1962-1966 (Red)

The Beatles | Format: Audio Cassette

Product Details

• Audio Cassette (October 5, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002UZ0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (226 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #427,588 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The closest the Beatles came to a greatest hits package, this document of the early part of their career features hit singles (in chronological order) and selected album tracks, running from "Love Me Do" through the groundbreaking Rubber Soul and Revolver albums. While this may be an excellent intro for beginners, real fans will never be content with only selections, especially when you're dealing with those aforementioned albums. Capitol packages the collection on two discs, copying the original vinyl version--but, of course, CDs hold more music than records did. Still, you do get 26 bona fide classics, so there's no real need to complain. --Bill Holdship

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

127 of 135 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A terrific anthology ruined by executive greed, January 11, 2000

By 

Brian O'Marra (Little Rock, AR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1962-1966 (The Red Album) (Audio CD)

I bought the red and the blue on vinyl when they were released in 1973. At that time, album sides could not hold 30 minutes of music, hence the need for a double album.

The CD version was planned for 1992 then delayed until 1993. Prior to both projected release dates, it was announced that it would be a double disc affair even though the entire two albums could fit on one disc with 15 minutes to spare.

If this is due to the desire of preserving the original appearance of the album as a double anthology, I don't buy it.

Today, double discs are now presented in the slim CD case that look like single CDs. Therefore, they should release its blue album this way, put the red album on one disc and they would look comparable.

That way we would save a few bucks. Now for the music...

The first four songs are mono. The two track stereo tapes for Love Me Do and She Loves You are no longer in existence.

When The Beatles rerecorded their two biggest hits I Want To Hold Your Hand and She Loves You in German in early 1964, they were able to just record the vocal track over the existing backing track of Hand. Since She Loves You's two tracks had been erased, they had to record a whole new rendition.

Please Please Me and From Me To You are also in mono. There are stereo masters for these but since Please Please Me in stereo has a vocal flub it was not used. It was announced there was no clean stereo master for From Me To You.

I do enjoy this compilation. It's great to have these songs remastered in the early 1990's, and I love hearing All My Loving, Can't Buy Me Love, A Hard Day's Night, And I Love Her, and Eight Days A Week in stereo.

In fact, this blows the excuse out of the water that the first four albums would sound terrible in stereo, so present them in mono only.

However, I wish they had used the US stereo mix of Day Tripper. This was on both US and UK versions of the red album. It is a cleaner mix, with less obtrusive echo on the vocal, has a longer fade out, and doesn't try to hide a vocal flub with a volume knob twist. The fade out should have been sung: Day Tripper...Day Tripper Yeh! The Beatles accidently sung it: Day Tripper Yeh!...Day Tripper Yeh! No attempts were made to have them resing the vocal. They just lowered the volume during the mistake. What that did was lower the entire backing track with it.

Still, it is a nice anthology with unpublished photos and the lyrics to all the songs (correct lyrics this time. Just compare the lyrics of A Hard Day's Night on the vinyl to the CD. "So why on earth should I moan, cos' when I get you alone" is correct)

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't compare, please!, November 19, 1999

By 

"[e-mail]" - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1962-1966 (The Red Album) (Audio CD)

Sure, there are other places to get all these songs (the original albums and Past Masters, Vol.1 & 2), and sure, Capital could have issued this on 1 cd and saved us a lot of money. But they decided to be true to the LP release (and make themselves much weathier), and this is what we've got. So here are the facts:

The music here rates 5 stars. The remastering is far superior to the other releases that contain these songs. So, if you are new to the Bealtes and want the best fidelity, you should bite the bullet on the price and buy it. If you're a Bealtemaniac, then you'll need it because of the superior sonics. If you don't like the Beatles, what are you doing here?

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Compilation of Modern Standards, February 23, 2000

By 

"southwesternreview" (El Paso, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1962-1966 (The Red Album) (Audio CD)

The Beatles are THE most written-about recording group of all time, so any broad statements would just be repetitive. Suffice to say, the "Red Album" is a mannered look at the Beatles' early singles, all of which are hook-laden, strong classics. With the exceptions of "Norwegian Wood" and "Eleanor Rigby", there is little indication of the mind-blowing experimentalism of their later work. Like their British compatriots the Yardbirds and the Animals (among others), the Beatles grew up listening to and eventually covering the early rock pioneers (Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley being the most overt influences). The "Red Album" documents the band's attempt to capitalize on their American obsessions while breaking new lyrical ground. Lennon and McCartney are working so closely together here that their individual contributions are practically indistinguishable. The songs are starkly emotional and are stripped of any pretense that may have marred some of their subsequent recordings. The Beatles are still such an amazing cultural force, it really should go without saying that the "Red" and "Blue" albums both should be a prerequisite to any complete music collection. Without them, an individual is missing a very large piece of rock and roll heritage. Personal Favorites: the sitar-driven narrative of "Norwegian Wood", the melancholy classic "Yesterday", and the bittersweet recollections found "In My Life". Representative Lyrics: "Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church/ Where a wedding has been/ Lives in a dream/ Waits at the window wearing a face/ That she keeps in a jar by the door/ Who is it for?" ("Eleanor Rigby"); "I give her all my love/ That's all I do/ And if you saw my love/ You'd love her too" ("And I Love Her")