

Someone growing up at the same time outside of Liverpool would have counted 13 Beatles (or maybe 12) albums:

1. Please Please Me
2. With The Beatles
3. A Hard Day’s Night
4. Beatles for Sale
5. Help!
6. Rubber Soul
7. Revolver
8. A Collection of Beatles Oldies**
9. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
10. The Beatles
11. Yellow Submarine
12. Abbey Road
13. Let It Be

When The Beatles’ albums first appeared on CDs in 1987, Apple and Parlophone added Magical Mystery Tour to the U.K. list to standardize the catalog on both sides of the Atlantic for the first time:

1. Please Please Me
2. With The Beatles
3. A Hard Day’s Night
4. Beatles for Sale
5. Help!
6. Rubber Soul
7. Revolver
8. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
9. Magical Mystery Tour
10. The Beatles
11. Yellow Submarine
12. Abbey Road
13. Let It Be

Past Masters Volume 1 and Volume 2 were released in 1988, nudging the total to 15.

But what are we to make of Magical Mystery Tour? The Beatles could have released an album of that name in 1967, but they didn’t. They did, of course, release a double EP with five songs*** from the film.

And can we really call Yellow Submarine a Beatles album? Side 1 contains only four previously unreleased songs,**** and side 2 contains George Martin’s movie score. That feels like another EP to me.

And what to make of Live at the Hollywood Bowl, the four Anthology albums, the two BBC volumes, and Let It Be . . . Naked? Should we consider them canon?

So how many Beatles albums are there? For the sake of shared understanding, I’ll consent to refer to 13. But I could be persuaded that the answer lies anywhere from 11 to more than 20.

*I count this one ( a Vee-Jay release and the only non-Capitol, United Artists, or Apple entry on the list) because I owned a copy, which meant that I had access to Misery and There’s a Place before the U.S. version of Rarities was released in 1980. But there were at least three Vee-Jay albums that I didn’t count, plus albums on labels such as Atco and Polydor.

**I count this one because it was released while The Beatles were still active and it contained some singles not included on previous albums.

***The title track, I Am the Walrus, Your Mother Should Know, Blue Jay Way, and Flying.

****Hey Bulldog, All Together Now, It’s All Too Much, and Only a Northern Song.