The Beatles - The Beatles 1
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Free Music Notes for The Beatles 1
Free Music Review: This CD is ONE You Must Have!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
Just one year into the new millenium, an album is released that starts a buying frenzy, quickly becoming the number one CD in the country and holding that position for several weeks. Record fans clearly can't get enough of this group and it's FABulous sound, and week after week it sits atop the Billboard charts. And just who is the artist behind this FABulous CD? Eminem? Michael Jackson? An American Idols winner? Yanni? Nope, it's the BEATLES!!! Rock music's most popular band has returned from the dead (no, silly, not Grateful!) to prove that great music will always have a place in our hearts. But, you say, you already have most (if not all) these songs on their respective original albums. Get this CD anyway! I can't tell you how many times I've gone on road trips or driving with friends in the car and I put this CD on! After all, most of my friends know every one of these numbers, so the whole car is soon filled with song, the miles speed buy like minutes, and life is just that much happier!!! And what GREAT songs! "A Hard Day's Night" with John pouring out his passions over a hard-driving beat, "Help," even more hard-driving and frenzied, pure soul on overdrive, "Yesterday," the pedal-to-the-medal exuberance of the first ten tracks is slowing down, time for a nice, thoughtful breather, "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work it Out," (later done as a marvelous medley by one of the great Lost bands of the sixties, Fever Tree), proof that the rock never truly stopped for the boys, "Yellow Submarine," pure goofy, nonsensical fun as eveybody makes silly sound effects and talks funny, "Eleanor Rigby," a relatively quick, quiet contemplation on the Irony and Fragility of LIFE, "Penny Lane," fun in the sun in London (well, Liverpool, actually!), "Come Together" and "Something," John and George's best late work and the best double-sided single of all time, "Let it Be," the perfect capper, and "The Long and Winding Road," the perfect coda. What a Great collection! What's not to like? ("The Ballad of John and Yoko"). Seriously, though, with hundreds of thousands of bands struggling to produce just one passably listenable song, the fact that the Beatles could produce 27 such memorable tunes, and STILL NOT EVEN SCRATCHED THE SURFACE of their immense body of work staggers the imagination. So, get clicking! Purchase The Beatles One today, so that you too can go on a magical mystery tour of listening and singalong fun!!!Free Music Review: The Beatles
Hit: 5 Stars
A greatest hits by any other name, but with a title only Elvis Presley could share, the 27-track 1 delivers what it promises: all the Beatles' British and American number one singles, from Love Me Do (one American week on its belated release there in 1964, but still 1's opening track) to The Long and Winding Road, which spent a fortnight on top of the American pile in 1970.
That means 24 chart-toppers, plus three that made up double A-sides. This also means no Strawberry Fields Forever, a British number two that was relegated to Penny Lane's B-side as it climbed the Stateside charts. By virtue of the Beatles' extraordinary American popularity, there are berths for Eight Days a Week, Yesterday, Penny Lane, Come Together and Let it Be. The Americans were slow to catch on, but they were equally reluctant to let go.
1 also equates to an ersatz history of popular music. Of course, this music is mostly wonderful, if over-familiar, but its qualities cannot prevent 1 from being a cynical exercise. We learn nothing new, except that the Beatles both trailblazed musically and established the career template for successful pop groups. Bumbling beginnings (From Me to You is sub-Searchers); hitherto undetectable blossoming (Help! and Eleanor Rigby seem to be the work of a different band entirely); a slide into self-indulgence (not even hindsight can help The Ballad of John and Yoko); the final disintegration - these would be mirrored by almost every subsequent major band. Few, however, would take just eight years to complete their journey, and fewer still would resist the temptation to re-form.
While preferable to unearthing yet more inferior Anthology-style offcuts, 1 remains unnecessary. They were a great singles band, but they were also the first band to understand albums. Their golden period was not just Help!, Eleanor Rigby and Lady Madonna, it was In My Life, Tomorrow Never Knows and Back in the USSR, too. Not that you'd know it from 1, a bowdlerisation that fails to understand the Beatles' legacy.
All of the proper Beatles albums are still available for purchase and all, after Beatles for Sale, tell a more rewarding tale than 1. For completists, the "red" 1962-1966 and "blue" 1967-1970 collections may be skimpy individually, but jointly they are Anna Karenina in comparison to the Jeffrey Archer-esque 1.
Surely the Beatles are a barrel that should not have to be scraped. Treat yourself: buy Revolver or The Beatles (aka the "white" album) instead.
Free Music Review: Ideal for newcomers, casual fans, and pop-rock fanatics!
Hit: 5 Stars
Greatest hits collections usually aren't worth the money to the passionate fan. Often containing a radio staple or two and some other chart smashes, they're said to be best left for those who don't have deep interests in the particular band. The Beatles' 1 is a much different case however, as it has a total of 27 #1 hits on a single LP, and they come from several different eras of Beatles history.The first half or so contains the fab four's early chart toppers, such as "Love me do", "I want to hold your hand", "Can't buy me love", and "A hard day's night" (as well as many others). Straight forward, simple (in construction) pop rock... the way it should be done. Approximately 2-3 minutes long and filled with catchy choruses... and with each Beatle succeeding at utilizing their particular instruments. Like all of the band's work, what makes these tracks work is the passion of them... and the realization that every member of the band is always at the top of their game.
