From Matthew Greenwald at the all music guide:  "Kind of a catch-all record, Hey Jude was released very late in the Beatles career, and it collects several singles and B-sides that never made it onto "official" albums. As a record though, it works quite well, and given the Beatles genius, especially in the area of creating exquisite and ultra-progressive singles, it comes as no suprise. "Paperback Writer" works particularly well, not having aged at all in the three years after its release. The bass guitar sound on this record is especially revolutionary. A couple of recent tracks, "Old Brown Shoe" and "The Ballad of John And Yoko," make their vinyl debut here, and as usual give the consumer excellent value for the money. "Old Brown Shoe" (originally slated for Joe Cocker to record) is one of George Harrison's great lost classics, and the Beatles ensemble playing on this track belies the tension that was prevalent during the group's final days."

And a nice wrap up of it here:

http://www.discographynet.com/beatles/bthj.html

I always thought it was an odd mix of titles, but what the hell, I bought it anyway.  I think Apple may have used it to bring in some cash between the White Album and Abbey Road, after finding that Get Back wasn't going to released as they had hoped.  Back to that Spector guy again...how'd that happen?