The album as it was released was not how it was originally compiled. The original source was a tape compiled by EMI UK (room 11) on 11 November 1971, upon request of EMI (Australia). Ken East, head of EMI (Australia) at the time, was personally involved in the compilation, along with EMI (Australia) employees Jim Hellis and Bill Ramsay.
There is a myth circulating that The Essential Beatles was created in New Zealand by Music for Leisure's (not to be confused with EMI's Music for Pleasure) boss John McCready. The story goes that "McCready licensed the tracks from HMV New Zealand for release and that Ken East, head EMI UK, pointed out to HMV just after its release that they had issued an album without Apple's permission. This led to the album being immediately withdrawn. East, being suitably impressed with McCready's ballsiness, gave him a job a few years later."
This myth couldn't be further from the truth. The album was not created by either HMV New Zealand or Music for Leisure, nor was it withdrawn or cancelled. Indeed, the album was available through EMI (Australia) on and off well into the 1980s and EVERY copy released, either in Australia or New Zealand, carries YAPAX matrices, which was EMI (Australia)'s numbering system for Parlophone releases. Further, at the time of release, Ken East was not at EMI UK; he was head of EMI (Australia). And his name is all over the Acceptance Sheets.
The tape as provided by EMI UK contained the following tracks:
This Boy
Love Me Do
Roll Over Beethoven
All My Loving
If I Fell
Tell Me Why
Yes It Is
I'm Down
Yesterday
Penny Lane
All You Need Is Love
Along with the notation 'Approx 32 mins'.
Sticky taped over most of those titles on the tape box was a sheet that stated:
Love Me Do
Boys - level 8 !!
Long Tall Sally
Honey Don't
PS I Love You
Baby You're A Rich Man
All My Loving
Yesterday
Penny Lane
(LEVELS VARY GREATLY)
On 26 November 1971, Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) (AWA) compiled a new tape (with notation "tape ex A&R"), which contained the notes:
Tell Me Why replaced with Boys
This Boy replaced with Long Tall Sally (ex 45)
Roll Over Beethoven replaced with Honey Don't
Yes It Is replaced with Baby You're A Rich Man (ex 33 stereo disc)
I'm Down replaced with Norwegian Wood (ex 33 disc)
'Magical Mystery Tour', 'With A Little Help From My Friends', 'Something', 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' and 'Let It Be' were all later additions.
Numerous cuts were made. The Acceptance Sheet records acceptance on 11 February 1972—notably after the date EMI (Australia) claims the album was released—and includes the note: "THIS CANCELS PREVIOUS ACCEPTANCE FOR THIS NO OF 9.2.72". Other annotations on the sheet suggest that new sources were used for 'Boys' and 'Honey Don't' on this subsequent cut. This helps explain why the earliest commercial cut for side 1 is numbered 3, while side 2 is numbered 2: the previous cuts had apparently been rejected and recut using new source material.
In any event, the album is a very messy affair! And it's perhaps no wonder that the end result sounded a bit frankenstein, with various sound level and quality issues. For example:
- 'Penny Lane', while marking its FIRST appearance anywhere in the world in true stereo (it was first mastered to stereo on 30 September 1971 and did not appear on the German LP reissue of Magical Mystery Tour until the end of 1972), runs slow by about 5 seconds, with an audible 'warble' throughout
- 'Long Tall Sally' has reversed channels
- 'Baby, You're A Rich Man' sounds mono on the album, however, the Acceptance Sheet states it was sourced from a stereo album, which at that point could only have been the US Magical Mystery Tour, where it appeared in fake stereo. On The Essential Beatles it is cut extremely quiet, so it may well be the same fake stereo master, or may have been folded to mono by EMI (Australia), or may have even been from another source with the Acceptance Sheet not updated. In any event, the true stereo version did not appear on the Australian album simply because EMI (Australia) did not include it in its original request to EMI UK
- Some tracks were sourced from the original 1971 UK-supplied tape while others were sourced from existing vinyl singles or LPs. On the cassette version you can more easily hear the vinyl sources as the clicks, pops and crackle is not hidden by the cassette noise floor
