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.
The set was compiled by Phil Israel, with assistance from Bruce Hamlin.
Phil recalls: "I put together a box set of the Beatles singles and did all the covers for each single. EMI Australia wasn’t keen on the idea but they didn’t stop me. I never asked for permission from EMI or Apple - I just did it. When it was released, EMI UK were really unhappy about the package but when they saw how well it did, they decided to go [continue] with the blue album packaging."
Bruce recalls: "When we got to do the singles box set, I suggested the cover notes. 'OK, then write them, Bruce', which I did, a full page on each record. 'Too much, edit it down yourself', then they did a second chop job to just the couple of lines they actually used.
"Then I suggested we put the list of the top 34 into the booklet too. 'OK, good idea' they said. 'Well,' says I, 'I'm gonna need the sales figures'. I settled for the ex-factory figures as they also included the returns of what the shops didn't sell but sent back to the factory."
Parlophone AB34
EMI (Australia) recut 11 singles specifically for the collection (ie those that were out of print), 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.
Bruce: "For cost reasons, EMI only wanted to recut the singles that had been deleted and thus no pressing plates existed. Eleven singles had been deleted and no pressing parts held, so I got to nominate my choice of source tapes for the 22 songs."
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 - see images below.
While most boxes contained all new pressings with black Parlophone labels and new typesetting, some early boxes contained existing stock comprising any combination of the following singles:
A8143 Rock And Roll Music / Honey Don't: orange Parlophone
A-8693 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da / While My Guitar Gently Weeps: Apple
A-8793 The Ballad Of John And Yoko / Old Brown Shoe: Apple
A-12000 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band / With A Little Help From My Friends // A Day In The Life: existing press with older pressing ring
Evidence indicates that the singles were available, with picture sleeves, for individual order until stocks ran out, whereby the singles reverted back to generic EMI sleeves (c. mid-1987).
Picture sleeve images below - click to enlarge. Labels are viewable under each individual single entry as SILVER/BLACK - STYLE 'C'.