Notwithstanding the slightly misleading title (the first single was not released locally until 1963), The Australian 20th Anniversary Singles Collection is perhaps the best way to get in one place all 34 Australian Beatles singles released by EMI (Australia) up to October 1982.

EMI (Australia) recut 11 singles specifically for the collection, which when combined with the earlier 1976 recuts, left 13 original (1963-70) singles that EMI (Australia) determined were suitable as they were - please visit each individual single page for more information.

Each single was housed in a (cheap) paper picture sleeve utilising stills from newsreel footage of The Beatles' 1964 Australasian tour. As the single-piece sleeves were merely glued along each side rather than having a more traditional internal fold, they are prone to splitting. Further, it is quite common for discs to become entangled in the glue, leaving them either stuck in the sleeve, or with paper and glue residue on the outer edges of the disc.

The set included a six-page insert with short details of each single along with a table listing each single in decreasing order of sales.