The Beatles - The Beatles 1
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Free Music Notes for The Beatles 1
Free Music Review: Flawed but Worthy Collection
Hit: 5 Stars
In a perfect world, a group like The Beatles wouldn't need a single-disc retrospective. While together, the group released thirteen albums, each solid, complete, and essential. They also released numerous non-album singles, nicely collected on the two "Past Masters" collections. In a perfect world, a buyer could start at "Please Please Me" and work their way through to "Let it Be", hearing the group progress and grow with each album, and becoming a lifelong fan in the process.But, as we all know, it's not a perfect world, and everyone is not going to buy everything released by the Beatles (which, really, is okay). Therefore, people do need a starting point, a place to dip their toe in the water. "Beatles 1" is that starting point, and it works pretty well. Limiting the collection to songs that hit #1 either in the United States or in Great Britain, "1" compiles 27 hits in chronological order, with a running time of nearly 80 minutes. All of this is helpful, because it helps communicate the growth and giant steps that the group took in a mere seven years, going from the simple, basic "Love Me Do" to the beautiful "Long and Winding Road".
There are a couple of flaws with the set, because the strict "#1 songs only" means that the listener is not going to get the entire picture of what made the Beatles special. Songs like "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Revolution", "Here Comes the Sun", "A Day In the Life", and "Across the Universe" are all arguably essential, and all are absent. But, including them would have also meant both that the disc would have to become a double disc collection and not be a collection of #1's anymore. So it's really pointless to argue.
Faults aside, this is an admirable collection, and a good starting point for someone getting into the group; the remastered sound also provides a few surprises for those familiar (or over-familiar) with the Beatles' songs. Hopefully anyone inspired by what they hear here will be motivated to dig a little deeper into the richest song catalog in pop music history.
Free Music Review: To George Harrison, Rest In Peace Dear Friend
Hit: 5 Stars
It is amazing to think that when George Harrison joined the Beatles, he had learned to pick the guitar just like Carl Perkins. He had studied the Rock and Roll of Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and American Delta Blues artists. I cannot imagine a better foundation to take into several years of intensive club work, with songwriting geniuses John Lennon, Paul McCartney and former skittle band drummer Richard Starkey (a.k.a. Ringo Starr). This having been said, it is still mind-boggling how the synergy created by these 4 people coming together eventually tapped into the collective consciousness of the entire world, and started a musical evolution and revolution whose repercussions might very well last for all of human history. A huge part of the Beatles' musical chemistry is the George Harrison influence. Take these #1 hits for instance. "I Feel Fine" is a superficially fun song, but a deeply affecting and harmonically beautiful creation in which George Harrison's guitar work is virtuosic. The song also features the first intentionally recorded guitar "feedback" at the very opening when Harrison's amplifier and his guitar strings' vibrations, caused an electronic loop, and the by-now very familiar buzzing and overtone sounds we hear in rock music on a regular basis. I wonder what Jimi Hendrix must have thought? George's powerful rock guitar licks on "Paperback Writer" and "Day Tripper" are ingrained in our souls, and help to trigger the overall amazement we feel when we hear these masterpieces. "Eight Days A Week" features George's incredible amplifier tone on the guitar, with a trebly crispness, which at once excites and inspires. Although I for one much prefer to listen to The Beatles' music by way of the original albums, this compilation of #1 hits is a very good way of exposing new listeners to the greatest band of all times. Hopefully, after hearing the late George Harrison play the guitar with such consistent beauty and originality, many will be inspired to mine the treasures contained in the original song collections. We will always love you George. Rest in peace dear friend.Free Music Review: 27 #1 SINGLES!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is my 2nd review and before I told you that the Beatles rocked my world,they actually do! There are 27 #1 hits on this CD. Here are my ratings for the songs: Love Me Do ****1/2 From Me To You **** She Loves You *** I Want To Hold Your Hand **** Can't Buy Me Love ****1/2 A Hard Day's Night ***** I Feel Fine ***** Eight Days A Week ***** Ticket To Ride ***1/2 Help! *** Yesterday ***** Day Tripper **1/2 We Can Work It Out **** Paperback Writer **** Yellow Submarine ***** Eleanor Rigby **1/2 Penny Lane **** All You Need Is Love ***** Hello,Goodbye ***1/2 Lady Madonna ****1/2 Hey Jude ***** Get Back ***1/2 The Ballad Of John & Yoko **** Something ** Come Together ***** Let It Be ***** The Long & Winding Road ***** Buy it now before it's too late! That's all I've got to say,so adios,amigos & amigas!Free Music Review: Start your Beatles collection here
