In 2000 the Beatles released a greatest hits album known simply as 1. The album’s

aim was simply to collect in one place all the songs that the Beatles had released that had

reached Number 1, either in the UK or in the United States.

Released on the 13th November 2000, the album’s sales were phenomenal. Reportedly

1 became the second best-selling compilation album of all time and quickly became

not only top of the Album charts but also the best selling album of the year not only in

the UK but also in the USA. It was the best selling album over Christmas both sides of the

Atlantic.

The release of 1 even influenced Elvis Presley, who posthumously released a

similar compilation album, entitled ELV1S, released almost exactly two years later

in November 2002¹.

1 was the best selling album world wide of the decade between 2000-2009.

The Red and Blue Albums and 1

On its release, critics were expecting fans to consider the album to simply be an

exercise in merchandising. Afterall, none of the songs on the 1 album were

previously unavailable, and indeed all of the tracks had been released on one or other of

their previous Greatest Hits releases, The Beatles 1962-1966, known as "The Red

Album” and The Beatles 1967-1970, commonly called "The Blue Album". In comparison to

the Red and Blue albums showing the Beatles in identical poses and locations at the

beginning and end of their careers, the 1 album’s front cover was simply a yellow

number 1 on a red background. However, 1 benefited from presenting the Beatles

tracks in a higher quality digitally remastered sound than previously available, most

previous Beatles albums having been packaged and assembled in 1987.

The album’s leaflet also compares favourably with the previous Greatest Hits albums.

Although unlike the Red and Blue albums, 1 does not list the Beatles’ song lyrics,

it does show the original front covers of the Beatles singles that were released around the

world, showing how the Beatles were merchandised in different countries. The information

telling when the singles were released in the UK and USA, and how successful they were, is

also welcome. The four photographs of the Beatles in negative images on the back of the

album and leaflet are highly stylised, but ultimately bizarre and psychedelic, clashing

quaintly with the minimalist approach the front of the album adopts.

The Album’s Compilation

The album’s forward by George Martin, in the second paragraph, explains simply how the

album’s tracks were chosen.

This collection of number ones is taken from the most widely circulated

charts in the UK (Record Retailer) and the USA (Billboard).

This approach has had a greatly simplifying effect of defining what a Number 1 hit in

both Britain and America actually is. When the Beatles began their recording career, there

were six National Charts in the UK, and three in America.

British Charts

In Britain the six National Charts were;

• The BBC chart
• Disc And Music Echo²
• Melody Maker
• New Musical Express
• Record Mirror
• Record Retailer

By the time the Beatles’ last British Single, Let It Be, was released, only three

independent music charts remained; both the BBC and Record Mirror adopted the Record

Retailer chart, the Disc & Music Echo now used the New Musical Express Chart and Melody

Maker continued to use its own chart.

It is the Record Retailer chart that is adopted by this album.

The American Chart

The American Chart system at the time was simpler; only three National Charts existed.

As well as the Billboard Chart that the album uses, there were two other charts in

operation throughout the 1960s; Cashbox and Record World. Both these charts record slight

variations in how successful some of the Beatles' records were, and what chart positions

they achieved.

Track Listing

This table shows a track listing of the songs on the 1 album, as well as how

successful the songs were in both the UK and US on their release.

The songs that did significantly poorer in America than Britain after the Beatles had

established themselves both had religious references. 'Lady Madonna' referring to the

mother of Jesus resulted in poor sales, especially in America’s "Bible Belt". This was

nothing compared to John’s 'The Ballad Of John And Yoko', where the line "Christ you

know it ain’t easy, you know how hard it can be, the way things are going they’re gonna

crucify me" caused outright controversy. Several radio stations in America refused to

play it. This controversy can be glimpsed in John Lennon’s Imagine film when, at the

Lennon’s "Bed In", John was interviewed by American cartoonist Al Capp.

Songs Not On 1

There are three songs that could have appeared on the 1 album, yet do not.

