The Beatles Anthology Vol.1 - The Beatles

It is now almost 30 years since The Beatles split up over 33 years since they played a live gig and yet as the recent album of number 1 hits confirmed they are still hugely popular. Their continued popularity cannot be satisfied by truly new material so a re-visit of some of their early recordings is inevitable. There are probably few groups whose back catalogues can withstand such scrutiny or whose position in pop and social history have merited such attention. I was only 9 years of age when The Beatles burst onto the scene in 1963. I do therefore have to admit that I was not in the first wave of record buying Beatles fans. I liked them but I could not claim ...  Read the complete review

This is an important double CD set. I mean important in the sense of music-history, rather than music-brilliance. Listening to it is a bit like listening to the soundtrack to a documentary programme. It starts with "Free as a bird", the 1995 No. 1 single, which can justifiably be credited to 'The Beatles', since John Lennon's original demo was used with contributions from the other three Fabs - and to cap it all it's a pretty respectable tune. It would have been better placed on Volume 3 of the anthology, in my opinion, though. Following on from "Free as a bird", we have a chronological trip from the first demo produced by the ...  Read the complete review

This album is another installment to the many other Beatles compilations that have been made since their split. In the anthology series, each CD takes a look at their work from a certain time in their career. This first album provides songs that were produced when the Beatles first got together and there are a large number of previously unreleased songs. The album begins with the excellent Free As A Bird, written by Lennon in the seventies and then finished by the other three in '95. This is the highlight of the album. The album also includes different versions of the more famous songs and shows how they got them to sound like the finished product, ...  Read the complete review

My review of The Beatles Anthology Vol.1 - by The Beatles Accompanying the popular television series a while back, were the Anthology releases. This is Volume 1 of what became a very popular short run of albums. Unlike the usual Beatles compilations -the Anthology ones go little more left field - being full to the brim with early and rare recordings. Volume one has many offerings that will entertain and enthral Beatles fans, but it's also fascinating for anyone who has a more than passing interest in the fab four... Album highlights include - My Bonnie - recorded in Hamburg before the boys were famous, In Spite Of All The Danger -a ...  Read the complete review

I always appreciated these Anthology releases, as they gave you the chance to be a fly on the wall in Abbey Road & they came at a time when there was precious little new Beatles releases. This first release came at a time when the popularity of Britpop, specifically Oasis, had given the Beatles new credibility & a new legion of fans in waiting. Realising this, the wonderful Anthology TV series, complete with these CDs, came at the perfect time. I guess the biggest track on this set is the 'reformed' Beatles re-working of a Lennon demo - 'Free as a Bird'. While it is a little too ELO for my liking, it works reasonably well & is about as ...  Read the complete review