Beatle Album Tracks that could have been singles

I think people forget how many singles The Beatles could have had in their career. They treated singles and albums differently back then. The Beatles wanted more bang for their buck, so they would release many singles independently from their albums. When you buy an album, it isn’t full of previously released singles like they did in the late 70s and 80s, as in Rumours, Thriller, and Born In The USA.

There were no singles off Sgt Pepper or The White Album…none zilch. They could have added Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields to Sgt Pepper and they could have added Hey Jude and the electric version of Revolution to the White Album, but didn’t. 

They had 18…now 19 (Now and Then in 2023) number 1’s in the UK and 20 on Billboard. I’ll list the songs below that were album cuts. No, not all of these would have gone to number 1, but some would have. The songs I think that would have had a chance at #1 on either the US or UK chart are in bold. What other band would not have released these songs as singles, regardless?

This list is album cuts…it could have been a greatest hits package. Also, if you want to hear the songs, I have a Spotify list at the bottom. I didn’t want to post over 30 YouTube videos. 

  1. Here Comes The Sun – This is the most streamed song by The Beatles…yet it’s an album cut.
  2. In My Life – One of the most remembered Beatles songs. 
  3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
  4. Got To Get You Back Into My Life (it was 1976 before this was released, and it hit the top ten… 10 years after it was recorded)
  5. Here, There and Everywhere
  6. Michelle
  7. Getting Better
  8. Birthday
  9. Taxman
  10. A Day In The Life
  11. Back in the USSR
  12. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
  13. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
  14. Hey Bulldog
  15. The Fool on the Hill
  16. Drive My Car
  17. Magical Mystery Tour
  18. Dear Prudence
  19. With A Little Help From My Friends
  20. It Won’t Be Long
  21. The Night Before
  22. I’ve Just Seen a Face
  23. And Your Bird Can Sing
  24. Two Of Us
  25. You Never Give Me Your Money
  26. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (it was 1976 before this was released)
  27. Good Day Sunshine
  28. You Won’t See Me
  29. You’re Going To Lose That Girl
  30. All I’ve Got To Do
  31. No Reply
  32. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

44 thoughts on “Beatle Album Tracks that could have been singles”

    2. I was going to put out almost exactly the same list but would swap out ‘Norwegian Wood’ for ‘Good Day Sunshine.’ Nah, just add it in. Oh, and ‘LSD.’ Oh, oh and-

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  6. Aside from the obvious ones, I’ve always thought that It Won’t Be Long and You Won’t See Me could have been big hits. And you could even add Yesterday to the list, as I don’t think it was a single in the UK until the 70s

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    1. It Won’t Be Long was my first favorite Beatles song…I agree with both of them. Yesterday…I did look at that one but it was released here…I judged them being released there and/or here.
      No Reply was released in a few countries but not the US or UK

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  7. great column! VEry good point that showcases how amazing they were. In general I agree totally with you, might quibble over one or two as to whether they’d be #1 or not (I think ‘Fool on the Hill’ and ‘A Day in the Life’ would have been… unless there was yet another better cut on the b-side!) but in general absolutely. They all could have been big singles. I actually thought ‘Michelle’ was… and there was one we came across recently, I forget now, but it was one of their early singles that I didn’t realize was a 45. The more amazing thing perhaps is that we KNOW all those tunes and despite not being actual singles, radio played them anyway thankfully

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    1. The two that really blow my mind is In My Life and Here Comes The Sun….two of the best known songs they had…just incredible.

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      1. indeed. Two classics many have on the top 100 of all-time list, two that get a lot of radio love year after year and not even put out as singles. Remarkable

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    1. It really is…this would be a triple album greatest hits… I’ve always wanted to do this. Yea Good Day Sunshine would not be my pick but it did have a Kinks sound to it and undeniably catchy.

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    1. I know Christian…I still can’t believe any of these were not released. In My Life and Here Comes the Sun are two I really can’t believe.