The first is 'Please Please Me'. This, the Beatles’ second single, is widely quoted as

being the Beatles’ first British number one hit. However, although 'Please Please Me' was

considered number one on the BBC, Disc, Melody Maker, New Musical Express and Record Mirror

charts, on the Record Retailer chart it was classed as Number 2.

'Twist And Shout' is a song in a similar situation to 'Please Please Me'. In America it

was a number one hit in both the Cashbox and Record World Charts. However, it was number 2

in the Billboard charts. The song was never released as a single in Britain, where the

Beatles refused to release their cover versions of other artists’ songs as singles. All

Beatles singles released in Britain had been written and composed by the Beatles

themselves.

Also missing from the 1 album is 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. Although released

as the Double A-Side to 'Penny Lane' in Britain, where it got to Number 2 behind Engelbert

Humperdinck’s 'Release Me', in America 'Strawberry Fields Forever' was 'Penny Lane'’s

B-Side.

The Tracks On 1

Love Me Do

'Love Me Do' was the Beatles' first single and was written by Paul McCartney back in

1958. It was after the first recording of this song on 4th September 1962 that the Beatles'

first drummer, Pete Best, was asked to leave the Beatles. The Pete Best version of 'Love Me

Do' is available on the Anthology 1 album.

On the 11th September 1962 the song was re-recorded, with professional EMI musician Andy

White on drums. It was this version, with Andy White and not Ringo Starr on drums, that was

released on the Beatles' first album, although Ringo did the drums on the initial release

of the single which is available on the Past Masters: Volume 1 album. The way to

tell the difference between the two versions is to listen for a tambourine - if a

tambourine is present, Andy White is drumming and Ringo simply plays the tambourine.

'Love Me Do' is a very simple song, with most words being only one syllable, and "Love"

repeated 21 times. Although not a National Number 1 hit in Britain, it topped the local

Liverpool chart according to Mersey Beat. It is one of only two Beatles songs whose

copyright is owned by MPL¹⁶ Communications Ltd,

as it and the B-Side, 'P.S. I Love You' were released before the Beatles set up Northern

Songs in February 1963.

From Me To You

'From Me To You' was written by Paul and John in the back of a van as they travelled

from York to Shrewsbury on the 28th February 1963. They had been inspired by the letters

column in Mersey Beat, entitled "From You To Us", after discussing a letter claiming that

Cliff Richard was more popular than Elvis. John and Paul co-wrote the song by suggesting

alternate lines, with John saying,

"The first line was mine. And then after that we took it from there... We

were just fooling about on the guitar. This went on for a while... Before the journey was

over we'd completed the lyric, everything."

The Beatles were apparently initially unsure of this song. John has admitted, "we

nearly didn't record it because we thought it was too bluesey".

The Beatles recorded it a week later on the 5th March, released it on the 11th April,

and it was number one in Britain for six weeks.

She Loves You

'She Loves You' was written in their room in Newcastle's Turks Hotel on the 26th

June 1963. Paul suggested that instead of writing a love song about two people - me and you

- they remove themselves and write about two others - She loves You.

In Britain it was the best selling single of the 1960s¹⁷, getting to Number 1 twice, between September and early October 1963, and

again at the end of November to early December. In America it reached Number 1 following on

'I Want To Hold Your Hand''s success. John described the song by saying, "the woo

woo was taken from the Isley Brother's 'Twist And Shout' which we stuck into

everything - 'From Me To You', 'She Loves You', everything."

I Want To Hold Your Hand

'I Want To Hold Your Hand' was the song which finally brought them success in

America. In John's words,

"We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in

'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'[sic], I remember when we got the chord that made the song.

We were in Jane Asher's house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same

time. I turned to him and said, "That's it! Do that again!""

Paul:

"Eyeball to eyeball" is a very good description of it. That's

exactly how it was. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was very

co-written."

Can't Buy Me Love

Paul wrote 'Can't Buy Me Love' in a hotel room in the George V Hotel, Paris.

