The overall rating of a review is different from a simple average of all individual ratings.
Advantages:
The number 1's of the biggest selling band of all time, you can't ask for much more than that . Has introduced a whole new generation to the delights of the Beatles
Disadvantages:
Some of the Beatles best tracks are not included . An album released purely to make money???
Recommendable
Yes:
Detailed rating:
Originality
Lyrics
Quality and consistency of tracks
How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Value for Money
How does it rate alongside the competitionOutstanding
Woopdidoo. Only one exam left. Hurrah. Role on wednesday afternoon....... Phil :)
Woopdidoo. Only one exam left. Hurrah. Role on wednesday afternoon....... Phil :)
Member since:02.03.2001
Reviews:81
Members who trust:52
Soooo.......the Beatles hey. What can I say? They hardly need an introduction.....do they? Well just incase there is some fan of dance music out there who doesn't know who made up the Beatles I shall tell you all. The Beatles were, of course, a four piece band from Liverpool. They consisted of the great John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. These four men were, and still are, the biggest band in history who have sold millions upon millions of copies of their many albums. And what's even more amazing is that their career as a band together lasted for only 8 years.
Towards the end of last year we saw the release of yet another album by the Beatles and their record label Apple. This album was ‘1' a collection of all (or nearly all anyway) of their number one singles both here in the UK and in America. This meant a massive 27 songs which they somehow managed to cram into a single CD. These 27 tracks span almost the entire life of the Beatles starting with their first number one ‘Love me Do', released in October of 1962 to their final single together ‘The Long and Winding Road' released only in the USA in May 1970.
Now under normal circumstances when writing an opinion on a Cd here
on Ciao I will go through each and every song on the album giving a few details on it contents. However I think that would be rather unnecessary as I'm sure most of you know virtually every track on the album very well and I don't want to bore all you lovely (remember I called you lovely when rating this op.!!) People out there by going on for hours. Instead what I will do is pick some tracks that I feel are among the best on the album. You can also have a track listing cos I'm nice like that. 1 - Love me do 2 - From me to you 3 - She Loves you 4 - I Want to Hold your Hand 5 - Can't Buy me Love 6 - Hard Day's Night 7 - I Feel Fine 8 - Eight Days a Week 9 - Ticket to Ride 10 - Help! 11 - Yesterday 12 - Day Tripper 13 - We can Work it out 14 - Paperback Writer 15 - Yellow Submarine 16 - Eleanor Rigby 17 - Penny Lane 18 - All you need is Love 19 - Hello, Goodbye 20 - Lady Madonna 21 - Hey Jude 22 - Get Back 23 - The Ballad of John and Yoko 24 - Something 25 - Come Together 26 - Let it be and finally........ 27 - The Long and Winding Road
So then to my tracks of preference. Well firstly I feel I must say the 9 tracks. They are all very catchy and nothing really comes close to the Beatles early work. Then there's Help! It was always my favourite when I was very young and we used to listen to this in the car and one that you just can't help but sing along to. Then they are my two favourite tracks on this album that come in the form of Eleanor Rigby, a rather sad song about loneliness, and Penny Lane, a much more upbeat tune about, well, Penny Lane I suppose. I feel Hey Jude also deserves a mention. It was voted the number 1, number 1 of all time in a pretty recent channel 4 show and although it may not be my personal choice for that honour there's no denying its quality as a piece of music.
After Hey Jude I personally feel the last tracks are a bit disappointing. I know that they had to be included on the album, otherwise it wouldn't have been a collection of #1's and there would have been multiple complaints from fans of the later stuff, but for me the true quality work of Lennon and McCartney came during the early and middle years of the Beatles life.
‘1' is an album that has been seen as a cynical album release by many and also one that is lacking many of the bands best loved songs. People have seen it as a release purely to make a bit (sorry a lot) of extra cash for Apple and the remaining Beatles. Whilst this is probably the case in setting out to create an album of number ones by the greatest ever band they have surely won a whole new generation of fans me being one of them at 17. Although I've really been a fan of the Beatles ‘1' was in fact the first Beatles album I myself owned. Since then I have gone on to buy 4 more of their albums (Revolver, Sgt. Peppers LHCB, The White Album and Rubber Sole (which is the album of theirs I most recommend) ) and this can surely only be a good effect of ‘1'.
There are also complaints that the album missing some of the Beatles better songs. These include the likes ‘Strawberry Fields Forever', released as a double A-side with ‘Penny lane', ‘Please, Please Me', a disputed number 1, and ‘Nowhere Man', which ranks as my favourite Beatles song along with Norwegian Wood and the aforementioned Penny Lane. Although there is certainly a case for all of these to have been included on album it must be considered that they wanted to fit all the tracks onto one CD which would not have been possible if any additional tracks were added. Therefor such tracks as these were forced off the album as including them would have meant others being left off and again more complaints.
I'm also going to mention ever so quickly the CD cover booklet of '1'. This is very good giving the recording dates and dates of when they were at number one of all the tracks along with pictures of the single record sleves from many different countries. It's only a small touch but nice none-the-less.
So then my verdict on the album. If you are a long time fan of the Beatles then I am in no doubt that you already own nearly everyone of these tracks on other albums by the group. If this is the case there really is little incentive to but the album unless you wish to hear the tracks played in a different running order. However for those who aren't fanatics of the Beatles this is pretty much an essential buy and one that you all should have as part of your record collection. You've also got to consider that you get a massive 27 tracks with this album and you can pick it up for only £10 so there is no real reason not for owning it.
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I don't think another compilation was needed, but it's nice to have 27 (mostly) great songs on one disc. ~Liz
gillenium1 21.02.2004 19:36
Briiliant Opinion, Very well written :-) Gill XX
Xelavie 03.07.2001 05:32
Listing the best of the Beatles is a critical thing to do, this is subject to debates. You know the Beatles fans, they certainly like more than 30 songs at the least so you cannot really come up with a list that short. So many good songs by the fab 4 and some are still hoping for a reunion even if John is already in the life beyond. Let's keep on dreaming... Alex
Jun 12th, 2001
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