Anthology 1

Content

The album includes material from the Beatles' days as the Quarrymen, through the Decca audition to sessions for the album Beatles for Sale. It is of historical interest as the only official release of performances with Best and Sutcliffe in the band. Sutcliffe, the band's original bass player during 1960, and sporadically during the group's second Hamburg season, appears on the disc-one tracks "Hallelujah, I Love Her So", "You'll Be Mine" and "Cayenne". Best, who was the band's drummer from just prior to the group's first departure for Hamburg in August 1960 until 15 August 1962 when he was replaced by Ringo Starr, is on disc one, tracks 10–12, 15–19 and 21–22.

Disc one tracks 10–12 were recorded at a session in Hamburg where the Beatles served as the back-up band to the English rock and roll musician Tony Sheridan. Some songs from this session were released on the 1962 LP My Bonnie, credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. The song "My Bonnie" would be their introductory single in England, featuring Sheridan on lead vocal and guitar. Disc one tracks 21–22 are the only surviving recordings of the Beatles' first EMI session. Track 22 is the original recording of "Love Me Do", which would be re-recorded by the group four months later for their first single. Disc one track 23 features EMI session drummer Andy White in place of Starr.

Disc two contains performances from comedy duo Morecambe and Wise's popular television programme, Two of a Kind, as well as the opening song from their famed performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which introduced the band to most of the US in 1964.

The flashpoint for the album came with the song "Free as a Bird" – the three remaining Beatles Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr re-working a John Lennon demo recording given to McCartney by Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. Produced by Harrison's Traveling Wilburys band-mate Jeff Lynne, the three added additional music and lyrics, instrumentation and backing vocals, with McCartney and Harrison both taking a turn at a lead vocal.

The live BBC Radio recording of "Lend Me Your Comb" was held back from Live at the BBC for inclusion on this album, but it was later also included on On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.

Album cover

The cover of Anthology 1 is the first third of the Anthology collage made by Klaus Voormann. Various photographs and album covers are torn and collected together. Pete Best's face was torn away from the Savage Young Beatles record jacket in the centre of the album cover, revealing the face of his successor, Ringo Starr, below. The missing piece was subsequently used on the cover of Best's Haymans Green album in 2008.

Reception

The album was a large success throughout the world. It was the first Beatles album to enter the Billboard 200 album chart at number one. It sold 855,473 copies in its first week, the 27th largest one-week sales in the Soundscan history, succeeding Fresh Horses by Garth Brooks. In its second week, Anthology 1 sold 453,000 copies and maintained the top spot. This was repeated the following week, with 435,000 copies sold. In its fourth week, the same quantity was sold, but the album fell to number two, behind Mariah Carey's Daydream. In the following week, the album fell to number three but with 601,000 sales. Anthology 1 was certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA after six weeks in the US market. In all, the album spent 29 weeks on the Billboard 200, reaching cumulative sales of 3,639,000 scans as of April 2001. In the UK, reaction was similar, but the album peaked at number two, behind Robson & Jerome's eponymous album. In Australia, the album spent two weeks at number one in December 1995.

Track listing

Spoken word tracks in italics.

CD release

All tracks in stereo, except where noted.

All tracks written by Lennon–McCartney, except spoken word tracks and where noted.

Personnel