Wanting to quickly follow up their success in America, they recorded it in the Pathé

Marconi Studios in Paris. It was also included in the A Hard Days Night film, replacing

'I'll Cry Instead' at the last minute, in a delightful sequence where the Beatles

escape from a press conference into the outside world.

On its release, it leapt straight to number 1.

A Hard Day's Night

Ringo:

"I came up with the phrase "A Hard Day's Night". It just came out. We went

to do a job and we worked all day and then we happened to work all night. I came out, still

thinking it was day, and said, "It's been a hard day"...looked around and saw that

it was dark, and added "'s night"."

The John Lennon song was written, arranged, rehearsed and recorded all within 24 hours

on the 16th April 1964. John commented,

"I was going home in the car and Dick Lester¹⁸ suggested the title... from something Ringo'd said. I had

used it in In His Own Write, but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo... A

Ringoism, where he said it not to be funny, just said it. So Dick Lester said, "we are

going to use that title," and the next morning I brought in the song."

I Feel Fine

The tune of this song was inspired by a guitar riff from Bobby Parker's song Watch

Your Step. On the 6th October 1964 John composed a similar riff that was the basis for

the song, and has described it as

"I actually wrote 'I Feel Fine' around the riff which is going on in

the background. I tried to get that effect into every song on the ['Beatles For Sale']

LP, but the others wouldn't have it. I told them I'd write a song specifically for the riff

so they said, "Yes, you go ahead and do that" knowing we'd almost finished the

album. Anyway, going into the studio one morning I said to Ringo, "I've got this song

but it's lousy," but we tried it, complete with riff, and it sounded like an

A-side."

It was so lousy it became a number one hit both sides of the Atlantic and was Britain's

1964 Christmas number one. The song is also famous for its revolutionary use of feedback to

create a catching sound. John has challenged,

"I defy anybody to find a record... that used feedback that way. I claim it

for the Beatles. Before Hendrix, before The Who, before anybody. The first feedback on any

record."

Eight Days A Week

The phrase 'Eight Days A Week' was coined by Paul McCartney's

chauffeur¹⁹. Paul decided

to incorporate this phrase into a song, just as John had adopted Ringo's A Hard Day's

Night phrase. Paul has described the process by saying,

"Neither [John nor I] had heard that expression before so we had that

chauffeur to credit for that. It was like a little blessing from the

gods."

'Eight Days A Week' was never released as a single in Britain, as it was considered

considerably weaker than John's 'I Feel Fine'.

Ticket To Ride

One of the highlights of the Help! film is the 'Ticket To Ride' sequence set

in the Austrain mountains. John described this song, the first Beatles song to break the 3

minute barrier, as "one of the earliest heavy metal records made".

The big debate with this hit song is whether the song lyrics are about buying a train

ticket²⁰ to the town Ryde on the Isle of Wight. This is exactly the

sort of word play that John was fond of at the time between the publication of his books,

In His Own Write and A Spaniard In The Works.

Both Paul and John knew Ryde on the Isle of Wight very well. In 1960 they spent a

holiday hitchhiking to and staying around Ryde²¹. Paul McCartney's cousin Elizabeth

"Bett" Robbins and her husband Mike Robbins were the publicans of the Bow Bars in Union

Street. Paul's brother Michael McCartney, who later found fame with Scaffold as Mike

McGear, had a summer job in 1961 there as a cook.

Paul described it as

"John and I used to hitch-hike places together, it was something we did

together quite a lot; cementing our friendship... I particularly remember... I'd ask,

"Mike, what was it like when you were on with the Jones Boys?" - a group I knew he'd

appeared with... and he'd tell stories of showbiz. He was the only person we had to give us

any information. I think for John and I, our show business dreams were formed by this guy

and his wife. Mike Robbins has an awful lot to answer for!"

