The Beatles - 1962-1966 (The Red Album)
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Free Music Notes for 1962-1966 (The Red Album)
Free Music Review: Their earlier best of.
Hit: 5 Stars
This red album is a great collection of their early 1962-66 hits, and obviously goes perfect with the blue collection of later 1967-70 hits. These are the sets to get if the "1" disc isn't enough for you, the casual fan. My single complaint is that each disc here is only 31 minutes short, but on the bright side we still get 26 hits in all, with lyrics. Unlike the blue collection, this could easily have been put on one disc, with many songs added. Still, the highlights are here from "Love Me Do" to "Yellow Submarine". Maybe one day we'll get a 27 track companion to the "1" disc. Free Music Review: Good retrospective
Hit: 5 Stars
I can't say anything about the music that's already been said - so let's just focus on the collection itself. It's as close as there will ever be to a definitive but small collection of the first half of the band's run. Every song on here is a radio staple. This is a really valuable collection, although I can admit it's not a value in itself. I don't understand why EMI has to be so crazy with these albums - they'll make a much bigger profit if they take even a small amount off normal prices.
The tag "digitally remastered" means that the songs were taken from the digital masters made sometime in the 80s and not from the analog tapes made in the 60s. Some people take this as a major sound quality improvement. The quality here is somewhat better than on the back catalogue CDs released a few years before this but it's not drastic at all.
Anyone who doesn't have these songs needs to look no further than here. 1967-1970 is a good investment as well, aside from also not being a value at such a price tag.
Free Music Review: Almoast as good as being there ...
Hit: 4 Stars
What's the worst thing you can say about the Beatles? During the British Invasion, at the height of "Beatlemania", they're wasn't much. They made the most kick ass tunes, they made girls scream and parents blush. They had hair like no one else, with a heavy accent. If you hadn't heard a Beatle song, you had to be pretty much on an island somewhere.
The Beatles are one of those bands that recorded great music year after year, until their demise. However, to see them in their early years (1962 - 1966) was something really special. They were young and loving it, and made songs that people in love - or out of it - could relate to. They had been together for so long, and so their early effort really showed them trying to prove themselves in the mainstream. And it worked.
This album has all of that goodness packed in. It's got "Help", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", "All My Loving", "Love Me Do", "Can't Buy Me Love", "I Want to Hold Your Hand.". I can go on, man, but what's the point. If you need the Beatles at their youngest, you NEED this album.
The only flaw is the sound quaility. We have people in space, but we can't make "Eight Days a Week" sound better than a live feed from a radio. Sad thing is, the songs on Disk 1 (which were REAL early for the Beatles) are not graced with good quaility, although any media player will signal a 320 kbps. Which is sad, because the songs just so fine.
Free Music Review: SET OF 26 EARLY HITS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER: WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE
Hit: 5 Stars
FIRST THOUGHTS: I HAD THESE ON VINYL LPs & NOW I HAVE THEM AGAIN ON CD
IN A NUTSHELL: CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER - STEREO - LYRICS IN A BOOKLET
If you are a Beatles fan and you want to have their music on hand you have several options. You can either purchase each individual album on CD or Vinyl LP, or you can purchase the Red and Blue CD anthology collections. The CD here is the 'RED' CD anthology.
While it is true, that a few of the tunes are not in stereo, they collectively sound rather good for pop music recorded in the 1960s. While the sets may seem a bit pricey, they are a solid representation of the best Beatle's tunes presented in chronological order.
ONE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF THE TUNES
By hearing the best tunes in the order they were made one can get a feel for how the Beatles evolved and became over time, more complex and introspective in their musical interpretations [my opinion].
AND ABOUT THE BOOKLET?
In side the double-case, you will find a very useful booklet which includes all the lyrics for all 26 tunes included in the set, plus some interesting photos of the Beatles.
COMPLETE PLAY LIST
Disc: 1
1. Love Me Do
2. Please Please Me
3. From Me to You
4. She Loves You
5. I Want to Hold Your Hand
6. All My Loving
7. Can't Buy Me Love
8. Hard Day's Night
9. And I Love Her
10. Eight Days a Week
11. I Feel Fine
12. Ticket To Ride
13. Yesterday
Disc: 2
1. Help!
2. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
3. We Can Work It Out
4. Day Tripper
5. Drive My Car
6. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
7. Nowhere Man
8. Michelle
9. In My Life
10. Girl
11. Paperback Writer
12. Eleanor Rigby
13. Yesterday
BOTTOM LINE: EXCELLENT PRODUCT - A LITTLE PRICEY BUT I BOUGHT IT & LOVE IT
ALSO RECOMMENDED: BLUE ANTHOLOGY CD ALBUM - 1967-1970
Free Music Review: The Red Album
Hit: 5 Stars
THE BEATLES 1962-1966 is a compilation album covering the first four years of the band's commercial existence. Often referred to as "The Red Album," this with THE BEATLES 1967-1970 ("The Blue Album") is the quintessential Beatles "Greatest Hits" collection. They were both released in 1973 as double albums to chronicle the band's career. The double album THE BEATLES ("The White Album") is of course part of the formal Beatles discography. Capitol has chosen to re-release them all as twin CD collections in keeping with the initial vinyl releases. This profit-driven decision did drive up the purchase price, but critics of this policy need to consider that neither The Red Album nor The Blue Album are absolute "must haves" for a Beatles collection. If price is a consideration, simply give these two a pass and buy the original albums.
The true drawback to The Red Album is that a devoted Beatles fan will own (or want to own) the entire formal disc collection. Therefore, these compilations become somewhat extraneous.
Still, they are worth having, even if just to listen to in the car, or for variation. The Red Album has several slightly different mixes than the original release recordings or other Beatles collections, and purists or pundits will want them.
For casual listening, The Red Album is an excellent Beatles sampler. It carries the band from the innocent monaural days of "Love Me Do" all the way to the psychedelic era of "Yellow Submarine." We get to hear The Beatles mature and grow, experiment and experience. For anyone who was there, this is an encapsulation of the early '60s.
As an aside, another excellent collection is 1976's hard-to-find THE BEATLES ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC, which provides us with early Beatles covers of other performers' material.
Remembering, as I do, the first time I ever heard, "I Want To Hold Your Hand," circa the summer of 1964, sitting in the backseat of my father's 1960 Impala convertible, The Red Album becomes my private time machine. It is amazing how far The Beatles came in just four short years, and how they managed to bring us with them.
Together with The Blue Album this collection IS the Magical Mystery Tour.