1

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Editorial reviews

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

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Description
'1' is the definitive single disc retrospective of the Fab Four. It includes - in chronological order of recording date- every track by the band which reached no.1 in the UK and US singles charts.

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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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Customer reviews

review by: musicman date: 2008-07-20 rating:
fantastic but songs still missing like elvis 1 collection!!
the beatles are legends but still theres lots of songs missing strawberry fields forver here comes the sun while my guitar gently weeps revolution and many more like the elvis 1 collection still songs missing but still a good hits collection from the fab four they will always be remembered like alot of other legends dusty springfield,elvis presley,freddie mercury/queen,jimi hendrix,minnie riperton,karen carpenter/the carpenters etc buy this but also get the red and blue box sets there cool!!

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review by: pdsrecords date: 2008-06-25 rating:
Terrible! The Beatles sellout to Elvis
Terrible! The Beatles the greatest Pop group of all time who released the innovative 'Sgt. Pepper's' copy Elvis with the same concept of a hits album containing all their Number One's? which may of worked if all their UK singles reached the top spot... But where is 'Strawberry Fields' and 'Please Please Me' instead we get 'The Long And Winding Rd' and 'Eight Days A week', if you had a choice The Long Winding Rd or Strawberry Fields what would you choose? I thought so Strawberry Fields, enough reason why this Cd does not work they should have done two seperate Hits Cd's one for the USA and one for the UK.. (like the vinyl of 1982) Penny Lane without Strawberry Fields is like Bread without Butter... Also it is the worse sounding Beatles Cd as well!

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review by: s.vernon date: 2008-01-21 rating:
A CLASSIC BAND
Apparently, there was a gap in the Beatles' catalog, after all -- all the big hits weren't on one tidy, single-disc compilation. It's not the kind of gap you'd necessarily notice -- it's kind of like realizing you don't have a pair of navy blue dress socks -- but it was a gap all the same, so the group released The Beatles 1 late in 2000, coinciding with the publication of their official autobiography, the puzzlingly titled Anthology. The idea behind this compilation is to have all the number one singles the Beatles had, either in the U.K. or U.S., on one disc, and that's pretty much what this generous 27-track collection is. It's easy, nay, necessary, to quibble with a couple of the judgment calls -- look, "Please Please Me" should be here instead of "From Me to You," and it's unforgivable to bypass "Strawberry Fields Forever" (kick out "Yellow Submarine" or "Eleanor Rigby") -- but there's still no question that this is all great music, and there is a bit of a rush hearing all these dazzling songs follow one after another. If there's any complaint, it's that even if it's nice to have something like this, it's not really essential. There's really no reason for anyone who owns all the records to get this too -- if you've lived happily without the red or blue albums, you'll live without this. But, if you give this to any six or seven year old, they'll be a pop fan, even fanatic, for life. And that's reason enough for it to exist.

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review by: date: 2007-12-14 rating:
The ultimate Beatles compilation still does not exist
Ask any serious Beatles fan about "1" and he/she will tell you that this album is not a good, balanced summary of the amazing Fab Four discography. Of course, the songs are still great, but "1" only shows one side of the band. I mean, "1" is very good about showing the Beatles as "hit-makers", but it fails when it's about showing their revolutionary side. Maybe that's why Paul got much more songs than John here, while George is represented by only one track. So, as a compilation, I consider that "1" loses at least one star.

The early-Beatles (from late-1962 to mid-1965) are quite well represented since at the begining they put more energy on the production of distilled singles than on the albums, even though "1" omits an essential track like "Please Please Me". But from Rubber Soul (late-1965) to Abbey Road (late-1969) the Beatles included much of their best material just on LPs. Perhaps some great songs like "Tomorrow Never Knows", "A Day In The Life" or "Helter Skelter" belong too much to their corresponding albums and would not fit to what a coherent compilation should be. But then we have classic folk rock pieces like "Norwegian Wood", "Nowhere Man", "Michelle" and "In My Life"; psychedelic landscapes in "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "I Am The Walrus"; marvelous loud rockers such as "Revolution"; George's classic gems "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes The Sun". Note that all these tracks are not merely personal favorites, they're all instant standards and I understand that they should be part of any serious Beatles collection.

I guess the original idea was releasing a collection of hit singles in one full CD, but then I think that for historical reasons (beyond chart reasons) it would have been wiser to include "Please Please Me" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" instead of "Eight Days A Week" and "The Long And Winding Road", since the last two songs weren't released as singles in UK and, in my opinion, are far from the Beatles best. Anyway, I think that the Red and Blue Albums together make the most complete Beatles collection of songs released until these days (and they were originally published in 1973!), but they involve four disks and exceed what a concise compilation should be. Compiling is about both selecting and excluding: "1" fails about selection while the Red and Blue Albums fail about exclusion. I think that the ideal Beatles collection should be at a mid-way: 40 songs spread on two CDs. Thus, I believe that the ultimate Beatles compilation still does not exist; and maybe will never do.



review by: date: 2007-08-28 rating:
If you only buy one Beatles album, it must be this one.
Much better sleeve notes, and better sound clarity. No duff tracks. The Beatles were essentially a singles band. Enough said.

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