Paul and John also spent Monday 8th April 1963 in Ryde, the day after their performance

in the Savoy Ballroom, Southsea - directly across the Solent and five miles north of Ryde,

enjoying a much deserved day off.

When Paul McCartney was asked directly whether the song was about Ryde on the Isle of

Wight, Paul replied,

"We sat down and wrote it together. I remember talking about Ryde but it was

John's [song]. We wrote the melody together."

Help!

'Help!' was written by John and Paul in John's house in Kenwood in April 1965 and

in John's words really was a cry for help. "The song was about me", he admitted.

"I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for help." He later stated, "the

only true songs I wrote were 'Help!' and 'Strawberry Fields'. They were the

ones I really wrote from experience."

In the film of the same name, the Beatles singing 'Help!' is projected onto a screen while the head of a religious cult throws darts at the Beatles - a wonderful example of the

Beatles not taking themselves too seriously.

Yesterday

'Yesterday' was a lyric that Paul McCartney dreamed, "It was just all there. I

couldn't believe it." Paul was initially worried that he had unconsciously remembered

an already existing song, but after interrogating everyone he knew finally sat down and

recorded a version. On the record, of the Beatles only Paul McCartney plays - the first

song released with only one Beatle.

Paul has said, "In fact, we didn't release 'Yesterday' as a single in England at all,

because we were a little embarrassed about it - we were a rock'n'roll band". Although

never released as a single in Britain it was released elsewhere, and became a Number 1 in

America, Belgium, Finland, Hong Kong and Norway.

Day Tripper

'Day Tripper' was a song John wrote in the summer of 1965 when the Beatles were

beginning to be influenced by LSD. John described it as "just a rock'n'roll song"

criticising those not fully committed to taking drugs who were in his words "weekend

hippies".

We Can Work It Out

Paul wrote 'We Can Work It Out' at his father's house Rembrandt, Heswell, when he

hit a difficult patch in his relationship with Jane Asher. She had decided to join the

Bristol Old Vic Company to pursue her acting career, moving away from Paul and London.

John summarised the song with,

"You've got Paul writing 'We Can Work It Out', real optimistic, and

me impatient, "life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my

friend."

Paperback Writer

Paul's 'Paperback Writer' was the first Beatles single not to be about love. George

has described the song by saying,

"The idea of 'Paperback Writer' is Paul's. I think John gave him some

of the chords, but it was originally Paul who came up with the storyline."

The song is in the form of a letter from a prospective paperback writer. As the song was

written in John's house, John's belongings influenced and became part of the song. John

regularly read the newspaper the Daily Mail which the son in the story works for. The

mention of "a novel by a man named Lear" is a reference to Edward Lear, writer of

nonsense limericks, who was a source of inspiration to John when John wrote his own

nonsense stories for "In His Own Write" and "A Spaniard In The

Works".²²

Yellow Submarine

Paul thought of the idea of writing a children's song late at night whilst lying in bed.

He deliberately chose short words so it would be easy for children to pick up and sing

along to. Paul described the process,

"there's a nice twilight zone just as you're drifting into sleep... I

remember thinking that a children's song would be quite a good idea and I thought of

images, and the colour yellow came to me, and a submarine came to me...

I knew 'Yellow Submarine' would get connotations, but it

really was a children's song".

'Yellow Submarine' was later used as the title and inspiration for a psychedelic

cartoon.

Eleanor Rigby

The song about an lonely old woman who died is one whose inspiration remains a matter of

debate. Paul has stated he got the name from Eleanor Bron, with whom he had acted in the

Help! film, and the shop opposite the Theatre Royal, home of the Bristol Old Vic Company

that Jane Asher was performing at, which was "Rigby & Evans Ltd". However in the 1980s

it was discovered that there was a grave to Eleanor Rigby in St Peter's Parish Church in

Woolton. This was where Paul and John first met, and the gravestone has become a desolate

tourist attraction.

