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1
Greatest hits by The Beatles
Released	13 November 2000
Recorded	11 September 1962 – 1 April 1970, mainly Abbey Road Studios in London, England, United Kingdom
Genre	Rock, pop
Length	79:08
Language	English
Label	Apple/Parlophone and Capitol
Producer	George Martin and Phil Spector
Compiler	George Harrison, George Martin, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr
Professional reviews
Allmusic 2000 Blender 2000 Yahoo Music UK 2000
The Beatles chronology
Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999) 1 (2000) Let It Be... Naked (2003)

1 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released on 13 November 2000. The album features virtually every number-one single released in the UK and USA from 1962 to 1970. Despite being issued on the 30th anniversary of the band's breakup, it was their first compilation available on one Compact Disc. 1 was a critical success and has gone on to sell over 11.5 million copies as of 3 January 2010. It's the seventh best-selling album since May 1991^[1] and the best-selling album from 2000 to 2009.^[2]

Background

Compiled by producer George Martin and the (then) three surviving members of the band, 1 includes the 27 Beatles songs that went to number one in the United Kingdom on the Record Retailer magazine charts and/or the United States on the Billboard magazine charts. It is worth noting, however, that the song "For You Blue" was listed in Billboard chart compilations at #1, as a Double A-sided single with "The Long and Winding Road", but Capitol Records treated "For You Blue" as strictly a B-side and didn't promote it as an A-side. Meanwhile, "Day Tripper" was included on 1, since it charted at #1 in the UK as a double A side with "We Can Work It Out", while in the US, only "We Can Work It Out" was #1. The only singles released in both the UK and US that did not reach #1 in either country, and were therefore ineligible for inclusion on the album, were "Please Please Me" and "Strawberry Fields Forever"—both reached #2 in the UK charts. The former was largely known as "the Beatles' first UK number one single"; however, it reached the top spot in the musical magazines New Musical Express and Melody Maker but not on the chart published by Record Retailer (now Music Week). On the other hand, "Strawberry Fields Forever" was part of a Double A-side single along with "Penny Lane". Being a Double A-side, UK sales policies counted the sales as a half of the real amount sold, a fact that kept the single at #2 in the charts, behind Engelbert Humperdinck's debut single "Release Me".

This album was essentially a combo of both the US and UK versions of the earlier album 20 Greatest Hits, with "Something" added to the mix (that song was left off 20 Greatest Hits because of time constraints). On 1, "Hey Jude" was released in its original full-length version (slightly over seven minutes); on the American version of 20 Greatest Hits it had been released as a shortened version.

Remastering

Before 1, all its 27 songs were available mainly in two remastered CD versions, first on the respective Beatles albums released in 1987 and on Past Masters, Volume One and Past Masters, Volume Two, released in 1988. The second remastering was made available on the CD versions for 1962–1966 and 1967–1970 (released in 1993).

According to the liner notes of the album, the original analogue masters were "digitally remastered at 24 bits resolution, processed using Sonic Solutions NoNoise technology and mastered to 16 bit using Prism SNS Noise Shaping." The remastering was overseen by Peter Mew of Abbey Road Studios and took place there.

Package

The package of the album was intended to be simplistic and ambitious at the same time. Its cover was designed by Rick Ward, and consisted of pop-art yellow number one on a background red. (The emphasis on the 1 icon was later used on many of the compilations of number-one hits by different artists that followed this album; for example, ELV1S by Elvis Presley or Number Ones by the Bee Gees). On its back cover, the album also included the famous photos of the Beatles taken by Richard Avedon copyrighted on 17 August 1967. The whole project uses exclusively different kinds of Helvetica typeface.

