Earlier in 1982, E.M.I. had considered a new "Greatest Hits" double album, and prepared "The Beatles Greatest Hits" as the next big T.V. advertised album. It had 26 tracks and was given the catalogue number EMTVS 34, but never got beyond the promo stage.
It was planned as the 22 A-sides plus the four songs designated as double A-sides, but at the last minute the E.M.I. suits realised it would clash too much with the still selling "Red" and "Blue" albums ....
So what did they come up with instead ? ... a single album of 20 A-sides.

Many countries created their own versions of this collection, and the Americans were one of them. With a bizarre piece of (non)-artistic judgement they cropped two minutes off of the end of "Hey Jude" !

The cassette version (TC-PCTC 260) was deleted October 1992.