When asked about this, Paul has replied,

"I'm told that there's a gravestone with Eleanor Rigby on it in the

graveyard in Woolton where John and I used to hang out, but there could be 3,000

gravestones in Britain with Eleanor Rigby on. It is possible that I saw it and

subconsciously remembered it, but my conscious memory was of being stuck for a name and

liking the name Eleanor, probably because of Eleanor Bron... and I was in Bristol on a

visit to see Jane Asher at the Old Vic, and just walking around... I saw an old shop called

"Rigby"... I had Father McCartney as the priest just because I knew that was right for the

syllables, but I didn't want it... John wanted it to stay "McCartney", but I said, "No,

it's my dad! Father McCartney."

Penny Lane

Penny Lane is a road and district in Liverpool where both Paul and John grew up. Paul

has described the song as "It's part fact, it's part nostalgia".

There was indeed a barber's shop in Penny Lane. "I wrote that he the barber had

photographs he'd had the pleasure of knowing. Actually he just had photos of different

hairstyles," Paul revealed his inspiration. There were two banks, a fire station nearby

in Allerton Road, and indeed a shelter in the middle of the Smithdown Place roundabout.

'Penny Lane' is a song that is full of contradictions - the weather is described as

both Blue Suburban Skies and Pouring Rain. The time of year as both Summer, yet the pretty

nurse is selling poppies, an activity associated with November. Yet the song's strength is

that these contradictions convey a remarkably clear image of Penny Lane.

All You Need Is Love

The Beatles were asked by the BBC to represent Great Britain for the "Our World"

television spectacular, a live two hour link up of 26 countries all around the world via

satellite with an audience of 400 million watched the programme. The Beatles' manager,

Brian Epstein, summarised the song with,

"it is a wonderful, beautiful, spine-chilling record. It cannot be

misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything."

The song's close wonderfully reprises the Beatles' previous hit, 'She Loves You' -

anticipating the techniques used on 2006s "Love" album.

Hello, Goodbye

Paul:

"'Hello, Goodbye' was one of my songs... it was a very easy song to write.

It's just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive. You say goodbye, I say

hello. You say stop, I say go. I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and

I still do to this day."

It was also the Beatles' most successful song in the UK since 'She Loves You',

being Christmas Number 1 and staying top of the charts for seven weeks.

Lady Madonna

'Lady Madonna' is a song that, in Paul's words,

"The original concept was the Virgin Mary but it quickly became symbolic of

every woman, the Madonna image but as applied to ordinary working-class women. It's really

a tribute to the mother figure, it's a tribute to women."

Hey Jude

Perhaps the most famous song about divorce, Paul initially wrote 'Hey Jude' as "Hey

Jules", a song aimed to give John's son Julian advice in how to cope with the divorce

between John and Cynthia Lennon.

Julian described what Paul had told him about the song's origins by stating,

"[Paul] told me that he'd been thinking about my circumstances all those

years ago, about what I was going through and what I would have to go through in the

future. Paul and I used to hang out quite a bit."

Paul confessed,

"I started with the idea "Hey Jules", which was Julian, don't make it bad,

take a sad song and make it better Here, try and deal with this terrible thing. I knew it

was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in

divorces."

John's interpretation of the song was somewhat different.

"I always heard it as a song to me. If you think about it, Yoko's just come

into the picture. He's saying, "Hey Jude - Hey John". I know I'm sounding like one of those

fans who reads things into it, but ...The words "go out and get her" - subconsciously he

was saying, "go ahead, leave me"."

The song was a revolutionary seven minutes long at a time when the average song length

was still around the 3 minute mark. It was the Beatles' best selling hit in America.

Get Back

Paul McCartney wrote 'Get Back' as a political song criticising the passage of the

Commonwealth Immigration Act that intended to satirise those who felt immigrants should

"Get back to where they once belonged". Although he has confirmed his intention, and said

"The words were not racist at all, they were anti-racist", he realised that his

original aim was not working out and his song would be open to serious misinterpretation.

