We are now well in the trenches of The Beatles’ backlog parade. Listeners have been there for some time but it shows no signs of stopping. A band that celebrated the anniversary of their anniversary documentary is a band with the ability to release almost anything and receive immediate fanfare. It is The Beatles, after all. People think the vault has now been emptied, but they’re not ready for the volume of material to release once Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are dead. They still sign off on these bits and pieces, and remain at the very least a conscious probe to the standards set by compilation efforts. One, a twenty-seven-song Beatles compilation album, is a fantastic release. Compilations were all the rage at the turn of the century and were only growing in popularity before that. Bands which weren’t around long enough to warrant a compilation will still throw one or two out there. Just look at Electric Light Orchestra, for instance. You could add up all their individual tracks and it’d still pale compared to how many times Mr. Blue Sky likely features on a compilation.
But that’s the staying power of great songwriting. The Beatles has plenty of that under their belt and One serves up a sensible course through the history of the band. A mere five years on from an Anthology project that dug deep into the group’s vault of songs and yet there is still the need to remind people of She Loves You. What musn’t be forgotten is that One is likely responsible for engaging a whole new generation with The Beatles’ music. You cannot put a price or rating on that. It’s one thing to say you should listen to The Beatles, another entirely to offer a purpose-built compilation of their many varying sounds. Eight years captured in twenty-seven songs. That’s quite the strong metric. It’s a swell time with the band, this compilation. Love Me Do through to The Long and Winding Road, it’s a masterclass of a history lesson.
Compilation albums serve their purpose in this manner. Consider just how different The Beatles’ instrumental style was over those eight years and you get a great reminder of just how varied and consistent the band was. The best way into The Beatles is listening to their work in order. The second-best way is with One. A few non-album singles are featured here, and they make all the difference. A passing listener may not be aware of The Ballad of John and Yoko or All You Need is Love, and they should be. That latter song is among the band’s very best. You can hear the earliest pop hooks of the 1960s and the genre-defying experiences the band would make from Rubber Soul onwards across One. It’s a treat of a listen because it somehow cuts the band down to their essentials.
Any compilation will miss out your favourite song or that deep cut which meant so much more to fans after release. That’s part of the territory. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a better compilation of The Beatles’ whole career. The Red and Blue albums are also exceptional walk through the band’s time together, but this as a career-spanning experience is a delight. No songs here are out of place, and yet there is still room to add more to this collection of tracks. All the expected hits are in place and rightly so. The only real mark against One is the lack of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which is a fascinating omission to make considering George Harrison’s work isn’t all that represented here. Here Comes the Sun is frozen out too, which feels a tad ridiculous given the ongoing cultural influence of such a song. Keep that in mind when listening to One.
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