Beatles 1 Album
Lutgarda Briseno
With the first CD releases of their albums in 1987 and 1988, the Beatles' core catalogue was harmonised worldwide to encompass their 12 original UK studio albums, the 1967 US Magical Mystery Tour album and the newly assembled Past Masters: Volumes One and Two compilation albums consisting of all the studio recordings released during 1962 to 1970 that are not present on the UK studio albums or Magical Mystery Tour (mainly non-album singles, B-sides and EP tracks). When the core catalogue was reissued in remastered editions in 2009, the two volumes of Past Masters were combined into one double album. Since then, other past releases have been reissued in digital formats and on vinyl. The catalogue is currently distributed by Universal Music Enterprises' Calderstone Productions. This core catalogue contains all 217 tracks[a] intended for commercial release, either as album tracks, EP tracks, or singles, that were put out by the Beatles from 1962 to 1970.[2][3]
The Beatles' international discography is more complicated due to different versions of their albums sometimes being released in other countries, particularly during their early years on Capitol Records in North America. Prior to 1967, it was common practice for British releases to be reconfigured for the American market. The first seven British Beatles albums were converted into ten LPs for the American market, adding material from singles and the UK EPs; the band were unhappy with these reconfigurations. With the exception of Magical Mystery Tour, studio releases from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 forward were uniform in both the UK and the US. The band's first eight albums were released on Parlophone. From 1968, in both the UK and the US, starting with the single "Hey Jude" and the album The Beatles (better known as "the White Album"), new releases appeared on the Beatles' own Apple record label, although Parlophone and Capitol catalogue numbers continued to be used for contractual reasons.
The Beatles' discography was originally released on the vinyl format, with full-length long plays (LPs), shorter EPs and singles. Over the years, the collection has also been released on cassette, 8-track, compact disc (CD), on a USB flash drive in MP3 and 24-bit FLAC format, and on digital media streaming services. The Beatles' UK discography was first released on CD in 1987 and 1988. Between 1962 and 1968, the Beatles released their songs in both mono and stereo versions.[4] The band's catalogue was remastered in both mono and stereo in 2009.[5][6]
The Beatles released seven consecutive Christmas records on flexi disc for members of their UK and US fan clubs, from 1963 to 1969, ranging in length between 3:58 and 7:48. These short collections had a mix of spoken and musical messages for their official fan clubs.
It's actually a really difficult question to answer. We can't really use the term 'single' in conjuction with the studio albums, because it was The Beatles' express policy not to include on their albums, tracks that had previously been released as singles.
I should say that by 'studio album', I simply mean those albums that were released in both the UK and the US between 1963 and 1969, and that weren't simply re-compilations of previously released singles, and other material. Athough even this is further complicated by the fact that the track listings vary between the US and UK - a fact that I gloss over in what follows.
So, with all that in mind, we could instead consider The Beatles' top 30* (say) most downloaded studio album tracks, and see to which studio album each belongs. As best as I can tell, these are as follows - and remember, great tracks like 'Hey Jude', 'We Can Work It Out', 'Day Tripper', and 'Paperback Writer' are ignored, because they weren't released on studio albums:
* OK, it's actually 29 - I told you this was difficult: I've excluded the track 'I Want to Hold Your Hand', which was released in the US on the album Meet the Beatles, but this album wasn't released in the UK, and the UK album With the Beatles (which shares the same cover art) doesn't include this track - although it wouldn't affect the final standings.
** Note that tracks from Please Please Me were of course released as singles!! And apologies for any other errors or omissions - hopefully they won't affect the overall standings, but it's a close race, so they might!
Their compilation album "1" was released in 2000. This was compiled by producer George Martin and the three surviving members of the band, so it could be considered a Beatles album. It includes the 27 Beatles songs that went to number one in the United Kingdom or in the United States.
Great review and totally agree. It remains incredible the four lads found each other, merged, and became the greatest musical, and perhaps cultural force in history, no offense to Beethoven or Elvis, whom I musically love. Four individuals on this planet residing near each other met, and the rest is history. To think, at such young ages they continually created musical masterpieces is mind-boggling. This world will never see the likes of it again. And I am glad was I alive then to experience it unfold as it did.
Definitely, these as a gateway to the Beatles in the pre streaming era were a major influence and really put together well. Of course, after mainlining them and first owning all the albums and now with sreaming, my memory of how good this was fell short of reality.
My opinion is the depth of those top albums was so good that a greatest hits will fall short. Picking the best songs off of the White Album, for example, does not do it justice. My favorites from that album are not all on the blue album. That is not to say the blue selections are bad or I would ever skip them rather I want to listen to all of White.
I finally found someone who put into words the way I have felt about the Beatles all my life. The Blue Album was my first Beatles album and once the needle on the record player nestled into the groove on Strawberry Fields my brain chemistry was changed forever. Thank you for your review.
How could the great album have only two songs from Revolver and worse three songs fro the white album? Are you on drugs.? Mccartney had to add 5 songs from Revolver to which took 50 years. Just get the albums as they made em.this is waste. Always was.
Well, you know, I think you do have a point, some of the additions do seem to be intended to make the Red album less Lennon-McCartney-centric, and to be more inclusive of George. And I get the point of view that this is a cash grab. I do, however, think Apple does deserve credit for at least including remixes in the re-release, rather than simply releasing the same product over and over again. But I can see the perspective that the albums were perfectly good to begin with and a re-release is unnecessary, not everyone loves the remixes like I do.
First off, I think George Martin would decline to produce the album. Harrison and Lennon had started working with Phil Spector, and Paul was producing his own material. Plus the Apple Studio that Geoff Emerick was building was nearing completion, and the Beatles were really excited about recording whenever they wanted. So I envision an album where each track was produced by different people, and as a result would not flow as nicely as a typical Beatles album. But I doubt the fabs would have considered that. They just wanted to do this one on their own.
Occasionally, on a Saturday I would walk to a hippie shop called Elysian Fields and try to figure out who the bands were on the posters covering the walls and flip through record bins while wondering what all the records sounded like. As with the underground radio station, you never heard any Top 40 hits in Elysian Fields. I took in what I could, but I processed little of what I heard. Fortunately, a friend whose older brothers left their record collections behind when they moved out set his selling price at a quarter; it was because of him that I first had a chance to listen to, at my leisure, bands like Captain Beefheart and the Electric Prunes.
The White Album is an album of extremes. It features the most world-weary John Lennon of any Beatles album, as well as the most aggressive. McCartney also tends to avoid any middle ground; most of his songs alternate between hard rock (or gritty blues) and peaceful pop songs. Whacked-out, over-the-top sonic experiments alternate with short, simple songs more sparse than anything on any other Beatles albums. Julia may well be the most intimate recording Lennon ever made, which is saying something. Although it has a nice pop melody, Blackbird is too stripped down to be a single. I Will is too scant and too short to even appear on another Beatles album. For a band that sold zillions of records, the Beatles were never really commercial, but the material on The White Album is less radio-friendly or easily palatable than on any other record. To some extent, the changes reflected on The White Album mirrored the newfound freedom of a successful band having its own record company. In that sense, the Beatles were leaving their own dollhouse. They were free to experiment, try different things, and if the mood hit, release those things on album.
In another sense, though, the Beatles were starting to feel trapped. Touring was no longer feasible, which meant spending more time in the studio, which was starting to feel old, plus they increasingly felt secluded. Slowly, it was becoming clear that the only way for them to manage their lives would be to end the Beatles, and the fact that they began to work more individually during The White Album helped prepare them for that. We can call that depressing or, we can call it liberating.
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