Kohara of Capitol was responsible for art design, as he had been for Extra Texture and the Lennon and Starr compilations, while the illustrations were the work of Michael Bryan. Rodriguez describes this choice of sleeve as "bizarre" and notes the use of an outdated, "rather dour-looking" image of Harrison. The UK edition contained Bob Cato's colour photo of Harrison sitting in front of an antique car, with art direction for the package being credited to Cream designs. The international CD release of the album uses the latter cover. The inner sleeve of the original LP in Britain contained a picture by Michael Putland, showing Harrison on a wintry beach in Cannes, where he was attending the Midem music-industry trade fair in January 1976. A third front-cover option came with MFP's budget reissue during the 1980s, which reproduced Harrison's 1968 White Album portrait. Release Capitol Records released The Best of George Harrison on 8 November 1976 in America, with the catalogue number Capitol ST 11578. The UK issue, as PAS 10011 on EMI's Parlophone label, followed on 20 November. Among Beatles-related releases at the time, the compilation's arrival coincided not only with that of Thirty Three & ⅓, but also with McCartney's Wings over America triple live album; in addition, EMI belatedly issued the Beatles' 1967 Capitol release Magical Mystery Tour in December 1976, after that album had long proved a popular import in Britain. Writing in the NME in November, Bob Woffinden commented that sales of Thirty Three & ⅓ were sure to be "adversely affected by the almost simultaneous release – next week in fact – of [The Best of George Harrison]". According to author Peter Doggett, this calculated scheduling by Capitol/EMI meant that Harrison "would remain a staunch opponent" of the record companies in the concurrent litigation between Apple and its former manager, Allen Klein. In the US, with Harrison actively promoting Thirty Three & ⅓ and enjoying some of his best reviews in years, the compilation reached number 31 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on 15 February 1977, for sales of over 500,000 units. By the end of 1977, it was the only one of the three former Beatles' compilation albums to have received gold certification by the RIAA. Like Starr's 1975 compilation, The Best of George Harrison failed to place