See Comments

The Beatles

The Beatles' 22 officially approved singles (that is, not counting North American oddities such as the Vee Jay, Tollie, and Swan releases and pieces like "Roll Over Beethoven"/"Misery," "Roll Over Beethoven"/"Please Mr. Postman," etc.), A- and B-sides, are all assembled together here on just as many CD platters, in packaging re-creating their picture-sleeve art. It might not be the most efficient way to play or hear the music, but for collectors, music history buffs, or '60s pop culture enthusiasts, the array of music and images is fascinating. The sheer quality of the material here is also amazing to contemplate anew and appreciate in detail; it wasn't that there weren't acts other than the Beatles, before or after, that delivered singles that were as good -- or even better -- than they did: Big Joe Turner, Howlin' Wolf, Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark Five, the Hollies, the Byrds, and Creedence Clearwater Revival all qualify, but the 22 times (and actually more than 22, as some of these were double-sided hits, such as "Day Tripper" b/w "Nowhere Man") the Beatles scored with a record intended for AM radio is prodigious and downright astonishing; whatever the merits of individual songs, their juxtaposition every few weeks or months across more than seven years represent a level of quality that completely altered listener expectations and buying habits, and permanently transformed the playing field for rock stardom.

It's also fascinating to listen as their songwriting and production, and the sensibilities behind them, evolve across their first four years of recording from 1962 through 1966, even as the medium itself -- the 45 rpm record -- recedes in importance, due in large part to their own parallel work generating LPs. From "Love Me Do," a suitably commercial if relatively unambitious record, to "Please Please Me" -- a record of almost blinding intensity in its own time -- represented an immense leap in the weeks ending 1962 and those opening 1963, and luckily for music the latter became their benchmark, rather than a fluke in their output. Even the advances on the B-sides are astonishing, as the band jumps from "P.S. I Love You," a pleasant Moon/June rhyming ballad distinguished mostly by its production and harmonization, through the slightly more subtle and complex "Ask Me Why" to the driving "Thank You Girl," all in five months, the latter strong enough to have been a first-rate single in the pre-Beatles era. For those coming in late on this show, the other amazing aspect of this side of their work, which is seldom mentioned anymore, is that every song here, from the beginning to the end, A- and B-sides alike, is an original by the members of the band, all but two by Lennon and McCartney.

And by the time one gets to 1964, and releases like "A Hard Day's Night" and "I Feel Fine," they're generating new instrumental sounds in their opening bars of their singles as well as their own rock & roll standards ("She's a Woman"). The material, for reasons best understood by the producers, isn't assembled in chronological order, but that's easily rectified by the listener, assuming one wishes to. By 1966, they've reached a crossroads, generating ornate, dazzling rock & roll ("Paperback Writer") and about to leave the latter behind in favor of the highly produced "Penny Lane" b/w "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Hello Goodbye" b/w "I Am the Walrus," and "All You Need Is Love" b/w "Baby You're a Rich Man." Across the rest of the band's history, the 45 rpm single was secondary to their main efforts, but they still generated a pair of pop/rock classics ("Lady Madonna," "Hey Jude") specific to the format, and kept their hand in, even amid the disintegration of the group, with a few personal statements ("The Ballad of John and Yoko")

View All

Members Who Collected This