Ranasakawa
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Brian is right.
Like it or not, the bigger an artist is, the more say they usually have over a release, including how an album is mixed, and in the case of the Beatles, Paul & Ringo are still alive (& kicking), and they won't release anything until they are both satisfied with how it sounds.
This is what all engineers have to deal with almost all of the time.
It's a very rare exception when an engineer will get to do exactly what they want without having to answer to the artist and/or record label.
We'll never know how people like James Guthrie or Giles Martin would have mixed certain records in surround if they had the opportunity to mix them exactly as they wanted to without any interference from the artist and/or record label, so instead, we have to live with what was released, and in the vast majority of instances, it's better than nothing…
Very well said!