The green series

On the 6th of February 1976 the 9 year contract The Beatles had signed with EMI back in 1967 came to an end. However, EMI retained the right to reissue anything it wanted from the old catalogue, and they weren't slow in seizing this opportunity. One month and two days later, on the 8th of March 1976, EMI re-released the 22 original Beatles' UK singles in new picture sleeves. All 22 singles had the same design for the front sleeve but four different photographs on the rear.

The first edition of “The Singles Collection 1962 - 1970” came with all the 22 singles in a green box, and added a new single, "Yesterday / I Should Have Known Better (R 6013)". These were the singles:

01. Love Me Do/PS I Love You
02. Please Please Me/Ask Me Why
03. From Me To You/Thank You Girl
04. She Loves You/I'll Get You
05. I Want To Hold Your Hand/This Boy
06. Can't Buy Me Love/You Can't Do That
07. A Hard Day's Night/Things We Said Today
08. I Feel Fine/She's A Woman
09. Ticket To Ride/Yes It Is
10. Help/I'm Down
11. We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper
12. Paperback Writer/Rain
13. Yellow Submarine/Elenor Rigby
14. Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane
15. All You Need Is Love/Baby, You're A Rich Man
16. Hello, Goodbye/I Am The Walrus
17. Lady Madonna/The Inner Light
18. Hey Jude / Revolution
19. Get Back/Don't Let Me Down
all in mono. And in stereo:
20. Ballad Of John & Yoko/Old Brown Shoe
21. Something/Come Together
22. Let It Be/You Know My Name (the B-side in mono)
and the newcomer:
23. Yesterday/I Should Have Known Better

This was the first time "Yesterday" became available as a single in the UK, and it charted. In fact, all the singles did. All 23 again made the Top 100 (at one point ALL simultaneously) with 6 of them reaching the top 50 and therefore being mentioned again in The Guinness Book of Hit Singles. Here are the Beatles chart positions for Sunday April 4th 1976:

10 Yesterday
45 Hey Jude
46 Paperback Writer
53 Strawberry Fields Forever
55 Get Back
59 She Loves You
61 Help!
62 Love Me Do
63 Eleanor Rigby
64 Let It Be
66 A Hard Days Night
68 Can't Buy Me Love
69 I Want To Hold Your Hand
71 All You Need Is Love
72 From Me To You
74 Hello Goodbye
75 Please Please Me
76 Lady Madonna
79 Day Tripper
81 I Feel Fine
83 Ticket To Ride
84 Something
88 Ballad of John and Yoko

So, EMI quickly realised that the Beatles was a money cow they could still milk. Further releases followed swiftly, with albums like "Love Songs", "Beatles Ballads", "Reel Music" etc, but we are concentrating on the green singles series in this blog post.

A little later EMI released the collection in a newly designed box (2nd Edition)


This collection was only for sale through EMI's mail order division, World Records Ltd. As this sold out, it was reissued with 24 singles, adding "Back In The U.S.S.R. / Twist And Shout (R 6016)", promoting the new "Rock and Roll Music" album.
The 3rd Edition of The Singles Collection was issued in 1978. EMI again added a new single, "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / With A Little Help From My Friends/A Day In The Life (R 6022)", to cash in on the new RSO motion picture, "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" - starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton.

The Sgt Pepper single had a totally different design than the other green series singles, but was nonetheless included.

Sore thumb

“The Singles Collection 1962 - 1970” was heavily advertised in the British press. In addition, a mailer was sent to World Records’ regular customers, containing an informational booklet and a promotional flexi-disc containing mono excerpts of songs from the collection. As with all flexi discs this is very much a promotional item and not produced for top sound quality.


In 1982, the single covers were completely redesigned with a more individual look to each single and were released in a new, blue Beatles singles box, which ended the brief but profitable era of the green series singles.

The green series sold in droves and are not rare at all. And since ebay arrived, it's fairly easy to pick up the box and the paper material as well.
The promotional flexi-disc is just a little bit harder to come by, but not extremely rare.

Inspired by the UK green series, EMI in other countries released similar Beatles singles collections.
Here's the Spanish one:

As you can see from the back cover, the Spanish just included the singles which were specific to their country:


Here's an example from the Italian singles collection, entitled "The Greatest Story":

Again, a look at the rear gives you the Italian discography:


The French released their singles in the "Oldies But Goldies" series, featuring 36 different ones, including this:


26 singles from the French singles collection were also pressed and released in Brazil.