Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A hotchpotch but what a hotchpotch, 20 Sep 2002
This CD contains all the officially released tracks (in the pre- Anthology age) from 62 to 65, which were not featured on the original albums and thus provided a way for the cd collector to own all the official recordings. The result inevitably is somewhat mixed - 'Love Me Do' (the original single version with Ringo on drums) is still, however catchy the harmonica, a rather inane song, and the two songs in German ( versions of 'She Loves You' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' respectively) have little more than novelty to recommend them. Having said all that the balance of the album shows why the Beatles are still held in such awe. A great deal of attention has been paid to the Beatles later work but just listen to the energy they can summon on 'She Loves You' - not an wasted moment from that first drum break. It is amazing today that they could afford to leave such great singles as this ,'I Want to Hold Your Hand' and 'I Feel Fine' off their albums. What is even more astonishing is that a track as brilliant as 'She's A Woman' - a track ANY other band would have died for - could be relegated to a b-side, or that Paul's blistering version of 'Long Tall Sally' should be allowed to slip into semi-obscurity as an ep track. And to round off the CD 'I'm Down' - surely no-one could have had more evident fun recording a track.
Rather than buy '1', buy this and it's companion CD. So much more enjoyable.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A GREAT ALBUM TO ROUND OUT THE COLLECTION, 7 Jan 2004
This LP version was pretty much an afterthought as it had already been released as 2 seperate CD's. However, it's one of the few post-breakup compilations that actually makes sense and serves a useful purpose considering the plethora of "exploitation" compilations released after the band finally broke-up in 1970. Let's face it, we had "1962-70", "Rock & Roll Music", "Love Songs", "Live At The Hollywood Bowl", "The Beatles Box", "Ballads", "Rarities" (2 Versions!) "20 Greatest Hits" (Seperate UK & US Versions + The Number Ones (An Aussie Compilation) - and that's just the official releases, not to mention the repacking of the original Beatles catalogue as a boxed set and "Only The Beatles", released on Cassette only and now quite rare. However if you're a big fan like myself, then, like me, you've probably got all of those on vinyl anyway.
This album gathers together all non-LP Singles & 'B' Sides, EP tracks, 2 German language versions, a giveaway track and 3 alternate versions also originally released on single ("Love Me Do', "Get Back" & "Let It Be").
Volume 1 covers 1962-65 and includes Million selling singles such as "She Loves You", I Want To Hold Your Hand, I Feel Fine. Also included is the original single release of "Love Me Do" featuring a nervous Paul whose voice is shaky in the solo parts..hey it was his first BIG moment on record, hence the nerves. The B-sides were usually high quality. As a kid growing up with them, these tracks were as famailair to me as the "A" sides. Highlights here include "She's A Woman" & "I'm Down" and the gorgeous "This Boy". All of these would have been an A-sides for ANY other band.."She's A Woman" was pretty much a double-A in Australia such was it's popularity at the time. The B-side was a useful vehicle that the Beatles successfully experimented with and some great groundbreaking stuff resulted. Another highlight is the complete "Long Tall Sally" EP, and along with the title track, it included "Slow Down", "Matchbox" & "I Call Your Name". It was their first purposely recorded EP and arguably the greatest EP ever released by anyone.
Volume 2 covers 1965-70 and the highlights are even more plentiful. Here we have the Beatles "using the studio as an instrument" and the results speak for themselves..."We Can Work It Out" & "Day Tripper" were originally a Double-A single released the SAME DAY as the "Rubber Soul" LP. They were always a prolific band but they didn't just churn music out for the sake of it. The quality of their work was always high standard and it moved forward, breaking the rules and making new ones as they went. "Rain" was probably their best ever B-side, recorded with it's A-side "Paperback Writer" during the "Revolver" sessions but not included on that album. The other high quality B-sides include George's wonderful "The Inner Light", John's pre-metal "Revolution", "Don't Let Me Down", "Old Brown Shoe" plus the track that nearly never was "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)", originally recorded in 1968 but eventually released as the under-side to "Let It Be". The other 'A's include "Hey Jude", "Lady Madonna", "Get Back" (the complete version), "Ballad Of John & Yoko" and the afore-mentioned "Let It Be" - this is the single version with a different lead guitar solo. This album could effectively be a "Greatest Hits" compilation such is the standard of tracks on this LP and with the way it's compiled, you can track the group's amazing progress from 4 curious musical explorers who just wanted to play rock 'n' roll to influential trendsetters leading the way for others to follow in their wake. There will NEVER be another band like them.
If you've got all the other studio albums and you're looking to complete the set, then this album fills the bill beautifully. Thoroughly recommended. This review is based on the CD versions.
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36 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Round-up of singles never released on original albums, 22 Dec 2003
In the sixties, singles were far more important than albums and it was common practice for the best tracks to be released on singles or EP's and not to appear on album until there were enough tracks for a Greatest hits. Album sales were modest compared to singles sales so the idea of using a single to promote an album had not yet been born. When it was decided to release all the original Beatles albums on CD, there were enough of these tracks to fill two CD's of their own. Past masters volumes 1 and 2 contain these tracks. In a few cases, different versions of the songs appeared on original albums. Volume 2 (the other one) is the stronger of the two, but both are excellent.Love me do began it all for the Beatles, becoming their first UK – it reached the top 20 then but became a much bigger hit later on. From me to you, She loves you, I want to hold your hand and I feel fine are the other major hits on this collection. The Beatles also recorded German versions of She loves you and I want to hold your hand and those versions are included here. Among the other great tracks here are covers Long tall Sally (Little Richard) and Matchbox (Carl Perkins) that clearly demonstrate their musical roots in rock'n'roll. Since this CD was originally released, all the hits were released on the red album, 1962 to 1966, so if you're just looking for hits, you might be better to buy that and its companion blue album, 1966 to 1970, or the more recent Beatles 1. But if you are a serious Beatles fan, this album is just as important as the original albums.
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