First released: 2000, November 14

Sheet music, guitar tabs, song books at Sheetmusicplus.com

I saw Beatles in 1966, in Philly plus I have played guitar for over 40 years. Being a mild "expert" on Beatles instrumentation and vocals, I would like to correct some of your recording descriptions concerning Bealtes 1 CD. First of all, John AND Paul sing co-equal or what I call dual lead "unison" vocals during the main verses of Eight Days a Week with Paul splitting off on high harmonies during the middle eight and low harmony during the refrain, plus a little bit of George during the middle eight. John and Paul's refrain harmonies are double tracked to give more fullness but single tracked when they sing in unison. Most people simply don't realize how complicated Beates recordings were, even during the early years with Martin often calling for dual vocal over dubs, mutiple guitar overdubs, keyboards, and other edit pieces that he bounced or eventually did reduction mixes on during both the twin track phase as well as the later four track phase. I Want to Hold Your Hand is John and Paul in dual unison vocals again during the primary versus with the patented split into harmony featuring the typical Paul on high harmony and John on low, however, this recording featured very complicated overdubs and edit pieces like a "phantom" instrument paralleling John's Rickenbacker 360 during the initial base rhythm track or overdubbed later and reduced down to track 1 for a new base track that started the 4 track recording with George's lead on track 2, John and Pauls live vocals on track 4 and later, hand claps, an extra Lennon vocal for the second middle eight, and the overdub of Georges small chromatic riff to parallel McCartney's chromatic lick on the base track 1. The "phantom" instrument that parallels Lennon's guitar, providing that lush thick wall of sound that permeates the tune, is either Harrison parallelling Lennon's low end 5th interval chords or a very subtle stealth Hammond orgam that Martin set up to sound "guitarish" similar but more deceptive than what he used for the overdub on I Wanna Be Your Man. Regardless of what the phantom instrument is, this is an example of how complex early Beatles recordings were. Also on a Hard Days Night among others, you should have restated it as Lennon on double tracked lead vocal for main choruses and Paul double tracked lead vocal for middle eight with both harmonizing during the refrain. Martin dubbed over his piano in synch with Harrison's electric 12 string for the intro and solo. The book "Recording the Beatles' lists track by track what occurred revealing that Martin recorded his piano over Harrison's solo at half speed than later speeded it up to synch with the main track by superimposing it on track 4. Track 1 is Georges backing electric 12 along with Lennon's acoustic and bass, doing the opening chord then just rhythm along with Lennon's Gibson J-160 acoustic, Paul's bass and Ringo on drums. Martin overdubbed his piano on the opening chord as well on track 4 which also features Harrison's outro riff. Track two was live vocals with track 3 overdubbing extra vocals creating fully double tracked Lennon and McCartney vocals. Ringo also added a cowbell and woodblock on track 3. I Feel Fine featured separate tracks for Lennon's intro and backing guitars plus George adding a second lead guitar on a separate track with Lennon's live vocal on track 3 with his overdubbed lead vocal on track 4 along with Paul and George's harmonies and Lennon's additional vocal for the middle eight. Track one is the bass, drums and Lennon's electric with Harrison doing lead guitar 1 on track 3 and lead guitar 2 (overdub) on track 4. This is how complex their recordings were. Their recordings were never a simple matter of John Rhythym, George Lead, Paul bass and Ringo drums. Quite often and more so as they progressed toward Help and Rubber Soul, they constantly switched roles with John or Paul taking over the lead guitar role with George delegated to backing guitar roles, plus Paul, John or Martin dubbing in multiple keyboards. It just continued to get more complicated as their recording techcniques evolved. Don't even ask about Ticket to Ride:-)

I saw Beatles in 1966, in Philly plus I have played guitar for over 40 years. Being a mild "expert" on Beatles instrumentation and vocals, I would like to correct some of your recording descriptions concerning Bealtes 1 CD. First of all, John AND Paul sing co-equal or what I call dual lead "unison" vocals during the main verses of Eight Days a Week with Paul splitting off on high harmonies during the middle eight and low harmony during the refrain, plus a little bit of George during the middle eight. John and Paul's refrain harmonies are double tracked to give more fullness but single tracked when they sing in unison. Most people simply don't realize how complicated Beates recordings were, even during the early years with Martin often calling for dual vocal over dubs, mutiple guitar overdubs, keyboards, and other edit pieces that he bounced or eventually did reduction mixes on during both the twin track phase as well as the later four track phase. I Want to Hold Your Hand is John and Paul in dual unison vocals again during the primary versus with the patented split into harmony featuring the typical Paul on high harmony and John on low, however, this recording featured very complicated overdubs and edit pieces like a "phantom" instrument paralleling John's Rickenbacker 360 during the initial base rhythm track or overdubbed later and reduced down to track 1 for a new base track that started the 4 track recording with George's lead on track 2, John and Pauls live vocals on track 4 and later, hand claps, an extra Lennon vocal for the second middle eight, and the overdub of Georges small chromatic riff to parallel McCartney's chromatic lick on the base track 1. The "phantom" instrument that parallels Lennon's guitar, providing that lush thick wall of sound that permeates the tune, is either Harrison parallelling Lennon's low end 5th interval chords or a very subtle stealth Hammond orgam that Martin set up to sound "guitarish" similar but more deceptive than what he used for the overdub on I Wanna Be Your Man. Regardless of what the phantom instrument is, this is an example of how complex early Beatles recordings were. Also on a Hard Days Night among others, you should have restated it as Lennon on double tracked lead vocal for main choruses and Paul double tracked lead vocal for middle eight with both harmonizing during the refrain. Martin dubbed over his piano in synch with Harrison's electric 12 string for the intro and solo. The book "Recording the Beatles' lists track by track what occurred revealing that Martin recorded his piano over Harrison's solo at half speed than later speeded it up to synch with the main track by superimposing it on track 4. Track 1 is Georges backing electric 12 along with Lennon's acoustic and bass, doing the opening chord then just rhythm along with Lennon's Gibson J-160 acoustic, Paul's bass and Ringo on drums. Martin overdubbed his piano on the opening chord as well on track 4 which also features Harrison's outro riff. Track two was live vocals with track 3 overdubbing extra vocals creating fully double tracked Lennon and McCartney vocals. Ringo also added a cowbell and woodblock on track 3. I Feel Fine featured separate tracks for Lennon's intro and backing guitars plus George adding a second lead guitar on a separate track with Lennon's live vocal on track 3 with his overdubbed lead vocal on track 4 along with Paul and George's harmonies and Lennon's additional vocal for the middle eight. Track one is the bass, drums and Lennon's electric with Harrison doing lead guitar 1 on track 3 and lead guitar 2 (overdub) on track 4. This is how complex their recordings were. Their recordings were never a simple matter of John Rhythym, George Lead, Paul bass and Ringo drums. Quite often and more so as they progressed toward Help and Rubber Soul, they constantly switched roles with John or Paul taking over the lead guitar role with George delegated to backing guitar roles, plus Paul, John or Martin dubbing in multiple keyboards. It just continued to get more complicated as their recording techcniques evolved. Don't even ask about Ticket to Ride:-)