1 was released on mainly three formats—CD (on Apple 7243 5 29970 2), vinyl (Apple 529 3251) and cassette (529 9704). The CD includes a 32-page booklet with a coloured page with international picture covers (a total of 163 covers are displayed on the whole booklet) and details (recording date, location, release date, chart stats) for each of the singles. It also includes on its first two pages a collage with 27 1's in different colors (all of them following the same art as the cover) with the sentence "27 #1 singles = 1" (which was used as a catch phrase for the promo ads for the album), and the following foreword by George Martin.

The LP and the cassette conserved the main art of the CD version, but on a different form. The double vinyl record version was not released in the U.S., where it was imported the British edition. The vinyl version features a large full-color fold-out poster showing 126 picture sleeves (37 fewer than on the CD), and reproductions of the four Richard Avedon photos. The Avedon portraits also appear on the inside of the gate-fold cover. The records have custom labels featuring the same graphics as the front cover and are packaged in custom inner sleeves. The deluxe packaging of the vinyl album, with its four portraits and poster, is reminiscent to that of The Beatles. The cassette included a 20-page insert, including the collage, the George Martin commentary and paged Avedon's portraits on its inlay and the whole description for the tracks as a total of 36 covers on its inlay reverse.

Sales and chart performance

The reception of 1 surpassed all critical and commercial expectations, breaking a considerable number of sales and chart records. It reportedly sold 3.6 million units in its first week and more than 12 million in three weeks worldwide, reaching #1 in over 35 countries, achieving the record for the album debuting at the top of the most national charts ever. It became the fastest-selling album of all time and the highest-selling of 2000 and later, of the entire decade. This achievement made the Beatles the first and only artist to have the best-selling albums of two different decades (they had also the best-selling album of the 1960s, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). Ironically, no tracks from Sgt. Pepper appear on this album.

This success was particularly notable for the fact that The Beatles, by late 2000, had broken up over thirty years ago, and, despite the fact that their music was, at the moment, widely available on several formats, 1 became a commercial phenomenon. However, the reasons for its success were due to the unavailability of a compilation of the group on a standard format—in fact, before 1, the only Beatles compilations available on CD were the double-disc sets 1962–1966 and 1967–1970 (widely known as The Red and The Blue Album). Another reason for the high sales of 1 was the clarity of new remastered versions of the songs, which offered a brighter and clearer sound in comparison of the poor quality of the original 1987 CD masters of the Beatles recordings.

In the UK, 1 became the Beatles' 17th #1 album with sales of 319,126 copies (achieving record sales for only one week in 2000). On 18 December 2000, Ananova.com reported that the album has "become 2000's biggest-selling album—in only five weeks." 1 was the first album to stay at the top spot for nine weeks in almost ten years (the last being the Eurythmics's Greatest Hits), the best-selling album of 2000, and the fourth best-selling album of the 2000s so far in the UK. In its eleventh week, 1 sold a total of two million copies in the UK. It spent a total of 46 weeks inside the Top 75. On 11 July 2003 it was certified 8× platinum by the BPI, for over 2.4 million copies sold in the UK. It is the 24th best-selling album in the UK, and the second best-selling Beatles album in that country (only beaten by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is the second best-selling album in the UK).

In the U.S. the response was similar. It debuted at #1 with a sales over 595,000 copies. In its second week, sales increased to 662,000 but it was knocked off the top spot by Backstreet Boys's Black & Blue. , the album returned to the #1 spot the following week, and spent a total of eight weeks at #1, selling over 1,258,667 copies during Christmas week (its highest-selling week.) With this number the Beatles achieved a new record: it was the seventh highest one-week sales in Soundscan history, and the highest for an album not in its first week (this record was later broken by Eminem, who sold 1,320,000 copies of The Eminem Show during its second week on 15 June 2002.) The album spent 104 weeks inside the Billboard 200 and became the sixth best-selling album in the United States in 2001, and at the end of 2007 was the ninth best-selling album in the Soundscan era (1991 onwards) with 10.1 million units sold^[3]. On 15 April 2005, 1 was certified Diamond in America (a total of 10,164,000 copies were scanned.) 1 is the 84th best-selling album ever in the U.S.

