Reprise » My Only and One: Past Masters

With this month’s release of The Beatles U.S. albums by Capitol Records and my ongoing re-appreciation of the group’s library of songs, I’ve decided to reprise a series arc from the archives. Each a short post of the British albums on The Lads official list.

From these, in the order as they are in 2009’s remastered stereo set, I’ll list their songs from the spotlighted album and pick two:

• the only – if I could only listen to one track, the best song that exemplifies the album, it would be this number
• the one – if I could pick a single tune that doesn’t get either the play or the credit it deserves, it’s this one

Past Masters

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
Day Tripper
We Can Work It Out
Paperback Writer
Rain
Lady Madonna
The Inner Light
Hey Jude
Revolution
Get Back
Don’t Let Me Down
The Ballad Of John And Yoko
Old Brown Shoe
Across The Universe
Let It Be
You Know My Name

As the website stated:

“The Beatles had a policy that singles off LPs should not be released after an album was out — five of their albums feature no single at all.

Past Masters contains 33 non-album Beatles tracks – ranging from classic A-sides to hits sung in German – two CDs were released in 1988 called Past Masters Volume One and Volume Two.  Although originally featuring a combination of mono and stereo versions, the remastered Past masters compilation contains only the stereo mixes, if they exist.

Many of the band’s best known and most acclaimed songs are present, and the collection illustrates the vast amount of work that was created in little over seven years.”

My Only: Hey Jude. Even though this was a compilation album (including non-album singles and B-sides + mono and foreign language versions of singles not tied to existing albums), I have to list this song as my final Only selection. How could I not? There’s a valid reason it was the most popular song (9 weeks at #1 here in the U.S.) by the Fab Four. Hey Jude continues to make several all-time song lists, and was second (on Billboard’s chart) only to The Twist for the entire 60s decade. A span of time The Lads virtually owned given the length and breath of their work. It’s simply that great, and was the first song under the Apple Records label, to boot.

My One: I’ll Get You. I’m sure I caught some readers by surprise with this pick. But that’s not why I chose it for my final selection. This 1963 B-song (to the A-side She Loves You hit) had some very catchy harmonies and longing lyrics, with Lennon and McCartney collaborating so well as they did often. The tune somewhat forgotten, and deserves better. It’s not ignored by me, though. It remains very  much part of my being to this day. I played it over and over again, from The Beatles Second Album, U.S., while the song accompanied me through my first schoolboy crush. This, the song that has held me through thick and thin, my final One.

What would be your Only and One for this album?

The entire series can be found here.