Because 1 guy demanded it (seriously, don't blame me, this is Momo's fault!) here's the idea:

Instead of splitting up in 1969, after recording Abbey Road (although they managed to keep it a secret until shortly before the release of Let It Be), The Beatles decide to stay together until 1976 , when their current contract with EMI runs out. What follows is my chronological list of how I would like to imagine their albums and singles might have been put together.

The rules I set for myself:
1. Legitimate releases only (no bootleg stuff)
2. Stay fairly close to when the music was either recorded or released (I had to fudge this a little in regards to George because he had such a MASSIVE backlog of unrecorded songs that his All Things Must Pass recordings ended up getting stretched out over several years)
3. Use only songs released on the Apple label during those years (I had to fudge this for the live album, which I'll explain when I get there)
4. Stay as close as possible to a 14 track per album limit. 5 John songs, 5 Paul songs, 3 George songs and 1 Ringo song.
5. Nobody gets both sides of a single.

Here we go:

1970

03/06/70 - single release "Let It Be/Instant Karma (We All Shine On)"

A good strong double-A sided single "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" gets relegated to the archives and isn't released until "Anthology".

05/08/70 - LP release Let It Be

No change here, the film and the album come out unchanged

09/19/70 - single release "Power To The People/Oh Woman, Oh Why"

John finally gets his political A-side.

1971

02/25/71 - single release "It Don't Come Easy/Give Ireland Back To The Irish"

Ringo's second A-side and his first #1. A huge, worldwide smash!

07/15/71 - single release "Bangladesh/Isolation"

The Beatles have announced a large all-star charity concert to raise money for the refugees of Bangladesh to be held later in the year. (more on that later)

10/25/71 - single release "Maybe I'm Amazed/Look At Me"

advance release from their upcoming album

11/29/71 - LP release All Things Must Pass

Side One

1. Mother
2. Every Night
3. I Found Out
4. Junk
5. Love
6. Hear Me Lord
7. Blindman

Side Two

1. Maybe I'm Amazed
2. Let It Down
3. Well, Well, Well
4. Teddy Boy
5. Look At Me
6. Man We Was Lonely
7. All Things Must Pass

Okay. I can already hear what you're thinking: "BLINDMAN"?!?!? Yes, it's a quirky little song. But at this point it was either that or It Don't Come Easy and the latter was so obviously (to me anyway) single material that I just couldn't relegate it to an album cut. I don't think The Beatles would've either.

1972

01/10/72 - LP release The Concert For Bangladesh

Side One

1. Introduction
2. Bangla Dhun - Ravi Shankar

Side Two

1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (featuring Eric Clapton)
2. Maybe I'm Amazed
3. Instant Karma (We All Shine On)
4. It Don't Come Easy
5. Lady Madonna
6. The Long And Winding Road
7. Well, Well, Well
8. Mother

Side Three

1. A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan
2. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry - Bob Dylan
3. Blowin' In The Wind - Bob Dylan
4. Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan
5. Just Like A Woman - Bob Dylan
6. I've Just Seen A Face
7. Blackbird
8. Yesterday

Side Four

1. Here Comes The Sun
2. Something
3. Honey Don't
4. Hound Dog
5. Come Together
6. Give Peace A Chance
7. Bangladesh

The release of the all-star charity concert recording from late '71. As I mentioned earlier, I had to fudge the rules here a little to get live performances from each of the boys. All of George's tracks, the Ravi Shankar track, all of Dylan's tracks and Ringo's "It Don't Come Easy" were culled from the actual Bangladesh concert LP. All of Paul's numbers are from the Wings Over America LP, while all of John's are from his Live In New York City album. Finally, in an effort to give Ringo one more number, I pulled "Honey Don't" from the first All-Starr Band LP. Surprisingly, it doesn't sound nearly as disjointed as I thought it would.

04/03/72 - single release "All Things Must Pass/Blindman"

second single from their latest studio LP

09/09/72 - "Back Off Boogaloo/Apple Scruffs"

first single release from their upcoming LP

10/07/72 - LP release Ram

Side One

1. Imagine
2. Another Day
3. Wah-Wah
4. Jealous Guy
5. What Is Life
6. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
7. Give Me Some Truth
8. Ram On

Side Two

1. Ram On (version two)
2. Back Off Boogaloo
3. Heart Of The Country
4. Oh My Love
5. Long Haired Lady
6. How?
7. Apple Scruffs
8. The Back Seat Of My Car

A little fudging with the 7 tracks per side rule, but I really wanted to include the two "Ram On" tracks, which are more like studio outtakes than actual songs.

