The Beatles - 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 (1973)

Imagine a rock band so successful it takes the equivalent of a quadruple album to gather all of their greatest hits.  Now imagine a band so prolific and  groundbreaking it amasses such a large number of songs in only eight years.  

The best greatest-hits compilations of the Beatles are by far the first two, issued in April 1973.  Numerous compilations have been issued since then, but the Beatles' 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 collections - respectively called the Red and Blue Albums for obvious reasons - gather all of the hits plus most of the popular album tracks that became staples of pop-music radio in the sixties and beyond.  

The Red and Blue Albums, both double sets, sequence 54 songs between them, based on the chronological order of the original British releases of the Beatles' work, and on the Red Album, the listener gets an idea of just how these songs fueled the rise of Beatlemania as they came out.  The excitement of the early hits, such as "Please Please Me" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand," lead to the top-notch exuberance of "A Hard Day's Night," "Help!," and "Day Tripper" with more groundbreaking fare like "I Feel Fine," the classically scored "Yesterday," and the folk-rock Rubber Soul track "Nowhere Man" filtering in to show how the Beatles went beyond the two guitars-bass-drum arrangements.  It captures the Beatles at their boldest, concluding quite smartly with "Eleanor Rigby" and "Yellow Submarine" from Revolver.

The Blue Album is just as consistent in its presentation of the Beatles' late period music, and it captures their more mature side.  Innovation in the tracks from 1967 on sides one and two yield to their more professional, seasoned work from the White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be.   The songs here are more mature, more serious - a fascinating look at how John Lennon, Paul McCartney George Harrison and Ringo Starr aged in the 1960s.  The choice of cover photos for both albums, contrasting the fresh-faced kids from 1963 with the gentleman hippies of 1969, complements the albums' sequencing perfectly.  (Both photos were taken at EMI's Manchester Square office in London by Angus McBean; the earlier one was from the Please Please Me photo session, the latter for the cover of what became Let It Be as a parody of the earlier sleeve but not used.)

Apple Corps manager Allen Klein compiled these records just before he parted ways with the group's holding company, and it may be the only good thing he'd ever done for them.  His preference for originals over covers chronicles their development as songwriters, though George's early work doesn't appear on the first record - what, "Taxman" wasn't good enough? - and many of the songs he chose that were only available in Britain and America as album tracks were hit singles in other countries, demonstrating the Beatles' global appeal.  (Bet you didn't know, fellow Yanks, that "All My Loving" - the only song from With the Beatles here - was a number-one hit in Canada!)   There were obviously minor quibbles with Klein's choices overall, and aside from leaving out "Taxman," I could never understand why Klein couldn't have added A Hard Day's Night's "If I Fell," which seems to belong here more than Help!'s "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," or why he didn't add "Do You Want To Know a Secret" (a number-two hit in America).  I mean, why only 26 songs on the Red Album when the Blue Album has 28?   But you do get "From Me To You," which hadn't been available in the U.S. for nearly a decade when these albums were originally released, on the Red Album and stellar B-sides like John's "Don't Let Me Down" and George's "Old Brown Shoe" on the Blue Album.  You can't go wrong there. 

The two sets have one weakness in that they fall into the easy trap of compartmentalizing the group into two distinct periods - the earlier period of two-minute lighthearted pop songs versus the later period of heavier songs as long as four or seven minutes, the touring years versus the studio years, the moptops versus the hippies . . ..  Sometimes I think the border colors of the sleeves predicted the present cultural divide in the United States, with the boy-girl songs on the Red Album appealing to Republican Middle America and the impressionistic verse of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and the commentary and satire of "Revolution" or "Back In the U.S.S.R." on the Blue Album appealing to coastal Democrats.  But that division was too simple to be true; the Beatles offered some of their edgiest work in the days before Sgt. Pepper, and they did simpler songs like "Hello Goodbye" after they quit touring.  But the fact that Red and Blue albums, the only Beatles compilations from the vinyl age to make it on CD, feature so many different songs for so many different people makes the case that the Beatles' music is the people's music, and the Beatles were and remain the voice of the people.  Nothing demonstrates this more than the choice of this photo showing the Fabs among the people at a London church garden during their 1968 "Mad Day Out" photo session for the gatefolds of the sleeves of both albums.  

Bottom line:  Every serious Beatles fan should have the entire original Beatles catalog, but if you're a casual fan that only wants the highlights, these greatest-hits packages are . . . all you need.