This compilation album, "Yesterday... and Today," may be the worst example of how Capitol cavalierly chopped and re-arranged the Beatles' work. Released six months after RUBBER SOUL and less than two months before REVOLVER, it contains large chunks of both, haphazardly arranged.

The British norm for a long-playing record was 14 songs while American LPs averaged 11 - 12 songs. It had to do with royalties, which were computed differently in each country. The American release of RUBBER SOUL contained ten songs from the original on Parlophone, plus two from the B-side (non-soundtrack) of HELP!... British version. (The American version of HELP! contained several instrumental soundtracks but none of the British B-side.)

So, when compiling YESTERDAY AND TODAY, what did Capitol do? First they threw in the four missing RUBBER SOUL tracks: Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, What Goes On, If I Needed Someone. Then they added two more from the B side of HELP -- Act Naturally and Yesterday -- plus Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out. And last, adding insult to injury, they "purloined the first three songs from the REVOLVER sessions," all written by John Lennon: I'm Only Sleeping, Dr. Robert, Your Bird Can Sing. REVOLVER had yet to be released, in Britain or the States. One can only imagine that Lennon must have been livid. When Capitol released REVOLVER 1-1/2 months later, it included six McCartney tunes, three of Harrison's, and the remaining two by Lennon.

Not surprisingly, when the Beatles renewed their contract with Capitol in 1967, they insisted upon full control over the running order of all future albums.

Footnote: does anyone remember the infamous Butcher cover, briefly released by Capitol and then rescinded? It's quite the collector's item. Lennon said it referred to the butchery in Viet Nam; others considered it a protest against Capitol's butchering of their song sets.

Please excuse the digression from Ed Sullivan. Perhaps I should have started a separate thread? Note to Russell: RUBBER SOUL includes a lovely McCartney ballad, Michelle. Perhaps you were thinking of this? No one, my parents included, believed the French words when it first came out. Real French, on a Beatles song? Couldn't be! But it was...

Michelle, ma belle, sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble,
tres bien ensemble...

Andrea