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

I don't think there's a way to put all the Beatles singles on one CD. So there had to be a filtering system in place. #1 is as good of a filter as any, except if Paul, George and Ringo had gotten together to choose their favorite singles and come up with a track list themselves, which would have been cool.

That said, Apple could have done a 2CD Beatles Singles Collection—taking the New Order Substance approach of A Sides on CD1, and B Sides on CD2, chronological order on both discs. (Paul sort of did this with his 2CD Wings Hits & History).

But not sure it would have sold as much as 1 being a single disc, easier to use and less expensive. We'll never know.

 

Past Masters + #1 = All UK A's and B's, plus all US #1 A's and B's.

I had to take some liberties putting a later released US B-Side ahead of the UK B-Side, as well as putting the B-Side before the A-Side in some cases. Sequencing All You Need is Love after Penny Lane (and Hello Goodbye after All You Need is Love) has, and always will, suck.

CD 1 (79 minutes)

Love Me Do
P.S. I Love You
Please Please Me
Ask Me Why
From Me To You
Thank You Girl
She Loves You
I'll Get You
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Saw Her Standing There
This Boy
Can't Buy Me Love
You Can't Do That
A Hard Day's Night
I Should Have Known Better
Things We Said Today
I Feel Fine
She's A Woman
Eight Days a Week
I Don't Want to Spoil the Party
Ticket To Ride
Yes It Is
Help!
I'm Down
Yesterday
Act Naturally
We Can Work It Out
Day Tripper
Paperback Writer
Rain
Yellow Submarine
Eleanor Rigby

CD2 (77 minutes)

Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Baby You're A Rich Man
All You Need Is Love
I Am The Walrus
Hello, Goodbye
Lady Madonna
The Inner Light
Hey Jude
Revolution
Get Back (single version)
Don't Let Me Down
The Ballad Of John And Yoko
Old Brown Shoe
Something
Come Together
Let It Be (single version)
You Know My Name
The Long and Winding Road
For You Blue
Free as a Bird (if you want, but adding Real Love puts it 50 seconds over.)

 

"1+" will be featured in the next thread. I wanted to keep them separate.

 

To give you something to complain about, perhaps?

 

Exactly. If it had been released more like 1991-1992, it would've benefitted from the era when people were buying CDs like crazy. 1 released right as CD sales started to decline.

It still sold massively, but if there had been a single disc Beatles hits collection available ten years earlier, it would be the biggest selling album of all time by a wide margin, IMO.

 

Or you could expand outside UK and US to include #1 singles in other countries. For instance, Michelle/Girl and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da/While My Guitar Gently Weeps reached #1 in several countries.

But my idea of a singles collection would only include the UK A's & B's, as a complement to the UK albums (not as effective as Past Masters, but more accurate historically).

 

1. Single CD.
2. All the number ones on it (nearly).
3. Very different purpose from Past Masters. Aimed to include those with a casual interest; PM aimed at those who have all the original albums.

 

And here I thought it was for thoughtful discussions you... You Rapscallion You!

 

How would you divide the double-A side singles?

According to the CD singles releases, "We Can Work It Out", "Yellow Submarine", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Something" should be included in the first CD; and "Day Tripper", "Eleanor Rigby", "Penny Lane" and "Come Together" should be included in the second CD.

 

And don't forget the remaining 'other' Beatles #1's in the USA, on Cash Box and Record World, but not Billboard:

Twist and Shout #1 for 1 week each on Cash Box and Record World/Music Vendor (b-side = There's A Place)
Nowhere Man #1 for 2 weeks on Record World (b-side = What Goes On)

Then there could be an argument made to consider other Beatles records that did not achieve #1 because they were blocked by Beatles records already at #1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5, ha.

 

Hmm. I never thought of that.

 

You can also say EMI missed the mark, and more sales, by not doing separate UK and US releases of '1', featuring only the #1's of each country. Then all the real Beatles nuts would have to get both copies. Yep, a missed opportunity, ha...

 

But that had already been done with 20 Greatest Hits.

