Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Strawberry Fields Forever
2. Penny Lane
3. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
4. With A Little Help From My Friends
5. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
6. Day In The Life
7. All You Need Is Love
8. I Am The Walrus
9. Hello Goodbye
10. Fool On The Hill
11. Magical Mystery Tour
12. Lady Madonna
13. Hey Jude
14. Revolution
15. Back In The USSR
16. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
17. Ob La Di Ob La Da
18. Get Back
19. Don't Let Me Down
20. Ballad Of John And Yoko
21. Old Brown Shoe
22. Here Comes The Sun
23. Come Together
24. Something
25. Octopus's Garden
26. Let It Be
27. Across The Universe
28. Long And Winding Road

Disc 2:

1. Back In The USSR
2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
3. Ob La Di Ob La Da
4. Get Back
5. Don't Let Me Down
6. Ballad Of John And Yoko
7. Old Brown Shoe
8. Here Comes The Sun
9. Come Together
10. Something
11. Octopus's Garden
12. Let It Be
13. Across The Universe
14. Long And Winding Road

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #400 in Music
• Released on: 1993-10-05
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .43 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Even as the Beatles began heading toward an inevitable break-up, their prolific ways continued; this two-disc look back only skims the surface of their later achievements. Excerpts from Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, the white album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be compete for space with classic singles that do as much or more to prove their eclecticism: the epic ballad "Hey Jude", the plaintive "Strawberry Fields Forever", straight rock & roll of all stripes from the plainspoken "Revolution" and "Get Back" to the surreal "Come Together". Decades after the split, this (and its companion set of 1962-1966 cuts) remains a favoured introduction for young listeners and a key sampler for veteran fans. --Rickey Wright

CD Description
The companion piece to the 1962-1966 singles compilation, this set (often called "the blue album", as opposed to its chronological predecessor "the red album"), brings together the Beatles best known songs from 1967 through 1970. The Beatles were fiercely, relentlessly experimental during these years, and the swirling, visionary soundscapes of "Strawberry Fields Forever", which opens the collection, sets the tone with its effects-heavy production and backward tape loops. John Lennon's psychedelic songwriting, which emphasised crystalline melodies and surreal wordplay, can be heard on tracks like "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" and "Across the Universe".
Paul McCartney's fascination with English music hall and novelty numbers is clear on "Penny Lane" and "Ob-la-Di, Ob-la-Da", and the set also has some of his finest ballads, including the mega-hits "Let It Be" and "Hey Jude". George Harrison emerged as a fine songwriting talent during these years with "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun". Yet despite evidence of their diverging individual directions, the Beatlesstill rock as a band on cuts like "Revolution". (The set includes the single versions of "Revolution", "Lady Madonna", and "Hey Jude"). The Beatles set the tenor of the late-'60s with this spectacular soundtrack, and it remains--even afteryears of overplaying--original, beautiful music.

Customer Reviews

A Compilation Of The Highest Order
The Blue album is a wonderful album, full of quality songs from Sgt Pepper, The Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be. The Beatles had come a long way musically and spiritually in such a short space of time. I am 21 years old and have been listening to The Beatles now for 10 years, this was the first Beatles album I listened to and straight away I was hooked. Everytime I listen to it, like every Beatles album it sounds so original. In my opinion this would be the ideal album to buy if you have just discovered the Beatles for the first time. Side 1 of this album contains songs from Sgt Pepper and The Magical Mystery Tour plus a single and a B side that do not feature on any studio album. Two of John Lennon's greatest songs Strawberry Fields Forever and I am The Walrus appear here along with the classic's All You Need Is Love, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and Revolution whilst Paul Mccartney continues to shine with songs Penny Lane, Sgt Peppers Lonley Hearts Club Band,Hello Goodbye, The Fool on The Hill, Lady Madonna and the monster classic Hey Jude. Lennon and Mccartney also collaberate musically for the first time in a few years on the songs With A Little Help From My Friends and possibly the greatest concept song of all time A Day In The Life. Side 2 of this album feature songs from all 4 of The Beatles.Songs are taken from The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be plus 2 singles and B sides that do not feature on any studio albums.Lennon is in great form with the songs Don't Let Me Down,The Ballad Of John and Yoko, Come Together and Across The Universe. Paul Mccartney is also inspiring with the songs Back in The USSR, Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da,Get Back, Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road. The 4 best George Harrison songs that he recorded as a Beatle also appear here, While My Guitar Gently Weeps with Eric Clapton playing lead guitar, Old Brown Shoe, Here Comes The Sun and Something. These 4 songs are up there with anything Lennon/Mccartney were writing at the time. Ringo only wrote 2 songs with the Beatles, 1 of them is here, Octopus's Garden. It's a nice song, great for the kiddies. Listening to this album along with The Red album will make you want to go out and buy the albums these songs came from, untill you do you are missing out on something very special indeed.

A superb collection of songs.
This is by far my favorite Beatles album (and I own all of them).
It has material from their most creative period and effectivly abandons the "#1 hits" format that Beatles CD's have gotten locked into and not acknowledged other good songs like "I Am the Walrus" or "A Day In the Life". It also includes material from the "White Album", which as good as it is, is always ignored on Beatles hits discs.

Furthermore all four members are given recognition not just John and Paul; "Octapus's Garden" by Ringo and such songs as "Here Comes the Sun" and others by George are included, whereas the new compilation "1" only features one George song: "Something", which is a superb song, but not a sufficent tribute to the Dark Horse in itself.

Also included are full lyrics to all of the songs. This is especially appreciated for songs like "Come Together" on which one can easily forget the words. There are also photographs in the 24-page booklet,which is quite a lot, considering most of the Beatles albums are completly devoid of any notes at all.

Overall a five star disc because not only does it include hits, it has B-sides like "Don't Let Me Down" and "Revolution", full lyrics to all songs, and it acknowleges all four members. Easily ten stars!

A must-have...along with the Red Album of course!
This CD, along with its' companion (The Beatles 1962-1966), represent the only currently available "Best Of" Beatles anthologies available on CD and were originally released as two double LP sets back in the early 1970s. Most commonly referred to as the Red and Blue albums (the scheme supposedly requested by the ex-Beatles themselves to represent the colours of Liverpool's two soccer clubs), together these double albums collect together all the Beatles UK hits, along with selected album tracks. I am not a huge fan of compilation CDs myself but these two double CDs are vital for any serious music fan and are as valid a part of any decent CD collection as the Beatles' original studio albums. Like many second generation Beatles fans, I grew up listening to these albums and whilst these compilation CDs really capture the essence of the Beatles' music they are by no means totally representative. All the hits of the Beatles post-touring career are here, along with some choice album tracks, although I've never understood why Old Brown Shoe and Octopus's Garden have been included here - I would rather have seen a couple of additional tracks from the White Album chosen instead. Still, the song selection is overall very good and - as I've stated in my review of the accompanying Red Album - these digitally remastered CDs offer vastly superior sound quality to the 1987 CD album releases. It's high time EMI did some justice to the Beatles (as they've done with other artists, eg David Bowie, Pink Floyd, etc) and properly remaster the Beatles entire back catalogue.