The Beatles Ballads

From Wikipedia:

The Beatles Ballads is a compilation album featuring a selection of ballad songs by the English rock band the Beatles. The album was not released in the United States, but in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, Japan, South Korea and Australia. In Australia, the album was a big success, spending seven weeks at number one. It reached number 17 in the UK. [..]

The album was released in 1985 on LP and cassette under the EMI-ODEON label in Brazil using identical front and back cover art. It has never been officially released on compact disc.

Track listing

Despite a running time of almost one hour, the vinyl edition of this release has only ever been available as a single LP, rather than as a double set as sometimes presumed. “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” is the 1977 mix first used on the Love Songs compilation. The rest of the songs appear in their original stereo mixes, although four of these – “Yesterday“, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away“, “She’s Leaving Home” and “Here, There and Everywhere” – had the left and right channels reversed, as on Love Songs.
In South Korea, “Norwegian Wood” was censored until 1993, so it was replaced with “Girl”. […]

In 1968, shortly after beginning the recording sessions for the Beatles’ White Album, John Lennon suggested “A Doll’s House” as the album title, inspired by a 19th century’s famous play by Henrik Ibsen. However, this idea was abandoned when the English progressive rock band Family released their debut album “Music In A Doll’s House” on July 19, 1968.

Contrary to some belief, the Beatles did not commission artist-writer John Patrick Byrne to create a cover for “A Doll’s House“. Instead, his artwork was originally intended for Alan Aldridge’s 1969 book “The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics“, and was subsequently used for “The Beatles Ballads” compilation.

Paintings by the late John Byrne including a rare picture of The Beatles bought by the artist’s local priest are to go under the hammer at auction.

In the painting, created in 1969, Byrne represents each Beatle seated beside a “spirit animal” while Yoko Ono is seen in a crystal ball held by John Lennon.

It is one of ten early Byrne works which were bought from him by his local parish priest, Father Tom Jamieson in Renfrew, Renfrewshire, in the early 1970s. […]

Charlotte Riordan, Lyon & Turnbull’s head of contemporary & post-war art, said: “This is an amazing collection of John Byrne’s work. Father Jamieson clearly had a keen eye for artistic talent, seeing great promise in a man who would go on to make his own distinctive and indelible mark on Scottish, and indeed British, cultural life. The Beatles painting was a precursor to a larger version, created for his 1969 December show at London’s Portal Gallery. This was a reference and reaction to the fact that Portal attracted a star-studded clientele, with some of the biggest names in British showbusiness at the time becoming frequent visitors. Clients included; Julie Christie, Michael Caine, David Niven, David Bailey, The Beatles – particularly Ringo Starr who is thought to own ‘Patrick’ paintings – and Brian Epstein. The painting was purchased by the art director and graphic designer Alan Aldridge, who went on to use it as the frontispiece to The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, published in 1969. It was later used as the cover of The Beatles Ballads LP 12 years later. Rumours suggest the original large-scale work was lost by EMI records, and so this work being offered for sale by Lyon & Turnbull is a rare surviving early version. There is only one other known example, in a private collection in America. We anticipate a great deal of interest in the sale and look forward to some spirited bidding at home and abroad.”

From Rare John Byrne painting of The Beatles to go under hammer | The Independent, March 24, 2025