1967–1970


1967–1970 is a compilation of songs by the English rock band the Beatles, spanning the years indicated in the title. It was released with 1962–1966, in 1973. 1967–1970 made No. 1 on the American Billboard chart and No. 2 on the British Album Chart. This album was re-released in September 1993 on CD, charting at No. 4 in the United Kingdom.
The album was compiled by Beatles manager Allen Klein. The album liner notes state that all songs were produced by George Martin, except "Across the Universe" and "The Long and Winding Road" produced by Phil Spector, meaning that George Martin was credited as producer of the song "Don't Let Me Down" which usually has no official producer's credit.
As with 1962–1966, this compilation was produced by Apple/EMI at least partially in response to a bootleg collection titled Alpha Omega, which had been sold on television the previous year. Print advertising for the two records made a point of declaring them "the only authorized collection of the Beatles."

Album covers

For the group's 1963 debut LP Please Please Me, photographer Angus McBean took the distinctive colour photograph of the group looking down over the stairwell inside EMI House.
In 1969, the Beatles asked McBean to recreate this shot. Although a photograph from the 1969 photo shoot was originally intended for the then-planned Get Back album, it was not used when that project saw eventual release in 1970 as Let It Be. Instead, another photograph from the 1969 shoot, along with an unused photograph from the 1963 photo shoot, was used for both this LP and 1962–1966.
The inner gatefold photo for both LPs is by Don McCullin from the "Mad Day Out" photo session in London on Sunday 28 July 1968.
The album cover was designed by Tom Wilkes.

International versions

Unlike the 1962–1966 collection, the Blue Album was largely the same in the US and UK, although there were some variations.
The US edition had "Strawberry Fields Forever" in its original 1967 stereo mix while both "Penny Lane" and "Hello, Goodbye" were presented in fake stereo, and "I Am the Walrus" with a four-beat electric piano introduction; the UK version had the more common six-beat beginning.
The albums had several other variants and anomalies. "Get Back" was described as the album version in the US liner notes, although it was in fact the single version. In both countries, "Hey Jude" was around nine seconds shorter than it had been on the original single, although the full length was restored for the 1993 compact disc edition.
The original vinyl version faded in during the crowd noise at the beginning of "A Day in the Life". The fade in was different on both the UK and US versions. The original compact disc edition, meanwhile, featured a clean version previously heard on the soundtrack album in 1988.
In the Spanish edition "One After 909" replaced "The Ballad of John and Yoko", a song that had been banned from the airwaves shortly after being released as a single in 1969, for its allusions to "Christ" and "Gibraltar" in the lyrics.

Release variations

Weekly charts

;Original release
Chart Position
Australian Kent Music Report11
Austrian Albums Chart1
Canadian RPM Albums Chart3
Dutch Mega Albums Chart2
French Albums Chart1
Italian Albums Chart6
Japanese Oricon LPs Chart2
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart2
Spanish Albums Chart1
UK Albums Chart2
US Billboard Top LPs & Tape1
West German Media Control Albums Chart2

;1993 reissue
Chart Position
Australian Albums Chart8
Austrian Albums Chart3
Belgian Albums Chart 46
Canadian RPM Albums Chart11
Dutch Albums Chart3
Italian Albums Chart18
Japanese Albums Chart5
New Zealand Albums Chart4
Norwegian Albums Chart8
Swedish Albums Chart23
Swiss Albums Chart3
UK Albums Chart4
US Billboard Top Pop Catalog1

;2010 reissue
Chart Position
Austrian Albums Chart65
Belgian Albums Chart 30
Belgian Albums Chart 56
Danish Albums Chart23
Dutch Mega Albums Chart55
German Albums Chart71
Japanese Albums Chart3
Spanish Albums Chart19
Swedish Albums Chart17
Swiss Albums Chart47
UK Albums Chart4
US Billboard 20029
US Billboard Catalog Albums Chart1

Year-end charts

Certifications

In the US, the album sold 1,294,896 LPs by 31 December 1973 and 5,850,026 LPs by the end of the decade.