The Beatles "1" Compilation. Why So Successful when Past Masters Wasn't?

EVERYTHING on the remix hits me in the head! I don't know if I've even made it through the whole CD.

 

And could you we please can the "'Please Please Me' and 'Strawberry Fields' should be here" talk?

 

Not likely. That goes for the foreign language songs too!

 

This is exactly what I did, there was a bit of space at the end, so I also added Free as a bird & Real love, surprisingly it works rather well!

 

I still remember the feeling I had when I first saw it in the record store. I had been thinking "I should start listening to The Beatles" and there it was painfully obvious: the biggest hits on one CD. I guess millions of others had the same response. I think I had seen Past Masters before that and thought more in the lines of: "What is this?".

 

I owe a lot to "1". It was the first Beatles CD I bought back in 2004 when I first starting getting into that era of music. I was blown away. Then I bought all the individual albums and a full-blown obsession was born. I graduated high school that year and my entire spring/summer was spent rotating all the albums on my CD player. Fantastic memories.

 

It did pure and simple. The idea that this was omitted on a spurious technicality while LMD (no. 17) Something/CT (no. 4) PL/SFF (no. 2) not to mention three U.S. non Beatle sanctioned singles, were included was beyond moronic. Clearly someone has a dislike for this pivotal, ground breaking single as it regularly gets overlooked.

 

Timing is really the only viable answer here. I can almost guarantee if this compilation was put out in the eighties it wouldn’t have been even half as successful (note the flop which Twenty Greatest Hits was). The nineties saw a resurgence in Beatle interest between the first BBC set and Anthology soon after. Personally, I was shocked at “1”’s success. I was anticipating another Twenty Greatest Hits-type failure.

 

Imagine someone unfamiliar with The Beatles noting that You Know My Name was the last song in the compilation.

The question answers itself.

 

Di I enjoy the mixes and SQ?

Original CD: No
Remix CD: Yes
Remix LP: Yes and double Yes!

 

thanks for the updates on how 1 made you a fan

i rolled my eyes when it came out... but the Beatles Machine keeps on making new fans, right on!

 

What I do find odd is that Please Please Me WAS number one in other UK trade magazines … just not the main one they took to be the bible version. Also … The whole argument that the Beatles didn‘t want to go to America until they had a number 1 hit also plays into this theme because Martin, Epstein and the Fabs held up a copy of Cash Box magazine as proof of having a number 1 hit … not Billboard. What if IWTHYH only got to number 2 in Billboard? Of course … all this conversation is nonsense 60 years after the fact lol.

 

I liked the sound of the original CD but thought it sounded better on vinyl (and what a great LP package that is!). I think the remixed album ranges from “ok” to excellent. It contains my favorite stereo mixes of Paperback Writer and Rain (the latter available only in video format on “1+”.

 

"1+"? Let's not open that can of worms. Lol.

 

Not a #1 song. Only hit #2.

As for the lack of success of Past Masters, I would lay some blame on the Art Department. Slap a couple on unreleased or outtake pics on each cover and they would sell better.

 

I believe a few others on this disc didn't hit no. 1, so...

 

It was timing based coincidence. The wheels for them to come to America at the beginning of ‘64 were already in motion well before IWTHYH hit number one.

 

I always thought of 1. as an alternative to the Red and Blue albums for a new audience whose curiosity had been piqued by Anthology and the Britpop era. Past Masters was more for completists and people replacing their vinyl with CDs.

 

I missed the original LP but I love the packaging on the remix. Well, except some of the small font. I enjoyed the freshness of the remixes. Agree with you about Paperback Writer and Rain. Great new mixes.

 

So true.

Both the original 2000 release and the 2015 remixes are needlessly compressed.
The original probably got a little caught up in the loudness war, but there are other things about the sound that I don't like.
The 2015 remixes are...er...different. I can't say that they're all bad, but they're not all good.

The 2011 reissue used the same masters as the 2009 CDs, so that would be the go to.

Those who don't like the sound of the 2009 remasters aren't the audience for 1 anyway.

 

I think it is certified the best selling in the US, as well. It's definitely not 4th.

 

"'Please Please Me' and 'Strawberry Fields' aren't there because they weren't number one...what's the problem?
right, were talking about number one songs...unfortunately they weren't...

 

Important factor: Past Masters is a terrible stiff awkward title, and the generic cover design is dull as dishwater.

 

However, they could have been included under a slightly different concept, focused on UK A-sides. But I guess the label "1" was more attractive for the casual fan.

 

perhaps, but knows what they are thinking...