Product Description

Along with its sister volume, PAST MASTERS VOL. 1 gathers singles, oddities and B-sides together and saves the dedicated Beatlemaniac considerable time and money hunting down thisuncommon material. Like the "Red Album", VOLUME ONE covers the first half of the Beatles career from 1962 to 1965. Suchwas the enormous success of the Fab Four's breakout singles"She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" that their vocals were recut for German versions ("Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" and "Sie Liebt Dich" respectively), which were originally slated for the West German market (and are included on this collection) before being released in the States.
Always mindful of their influences, the Beatles in their early phase were also notable for their choice of cover songs. Carl Perkins, Larry Williams and Little Richard were all paid tribute to eventually. While Ringo Starr sang "Matchbox" and John Lennon handled "Slow Down" and "Bad Boy", Paul McCartney channeled Richard Penniman. His take on "Long Tall Sally" induces goosebumps and the influence clearly carried over to "I'm Down".

Track Listing

1. Love Me Do
2. From Me To You
3. Thank You Girl
4. She Loves You
5. I'll Get You
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand
7. This Boy
8. Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand
9. Sie Liebt Dich
10. Long Tall Sally
11. I Call Your Name
12. Slow Down
13. Matchbox
14. I Feel Fine
15. She's A Woman
16. Bad Boy
17. Yes It Is
18. I'm Down

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6719 in Music
• Released on: 1988-03-07
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

UNA CAJA DE SORPRESAS!!
La muy estimada e incomparable coleccion de los populares singles que en su momento editaron los FAB FOUR, y que no fueron incluidas en sus LPs; las PAST MASTERS son un complemento para todo el que tiene la coleccion de los Beatles, pues ademas de clasicas arrolladoras como SHE LOVES YOU, I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, I FEEL FINE y FROM ME TO YOU tambien nos presentan magnificos y esplendidos "lados B" como THANK YOU GIRL, I'LL GET YOU,THIS BOY y grandes piezas innovadoras y experimentales como SHE'S A WOMAN y YES IT IS; a destacar tambien las "rarezas" como las versiones alemanas KOMM GIB MIR DEINE HAND y SIE LIEBT DICH, asi como las "covers" de LONG TALL SALLY y SLOW DOWN (simplemente superan a las originales) RECOMENDADO PARA TODO AMANTE DEL POP Y EL ROCK!!

A GREAT ALBUM TO ROUND OUT THE COLLECTION
This LP version was pretty much an afterthought as it had already been released as 2 seperate CD's. However, it's one of the few post-breakup compilations that actually makes sense and serves a useful purpose considering the plethora of "exploitation" compilations released after the band finally broke-up in 1970. Let's face it, we had "1962-70", "Rock & Roll Music", "Love Songs", "Live At The Hollywood Bowl", "The Beatles Box", "Ballads", "Rarities" (2 Versions!) "20 Greatest Hits" (Seperate UK & US Versions + The Number Ones (An Aussie Compilation) - and that's just the official releases, not to mention the repacking of the original Beatles catalogue as a boxed set and "Only The Beatles", released on Cassette only and now quite rare. However if you're a big fan like myself, then, like me, you've probably got all of those on vinyl anyway.
This album gathers together all non-LP Singles & 'B' Sides, EP tracks, 2 German language versions, a giveaway track and 3 alternate versions also originally released on single ("Love Me Do', "Get Back" & "Let It Be").
Volume 1 covers 1962-65 and includes Million selling singles such as "She Loves You", I Want To Hold Your Hand, I Feel Fine. Also included is the original single release of "Love Me Do" featuring a nervous Paul whose voice is shaky in the solo parts..hey it was his first BIG moment on record, hence the nerves. The B-sides were usually high quality. As a kid growing up with them, these tracks were as famailair to me as the "A" sides. Highlights here include "She's A Woman" & "I'm Down" and the gorgeous "This Boy". All of these would have been an A-sides for ANY other band.."She's A Woman" was pretty much a double-A in Australia such was it's popularity at the time. The B-side was a useful vehicle that the Beatles successfully experimented with and some great groundbreaking stuff resulted. Another highlight is the complete "Long Tall Sally" EP, and along with the title track, it included "Slow Down", "Matchbox" & "I Call Your Name". It was their first purposely recorded EP and arguably the greatest EP ever released by anyone.
Volume 2 covers 1965-70 and the highlights are even more plentiful. Here we have the Beatles "using the studio as an instrument" and the results speak for themselves..."We Can Work It Out" & "Day Tripper" were originally a Double-A single released the SAME DAY as the "Rubber Soul" LP. They were always a prolific band but they didn't just churn music out for the sake of it. The quality of their work was always high standard and it moved forward, breaking the rules and making new ones as they went. "Rain" was probably their best ever B-side, recorded with it's A-side "Paperback Writer" during the "Revolver" sessions but not included on that album. The other high quality B-sides include George's wonderful "The Inner Light", John's pre-metal "Revolution", "Don't Let Me Down", "Old Brown Shoe" plus the track that nearly never was "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)", originally recorded in 1968 but eventually released as the under-side to "Let It Be". The other 'A's include "Hey Jude", "Lady Madonna", "Get Back" (the complete version), "Ballad Of John & Yoko" and the afore-mentioned "Let It Be" - this is the single version with a different lead guitar solo. This album could effectively be a "Greatest Hits" compilation such is the standard of tracks on this LP and with the way it's compiled, you can track the group's amazing progress from 4 curious musical explorers who just wanted to play rock 'n' roll to influential trendsetters leading the way for others to follow in their wake. There will NEVER be another band like them.
If you've got all the other studio albums and you're looking to complete the set, then this album fills the bill beautifully. Thoroughly recommended. This review is based on the CD versions.

Round-up of singles never released on original albums
In the sixties, singles were far more important than albums and it was common practice for the best tracks to be released on singles or EP's and not to appear on album until there were enough tracks for a Greatest hits. Album sales were modest compared to singles sales so the idea of using a single to promote an album had not yet been born. When it was decided to release all the original Beatles albums on CD, there were enough of these tracks to fill two CD's of their own. Past masters volumes 1 and 2 contain these tracks. In a few cases, different versions of the songs appeared on original albums. Volume 2 (the other one) is the stronger of the two, but both are excellent.

Love me do began it all for the Beatles, becoming their first UK – it reached the top 20 then but became a much bigger hit later on. From me to you, She loves you, I want to hold your hand and I feel fine are the other major hits on this collection. The Beatles also recorded German versions of She loves you and I want to hold your hand and those versions are included here. Among the other great tracks here are covers Long tall Sally (Little Richard) and Matchbox (Carl Perkins) that clearly demonstrate their musical roots in rock'n'roll.

Since this CD was originally released, all the hits were released on the red album, 1962 to 1966, so if you're just looking for hits, you might be better to buy that and its companion blue album, 1966 to 1970, or the more recent Beatles 1. But if you are a serious Beatles fan, this album is just as important as the original albums.