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Neil Diamond
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Toby Keith
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The Beatles
Many contemporary music fans already realize this, but it is still worth noting that the dawn of the CD age drastically altered the way that Americans perceive the Beatles catalog of recordings.
Before CD's were common, Americans were familiar with the Beatles albums on Capitol Records. To those of us who lived through it all, we remember titles like The Beatles Second Album, Something New and Beatles '65'. There were no English counterparts to these albums. Instead of following the English lead and releasing the albums the way that the Beatles had intended, Capitol continuously cannibalized the Beatles catalog of songs, releasing them in drastically altered forms. Capitol claimed that they were "fixing" them so that they would appeal to the American market, and in a sense, this was true.
In England, the 7" e.p. was a viable format that sold well; at the time, there was no equivalent on the American market to speak of. Furthermore, The English record business viewed singles and albums as quite separate entities, so it was a common procedure to keep "hit" songs off of long-playing albums. The American record business saw things differently. With the exception of "mature" pop acts like Frank Sinatra, they felt that hit singles must be included on albums, or the "less mature" teen audience might not splurge on the relatively expensive LP. For this reason, the American experience varied significantly from the British experience regarding the Beatles.
All of this changed when it was (wisely) decided to release the British versions of the Beatles albums on CD (with the exception of Magical Mystery Tour, because that was one of the 7' e.p.'s I spoke of earlier, but that's another story for another place). By doing so, this left about thirty-some-odd recordings that in England - were singles only, or only on e.p's, or special in some other way.
Past Masters Volume One chronologically compiles the first half of these non-English-LP tracks. If you buy all thirteen original (English version) Beatles albums, then the Past Masters Volumes will neatly compile the rest of this incredible band's legitimate output. And, honestly, if you are any kind of a music fan, there is hardly any excuse to not own the entire Beatles catalog. While there will always be revisionists who find new ways to repackage the Beatles (the so-called Greatest Hits Blue and Red albums, Rock and Roll Music, Love Songs, the best-selling 1 collection), their music is best heard in the context of the original albums. While that is impossible for the songs on Past Masters, this collection at least finds a place for these 7 A-sides, B-sides, and "leftover" tracks. As it turns out, this collection makes for a fabulous introduction to the first half of the Beatles career, containing such remarkable material as She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, I Feel Fine and She's A Woman. It might seem incredible to Americans that these songs never reached an (English) album in the band's lifetime (except for a hits compilation, but that’s another story, too). It is incredible, isn't it? Ranging from 1962 to 1965, Past Masters has half of the stuff you will need after you buy the thirteen albums in the Beatles catalog and as a music fan, I'm sure you already own all of them. You do, don't you?
Grade: 
 
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