Track Listing

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
14. Help
15. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
16. We Can Work It Out
17. Day Tripper
18. Drive My Car
19. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
20. Nowhere Man
21. Michelle
22. In My Life
23. Girl
24. Paperback Writer
25. Eleanor Rigby
26. Yellow Submarine

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. Yellow Submarine

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408 in Music
• Released on: 1993-10-05
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .42 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The closest the Beatles came to a greatest hits package, this document of the early part of their career features hit singles (in chronological order) and selected album tracks, running from "Love Me Do" through the groundbreaking Rubber Soul and Revolver albums. While this may be an excellent intro for beginners, real fans will never be content with only selections, especially when you're dealing with those aforementioned albums. Capitol packages the collection on two discs, copying the original vinyl version--but, of course, CDs hold more music than records did. Still, you do get 26 bona fide classics, so there's no real need to complain. --Bill Holdship

CD Description
This superb compilation, often called "the red album", brings together the majority of the Beatles' hits from the earlyto mid '60s. Consequently, it plays like an overview of thesome of the most popular and indelible rock songs of all time. From the "yeah, yeah, yeah"'s of "She Loves You" throughthe amped-up giddiness of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", the minor-key melodicism of "And I Love Her", and on to the chiming power pop of "Eight Days a Week" and the tweaky feedback of "I Feel Fine", these are the songs that turned the entireWestern world on its ear.
The second half of the set--inaddition to its phenomenal songs-- is interesting in that it charts the Beatles' move from straightforward pop toward the new chapter of rock the band would help script in the late '60s. After the expansive chords and slinky melodies of "Ticket to Ride", the band becomes alternately darkly introspective ("Yesterday") and looser and more groove-obsessed ("Drive My Car"), while trying on allegorical Dylan-inspired narratives ("Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"), and happy-go-luck psychedelia ("Yellow Submarine"). These songs are part of our living, breathing cultural identity, and--as this collection reminds us--for good reason.

Customer Reviews

Go the extra mile instead
Having only been born in 1968, it was this album in my parents' household that introduced me to the Beatles in the seventies. I came face-to-face with it again when my girlfriend (now wife) moved in and our CD collections merged.
Enough about me.
For the record, this is a fine collection of their excellent work from 1962 to 1966. You've probably looked at the track listing and know every song.
Of course this, and any, Beatles album merits five stars. You may prefer the later ones to the earlier ones, or vice-versa, but every one is excellent.
...which is exactly why you should not buy a compilation like this!
Most bands' careers do not stretch far enough to be worthy of a "Greatest Hits" album. The Beatles, on the other hand, hit the target with every single one of their original releases. If you're thinking of buying this album, then maybe you're a bit younger and exploring the fab four for the first time. My advice to you: dig deep into your pocket, go the extra mile and build up your collection with the original albums instead. You won't regret it!

A must-have...along with the Blue Album of course!
This CD, along with its' companion (The Beatles 1967-1970), 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), 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 these compilations really capture the essence of the Beatles' music although they are by no means totally representative. EMI has come in for a lot of criticism for making this CD a double disc set (when it will fit on one CD) but I have to say I think they were right to replicate the original vinyl releases. All the hits of the early Beatles career are here - from 1962 debut single Love Me Do through to the double A-sided Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine single from 1966. The big criticism I do have of this set is the absence of albums tracks from Revolver - whoever made the track selection really should be severely punished for this! Given that this album is considerably shorter in running time than the accompanying Blue Album (and there are less songs on this compilation), extra tracks could have easily been included. It's the only thing that lets this CD down and it's a real shame some of the great Revolver tracks are not included (Taxman, She Said She Said, Here There & Everywhere, Tomorrow Never Knows), especially when you consider the fact that Rubber Soul is represented by no less than 6 songs - none of which were released as singles. Nevertherless these digitally remastered CDs offer vastly superior sound quality to the 1987 CD album releases and it's high time EMI did the decent thing and remastered the Beatles entire back catalogue in this way. 5 stars for timeless, brilliant, original pop songs. 3 stars for under-representation of Revolver.

The first half of their career as a group
This collection contains the highlights of their career from Love me do, which was a British top 20 hit in 1962, to the end of 1966. Love me do became more successful later – it topped the US charts in 1964 and reached the UK top five when re-issued as a single in the eighties.

The Beatles were very good musicians, but what set them apart from everybody else was their songwriting. In those days, it was normal for songs to be written by people who did just that, leaving others to record them. Perhaps people assumed that performers would be too busy to actually write their own material, but the Beatles proved that it could be done. Indeed, they were so good at it that they had enough songs left over for others to have hits with covers of their songs. So here you get the Beatles’ own version of Michelle, which topped the British charts for the Overlanders, as well as many songs which became hits for the Beatles.

The songs that were released as singles varied from one country to another. For example, Eight days a week and Yesterday were both number one hits in America, but neither were released as Beatles singles in Britain. Instead, Yesterday was a hit for Matt Monro while Eight days a week was given to Alma Cogan. Nevertheless, some songs were number one in both countries, including I want to hold your hand, Can’t buy me love, A hard day’s night, I feel fine, Ticket to ride, Help, Paperback writer and the double-sided coupling of Day tripper with We can work it out.

Such is the strength in depth that most of the songs here are famous. The only possible criticism of this set is that, with only 65 minutes of music, it could have fitted on a single CD. A better idea would be to add extra tracks. There are other songs from this period that were hits for others, including Do you want to know a secret, I wanna be your man and Got to get you into my life. Other songs, such as I’ll follow the sun, If I fell, Act naturally, I’ve just seen a face, Here there and everywhere and For no one, have been well-covered down the years. All of these and others could be added to this set without reducing the quality.

Despite the running time, this is still an outstanding compilation of music by the Beatles, the most important pop group of the twentieth century.