| Por Siempre Beatles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compilation album by The Beatles | ||||
| Released | 8 October 1971 | |||
| Recorded | 1965–1970 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Odeon LDS 2200 | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| The Beatles chronology | ||||
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Por Siempre Beatles is a compilation album by The Beatles released originally in Argentina in 1971 (EMI-Odeon LDS 2200), and in Spain one year later (1972 – EMI/Odeon J060-04973). It collects various songs from 1965–1970 which did not make a British studio album.
The album is the never-published compilation LP called Beatles' Celebration, which had been planned (and also Odeon gone so far as to publicize it) in 1968, but the whole project was aborted due to not receiving the authorization from Parlophone. That was precisely a condition imposed by the Beatles themselves at the time of renegotiating his contract in 1967: They were not ready to allow that any EMI branch kept on editing compilations when and how they wanted. The order and the selection of songs for this first version was slightly different from the one featured on the later released Forever album.
The album, whose title translates, Forever Beatles or Beatles Forever, is best remembered for the inclusion of two b-sides, "The Inner Light", which was the b-side to "Lady Madonna," and "I'm Down," the b-side to "Help!", neither of which were available on American or British Beatles albums until the late 1970s. Both "The Inner Light" and "I'm Down", along with "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" (the b-side to "Let It Be") represented the only Beatles songs not to appear on an American Beatles album in the sixties or early seventies.
Because of the inclusion of "I'm Down" and the George Harrison composition, "The Inner Light," Por Siempre Beatles was, for much of the seventies, a highly-sought album among Beatles collectors. With the placement of "I'm Down" on the 1976 compilation album, Rock 'n' Roll Music and the inclusion of "The Inner Light" on Rarities (which was first included in the 1978 boxed set, The Beatles Collection, and then released as a separate British album in 1979), interest in Por Siempre Beatles waned among collectors. "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", was also included on Rarities.
None of the twelve tracks on Por Siempre Beatles appear on an official British studio Beatles album, although "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out" are included on the 1966 British compilation album, A Collection of Beatles Oldies, while "The Fool on the Hill", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Your Mother Should Know", "Penny Lane", "Baby, You're a Rich Man", and "Blue Jay Way" appear on the American Magical Mystery Tour album, which was widely available as an import in Great Britain prior to its release in the UK in 1976. "I Call Your Name" and "Yes It Is" were only released on American albums in the sixties (The Beatles' Second Album and Beatles VI respectively.)
The album inspired the band Chirigotas de Cadiz to perform a cover of the Beatles rarity "I Call Your Name" in their act, "Los Beatles de Cadiz."[1]
All songs by Lennon–McCartney unless otherwise noted