The second half... well, we get more complicated. After starting off with Ringo Starr's silly classic "Yellow submarine", this part of the record displays The Beatles' maturation as both song writers and people. "Eleanor Rigby", somewhat like "Yesterday", is a bit more on the mellow and depressing side... but the contemplation it causes is something many of us can relate to. The three Magical Mystery Tour tracks, "Penny Lane", "All you need is love", and "Hello, Goodbye", respectively fill the listener with nostalgia, desire for love (obviously!), and acknowledgement of how confusing relationships can be. As for the last eight tracks... they're a worthwhile sample of what The Beatles developed into. For pure, soft, and powerful emotion, there's "Lady Madonna", "Hey Jude", "Let it be", and the closer "The long and winding road". For the fan of the straight-forward, slow-but-deep rock tune, there's "Come together". And for the inbetween, there's "Get back", "The ballad of John and Yoko", and "Something".
The point of all these words? 1 is full of powerful emotions, from sadness to happiness to pure love. Ultimately, it is a human record, and consists of 27 tracks millions and millions of people have taken to both heart and mind. Obviously, it's not a collection of all the great Beatles songs... but all of them can't be fit onto one, two, or even three records.
Free Music Review: Pay No Attention to Anyone Who Gives This A Bad Review!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
"The Beatles 1" is a fantastic set that not only has some of the greatest music of all time but also shows the evolution of The Beatles as a group and their style of music-making. Each track flows smoothly to the next and each sounds like it was meant to be on this collection. "Love Me Do" kicks it off perfectly but it skips their first #1 hit according to four magazines, "Please Please Me", but one disputed that (there was no one national chart and that's why it was a #1 to some and not to others) so that is excusable but the absense of the unanamous #1 hit and The Beatles' twenty-second (or twenty-third, it depends on if you count "Please Please Me" as their first) "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is missed. "From Me To You", "She Loves You", and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (it is NOT "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as many people say. I just wanted to make that clear :)) seem to be meant for each other but "Yesterday" seems to interrupt the flow of the album because its speed but "Day Tripper" quickly causes you to forget about it and keep enjoying the fast-paced music. And while "Eleanor Rigby" is slower, it seems to fit perfectly in after "Yellow Submarine". The superb "Penny Lane" sounds great in such a high sound quality as does "Hello Goodbye". "Lady Madonna is unique on this compilation because of its beat, but its still a great song. "Hey Jude", the "best song of the 60s", fits in perfectly with the rest despite its length. "The Ballad of John & Yoko" isn't really even a ballad (I mean ballad like "The Long And Winding Road"), but it works on the album just the same. "Something" is the only #1 hit by The Beatles written by George but its just as, if not more, beautiful than any other outstanding Beatles ballad. "Come Together" is another standout track that everyone knows for its chorus, but should know it for its complex lyrics. The last two tracks are among the best McCartney songs: "Let It Be", the single version with a different guitar solo that was not on the album version, is simply a beautiful masterpiece, and "The Long and Winding Road" is one of the best McCartney ballads of all time, though not quite as good as "Let It Be".
Under no circumstances should any Beatles album be preffered over this unless you already own most of the tracks on this on other albums. This is a must-have for a beginning Beatles fan. In fact, this was my start to them, but I have since learned not to like compilations so much, but anyway the bottom line is:
Get it!
Free Music Review: Really great, but hardly essencial
Hit: 5 Stars
Of course this is a great collection of songs, but it's not the essencial Beatles. You're not getting many of the really best John's songs (say "Norwegian Wood", "Nowhere Man", "In My Life", "Strawberry Fields", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "I Am The Walrus" and "Revolution"); Paul is quite well represented, though you're missing some of his classics (for example, "Michelle", "Sgt. Pepper's" and "Back In The USSR"); and there's only one George's song (no "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes The Sun"). I think the Red and Blue albums are truly essencial, but you'd have to buy four CDs instead of one. What I think it would have been better to do is a two CDs collection (with a total of 40 songs, 20 songs in each CD), something between "1" and the "Red and Blue" albums. I would have call them "The Beatles Collection" and even use the same colors. Here is the tack listing I suggest:
The Beatles Collection 1 (red): 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) Can't Buy Me Love; 7) A Hard Day's Night; 8) I Feel Fine; 9) Ticket To Ride; 10) Yesterday; 11) Help!; 12) We Can Work It Out; 13) Day Tripper; 14) Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown); 15) Nowhere Man; 16) Michelle; 17) In My Life; 18) Paperback Writer; 19) Eleanor Rigby; 20) Yellow Submarine.
The Beatles Collection 2 (blue): 1) Strawberry Fields Forever; 2) Penny Lane; 3) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; 4) With A Little Help Fom My Friends; 5) Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds; 6) All You Need Is Love; 7) I Am The Walrus; 8) Hello, Goodbye; 9) Magical Mystery Tour; 10) Lady Madonna; 11) Hey Jude; 12) Revolution; 13) Back In The USSR; 14) While My Guitar Gently Weeps; 15) Get Back (single version); 16) The Ballad Of John And Yoko; 17) Here Comes The Sun; 18) Come Together; 19) Something; 20) Let It Be (single version).
I included all the official A-side singles (in chronological order), some of the best/well known B-sides and some of the best/well known songs from albums. From "1" I didn't include "Eight Days A Week" and "The Long And Winding Road", since they're not official singles and I think there're songs that are more essencial than them. Of course I'm missing many of my favourite tunes (like "Tomorrow Never Knows" or "Dear Prudence"), but I tried to be objective. In fact I burned both of this CDs (from the original albums) and listening to them is a magical mystery experience!