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Product Details

• Audio CD (13 Nov 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Parlophone
• ASIN: B000050XI9
• Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette | Vinyl
  

By : The Beatles | Format: Audio CD
Price : £12.79

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Proving yet again their willingness to dice 'n' slice their burgeoning legacy into new--if not exactly fresh--product, the Fab Four Minus One released this single disc compendium of their No. 1 hits. Though obviously superfluous to long-time Fabs faithful (who may also find themselves quibbling over the precise definition of "No. 1 hit" and the exclusion of seeming contenders like "Please Please Me" and "Strawberry Fields"), newly arrived visitors from the Pleiades star cluster and other neophytes will find it a concise and generous (nearly 80 minutes) single-disc introduction to the band's career-spanning, unparalleled dominance of pop music in the 1960s and beyond. But more than merely a trophy case of commercial success (and it won't be hard to find people to argue that these singles aren't even the band's best work), 1 is also a quick sketch of a remarkable seven-year musical evolution, one that stretches from the neo-skiffle of "Love Me Do" through a remarkable synthesis of R;B, rockabilly, Tin Pan Alley, gospel, country and classical that still defies efforts to effectively deconstruct it. --Jerry McCulley

From the Label

In selecting the tracks for 1, EMI Records together with Capitol Records in the USA chose the songs that were either No.1 in the Record Retailer chart in the UK (the only independently-audited UK chart throughout the sixties) or in the Billboard chart in the USA.

The Beatles achieved 17 No.1 hits on the Record Retailer singles chart between May 1963 and July 1969. In the USA, The Beatles had a total of 20 No.1 singles between February 1964 and June 1970.

Full Details Of Each Track's No 1 Status in The UK/USA follows:

"From Me To You", 2nd May 1960, 7 Weeks UK"She Loves You", 12th Sept 1963, 4 Weeks UK "She Loves You", 28th Nov 1963, 2 Week UK"I Want To Hold Your Hand", 12th Dec 1963, 5 Weeks UK"I Want To Hold Your Hand", 1st Feb 1964, 7 Weeks USA"She Loves You", 21st March 1964, 2 Weeks USA"Can't Buy Me Love", 2nd April 1964, 3 Weeks UK"Can't Buy Me Love", 4th April 1964, 5 Weeks USA"Love Me Do", 30th May 1964, 1 Week USA"A Hard Day's Night", 23rd July 1964, 3 Weeks UK"A Hard Day's Night", 1st August 1964, 2 Weeks USA"I Feel Fine", 10th Dec 1964, 5 Weeks UK "I Feel Fine", 26th Dec 1964, 3 Weeks USA "Eight Days A Week", 13th March 1965, 2 Weeks USA"Ticket To Ride", 22nd April 1965, 3 Weeks UK "Ticket To Ride", 22nd May 1965, 1 Week USA "Help!", 5th August 1965, 3 Weeks UK "Help!", 4th Sept 1965, 3 Weeks USA "Yesterday", 9th Oct 1965, 4 Weeks USA "Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out", 16th Dec 1965, 5 Weeks UK"We Can Work It Out", 8th Jan 1966, 2 Weeks USA "We Can Work It Out", 29th Jan 1966, 1 Week USA "Paperback Writer", 23rd June 1966, 2 Weeks UK "Paperback Writer", 25th June 1966, 1 Week USA "Paperback Writer", 9th July 1966, 1 Week USA "Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby", 18th August 1966, 4 Weeks UK"Penny Lane", 18th March 1967, 1 Week USA "All You Need Is Love", 19th July 1967, 3 Weeks UK"All You Need Is Love", 19th August 1967, 1 Week USA "Hello, Goodbye", 6th Dec 1967, 7 Weeks UK "Hello, Goodbye", 30th Dec 1967, 3 Weeks USA "Lady Madonna", 27th March 1968, 2 Weeks UK "Hey Jude", 11th Sept 1968, 2 Weeks UK "Hey Jude", 28th Sept 1968, 9 Weeks USA "Get Back", 23rd April 1969, 6 Weeks UK "Get Back", 24th May 1969, 5 Weeks USA "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", 11th June 1969, 3 Weeks UK"Something/Come Together", 29th Nov 1969, 1 Week USA "Let It Be", 11th April 1970, 2 Weeks USA "The Long And Winding Road", 13th June 1970, 2 Weeks USA

UK Total Weeks at No.1: 69 Weeks USA Total Weeks at No. 1: 59 Weeks

128 Weeks at No. 1 in the UK

 

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Costumer Reviews

All the Beatles No.1s from Love Me Do to The Long ; Winding Road. You can't grumble about the quality of the songs or value for money - a single CD (and 79+ mins) with more tracks than the double Red album (1962-66).I just wonder what the motivation is behind this release. Maybe it's simply to provide a single disc career overview of the greatest pop band in history to those who don't want to invest in 2 double CDs. There will no doubt be those that will complain that no Beatles hits package is complete without Strawberry Fields Forever. But this is a compilation of all of the Beatles' US and UK No.1 hits and unfortunately that song "only" reached No.2 in the UK. The Billboard Hot 100 in the US is compiled from a combination of sales and airplay, and though Penny Lane (the double A flip-side) reached No.1, Strawberry Fields only got enough radio play to reach No.8. I suppose they could have used a different criterion to select their greatest hits, but with so many hits to choose from they couldn't help but exclude some favourites (Please Please Me, Twist ; Shout, In My Life, and there is not a single song from from Sgt. Peppers). Still, this is the first time that such classics as She Loves You, Yesterday, Help!, Hey Jude, Get Back and Let It Be have all appeared on the same album. So if you don't own a Beatles album, this is the place to start, and it makes a great gift for anyone who hasn't updated their scratched vinyl records.

This is the first Beatle-compilation for the CD-generation. LP-buying Beatle-fans had already bought the Blue and Red double-cd's..

The big advantage of the "Red" and "Blue" were that they were quite creative in compiling album-tracks and making the public (I believed it!)think that tracks like With a Little Help from My Friends or A Day in the Life were actually hit-singles, while they were actually album-tracks!

Sound-wise it's a beefy remastering-job EMI did here; especially the post '68-tracks suffer from the harsh, bassy sound.

If you want to know the Beatles, the Red ; Blue are still better places to start (AND the Blue one actually opens with the indispensable Strawberry Fields Forever), if you want the hits, this is a nice one.