RARITIES (UK)

On December 2, 1978, EMI threw caution to the wind and released a massive box set called The Beatles Collection containing every album the group had produced during their stellar career.  Magical Mystery Tour was not included, perhaps because it had originally been issued as a double EP in the UK, yet Parlophone had finally released it as an album (like the Capitol version from the US) in Britain in 1976.  Thus, its omission is curious.  Also missing were more than a dozen A-sides that had not appeared on albums in the UK.  One can only speculate that the reasoning for this is that all of those hit songs had been released on the Red and Blue Albums in 1973.

A bonus album called Rarities was part of the package.  It featured nine B-sides, the four songs from the Long Tall Sally EP, the two German songs, the World Wildlife Fund version of Across the Universe and the song Bad Boy from A Collection of Beatles Oldies.  Since all of these selections appear on the Past Masters CDs in 1988, I will refrain from any descriptions of the tracks until I cover them in that later entry and merely list the sequence of songs as they occur on this album (as a matter of fact, they are listed in order on the cover above).  Note that there is no attempt at a chronological sequence here; if anything, this lineup is completely arbitrary.

SIDE ONE

Across the Universe
Yes It Is
This Boy
The Inner Light
I'll Get You
Thank You Girl
Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
Sie Liebt Dich

SIDE TWO

Rain
She's a Woman
Matchbox
I Call Your Name
Bad Boy
Slow Down
I'm Down
Long Tall Sally

Still missing from the package are the B-sides Revolution, Don't Let Me Down and Old Brown Shoe, which had all appeared on the Blue Album in 1973.

Some British fans who longed for these seventeen tracks on an album bought The Beatles Collection even if they had all of the original albums.  Dealers soon began removing Rarities from the box set and selling it separately.  EMI took note of this and decided to release Rarities as a single album in October of 1979, much to the dismay of those who had shelled out big bucks for the entire box set.