In a press release, Apple Corps, the Beatles' company, stated that worldwide sales of 1 had exceeded 31 million copies worldwide^[4], with 10 million of those sales being in the U.S.

Track listing

All songs by Lennon/McCartney, unless otherwise noted. All songs are in stereo; except 1-3 are in mono.

CD

1. "Love Me Do"  – 2:20
   • Released in the UK on 5 October 1962, and in the U.S. on 27 April 1964, where it reached #1 in the U.S. for one week on 30 May. This is the version released in the U.S. with Andy White on drums and Ringo Starr on tambourine.
2. "From Me to You" – 1:56
   • Released on 11 April 1963 in the UK and reached #1 on 2 May, where it stayed for seven weeks.
3. "She Loves You" – 2:21
   • Released in the UK on 23 August 1963, where it stayed at #1 for six weeks, then again on 28 November. Released in the U.S. on 16 September 1963, and went to #1 for two weeks on 21 March 1964.
4. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" – 2:24
   • Released in the U.S. on 26 December 1963, it reached #1 for seven weeks between 1 February and 20 March 1964. Released in the UK on 29 November 1963 and stayed at #1 for five weeks.
5. "Can't Buy Me Love" – 2:11
   • Released on 20 March 1964 in the UK and on 16 March 1964 in the U.S.. The song reached #1 for three weeks in the UK on 2 April 1964. The song went to #1 in the U.S. for five weeks on 4 April 1964.
6. "A Hard Day's Night" – 2:33
   • The song reached #1 in the UK for three weeks on 23 July 1964 and was #1 for two weeks in the U.S. on 1 August 1964.
7. "I Feel Fine" – 2:18
   • The song stayed at #1 for five weeks in the UK starting on 10 December 1964, and reached #1 in the U.S. on 26 December 1964.
8. "Eight Days a Week" – 2:44
   • Released on 15 February 1965 in the U.S., where it went to #1 for two weeks on 13 March 1965.
9. "Ticket to Ride" – 3:10
   • Released on 9 April 1965 in the UK, was #1 for three weeks on 22 April 1965. The song was released in the U.S. on 19 April 1965, reaching #1 for one week on 22 May 1965.
10. "Help!" – 2:18
    • Released on 23 July 1965 in the UK, it reached #1 for three weeks on 5 August 1965. In the U.S., it was released on 19 July 1965, also reaching #1 for three weeks on 4 September 1965.
11. "Yesterday" – 2:05
    • Released on 13 September 1965 in the U.S., attaining #1 for four weeks on 9 October 1965.
12. "Day Tripper" – 2:48
    • Released on 3 December in the UK, reaching #1 for five weeks on 16 December 1965. A tape drop-out that appears in previous stereo releases of this song has been corrected here.
13. "We Can Work It Out" – 2:15
    • Released in the UK on 3 December 1965 and reached #1 for five weeks on 16 December 1965. The song was released on 6 December 1965 in the U.S., and reached #1 for three weeks on 8 January 1966.
14. "Paperback Writer" – 2:18
    • Released on 10 June 1966 in the UK and on 30 May 1966 in the U.S. The song reached #1 for two weeks in the UK on 23 June, and also for two weeks in the U.S. on 25 June 1966.
15. "Yellow Submarine" – 2:38
    • Released on 5 August 1966 in the UK, where it reached #1 for four weeks on 18 August.
16. "Eleanor Rigby" – 2:06
    • Released on 5 August 1966 in the UK, reaching #1 for four weeks on 18 August, as part of a double-A-Sided single with "Yellow Submarine".
17. "Penny Lane" – 2:59
    • Released on 17 February 1967 in the UK, and on 13 February 1967 in the U.S.. The song reached #1 in the U.S. on 18 March for one week.
18. "All You Need Is Love" – 3:47
    • Released on 7 July 1967 in the UK, it reached #1 for three weeks on 19 July. In the U.S., it attained #1 for one week on 19 August 1967.
19. "Hello, Goodbye" – 3:27
    • Released on 24 November in the UK, it reached #1 for seven weeks on 6 December 1967. In the U.S., the song was released on 27 November 1967, and reached #1 for three weeks on 30 December 1967.
20. "Lady Madonna" – 2:16
    • Released on 15 March 1968 in the UK, reaching #1 for two weeks on 27 March.
21. "Hey Jude" – 7:04
    • Released on 26 August 1968 in the U.S. and on 30 August in the UK. It reached #1 in the UK for two weeks on 11 September and was #1 for a record nine weeks in the U.S., starting on 28 September 1968.
22. "Get Back" – 3:12
    • Released on 11 April 1969 in the UK and on 5 May 1969 in the U. S.. It reached #1 in the UK for six weeks on 23 April, and in the U.S. for five weeks on 24 May 1969.
23. "The Ballad of John and Yoko" – 2:59
    • Released in the UK on 30 May 1969 reaching #1 for three weeks on 11 June.
24. "Something" (George Harrison) – 3:01
    • Released on 31 October 1969 in the UK, and on 6 October in the U.S. It reached #1 for one week in the U.S. on 29 November 1969.
25. "Come Together" – 4:18
    • Released on 31 October 1969 in the UK, and on 6 October in the U.S.. As the B-sid of a double A-sided-single with "Something", it reached #1 in the U.S. on 29 November, and stayed there for one week.
26. "Let It Be" – 3:50
    • Released on 6 March 1970 in the UK, and on 11 March 1970 in the U, S., reaching #1 for two weeks on 11 April 1970.
27. "The Long and Winding Road" – 3:37
    • Released in the U.S. on 11 May 1970 and reached #1 for two weeks on 13 June 1970. This version has the orchestral "wall of sound" added by re-producer Phil Spector. It is the only track not produced by George Martin.

