1962-1966 (The Red Album) [Best of]

Within two years, The Beatles were already experimenting with sounds and structures (that gripping single chord that opens "A Hard Day's Night"; the feedback that slices into the beginning of "I Feel Fine") in a fashion that all but dared anyone else to not take up their lead. Then, all of a sudden, there's "Yesterday." How could these so-called "mop-tops" ever come up with a song so emotionally powerful?

Disc two makes the case for The Beatles' burgeoning influx of psychedelia. "Help!" was John Lennon suddenly performing songs that had lyrics for grown-ups. George Harrison discovered the sitar ("Norwegian Wood"). And with "Nowhere Man," "Paperback Writer" and "Eleanor Rigby," they began to display a range of topics that moved far away from interpersonal boy meets girl love sings and into the world of characters that inhabited an outside world. It was just a half step from the church of Father Mackenzie to Billy Shears' and his band.

There will always be those that bicker over which songs would have suited this set better. Frankly, the individual albums are more than capable of supplying any number of different personal favorites on a given day. As for a real juicy snack of amazing music, I'm happy to have "1962-1966" here to put in my player.

The Beatles were very good musicians, but what set them apart from everybody else was their songwriting. In those days, it was normal for songs to be written by people who did just that, leaving others to record them. Perhaps people assumed that performers would be too busy to actually write their own material, but the Beatles proved that it could be done. Indeed, they were so good at it that they had enough songs left over for others to have hits with covers of their songs. So here you get the Beatles' own version of Michelle, which topped the British charts for the Overlanders, as well as many songs which became hits for the Beatles.

The songs that were released as singles varied from one country to another. For example, Eight days a week and Yesterday were both number one hits in America, but neither were released as Beatles singles in Britain. Instead, Yesterday was a hit for Matt Monro while Eight days a week was given to Alma Cogan. Nevertheless, some songs were number one in both countries, including I want to hold your hand, Can't buy me love, A hard day's night, I feel fine, Ticket to ride, Help, Paperback writer and the double-sided coupling of Day tripper with We can work it out.

Such is the strength in depth that most of the songs here are famous. The only possible criticism of this set is that, with only 65 minutes of music, it could have fitted on a single CD. A better idea would be to add extra tracks. There are other songs from this period that were hits for others, including Do you want to know a secret, I wanna be your man and Got to get you into my life. Other songs, such as I'll follow the sun, If I fell, Act naturally, I've just seen a face, Here there and everywhere and For no one, have been well-covered down the years. All of these and others could be added to this set without reducing the quality.

Despite the running time, this is still an outstanding compilation of music by the Beatles, the most important pop group of the twentieth century.