Product description
Love me do She Loves You I feel fine 27 Tracks Total
Amazon.com
Proving yet again their willingness to dice ‘n’ slice their burgeoning legacy into new–if not exactly fresh–product, the Fab Four Minus One have released this single-disc compendium of their No. 1 hits. Though obviously superfluous to the faithful (who may also find themselves quibbling over the precise definition of « No. 1 hit » and the exclusion of seeming contenders like « Please Please Me » and « Strawberry Fields »), newly arrived visitors from the Pleiades star cluster and other neophytes will find it a concise and generous (nearly 80 minutes) single-disc introduction to the band’s career-spanning, unparalleled dominance of pop music in the 1960s. But beyond being a mere trophy case of commercial success (and it won’t be hard to find critics who’ll argue that these singles aren’t even the band’s best work), it’s also a Cliff’s Notes take on a remarkable seven-year run of musical evolution, one that stretches from the neo-skiffle of « Love Me Do » through a remarkable synthesis of R&B, rockabilly, Tin Pan Alley, gospel, country, and classical that still defies efforts to effectively deconstruct it. This is the pop monument equivalent of the ’27 Yankees and ’90s Bulls; it’s every bit as obvious and dominating–and just as essential. –Jerry McCulley
