Everybody knows what every album by The Beatles looks like but I’ve found myself wondering about the sleeves of the old 45s.
I have a couple of singles by The Beatles but they’re scratched to all hell and the covers are long gone. They’re pretty much unplayable.
I’ve been looking up the sleeves of the UK singles and their US versions because I wondered what they looked like and it has surprised me.
With the exception of a few, they’re all a bit cheap looking with strange and sometimes out of focus photos.
It took me an incredibly long time to find all of these and I’ve tried my best to put them all in order. I’ve even polished a few of them up so that you can see better but if I’ve missed one or got something wrong, feel free to let me know.
Here are the UK and US covers of The Beatles’ 45s:
* Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You (1962).
UK:
US Version:
* Please Please Me / Ask Me Why (1963).
UK:
* From Me To You / Thank You Girl (1963).
UK:
* She Loves You / I’ll Get You (1963).
UK:
US Version:
* I Want To Hold Your Hand / This Boy (1963).
UK:
* I Want To Hold Your Hand / I Saw Her Standing There (1963).
US Only Single:
* My Bonnie / The Saints (1964).
US Only Single:
* Please Please Me / From Me To You (1964).
US Only Single:
* Do You Want To Know A Secret / Thank You Girl (1964).
US Only Single:
* Why / Cry For A Shadow (1964).
US Only Single:
* Ain’t She Sweet / Nobody’s Child (1964).
US Only Single:
* Can’t Buy Me Love / You Can’t Do That (1964).
UK:
US Version:
* A Hard Day’s Night / Things We Said Today (1964).
UK:
* A Hard Day’s Night / I Should Have Known Better (1964).
US Only Single:
* I’m Happy Just To Dance With You / I’ll Cry instead (1964).
US Only Single:
* And I Love Her / If I Fell (1964).
US Only Single:
* Match Box / Slow Down (1964).
US Only Single:
* I Feel Fine / She’s A Woman (1964).
UK:
US Version:
* Ticket To Ride / Yes It Is (1965).
UK:
US Version:
* HELP! / I’m Down (1965).
UK:
US Version:
* Eight Days A Week / I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party (1965).
US Only Single:
* Yesterday / Act Naturally (1965).
US Only Single:
* Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out (1965).
UK:
US Version:
* Paperback Writer / Rain (1966).
UK:
US Version:
* Nowhere Man / What Goes On (1966).
US Only Single:
* Yellow Submarine / Eleanor Rigby (1966).
UK:
US Version:
* Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields Forever (1967).
UK:
* All You Need Is Love / Baby You’re A Rich Man (1967).
UK:
US Version:
* Hello, Goodbye / I Am The Walrus (1967).
UK:
US Version:
* Lady Madonna / The Inner Light (1968).
UK:
US Version:
* Hey Jude / Revolution (1968).
UK:
* Get Back / Don’t Let Me Down (1969).
UK:
* Ballad Of John And Yoko / Old Brown Shoe (1969).
UK:
US Version:
* Something / Come Together (1969).
UK:
* Let It Be / You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) (1970).
UK:
* The Long And Winding Road / For You Blue (1970).
US Only Single:
* Yesterday / I Should Have Known Better (1976).
UK Only Single:
* Got To Get You Into My Life / Helter Skelter (1976).
US Only Single:
* Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da / Julia (1976).
US Only Single:
* Back In the U.S.S.R. / Twist And Shout (1976).
UK Only Single:
* Girl / You’re Going To Lose That Girl (1977).
Unissued Single:
* Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band / With A Little Help From My Friends / A Day In The Life (1978).
* Leave My Kitten Alone / Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (1985).
Unissued Single:
* Baby It’s You / I’ll Follow The Sun / Devil In Her Heart / Boys (1994):
* Free As A Bird (1995).
* Real Love (1996).
You May Also Be Interested In…
* The Beatles’ Back Album Covers.
* The Singles Of John Lennon.
* The Albums Of John Lennon.
“Hey, you know what would sell records? If we removed all the conceptual artwork from these covers, and instead just put on generic pictures of the band!” -American marketing strategists
Those records could have been in plain brown paper bags and they’d still have sold.
Considering the white album, they sorta did.
Thank You – These are all beautiful. I appreciate all the work you put into posting these for us. It brought back a lot of memories – I enjoyed seeing the covers I have not seen before.
Thanks Becky,
Drop by anytime!
The majority of the UK singles covers pictured were designed by myself and fellow designer Ken Ansell in the early 80′s, when EMI Records re-released all the UK Beatles singles in a presentation boxed set. As I recall we were given a pile of transparencies, one for each release and a very short time to produce the designs – this long before the appearance of any Apple Mac in our studio to speed things along. Happy days!