Question on The Beatles
 

why did they release so many non album singles? Paperback Writer, We can Work it out, She Loves You, Hey Jude, etc.

Aren't singles supposed to promote an album? What was Capital's marketing stragergy by doing this?

That's the way things were done back then in the industry. Record companies wanted people to buy the single AND the album.

Actually, I think it's always been more of a British thing than an American one, that continues to this day. A band like The Smiths had lots of 'non-album' singles. The difference is that The Smiths released so many compilations during their career (Hatful Of Hollow, Louder Than Bombs, The World Won't Listen) that the singles always ended up on albums anyway...

Capitol in America repackaged just about all the Beatle albums right up untill Revolver. And even that had a few missing tracks. And Your Bird Can Sing, Dr. Robert, and I'm Only Sleeping were all left off the American release of Revolver and placed on the album "Yester and Today" ( featuring the infamous Butcher Cover). If you look at the UK and US versions of A Hard Days Night, the contrasts are striking! The US version has 7 original songs and side 2 is all instrumentals from the films score. While the UK version has 13 original tracks.

Capitol's marketing plan was to get as many Beatle albums out on the market as possible up until 1964 there were only 4 UK releases. By repackaging the singles and making a bunch of "mish mosh" LP's they could effectively do just that.

As for the UK singles, it was a common practice in the UK to release a non-album single. Remember that Capitol and EMI/Parlophone in the UK are two seperate entitys.

This is a good site for the Beatles UK and US discography.

Beatles Discography