11/24/72 - single release "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)/C Moon"

One of the all-time great Christmas singles (and another political A-side for John )

1973

04/19/73 - single release "Live And Let Die/Photograph"

Another strong double A-sided single, and the title track to the upcoming James Bond movie.

08/17/73 - single release "I Dig Love/Crippled Inside"

1st release from their upcoming album

09/14/73 - LP release Sometime In New York City

Side One

1. I Dig Love
2. Crippled Inside
3. Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)
4. I Don't Want To Be A Soldier Mama, I Don't Want To Die
5. Some People Never Know
6. The Luck Of The Irish
7. Tomorrow

Side Two

1. John Sinclair
2. Dear Friend
3. Beware Of Darkness
4. Little Woman Love
5. New York City
6. Hi, Hi, Hi
7. Art Of Dying

Breaking out of their EMI/Apple Studios routine, the boys record an album in NYC.

1974

03/03/74 - single release "Junior's Farm/I Don't Care Anymore"

10/21/74 - single release "Mind Games/Six O'Clock"

1st release from their upcoming album

11/18/74 - LP release Mind Games

Side One

1. Mind Games
2. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
3. My Love
4. Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)
5. One More Kiss
6. Behind That Locked Door
7. When The Night

Side Two

1. Meat City
2. Six O'Clock
3. Out The Blue
4. Awaiting On You All
5. I Lie Around
6. You Are Here
7. Hold Me Tight/Lazy Dynamite/Hands Of Love/Power Cut

Unlike the single version, the Six O'Clock featured on the LP is the extended version that was originally only released on the Ringo cassette tape.

1975

03/24/75 - single release "My Love/Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)"

Huge, double A-sided hit

11/8/75 - single release "Band On The Run/Easy For Me"

from the upcoming album

12/06/75 - LP release Band On The Run

Side One

1. Band On The Run
2. I'd Have You Anytime
3. Bless You
4. Maya Love
5. Bluebird
6. What You Got
7. Jet

Side Two

1. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
2. Mamunia
3. No. 9 Dream
4. Easy For Me
5. Dark Horse
6. Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)
7. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five

Recorded in London, New York and Lagos, The Beatles turn in an exceptionally strong LP.

1976

02/14/76 - single release "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night/I'd Have You Anytime"

second single from the current LP

05/10/76 - single release "You're Sixteen/Slippin' And Slidin'

first release from the upcoming LP sessions and the first (and only) single released by the group where neither song was written by a member of the group.

06/07/76 - LP release Goodnight, Vienna

Side One

1. You
2. Mrs. Vanderbilt
3. Scared
4. Helen Wheels
5. This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)
6. Sally G
7. Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)
8. Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)
9. A Bit More Of You

Side Two

1. Goodnight, Vienna
2. Stand By Me
3. Love Is Strange
4. Bye, Bye Love
5. Ain't That A Shame
6. Only You (And You Alone)
7. Sweet Little Sixteen
8. Goodnight, Vienna (reprise)

The Beatles final album and, like Abbey Road, each side is almost an album unto itself. Side one is straight up pop/rock Beatles music, while side two, aside from the "Vienna" bookends is a run-through of some of the group's favourite oldies.

In December 1977 (just in time for Christmas!), EMI releases three double LP greatest hits packages: 1962-1966 (aka The Red Album), 1967-1971 (aka The Blue Album) and 1972-1976 (aka The Yellow Album)

Well done - each release runs better than I expected. Lots of excellent unreleased stuff - for Anthology vol 4 - 6 I suppose.

This is an enjoyable and interesting thread.
Thanks for the effort. I'm going to start putting some of those albums together and see how they play out.

I guess if they stayed together there would be no titles such as.
How Do You Sleep
Early 1970
Sue Me, Sue You Blues

you would not have posted this thread.

Yes, I take full responsibility for this excellent thread!
Thank you, Fraxon!

First of all, this post is entertaining just to read and makes me want to quickly nail this stuff together to see how it plays. So thanks for that Frax. I'm just wondering if after having Pepper, the White Album and side two of Abbey Road in their background, would they have gone forward building albums of unrelated cuts?

Or am I overthinking the assignment?

You could have taken this a step further...imagine they split their contract was up...what if the reunited in 1980? I think a Starting Over please would be an interesting final release.

Pretty cool stuff, I've always wanted to see something like this but never really had the Beatles knowledge to make it happen.