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    1. A few like No Reply was released in different countries but not The UK and the US…I did a “find” in the wiki discography….Michele was another one like No Reply.
      I agree with both of them John. It’s crazy when you look at it now… they could have maybe not doubled their #1’s but had many more.

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  14. a lot of bands had that though….maybe not as many as the Beatles, but even the Stones….my fave tunes are never the hits, but, we’ll they usually end of on compulations….Time Waits for No One, or Dance Little Sister..and yeah, 100 Years Ago….

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    1. The volume is what most I was getting at. That list alone is huge. Oh my favorite Stones songs are Memory Motel #1 and Dance Little Sister #2. CCR had many B-sides such as Lodi and others.

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  15. it’s frustrating that modern album releases by big stars grab 12 to 20 slots on the US Hot 100 based on what are basically album streams, the tracks largely remain obscure, but back in the 60’s The Beatles songs became famous without even being singles or charting in the original versions. Had there been streaming, I am convinced that The Beatles albums would have pretty much dominated the entire top 10 for weeks and weeks in both the UK and USA as they generally generated lesser hit cover versions anyway – and they had the entire top 5 when actual physical singles were a thing, something no other act has come close to doing.

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  16. Here Comes The Sun is brilliant. Can’t believe it was an album cut. Had to be band politics behind that one and by that I mean Lennon and Macca not letting George get to much of the spotlight.

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    1. The reason this time was they just released Something….they rarely if ever released more than one single from an album.

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  18. The fact that they released all this music in 7-1/2 years is mind boggling. Like if The Beatles broke up today, then “Love Me Do” would’ve been released at the end of 2017. Their breaking up is not so surprising when you consider just how much work and time they spent together while under a celebrity microscope that really no one had ever experienced before.

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    1. It puts it in perspective when you do it that way…
      It is incredible Liam. I always thought that they could not stay together longer because they were like brothers with the good and bad. The Stones have more of a business relationship…or it developed into one…and it was smart of them to do that to stay together. It just would not have worked for the Beatles.

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  19. No argument from me. All of these have #1 hit potential. Perhaps The Beatles were ahead of the time in thinking about and the sculpting of their legacy. Many of the in bold hits are from their mid-period, which I argue is their peak. Maybe they wanted to be known as more than a hit machine, as they had no solid idea about the arc and longevity of the band.

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    1. I like their middle period also the best. They stretched the boundries with Rubber Soul and Revolver so much…and their songwriting was incredible. A song like You Won’t See Me is just awesome…I think Anne Murray covered that one.
      Yea they were more than a hit machine…

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  20. Seemed as though “Good Day Sunshine”and “Fool On The Hill” were singles, but I guess not. I agree with you about “It Won’t Be Long”- one of their greatest early songs. I love “Dance Little Sister” too. I cannot sit still when that song is playing. Hey I think some of those songs were hits for Stars On 45!

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    1. You brought up a great point. Stars On 45 had No Reply I know.
      Some of these songs were released in some countries but not the US or the UK…that was my general rule…No Reply was one of them. Oh I love Dance Little Sister and Memory Motel…my two favorite Stones songs.

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  21. That’s a good idea for a list. I wonder if any of their early covers would have made good singles – might depend how big the originals were in the UK.

    The failure of Strawberry/Penny Lane to top the charts shows how unpredictable it is – it’s like their best single.

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    1. Don’t know if it would have hit…but one of my favorite covers by them was You Really Got A Hold On Me.
      Yea…I agree it was their best single. I always thought of two reasons…Strawberry Fields was really strange at the time with them over AM radio…and was it competing against it self?

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      1. Looks like The Miracles didn’t chart in the UK until ‘Tracks of My Tears’ in 1965, so probably could have hit for The Beatles.

        I think Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane is also about the conservative silent majority preferring Engelbert’s ‘Please Release Me’ to one of The Beatles’ more ground-breaking singles.

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