Past Masters Volume 1 & Volume 2 (1988)


Past Masters Volume 1
1.Love Me Do
2.From Me To You
3.Thank You Girl
4.She Loves You
5.I'll Get You
6.I Want To Hold Your Hand
7.This Boy
8.Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
9.Sie Liebt Dich
10.Long Tall Sally
11.I Call Your Name
12.Slow Down
13.Matchbox
14.I Feel Fine
15.She's A Woman
16.Bad Boy
17.Yes It Is
18.I'm Down

Past Masters Volume 2
1.Day Tripper
2.We Can Work It Out
3.Paperback Writer
4.Rain
5.Lady Madonna
6.The Inner Light
7.Hey Jude
8.Revolution
9.Get Back
10.Don't Let Me Down
11.The Ballad of John and Yoko
12.Old Brown Shoe
13.Across the Universe
14.Let it Be
15. You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)

 

For those who bought Beatle albums in the 1960s and then wanted to replicate their collection on CD, it could be a bit confusing. First, many of the earlier Beatle albums that were released, were only put out on one side of the Atlantic. Second, even though the album titles and/or covers may have been the same, the song selection could be different. For example, the U.S. version of Help contained only one side of actual Beatle music and the other side was simply a score of instrumental music from the film. Then, what really became confusing was that it was custom back in the day for several songs to be released as singles or 4 song "EPs" that never appeared on a full length album.

When the decision was made to release the Beatles' entire catalog on CD, the decision was made to market the band's UK releases - so many songs were left "orphaned". Therefore, the decision was made to release these 2 compact discs featuring all of the "extra" material. It can be argued that it would have been better to add a few of the above songs to each album that was originally released around the time of the extra songs, therefore saving the consumer money. This would have been more practical, and most fans would have appreciated and welcomed that. Some, probably few, might argue that this decision would "distort" the original albums by adding material and breaking the "flow". Whatever.

Regardless, it must be made clear that although these discs are extra material, they're by no means "throwaways". Much of the material here is essential for any Beatle fan. How can you have a Beatle collection without I Want To Hold Your Hand or Hey Jude. So, yes, it would be better to include these as extras on existing albums, but there's plenty of good material on both of these releases to justify the extra purchases.

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