How the Stones' 'High Tide and Green Grass' and the Beatles' 'Oldies' Compilations Compared in 1966

Both compilations arrived in late 1966 as stopgap products, but their track selections exposed very different strategies. The Stones’ High Tide and Green Grass (US version) crammed twelve hits plus the non-album B-side “Fortune Teller,” skipping deep cuts entirely. The Beatles’ A Collection of Beatles Oldies went the other direction: only ten tracks, but it dug up “This Boy” and “I’ll Be Back” alongside their biggest singles. The Beatles had just released Revolver in August, so they leaned on older material; the Stones had Aftermath from April, so they pulled from 1964–66 with no overlap.

Marketing-wise, both were cheap holiday-season cash-ins. London Records pitched the Stones’ album as “the first complete collection” of their hits, which was a lie—it omitted “The Last Time” in the US. EMI framed the Beatles’ record as a “butcher’s block” of past hits, complete with a tacky sleeve that listed song snippets like butcher cuts. Neither label pretended the compilations were artistic statements; they were quick releases to keep catalog churn going while the bands toured or changed directions.

Did they diminish their respective album catalogs? For the Beatles, the comp was harmless—most Beatles Oldies tracks came from singles or EPs that weren’t on UK albums anyway, so it didn’t cannibalize anything. For the Stones, High Tide actually made their early albums less essential: it cherry-picked the best singles from The Rolling Stones (England’s Newest Hit Makers), 12x5, and Out of Our Heads, so a casual buyer could skip those LPs entirely. It enhanced the comp’s appeal but weakened the albums it poached from.