THE BEATLES 1962-1970

A new Beatles entry in 2010. Why not? 4 remastered CDs jam packed with the best Beatles, it had to happen. I actually had these double albums on vinyl and they received a fair thrashing over the years when I was just beginning to get into the band at a young age. It is fair to say that a newcomer to the band would have a very sizeable collection of classics on this compilation. It is great to get these on CD at last and they are identical to the original vinyl releases.

It begins with the red album, and this early phase of The Beatles is full of chart busting pop songs, and wholesome, unimpeachable love songs at that. It builds to some better material from Day Tripper onward. Best songs here are Norwegian Wood (THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN), Nowhere Man, Girl, Paperback Writer and Eleanor Rigby. The pop songs are ok especially 8 Days A Week and A Hard Day's Night.

The blue album is the best phase featuring Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, With A Little Help From My Friends, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and A Day In The Life. The compilation includes the psychedelic era of The Beatles such as I Am The Walrus, Hello, Goodbye, Magical Mystery Tour, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

The Abbey Road album is well represented with Here Comes The Sun, Come Together, and Something. Across The Universe is an excellent song and it ends with the quintessential The Long And Winding Road.

So for me this is an indispensable album introducing the best Beatles songs of the time. If you have both albums already, this comp will only retain interest for the Beatles collector. The booklet is great too and worth a read. I can award it 4 stars for the excellent material of over 50 songs, and it is essentially the best of The Beatles in one package.

The "Red album" and the "Blue album" are historical compilations (1973) that have had the function of introducing the group of Liverpool to many listeners of the most recent eras to that of the Sixties. And in fact they were among the first records I've ever listened to, and they left a mark on the Beatles' music on me.

The Red album goes from 1962 to 1966, that is up to "Revolver". As a collection includes the various singles of the Fab4 plus some songs that have become classics even though they have never come out as 45 laps. It is known that at that time the 45 rpm usually came out before the 33 rpm which did not contain them: in this way the groups of the Sixties showed a great respect towards the listener, because they did not want to make him listen to a song twice , first on 45 laps then on 33 laps. That's why many famous Beatles songs are not included in their albums since they only came out as 45 laps. The difficulty in making a compilation of the Beatles lies in finding the right balance between the famous songs, the hits at 45 laps that have reached the top spot in the sales charts, and the most refined, experimental songs present only in 33 laps. The Red album tries to find this right balance. Do it find it? On the first disc, yes, there are all the singles number 1 ("Eight Days a Week" and "Yesterday" were singles only in the USA) on the charts and indeed "All My Loving" and "And I Love Her", two beautiful ballads by Paul. There is no space for nothing else. On the second disc, in my opinion, there are too many songs taken from Rubber Soul and only "Yellow Submarine" and "Eleonor Rigby" taken from "Revolver". I think one or two "Rubber Soul" songs should have been removed for one or two of "Revolver". Of course I would have removed "Nowhere Man" to make room for the experimental "Tomorrow Never Knows". If you want to remove another song from "Rubber Soul", the choice is more difficult: "Girl" is the best; "Norwegian Wood is historical" for the sitar; so I would have removed "Drive My Car" (or "In My Life"?) to make room for "Taxman" so that Harrison would also appear in the Red Album.

The Blue album is close to perfection. It starts from "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" (both present: excellent choice!), it continues with Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, White Album, Abbey Road and it ends with Let it Be, plus 45 giri. The songs taken from Pepper are the best. I miss "Mr. Kite", but there is no space, unless "Revolution" is removed. Form Magical Mystery Tour there are both "The Fool on the Hill" and "I am the Walrus": two masterpieces. The songs from White Album are the best. Excellent choice to include "Old Brown Shoe" by Harrison, side B of the 45 laps "The Ballad of John and Yoko". The only problem is the choice of Macca's "Long and Winding Road", which I would have excluded to make room for a fourth song from the White Album, for example Lennon's "Happiness is a Warm Gun". The Abbey Road long medley is missing (the best piece is the final passage, which starts from "Golden Slumbers") but in compilation like this it is difficult to insert a medley, unless you want to remove the 45 laps of success.

Overall, the compilation, except for those questionable choices, find the right balance between songs number 1 on the charts and quality songs. The compilation is able to make a careful and weighted selection of the Beatles discography.

Vote 9. Rating: Five stars.