A Collection Of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies) (Parlophone PMC7016 mono)

A Collection Of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies) (Parlophone PMC7016 mono)

Released in the UK - 10th December 1966


Side One Matrix Number XEX619-1G  Mother Stamper 3  Sub-Stamper 63

Side Two Matrix Number XEX620-1G  Mother Stamper 3  Sub-Stamper 93


I got this one from a record fair in Manchester. I'm not sure what the venue was called but it was /is the Co-Op headquarters, just outside Victoria station. I have about six different copies of "Oldies", one  copy in particular has a brilliant story behind its' purchase that I will leave for another time.

This plays well, but it's obviously been around the block a bit. Regardless of how it's been looked after, it's been well-played, but not to a point where it's completely worn out. When I really started to appreciate vinyl and how delicate it was, I wasn't going to buy stuff just because it was there. If something was a bad copy, I didn't bother, though there was one exception which I can talk about another time.


The inner sleeves had changed by now - more cost-cutting on EMI's part. The tracing paper inner had been discontinued, and the company changed to these generic white sleeves. In the bottom left-hand corner of the sleeve there is a faint "Patents Applied For" logo. This one is from my copy of "Revolver" that I previously talked about. Why I changed them around I really don't know?


"A Collection Of Beatles Oldies" was a stop-gap measure by EMI to cater for the Christmas market of 1966. Maybe fans felt they were being short-changed because it only reached no.7 in the album charts, everything else had gone straight to the top slot. However, "Oldies" stayed on the Beatles catalogue until the advent of CDs, when their core releases were revamped. Top track? The heavily-compressed sound of "Paperback Writer". Rock didn't get much more direct than this in 1966.

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