the Beatles have developed, but it proves mainly how much more variety there is in their albums than in their singles". Record Mirror reviewer criticised the omission of "Please Please Me" and considered "Bad Boy" "probably the worst on the album". The writer said that the album would only appeal to "the occasional Beatle buyers", but added, "doubtless there are enough of them to make this into a chart-topper." Writing in the 1970s, NME critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler said of the compilation: "Once again, it was Christmas – and the Beatles had no new product to give to EMI for their Santa sack! As a last resort, a predictable collection of oldies was hastily assembled and crammed into an inferior Carnaby-Street-style carrier-bag sleeve." They also commented on the record company's propensity, starting in 1963, for releasing the Beatles' hits and other previously issued songs on EPs – an approach they describe as an "Old Ukrainian saying: if it moves, sell it". Author Robert Rodriguez criticises EMI's commercial motivation, adding: "It must have been obvious to anyone paying attention that, given the low-rent design and their own oft-stated aversion to compilations, the Beatles had nothing to do with this project." Writing for Rough Guides, Chris Ingham describes it as a "fair, if safe, mid-career compendium". In his review for AllMusic, Richard Ginell says that EMI did give fans value for their money, by offering sixteen songs instead of the usual quota of fourteen for a British LP release, one of which was the previously unissued track. Ginell writes that, in retrospect, the compilation stands as "a decent summing up of the Beatles' achievement just before the plunge into 'Strawberry Fields' and Sgt. Pepper". According to a December 1971 report in Billboard on the preference for UK-pressed LPs among Los Angeles record-buyers, A Collection of Beatles Oldies was one of the most popular imported titles, and recognised as good value for its generous number of songs relative to the US industry standard. For many years after its release, the 1966 compilation remained the only British album to contain the Beatles' version of "Bad Boy". Although briefly available on the Music for Pleasure budget label, it was superseded by subsequent compilations: the band's 1962–1966 greatest hits set, released in 1973, contained fifteen of the songs; the remaining track, "Bad Boy", was then included on the 1976 compilation Rock 'n' Roll Music.