Recorded: 4 September 1962-14 June 1965
Released: 7 March 1988
Tracklisting:
Love Me Do
From Me To You
Thank You Girl
She Loves You
I'll Get You
I Want To Hold Your Hand
This Boy
Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
Sie Liebt Dich
Long Tall Sally
I Call Your Name
Slow Down
Matchbox
I Feel Fine
She's A Woman
Bad Boy
Yes It Is
I'm Down
Past Masters Volume One collates The Beatles' various singles, b-sides, rarities and EP tracks not included on the original albums between October 1962 and July 1965.
In the 1960s it was customary for groups to release standalone singles; indeed, it was considered bad form to issue songs which were already available elsewhere. As a result, The Beatles released a number of tracks on singles which were unavailable elsewhere.
When EMI sought to standardise The Beatles' canon in 1987, their UK albums were issued worldwide. The following year the two Past Masters volumes were released; until Live At The BBC in 1994, and the Tony Sheridan recordings from the early 1960s, these CDs constituted all the officially-released Beatles songs.
The first Past Masters volume contained 13 tracks from The Beatles' singles, including their b-sides. These included: the version of Love Me Do with Ringo Starr on drums, which is different from the Please Please Me one; all four tracks from the Long Tall Sally EP; the US album track, Bad Boy, which was only released in the UK on the Christmas 1966 album A Collection Of Beatles Oldies; and German-language versions of She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand.
In April 2009 Apple/EMI announced that a remastered version of Past Masters would be released as a stereo double-CD set that September, as well as a monophonic version in the Mono Masters box set.
Related articles:
- Past Masters
- Past Masters Volume Two
- US LP release: The Beatles' Second Album
- Mixing: The Inner Light
- 1 (One)
