Customer Reviews

CD Singles Collection

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sure, these songs are all available on CD elsewhere, but in this CD Singles Collection, you get the original release artwork from all 22 Beatle singles in one package. Purists may want to seek out the original boxed set on 45 RPM records, but this collection is a great way to get all of The Beatle "singles" and their matching picture covers on CD.
It is fasinating to flip through these discs and see the changes the Beatles went through from "Love Me Do" in 1962 to Let It Be" in 1970. I am a Beatle fan from "way back" and this collection is for me, a fun addition to the rest of the Beatles Albums and past masters on CD. A guilty pleasure. Sometimes it is just so nice to indulge.

I have the 12 UK albums on CD, the "Magical Mystery Tour", "The Decca Tapes", "In The Beginning", and I have the 2 Past Masters albums, but I didn't have any single, so I made with my iTunes a CD with 24 tracks of all the A-Sides (including Back In The USSR, and Yesterday, that are not included in this collection), and then I made another CD with the other 24 B-Sides (including Twist & Shout, and I Should Have Known Better, that are not included in this collection either).

They all fitted perfectly in 2 discs, but it felt so empty because is not the same like having all the original discs and covers, so I finally decided to get this Box Set, and I couldn't be more happy. Because I had all the tracks in the stereo versions, I was able to compare the sound with the mono versions, and the mono versions here are way ahead and better in sound than those in stereo. Just the felling from having all the original discs and covers, really makes this collection a must.

The only problem is that it doesn't have the singles: "Back In The USSR", and "Yesterday", that were released in 1976 when John Lennon was still alive. It also doesn't have "Free As A Bird" (1995), and "Real Love" (1996), that are also UK singles. I guess they just limit the collection to the releases in the years that the band was still together 1962-1970, and even then, they didn't include "My Bonnie" (1962). I don't mind much for the "Beatles Movie Medley" (1982) because is not really a single, but it would be cool if they had inluded all these singles in this Box Set.

These aren't the original covers - incredibly, most UK Beatles singles were released without picture sleeves*; this art seems to have been created circa 1991 using period photos, as anyone with an eye for design and typography can tell. At any rate all back covers in this collection are generic, featuring the same design for the two-song track listings and a big ol' UPC bar code.

Presumably these are all the original mono single masters, but again there's no guarantee of that. (I believe at the time of issue that a lot of these mono singles had only been issued in stereo on Past Masters, so the mono on these was new.)

So why am I giving this five stars? Because it's the only way in the digital age to have the experience of a single: take the disc out of a sleeve, listen to a few minutes of music and then enjoy a whole lot of silence afterwards as you ponder the amazing two songs you just heard. Interfile them with the albums on CD, then follow the band release by release through their amazing career without having to mess around with Past Masters.

(* I believe the two exceptions were Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever and Let it Be/You Know My Name, both of which appear here with original art, more or less.)

Why spend so much money on all the songs that are available elsewhere? Why buy so many discs with only two tracks on each disc? That's a waste of CD space. Also, they don't tell you if it's the same quality or same recording as the normal masters.