I agree with Marcus -- it could have been a two disc set. The actual compilation is fantastic though, and was my first Beatles album. If it were a two disc set, they should have put the A-sides on the first one (and call it Beatles 1) then put the b-sides on disc two and call it Beatles 2. The track listing could be: BEATLES 1: Love me Do Please Please Me From Me To You She Loves You I Want To Hold Your Hand Can't Buy Me Love A Hard Day's Night I Feel Fine Eight Days A Week Ticket To Ride Help! We Can Work It Out Paperback Writer Eleanor Rigby Strawberry Fields Forever All You Need Is Love Hello, Goodbye Lady Madonna Hey Jude Get Back The Ballad of John and Yoko Something Let It Be The Long and Winding Road BEATLES 2: PS I Love You Ask Me Why Thank You Girl Ill get you This Boy You cant Do That Things We Said Today She's A Woman I Dont Want To Spoil The Party Yes It Is Im Down Day Tripper Rain Yellow Submarine Penny Lane Baby Youre A Rich Man I Am The Walrus The Inner Light Revolution Dont let Me Down Old Brown Shoe Come Together You Know My Name (Look up the number) For You Blue

The lineup of songs is, indeed, impressive -- after all it's a collection of the Beatles' #1 hits, right? Wrong! The lead-off track, "Love Me Do" only reached #17 on the U.K. charts when released in 1962. There first, true, #1 hit single, "Please Please Me", was left off the track list altogether! There are other dubious inclusions and ommissions, but as a life-long Beatles fan it's hard to admit to being let down. For shame, EMI, Capitol, Apple...and whoever else was involved in this lazy, uninspired collection.

My reaction to this album was, "Is that it?". I found it hard to believe that they could fit a "Greatest Hits" type of record of the Beatles into 1 CD, and I guess I was right. Maybe they should have gone the route that McCartney did with his Wingspan set (although it was released later, after the success of "1"), and made a 2-disk set, one for the hits, the other for the more memorable songs, such as "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "I Am The Walrus", "Revolution", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and so on. Seeing all of the songs from both Sgt. Pepper's and The White Album excluded made me shake my head. As a Beatles fan, I can say that there's no such thing as a "bad" Beatles album, but those albums were two of the most widely known albums. Maybe if there was a follow-up compilation, it wouldn't have been so bad, but because of the lack of two whole albums, I had to give "1" a 4 out of 5.

I am 17, when i first heard this album i was 16, the only songs i had heard of were "Cant Buy Me Love", "Paperback Writer", "Hey Jude" and "All You Need Is Love". I listened to it, and i thought thats pretty good i guess, but as i realized how much each song was brilliant. And as i started to really like it, I picked up Sgt Peppers and Rubber Soul and then later Abbey Road, which i had sense i was a kid, and then The White Album and Revolver. And soon "With The Beatles", "Please Please Me" and "Hard Days Night" and about a year later I by then a enormous amount of respect for the Beatles and i picked up Beatles1 and listend to it, i was amazed at really, how brilliant this CD really is.

Apparently, there was a gap in the Beatles' catalog, after all — all the big hits weren't on one tidy, single-disc compilation. It's not the kind of gap you'd necessarily notice — it's kind of like realizing you don't have a pair of navy blue dress socks — but it was a gap all the same, so the group released Beatles 1 late in 2000, coinciding with the publication of their official autobiography, the puzzlingly titled Anthology. The idea behind this compilation is to have all the number one singles the Beatles had, either in the U.K. or U.S., on one disc, and that's pretty much what this generous 27-track collection is. It's easy, nay necessary, to quibble with a couple of the judgment calls — look, "Please Please Me" should be here instead of "From Me to You," and it's unforgivable to bypass "Strawberry Fields Forever" (kick out "Yellow Submarine" or "Eleanor Rigby") — but there's still no question that this is all great music, and there is a bit of a rush hearing all these dazzling songs follow one after another. If there's any complaint, it's that even if it's nice to have something like this, it's not really essential. There's really no reason for anyone that owns all the records to get this too — if you've lived happily without the red or blue albums, you'll live without this. But, if you give this to any six- or seven-year-old, they'll be pop fans, even fanatics, for life. And that's reason enough for it to exist. — Stephen Thomas Erlewine