Hit: 5 Stars
The Beatles shaped popular music in many different ways. For a start, they wrote all their own hits and most of their other recordings. Their early albums contained covers but their later ones did not. In the pre-Beatles age, specialist songwriters normally wrote the songs, it being assumed that performers didn't have time. While the Beatles were not the first to write their own songs (Hank Williams and Buddy Holly are earlier examples that spring immediately to mind), the level of their success made it much easier for those that followed. The Beatles were so good at writing songs that they had too many to release as singles, allowing others to have hits with their songs though this compilation is, of course, limited to their own hits.
The Beatles had so many number one hits in Britain and America that some were left out, the main omission being Strawberry fields forever. It was on the same single as Penny Lane but both sides were credited as A-sides. The coupling only made number two in Britain but made number one in America. Another omission is Please please me, which made number one in three British charts but not the one most commonly used these days, in which it peaked at number two. The omission of these tracks is less controversial than the alternative - editing other tracks to make room for them. Imagine the furore if that had been done.
So we are left with twenty-seven of the best Beatles songs that made number one in Britain or America, often both. Some of the differences are fascinating. Love me do, their first UK single, barely made the UK top twenty and wasn't released in America until a year and a half later, following the success of other singles. Eight days a week and Yesterday were not released as UK singles at the time. Yesterday became a UK top ten hit for Matt Monro. The Beatles' version eventually made the UK top ten in the seventies. Eight days a week was given to Alma Cogan who made a brilliant recording of it but it didn't chart for her or anybody else in the UK.
As an introduction to Beatles music, this is outstanding but it should leave you wanting more - much more.
Free Music Review: Ridiculously Underrated
Hit: 5 Stars
I don't know about you, but I grew up listening to the Beatles and hearing about them from my parents and recognizing the poor efforts of new artists to copy or reinvent what only John and Paul had the ingenuity to create.I hate that when I come to this compilation-- the compilation of their number one hits-- people say things like "this isn't a good collection of Beatles songs." Okay folks, you knew this was going to be the collection of their HITS, not the underground recordings, not all the songs that made Top 10 but not #1. Did you really think "I Am the Walrus" would be on here if you're the big Beatles buff who knows all their singles by release date?
The CD is *excellent* quality, beautiful music, wonderful, inventive, genius. Those of you who feel it necessary to bash it just because it didn't include some song that you like and no one else heard of.. you know, they're hoping that, by releasing this album, people will go back and buy the remastered discs. I personally still wish it would have included "Here Comes the Sun" off of Abbey Road, but it wasn't a #1. I'm more realistic than to expect them just to put it on here for me.
It goes from the beginning of their career-- their first big hits like "Love Me Do" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" all the way to the later material (my favorite half of the album), the songs like "The Ballad of John and Yoko," "The Long and Winding Road," "Eleanor Rigby," and "Hey Jude."
It covers more than just love, the way most sixties/seventies compilation discs do. It covers the way love affects your life, it covers the media's scrutiny of celebrities, it covers the pointlessness of despair and unhappiness. It's a genuine, soulful, incredible collection of songs, spanning roughly two decades of music. Every five songs or so, you can detect a slight change in the style and arrangement of songs as time went on. But it always works.
Anything less than five stars for the Beatles 1?
No, I think not. Buy this.. just because your albums are worn out from overplaying the #1's off them!