You can tell who's from the 'CD' generation  -  no Side 1 and Side 2!!

Quoted from Beatlemania31

1 Back in the USSR
2 Dear Prudence
3 Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
4 While my guitar gently weeps
5 Happiness is a Warm gun
6 I'm so tired
7 Blackbird
8 Why Don't We Do it in The Road?
9 Birthday
10 Yer Blues
11 Helter Skelter
12 Revolution 1
13 Good Night

That would be awesome!

that's quite a nice list, i would have to throw Sexy Sadie in there myself though.

Quoted from walrus_21

Hope I'm doing this reply correctly.

Blue, perhaps "hurt" is a tough concept to deal with, since their albums were so near perfect.  But think about having the singles on the albums.  What album wouldn't be helped by She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, etc.?  We Can Work It Out?  Day Tripper?  Keeping those off albums was part of the times -- I'm not arguing that -- but their inclusion helps any album.

My point was, Pepper, cultural landmark that it is, could have been better by adding Penny Lane and SFF.  I'm sorry, but that's a fact.  Someone else can tell you which albums the singles would have gone on, because I don't have the encyclopedic knowledge of recording sessions/release dates.  

But reverse engineer it, for a sec.  Imagine a White Album with Hey Jude, Lady Madonna and Revolution, and make the argument that it would've been better with #9.  Good luck.

wal

I didn't read every post in this thread, but I think I understand the case you're making.

I don't think there is a steadfast rule about it... sometimes adding the songs would "help", sometimes it would "hurt".   So what do I mean by this?

Well, the flow of an album is sometimes as important as the individual songs it contains, and the inclusion of a (great) song (that might have been a huge hit) that breaks this flow may in fact leave you with an album that is significantly "inferior" to what it was.  A White Album with Hey Jude, Lady Madonna and Revolution might work, but adding Penny Lane and SFF to Sgt Pepper might not, because that album is greater than the sum of it's parts precisely because of how it flows.

Adding Helen Wheels to Band On The Run worked, and fortunately did not disrupt the flow of the album. But the US album Hey Jude was just a bunch of singles and b-sides  had no flow at all. The Ballad of John and Yoko might have ruined Abbey Road or Let It Be. But I like the flow of "Let It Be Naked" better than the original with the inclusion of  "Don't Let Me Down" (which should have been on the original Let It Be).

It's hard to say. If adding the single doesn't break the flow of the album, but enhances it or at least maintains it, it's certainly better to have the popular songs on there. I couldn't imagine Band on the Run without Helen Wheels, or MMT without PL and SFF.

I am intrigued by a White Album with Hey Jude, Lady Madonna and Revolution and without Revolution #9 though....

Theres so much good stuff on there it's hard to part with some of it. I didn't count who had more songs than whom, and didn't include a song for Ringo just to give Ringo a song because I think there are much better songs by the others that were left off. I added "Hey Jude" and "Lady  Madonna" and eliminated the "extreme" songs

JJS's White Album:

"Back in the U.S.S.R."              
"Dear Prudence"                      
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"  
"I'm So Tired"                        
"Blackbird"                                  
"Lady Madonna"                            
"Julia"                                    
"Birthday"                                  
"Sexy Sadie"                                
"Helter Skelter"                        
"Revolution 1"                        
"Hey Jude"

I wish I could "play" this thread but I can't.  To me, there's just no "filler" on the White Album.

The "single-album v. double album" discussion reminds me of that scene in Amadeus when, in his critique of Mozart's opera, the emperor tells Mozart that there are "simply too many notes."  To which Mozart replies:  "I don't understand.  There are just as many notes, Majesty, as are required.  Neither more nor less."

I feel the same way about the White Album (".....number nine...number nine...number nine...number nine...").

Quoted from dennylemeiux

The "single-album v. double album" discussion reminds me of that scene in Amadeus when, in his critique of Mozart's opera, the emperor tells Mozart that there are "simply too many notes."  To which Mozart replies:  "I don't understand.  There are just as many notes, Majesty, as are required.  Neither more nor less.".

that's a great line from a great movie!