 

Yeah like that, I guess. 1st track on the double A side would go on CD1 and the second track on a double A side would go on CD2. I suppose!

 

Looks like a box set's in order here.

 

Well, hey, you're the one who created the thread to compare the two. They're not really comparable in any way.

 

You’re quite right about the moment of sales starting to decline, but it was also pretty much at the peak. Way more CD’s were sold in 2000 than 91-92.

 

Without having read the other posts, here's my gut reaction to the OP's question:

Past Masters was a shelf-clearing exercise, containing every non-album track regardless of merit or recognition; I found out about through ICE magazine, I believe, and my recollection is that it was a relatively soft release. 1 was a very heavily promoted compilation that consisted of nothing but hits.

 

A very simple answer. Look at the album charts and some of the best selling albums of all time. You will see a stack of best of/greatest hits compilations in there. Why? Because the majority of folks are not devoted fans but know and love the hits. They like the idea of a single album that contains all those big hits in a readily available easily accessed disc. "Casual" fans like the hits and have almost zero interest in all the other stuff. That's the way it's always been.

 

Past Masters Two was my gateway into The Beatles official output, having been hooked in by the Anthology project in 1996.

Past Masters 2 gave me the opportunity to have some of the key hits of the later era, in addition to some more obscure stuff which I was interesting in having enjoyed Anthology 2 and wanting more.

The Red and Blue albums were priced around £25-30 each by record stores in the mid nineties, so that wasn't a sensible option for me at the time, as a teenager with limited money.

Having the majority of the key hits on one disc at an affordable price. it's easy to see why '1' was such a success upon release in 2000. Apple should have arguably released it far sooner, around the time of Anthology to capitalise on the renewed interest in the band. The Anthology albums were never meant to be an introduction to The Beatles but for many, myself included, that's what they became.

I remember '1' coincided with the launch of the official Beatles website, which was quite advanced for the day. From memory, you could click on various locations, including various aspects of 3 Savile Row (eg the roof, the street) and there would be various photo / video / audio elements that would play.

I remember the elderly lady that featured in 'Get Back' ("I just can't see that it makes sense") was one of them.

 

Because 1 is a greatest hits compilation and Past Masters isn't.

Just a reminder: Past Masters was just a way to have all the officially released tracks not from albums all in one place.

 

They are both good compilations, but serve a completely different purpose.

 

Here are the Beatles singles CD-R’s I burned using the 09/09/09 sets and other things.

CD 1
Love Me Do
P.S. I Love You
Please Please Me
Ask Me Why
From Me to You
Thank You Girl
She Loves You
I'll Get You
I Want to Hold Your Hand
This Boy
I Saw Her Standing There
Twist and Shout
There's a Place
Can't Buy Me Love
You Can't Do That
A Hard Day's Night
Things We Said Today
I Should Have Known Better
And I Love Her
If I Fell
I'll Cry Instead (yes, I used the version from Something New in The Capitol Albums set)
I'm Happy Just to Dance with You
Matchbox
Slow Down
I Feel Fine
She's A Woman
Eight Days A Week
I Don't Want to Spoil the Party

CD 2
Ticket to Ride
Yes It Is
Help!
I'm Down
Day Tripper
We Can Work It Out
Nowhere Man
What Goes On
Paperback Writer
Rain
Eleanor Rigby
Yellow Submarine (these were flipped by mistake)
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
All You Need is Love
Baby, You're a Rich Man
Hello Goodbye
I Am the Walrus
Lady Madonna
The Inner Light

CD 3
Hey Jude (mono)
Revolution (mono)
Get Back (stereo because I'm American)
Don't Let Me Down (ditto)
The Ballad of John and Yoko!
Old Brown Shoe
Come Together
Something (these got flipped because I had Abbey Road on the brain)
Let It Be
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) (mono)
The Long and Winding Road
For You Blue
Got to Get You Into My Life
Helter Skelter
Back in the U.S.S.R.
The Beatles Movie Medley
Free as a Bird
Real Love