Earth & Mars

***Earth & Mars*** is the eighteenth studio album by the English-American rock band The Beatles. It was released on 27 August 1975 in the United Kingdom and 28 August 1975 in North America, on Apple Records. *Earth and Mars* continued the band's run of commercial success and provided a springboard for a year-long worldwide tour.

A remixed and expanded edition of the album was released in 2025 to coincide with the album's 50th anniversary.

## Background and recording

With the fan-splitting '*Symphony No. 16*', released during the front half of 1975, and The Beatles having gotten over the cancellation of '*Scandal*', work was started on more material surprisingly quickly. However, despite the eagerness to begin recording, the sessions were marred by personal issues. Lennon, going through a terrible case of writer's block, pulled out his stops from years prior, while Harrison, who was suffering from constant drug abuse, could barely pull himself together to record on the album nor write material. However, there was hope in McCartney. At a high point in his life, McCartney's output was producing music at an incredible speed. He soon, however, found more songs than he knew what to do with.

This issue led to the majority material being of McCartney's descent, as well as the creation of 'The Million-Mile Medley', a collection of 12 songs, with 8 being McCartney's. Initially, the band wished for McCartney to create an entire medley of just his songs to pad out the runtime due to the unfruitful sessions for the majority of the band. However, McCartney successfully convinced Lennon, Harrison, and Starkey to contribute songs as well so McCartney wouldn't feel isolated from the rest of the band.

Following the release of *Earth and Mars*, the band began what would be their year-long Beatles Over the World tour in the UK, with concerts in Australia, Europe, the US and Canada to follow. Songs from *Earth and Mars* featured heavily in the concert setlist.

## Cover artwork

The album cover, which Paul summed up as "a package that would be nice to get, and also something recognizable" was photographed by Linda, depicting two billiard balls in a black background, which are blue and red to fit the colours of the planets Earth and Mars. Interior photographs of The Beatles were shot in the Mojave desert to capture a group photograph in an outerworldly location.

## Release

'*Earth & Mars*' was released during the latter half of 1975 to near-universal acclaim, with reviewers singling out 'Rock Show', 'Love Is', and 'The Million-Mile Medley' as the standout tracks. Preceded by the US #1 non-album single "Listen to What the Man Said" in May 1975, *Earth and Mars* appeared two weeks later to generally favourable reviews and strong sales. The album reached number 1 in the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries around the world and sold four million copies worldwide.

## Track listing

**Side one**

1. "Earth & Mars" (McCartney) - 1:41
2. "Rock Show" (Lennon-McCartney) - 4:26
3. "Electrodes" (P. McCartney-Harrison-L. McCartney) - 1:51
4. "Love Is" (Lennon-McCartney-Eastman) - 5:16
5. "Oo-Wee" (Starkey) - 3:59
6. "Hottest Gong In Town" (Harrison) - 3:36

**Side two (*The Million-Mile Medley*)**

1. "The Dance Of The Dawn" (Anderson-Howe-Squire-Wakeman-White) - 2:03
2. "Get On The Right Thing" (McCartney) - 2:16
3. "Hold Me Tight" (McCartney) - 2:23
4. "Ol' Lazy Dynamite" (McCartney) - 2:02
5. "Goin' Down" (Lennon) - 1:34
6. "Back Off, Boogaloo" (Starkey) - 1:06
7. "John Sinclair" (Lennon) - 1:49
8. "Sour Milk Sea" (Harrison) - 2:02
9. "Hands Of Love" (McCartney) - 2:09
10. "I Love You So" (McCartney) - 2:05
11. "After The Ball" (McCartney) - 0:43
12. "How Many Million Miles?" (McCartney) - 1:48

## Personnel

* **John Lennon** - lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, percussion
* **Paul McCartney** - lead and backing vocals; bass guitar, acoustic and electric guitars; piano, keyboards; drums, percussion
* **George Harrison** - lead and backing vocals; electric guitar, slide guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar
* **Ringo Starr** - lead and backing vocals, drums, percussion
* **Linda McCartney** - lead and backing vocals; organ, keyboards
* **Denny Laine** - backing vocals; acoustic and electric guitars; percussion

### **Production team**

* **George Martin** - Main producer
* **Geoff Emerick** – sound engineer