Greatest Hits (1962-66)

Story Behind the Album

This album, along with its companion of the hits from 1967-1970, carries some of the greatest hits of the Beatles in four discs. This one is composed of the hits from the  early days of "Love Me Do" to the Revolver time period. The album really does contain many of the Beatles greatest hits, and it also has many of the singles not available on the albums. This album and its sister album, I believe are great to begin to listen to the Beatles with. They are wide ranging and cover the whole recording span of their career together. Also, they are composed of some of some of the best songs and do give an accurate sample of great songs.   When looking at these two albums it is almost impossible not to compare them.  The songs on this one, the first disc especially, are very simplistic. The listener can tell they are quick songs, meant to grab the publics  attention.  When you get to disc two, subject matter changes, and the Beatles sound was changed dramatically.  In the early days, almost all of the songs are love related and they are directed at the audience. In the later days, there are love songs, but their are political, social, and  drug songs. To further enhance the albums comparison, the album covers are of the same pose but many years later. The one of the young Beatles is the album cover of Please Please Me, the older Beatles was supposed to be the cover of Let It Be. It is really interesting to see how much they have  changed physically in the span of eight years.   The songs one this album are also  ordered very well, mostly chronological, but they do have some fluency and show progression. The only set back I see on the album is that all songs are Lennon/McCartney, which although these are the best, they do leave out some great covers and some contributions from George.

Track Listing

Disc One

1. Love Me Do 2. Please Please Me 3. From Me To You 4. She Loves You 5. I Want To Hold Your Hand 6. All My Loving 7. Can't Buy Me Love 8. A Hard Day's Night 9. And I Love Her 10. Eight Days A Week 11. I Feel Fine 12. Ticket To Ride 13. Yesterday

Disc Two

1. Help! 2. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away 3. We Can Work It  Out 4. Day Tripper 5. Drive My Car 6. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) 7. Nowhere Man 8. Michelle 9. In My Life 10. Girl 11. Paperback Writer 12. Eleanor Rigby 13. Yellow Submarine

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