The Beatles 1 Album Review

Hello!

I recently downloaded The Beatles 1 from iTunes, as it was on sale for 10 bucks, and it seemed like a neat compilation that would fill out a few of their more popular songs that I did not have. My kid loves it too, so it was a worthwhile purchase.

1 was the brainchild of Capitol Records, who wanted to create the best selling album of all time, besting Thriller and The Eagles Greatest Hits 1971-1975. The concept was to include all of their number 1 hits from the UK and US, which seems like a tidy way to put a collection together (until you start figuring out whether to include B sides and whatnot). Of course, there were a lot of great Beatles songs that never hit number 1, so they are not included. I guess you have to draw the line somewhere. And, if you already have their entire catalog, this album would be a bit redundant.

The Beatles 1 was released back in 2000, on the 30th anniversary of their breakup. It included 27 digitally-remastered tracks, and was available on CD, album or cassette formats. Remember cassettes?

The version I bought was re-mastered in 2011 without the use of Sonic Solutions NoNoise digital noise reduction nor heavy digital limiting (as it was in 2000), and it is a very clean and natural-sounding collection of music. If you do not have the complete Beatles catalog, you should pick up 1, there isn’t a bad song on it.

In the end, Capital was not successful in beating Michael Jackson or The Eagles. 1 has sold 11 million copies in the US, compared to 29 million for the leaders, and there are actually quite a few other Beatles albums that have sold more copies than the 1 album.

Though I am sure they made dump trucks full of money anyway, it is nice to see corporate hubris take a beating.

Mahalo!