1962-1966 (The Red 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Still, it is a nice anthology with unpublished photos and the lyrics to all the songs (correct lyrics this time.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)

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?

There are many great songs that aren't included on this album. The most glaring omissions are songs from Revolver. I get the feeling that whoever compiled this was biased in favor of the "early" Beatles sound, as opposed to the experimental and sometimes bizarre sound of Revolver. Revolver gets two songs on the album--Eleanor Rigby and Yellow Submarine--whereas Rubber Soul gets six. Among those left out are "Tomorrow Never Knows," "And Your Bird Can Sing," "Here, There and Everywhere," and even the relatively popular "Good Day Sunshine." And The Beatles: 1967-1970 picks up with Sgt. Pepper, so they're not covered there either. Of course, there are also other omissions beyond those from Revolver: "If I Fell," "I'll Be Back," "No Reply," "The Night Before," "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You," "I Don't Want to Spoil The Party," etc......so much great music missing.

My advice: pay the extra money and buy the original albums. There are so many great Beatles songs in the early period that I doubt that any compilation could cover them adequately. On the other hand, the songs that are included ARE great, and if you only care about the Beatles' biggest hits, this might be a good investment. Just read the song list and make sure you know what you're getting.