Lovers of original British vinyl had to hand it to Capitol: they collected the "B" sides and British EP tracks and packed them onto Beatle LPs of their invention, keeping the track total skimpy to help create even more LPs. One could buy the EPs to complete the collection but they were less convenient to play though the laminated picture sleeves added value.

Before leaving for a long planned mid-February 1968 trip to India to meet with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (a/k/a “Sexy Sadie” but not back then) The Beatles began work on “Lady Madonna”, the gorgeous “Across the Universe” and the now somewhat obscure “The Inner Light”, which was chosen as the “Lady Madonna” “B” side but only because Lennon wasn’t happy with “Across the Universe” for reasons known only to him and not to anyone else because everyone else loved it.

What a mess. For all of his brilliance on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Paul McCartney must take much of the blame for the ill-conceived for television movie “Magical Mystery Tour”. McCartney had thought of it while in America in April of 1967. The others agreed to it so they all share it to some degree. He wrote the title tune and recording began April 25th.

After a few month’s break during which the Beatles were apart they reconvened on November 24th 1966 to record “Strawberry Fields Forever” the first song for the as yet untitled new Beatles album. It was among the most complex and difficult to produce songs the group had yet attempted and it took months to complete and mix to everyone’ satisfaction.

Rubber Soul was released on Friday, December 3rd 1965 three short years after The Beatles first entered Abbey Road Studios and met George Martin. It was their fifth album and the final one engineered by Norman Smith who was promoted a few months after Rubber Soul’s release to EMI’s A&R (artist and repertoire) Dept.

Help! was released in August of 1965. The Beatles needed to produce another album for release well before Christmas. But they first were obliged to visit America at the end of the month to once again play The Hollywood Bowl.

They didn’t have much unrecorded material left and little if anything from their stage act upon which to draw. They began recording the Help! follow-up the second week of October, 1965 for an album that needed to be in the stores early December, but instead of a slapdash effort they produced Rubber Soul.