Over 50 rare nuggets from the Fab Four's earliest (1958-1964) days, included the fabled Decca audition tape that the label, to its eternal dismay, rejected, plus early Quarrymen recordings ( That'll Be the Day ), a version of Love Me Do with Pete Best on drums, a demo of Can't Buy Me Love , You Know What to Do (the second song George ever wrote) and many more essential, oft-bootlegged-but-never-sounding-so-good Beatles rarities.

BEATLES THE ANTHOLOGY I (2CD)

Average Customer Review: ( 117 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

On with the rest of the album. It features interviews with John, Paul, and Brian Epstein. We have possibly the 1st Quarreymen recording: a 1958 scratchy recording of "That'll Be The Day" and an original "In Spite of All the Danger". There are more demos of this sort-"You'll Be Mine" and the instrumental "Cayenne". We have Tony Sheridan's fair sounding vocals on "My Bonnie" before the Beatles take over (with Pete Best, the original drummer) on "Ain't She Sweet" and "Cry for a Shadow". George sings lead on "3 Cool Cats" and Paul sings lead on "Besame Mucho". Also included is a flat-tempoed Pete Best on "Love Me Do" before Ringo replaces Best on "How Do You Do It" (I prefer theirs better than Gerry and the Pacemakers'). An early (and superior) version of "One After 909" finds its way. There's a more raucous demo of "Can't Buy Me Love" and the Beatles experimenting with harmonies on "8 Days..", with an electric 12-string on "And I Love Her", and with tempos on "I'll Be Back". Great songs you never heard from the Beatles (until now) include "You Know What to Do" (George's 2nd song) and "Leave My Kitten Alone". And the Beatles really did sound well live, as witnessed by the 1963 recordings (most humorous is "Moonlight Bay" with Morecambre and Wise!)

Also recommended is the CD single which includes demos of "This Boy", "I Saw Her Standing There", and the 1967 "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)".

This is the most historical of the 3 Anthologies!

14 of 16 found the following review helpful:

Not for first time buyersJan 13, 2000
By John Moulis
There is one thing to be said about the Anthology series - if you haven't bought The Beatles before, DO NOT BUY THESE CDs. Not yet, anyway. This series is complementary to an existing collection of Beatles albums. The main reason for buying these CDs is to compare these outtakes and alternate versions with the ones that appeared on their original albums. This particular volume is probably the best as it contains the original Quarrymen single (In Spite Of All the Danger) and a killer version of Love Me Do (the master tape of which went missing for more than 30 years). I'm not too impressed by Free As A Bird and Real Love which could only be a poor attempt to recapture past glories - you can't have The Beatles without Lennon alive. To sum up, these albums are a must for any Beatles collection.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

Nobody Could Touch ThemMay 11, 2001
By David Bradley "David Bradley"
The Beatlemania phase of the anthology also contains "Free As A Bird," which, if nothing else, proved that the Beatles (or at least the production crew at the modern-day Apple) can add videos to the laundry list of things they do better than anybody else.

Already included on the list: Singles, albums, drum solos, close harmonies, Pop song writing, Popstar movies, personal fashion, grotty nude photography, and kazoo solos.

Beatle collecters already have a lot of these recordings on their shelves in bootlegs, but I'm glad to have clean, sanctioned CD versions of "Sheik Of Araby" and "Cry For A Shadow," among others, available here.

What is most interesting to note is the sudden shift in energy (not tempo, which so many young bands mistake for energy) between the first 23 tracks and everything that comes after that. Beginning with "Please Please Me" the Beatles turn some corner, and everything is different from there on out.

And for Americans like me who realize that we got 95% of the Beatles greatness but still hunger for the 5% that was only available to UK audiences prior to Ed Sullivan, check out tracks 30-34. Anybody who wants to downplay the Beatles early stuff as bubblegum will have to admit that this was a band that cooked, just cooked.

Lennon said "What we generated was fantastic when we played straight rock, and there was nobody to touch us in Britain." I can't think of anybody in the States who was playing like this in '62 or '63 either.

See all 117 customer reviews on Amazon.com