The verses were re-written with ambiguous nonsense, although he retained the original

chorus.

The Ballad Of John And Yoko

John wrote 'The Ballad of John and Yoko' - a song that only Paul and John perform

on. The song summarises John's wedding to and honeymoon with Yoko Ono.

The first verse, which states, "standing at the dock at Southampton, trying to get to

Holland or France, the man in the Mac said, "You've got to go back", you know they didn't

even give us a chance" has been taken to imply that there was a policy of preventing

John and Yoko from entering Europe, when the truth was that they had forgotten to take

their passports with them.

In America the song was criticised for its chorus, in particular the use of the word

"Christ". However, it got to Number 1 not only in Britain but also in Holland, West

Germany, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Spain, Belgium and Malaysia.

Later, in 1978, John began writing a musical entitled The Ballad Of John And

Yoko", which would have included such songs as 'Real Love' and 'Free As A Bird'.

Something

'Something', the only George Harrison song released as an A-Side, was also the

first single in Britain to have been released first as an album track. The single was

released on the 31st October 1969, over a month after its release as part of the Abbey Road album on the 26th September. This was the main reason why it did not reach Number 1 in Britain. Paul and John initially largely ignored 'Something', and it was only the

insistence of their second manager Allen Klein that made them agree to release it as an

A-Side.

George describes the writing of the song in his "I Me Mine" autobiography as,

"[Something] was written on a piano while we were making The White

Album. I had a break... so I went into an empty studio and began to write. That's really

all there is to it."

'Something' received the Ivor Novello award for "Best Song Musically and

Lyrically". It is also the Beatles song to have had the second most cover versions, after

'Yesterday'. Notable versions have been done by Frank Sinatra, Joe Cocker, James

Brown, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson and Shirley Bassey, who equalled the Beatles' Number 4

success in 1976.

Come Together

'Come Together', the last Beatles track recorded for Abbey Road, was one of

John's favourite Beatles songs. It had been inspired by Harvard Professor Timothy

Leary²³, who planned to run for Governor of California against

Ronald Reagan.

Timothy Leary's slogan would have been "Come Together And Join The Party" had he not

been imprisoned for drug offences during the closing stages of the election. The line,

"here come old flat top", inspired by and an affectionate nod to Chuck Berry's song

'You Can't Catch Me', resulted in John being sued for plagiarism - which was finally

resolved in an out of court settlement when John agreed to cover two Chuck Berry

songs²⁴. The BBC,

which had not censored 'The Ballad Of John And Yoko''s use of the word "Christ",

completely banned 'Come Together' for its use of a different C-word; "Coca-Cola".

Let It Be

'Let It Be' was a song written at a time when the Beatles were beginning to fall

apart - the hour of darkness - and was inspired by a dream Paul had about his mother Mary,

who had died when Paul was 14. The hymn-like style suits the song perfectly, with "Mother

Mary" evoking thoughts of the Virgin Mary.

The Long And Winding Road

Phil Spector²⁵'s

remix of 'The Long And Winding Road' was a major factor in the Beatles' break

up.

Indeed, in the court case that officially ended the Beatles, one of Paul's three

reasons for the breakup was that Allen Klein's company ABKCO had employed Phil Spector to

alter 'The Long And Winding Road' without consulting him. Paul's song was overdubbed

with a full orchestra, violins, harp and female choir. Paul reacted by saying, "I

couldn't believe it. I would never have female voices on a Beatles record."

George Martin agreed,

"It was a very good McCartney song, but when it came back from being handled

by Phil Spector, it was laden down with treacle and choirs and the scoring and so on.

...Neither he nor I knew about it till it had been done."

This song, written the same day as 'Let It Be' was finally released on Let It Be ...Naked as originally conceived. Paul described it with

the words,

"It's a sad song because its all about the unattainable; the door you never

quite reach. This is the road you never get to the end of."

Yet 'The Long And Winding Road' was to prove the end of the road for the

Beatles.