The album cover was just terrible: it featured The Beatles cheerfully sitting in white butchers frocks with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of meat all over the place.
The cover quickly led to media and public condemnation and marked the first time The Beatles were widely criticized by the press. The album was quickly withdrawn and re-release in many cases with a new cover pasted over the original.
As a result of the recall, the original cover is a collectors item.
The Beatles have explained the cover in various ways over the years saying that it was a protest against the war or that it was a shot at their record label Capital for butchering their work. By all accounts The Beatles relationship with Capital was not good when the Butcher cover was release. Some have speculated the photo was never intended as a cover by The Beatles themselves but was the record labels attempt to teach The Beatles a lesson.
Despite the controversial cover, Yesterday and Day hit number one on the US charts.
The Beatles would soon redeem themselves by releasing some of the most acclaimed album art of all time such as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Parlophone label and Abbey Road on the Apple label.
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