Greatest Album Ever - FINAL - Abbey Road vs Sgt Peppers

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, johnsusername said:

I read the other day that the Beatles' double A side actually sold almost twice as much as Please Release Me, but for some reason the authority which counted record sales actually counted up Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields as separate records. Which seems bizarre.

So did penny lane have its own chart position ? 

[johnsusername]

1 minute ago, Barrington Womble said:

So did penny lane have its own chart position ? 

No they both were at number 2. It's weird. I read it in Rolling Stone but it didn't go into anymore detail than that. 

[Sugar Ape]

From the Wiki page for it:

 

In Britain, "Strawberry Fields Forever" / "Penny Lane" was the first Beatles single since "Please Please Me" in 1963 to fail to reach number 1 on Record Retailer's chart (later the UK Singles Chart). The single was held at number 2 behind Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me", even though the Beatles record sold considerably more. This was due to chart protocol whereby only the sales of the best-selling side of a double A-side were eligible, and the record's overall sales were effectively halved. Following the speculation that the Beatles were due to disband, their failure to secure the number 1 spot was trumpeted in the UK press as a sign that the group's popularity was declining. At the time, McCartney said he was not upset because Humperdinck's song was a "completely different type of thing", while Harrison acknowledged that "Strawberry Fields Forever", like all of the Beatles' latest music, was bound to alienate much of their audience but would also win them new fans. On the national chart compiled by Melody Maker magazine, however, the combination topped the singles list for three weeks.

[johnsusername]

2 hours ago, Sugar Ape said:

From the Wiki page for it:

 

 

 

I know it's over fifty years later but that's really pissed me off! 

[JohnnyH]

Lol

[cochyn]

Love the factoid that released version of Strawberry Fields is actually two different takes spliced together. Both were recorded using different keys and tempos. George Martin had to slow one half of the recording and speed up the other so they matched as closely as possible. 

[Brownie]

I missed the chance to vote. Would have gone for Abbey Road.

[SasaS]

10 hours ago, cochyn said:

Love the factoid that released version of Strawberry Fields is actually two different takes spliced together. Both were recorded using different keys and tempos. George Martin had to slow one half of the recording and speed up the other so they matched as closely as possible. 

George did a great job.
 

 

[Total Longo]

On 20/03/2021 at 19:33, Barrington Womble said:

It was only really the mid-late 80s where it became a thing for every single to be on an album. Before that there were always singles between albums with most bands. 

Michael Jackson released nearly every track from Thriller as a single, it just got ludicrous in the end. Loads of bands even stopped doing proper b-sides, instead either releasing a pointless instrumental version of the a-side, or a live track.

 

From my memory there was really only The Smiths and New Order who used to regularly release non-album singles from the mid 80's onwards. Bands either just got lazy or knew the album would likely sell more if it had a bunch of semi-successful singles on it.  It used to annoy me when bands put out an album with only 8 tracks on it and then it total release five of those tracks as singles (Songs from the Big Chair by Tears For Fears is a prime example). Talk about milking the cashcow dry. 

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, Total Longo said:

Michael Jackson released nearly every track from Thriller as a single, it just got ludicrous in the end. Loads of bands even stopped doing proper b-sides, instead either releasing a pointless instrumental version of the a-side, or a live track.

 

From my memory there was really only The Smiths and New Order who used to regularly release non-album singles from the mid 80's onwards. Bands either just got lazy or knew the album would likely sell more if it had a bunch of semi-successful singles on it.  It used to annoy me when bands put out an album with only 8 tracks on it and then it total release five of those tracks as singles (Songs from the Big Chair by Tears For Fears is a prime example). Talk about milking the cashcow dry. 

I think there was a switch in the mid 80s where albums became a bigger thing than singles. The singles weren't dead then, but they'd started to become a tool to promote albums. I think Springsteen's Born in the USA had 7 singles on it. There seemed to become a regular sequence. 1st single followed within a month by the album, followed in a couple of weeks by the 2nd single and if the album was successful, more and more singles would keep getting released which would help sell more albums to people less interested in the artist but they were picking up 5 singles on one record. I think once CDs came along to mainstream in the late 80s the single was then pretty much dead as they weren't even any use in a dukebox as people would just have the album. The only point to a single by then was a video and coverage on MTV. 

[Pidge]

Think singles sales jumped once CD became the main format as they were cheap to produce and buy. Albums used to still be £15+ for some bands, but the latest song was often a couple of quid. 

 

MP3 did the singles chart in.

[Total Longo]

8 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I think there was a switch in the mid 80s where albums became a bigger thing than singles. The singles weren't dead then, but they'd started to become a tool to promote albums. I think Springsteen's Born in the USA had 7 singles on it. There seemed to become a regular sequence. 1st single followed within a month by the album, followed in a couple of weeks by the 2nd single and if the album was successful, more and more singles would keep getting released which would help sell more albums to people less interested in the artist but they were picking up 5 singles on one record. I think once CDs came along to mainstream in the late 80s the single was then pretty much dead as they weren't even any use in a dukebox as people would just have the album. The only point to a single by then was a video and coverage on MTV. 

I definitely bought a few half decent CD singles towards the back end of the 80's and into the 90's (for the additional/alternative mixes usually) but yeah, i agree that as a medium, it was dying out and they were released solely to promote an album.

 

My favourite was a 40 minute version of The Blue Room by The Orb in about 92. Boss.

[Pidge]

Maybe it was an age thing, with CD singles marketed at the 90s kids (like me, getting my first CD player in like 95), rather than older fans of bands. I always kind of assumed that once I could afford to I'd buy albums more than singles anyway, so always thought that was the way it worked. 

 

You'd go into music shops back then and they'd have the same charts singles as Woolworths, but loads of albums I couldn't afford but loved flicking through before picking a couple of cheapys from the bargain bin. So finding the latest single from any band not in the charts must have been a pain in the arse anyway (unless they were in the new releases section).

[Tony Moanero]

5 minutes ago, Pidge said:

getting my first CD player in like 95

 

[Pidge]

1 hour ago, Tony Moanero said:

 

More like:

 

[Duff Man]

Yeah agree with that. My CD collection in the 90s was a shitload of singles, and about half a dozen albums.