Vinyl

Each of the four sides of the vinyl represented appropriately different styles and phases of the Beatles' career: in order, Beatlemania's Mersey Beat, folk-rock/pre-psychedelic style, purely experimental/psychedelic style, back-to-basics/rock style. This was apparently a coincidence, considering that the songs are distributed on the sides following a balance-time rule. (The cassette edition comprises the first two vinyl sides on its side A and the last two vinyl sides on its side B, with a length of 38:32 and 40:35 respectively.)

Side one (1962–64)

1. "Love Me Do"
2. "From Me to You"
3. "She Loves You"
4. "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
5. "Can't Buy Me Love"
6. "A Hard Day's Night"
7. "I Feel Fine"
8. "Eight Days a Week"

Side two (1965–66)

9. "Ticket to Ride"
10. "Help!"
11. "Yesterday"
12. "Day Tripper"
13. "We Can Work It Out"
14. "Paperback Writer"
15. "Yellow Submarine"
16. "Eleanor Rigby"

Side three (1967–68)

17. "Penny Lane"
18. "All You Need Is Love"
19. "Hello, Goodbye"
20. "Lady Madonna"
21. "Hey Jude"

Side four (1969–70)

22. "Get Back"
23. "The Ballad of John and Yoko"
24. "Something"
25. "Come Together"
26. "Let It Be"
27. "The Long and Winding Road"

In popular culture

In the 2002 direct-to-video film The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch, David Bowie is seen holding a vinyl album entitled The Rutles 1. He calls it a "piece of marketing extravagance." The album's cover is practically identical to that of The Beatles' album, with the Rutles' name appearing in the same dropped-T logo as the one that was used by The Beatles and a large painted "1" in the center, backed a red background.

Chart performance

In the United States, Beatles 1 was the #1 album of the year according to Billboard Magazine. It was the only time a Beatles album achieved that mark.

See also

• List of best-selling albums worldwide
• List of best-selling albums in Australia

Notes and references

External links

• Official site

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