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[DaveRam]

One of the strength's of The Beatles was their system of  " Quality Control " they very rarely let product that was down right rubbish see the light of day unlike their solo career's which are litterd with material which frankly in many cases should have been strangled at birth ?
So how did this system work , did John or Paul have the last say or was it all four of them ? , did George Martin have the right to veto songs ?
And which songs caused disputes ? i seem to remember  " Maxwell's Silver Hammer " was one that caused a rift ? were there other's ?

[Bobber]

I think I once read that all four of them had to agree on releasing a song. The system may have had some problems in later years, for I don't think that Paul was very happy with the inclusion of Revolution #9 on the White Album for a start.

[DaveRam]

So It was very democratic at the begining Bobber ? did they vote on what singles to release ?  
I can see when they became more experimental in the studio thats when the problems would begin . The early records seem to scream hit record , later singles like  " The Balled of John And Yoko " must have been a more difficulte call , that one did'nt do so well in America only reaching # 8 on Billboard ?

[Kevin]

I find it hard to believe that in the early days at least (63/64) a record company would extend that level of artistic control to a band. I think Mr Martin had more say than that. And later weren't Eleanor Rigby/SFF his decision?

[Bobber]

Oh, George Martin picked Love Me Do and Please Please Me for certain. He choose the songs for the first album as well. But I think from early 1964, The Beatles themselves were in the game as well to pick songs for albums and singles. And their power grew as time went by.

[DaveRam]

In the begining they did'nt have any problem . Paul as said that each time he and John sat down to write they came up with what was wanted , it only took about three hours to knock out a million seller , now thats quality .

[BlueMeanie]

Funny, I was thinking about this yesterday. Someone said to me - 'Didn't The Beatles ever record any crap? There must be tons of other songs in the vaults'. Well, there isn't really, is there? I mean, original songs, unreleased by them when they finished added up to a mere handful. I think they knew when they were writing them whether they were of a high enough standard to spend time recording. So they must have practiced individual control. So the old thing about there having to be 5 John songs, 5 Paul, a couple of George, and one for Ringo to sing doesn't really stand up. Those were just the songs they had. If Paul and John had had a few more songs between them, I doubt that poor old george would have got much of a look in. Even when they did have far too many songs they released a double album.

I'm sure George Martin had a lot to do with their first few singles. He definitely chose Love Mr Do, and Please Please Me. After that I'm not sure.

[Kevin]

Maybe this "internal quality control" had to do with the fact that they had two excellent songwriters. They could censor and inspire each others works and if one didn't come up with the goods the other would. Is there any other example of this in rock?
I doubt that if Lennon or McCartney had been on their own whether they could have come up with the same consistency of quality.
Then again Dylan didn't have too many (any?) duds. And while some Stones album tracks could veer towards the ordinary I can't recall anything from the 60's I'd call a dud. (We Love You maybe, but it still top tenned)

[wingsman]

I can see when they became more experimental in the studio thats when the problems would begin . The early records seem to scream hit record , later singles like  " The Balled of John And Yoko " must have been a more difficulte call , that one did'nt do so well in America only reaching # 8 on Billboard ?

Well, 'The Ballad Of John and Yoko' was a very particular case. It was released in the States on June 4, 1969, ONLY 30 DAYS after 'Get Back'.   Well, that's crazy. 'Get Back' was at #1 when the following single was already in stores. So, that's one reason why the single failed there. (However, of course, in the UK the release dates were pretty similar, and still 'John & Yoko" reached #1 there...)

But 'The Ballad' failed because of this: (from Wikipedia)


[size=14]<<[/size] The song was banned by several US radio stations,[3][4] due to the words "Christ" and "crucify" in Lennon's lyric, "Christ, you know it ain't easy, you know how hard it can be; The way things are going