1962-1966

I remember being in my early teens and asking my parents for this collection for Christmas. Naturally, being the great parents that they are, they always encouraged my music development and so one year towards the end of the '90s santa brought me quite an excellent gift!

The red boxed 1962-1966-compilation album consists of all the most popular songs from the Beatles early discography leading up to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (or the Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane single, if you want to be more precise). Since I have never owned a single album by the group prior to the 1965 release Help it was interesting to explore this side of the band's style even though I've probably still managed to hear most of these songs prior to that point. This actually begs the question --- is it even possible to live a life without even unconsciously hearing a song by the Beatles? Of course one can stretch this argument to the most secluded sections of the Amazon Rainforest or even going out in space, even though I'm pretty sure the Beatles have that latter part covered!

Creating this type of a compilation is indeed a difficult task due to the vast amount of excellent material featured from different eras in the band's short but highly influential career. It was quite a bold decision on the part of the creators of this compilation to merely split the the Beatles' career into two section, each covered by one 2-LP/CD compilation album, which in itself could be a subject to criticism. I honestly think that a compilation trilogy, just like the Anthology albums, would have worked a lot better since the 1965-1966 part of the band's career was an interesting transition stage that could easily fill out the required space of 2-LP/CD compilation on its own! Plus, there are quite a few important early titles that are missing from this collection. Twist And Shout, It Won't Be Long, If I Fell, I Should Have Known Better, I'll Follow The Sun, and No Reply, just to name a few.

The 1962-1966-compilation tried to achieve the task of covering the band's early years over the course of just over an hour worth of music, which in itself sounds like an impossible mission! Still, due to the fact that a consistent chronological order was maintained and that most of the important titles from all of the early albums were picked, although the latter part is debatable, I definitely admire the ambition of this early post-the Beatles compilation. If anything it shows a band in development, which in itself is well worth the price of admission!

***** star songs: All My Loving (2:09) Yesterday (2:05) Help! (2:20) Michelle (2:42) Girl (2:31) Eleanor Rigby (2:08) Yellow Submarine (2:37)

**** star songs: Love Me Do (2:24) Please Please Me (2:03) From Me To You (1:57) She Loves You (2:22) I Want To Hold Your Hand (2:27) Can't Buy Me Love (2:14) A Hard Day's Night (2:34) And I Love Her (2:31) Eight Days A Week (2:45) I Feel Fine (2:20) Ticket To Ride (3:11) You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (2:11) We Can Work It Out (2:16) Day Tripper (2:50) Drive My Car (2:28) Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (2:05) Nowhere Man (2:44) In My Life (2:27) Paperback Writer (2:19)