This is the fourth and final installment in our series in a series in which I choose tracks from The Beatles’ U.K. albums that could have been released as singles in England.
Post 25: Could-have-been singles, 1963-64
Post 32: Could-have-been singles, 1965-66
Post 40: Could-have-been singles, 1967-68
Yellow Submarine (1969)
I’ve always considered Yellow Submarine to be more of an EP than an album; side one contains four original Beatles’ tracks–Only a Northern Song, All Together Now, Hey Bulldog, and It’s All Too Much–and side two features seven George Martin pieces from the film’s score.
The best Beatles’ original is John’s Hey Bulldog, but I must say that I’m tempted to choose one of the two Harrisongs as a single. I prefer the six-minute-plus It’s All Too Much to the shorter Only a Northern Song, and post-Hey Jude they could have released the longer track.
When push comes to shove, though, Hey Bulldog‘s intro piano riff would have sounded great spilling out of car radios in early 1969. It’s All Too Much would have made a fine B-side.
Abbey Road (1969)
The first two tracks on Abbey Road, Come Together and Something, were issued as a double A-sided single, giving Beatle George his first A-side.
But let’s not overthink this one. In fact, this might be the reason I undertook this exercise in the first place, because this Abbey Road track proves how prolific The Beatles truly were. When a band buries as an album track a song as powerful and popular as Maxwell’s Silver—
Kidding! Here Comes The Sun! C’mon, this is a no-brainer! Here Comes The Sun is a perfect slice1 of power pop. Everyone loves the song: It’s been streamed nearly 2 billion times2 on Spotify, and it’s been covered by more than 500 artists. I try to avoid hyperbole here, but I believe that if you don’t like Here Comes the Sun, you just might not like pop music. In which case, I bid you “good day.”3
Let It Be (1970)
I’ve painted myself into a corner by focusing on The Beatles’s U.K. singles. They released a studio version of Get Back in 1969, about a year before the rooftop version appeared on the Let It Be album, so it wouldn’t make sense to release another version as a 1970 single. And they released the title track as a single in early 1970.
But they didn’t release The Long and Winding Road as a U.K. single. Strange, because they did release it as single in the U.S.,4 and it went to number one. So that’s the obvious choice for a U.K. single, right?
I suppose. But I’m compelled to say here that I don’t care much for The Long and Winding Road. It’s not a bad song, but it feels superfluous to me. Paul wrote and the band performed a much better piano ballad for the album, the gospel-tinged5 Let It Be.
I can’t argue against a number one, but I’ll finish this could-have-been singles series with a wish: I wish The Beatles had spent a little more time figuring out the right arrangement for Across the Universe. That would have been my ideal final U.K. single.
What singles would you choose from 1969 and 1970? Email me at beatletrack@gmail.com.
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