Past Masters

VOLUME 1:

US Release: March 7, 1987

Capitol CDP 7 90043 2

UK Release: March 8, 1988

Parlophone CDBPM 1 & Parlophone CDBPM 2

Produced by: George Martin

 

VOLUME 2:

US Release: March 7, 1987

Capitol Records CDP 7 90044 2

UK Release: March 8, 1988

Parlophone CDP 7 90044 2

Produced by: George Martin

PAST MASTERS, VOL. ONE

 

1. Love Me Do

2. From Me to You

3. Thank You Girl

4. She Loves You

5. I'll Get You

6. I Want to Hold Your Hand

7. This Boy

8. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand

9. Sie Liebt Dich

10. Long Tall Sally

11. I Call Your Name

12. Slow Down

13. Matchbox

14. I Feel Fine

15. She's a Woman

16. Bad Boy

17. Yes It Is

18. I'm Down

The CD revolution started years before The Beatles jumped aboard, but when they did they came out in a big way - namely in the form of Past Masters. Not avaiable on CD before 1987, The Beatles albums were mastered for digital sale and Past Masters was a simple way of adding all of those singles not for album inclusion - despite most companies would add 'bonus tracks' to many artists CD remasters, the Apple Corp. kept the original albums true to their originality. And that's where Past Masters  held to its uniqueness. So much that the official Beatles entire discography adds Past Masters as a bona fide official release.

 

Originally released as two separate CDs or Vinyl albums, the song selection was gathered in contrast to the original U.K. Capitol and Parlophone albums and then included the complete Long Tall Sally  E.P., all non-LP singles and their B-Sides - but only formated to the U.K. release discography. Many U.S. singles had album tracks for B-Sides that ended up belonging to U.K. albums. So Past Masters stuck close to the U.K. discography.

 

In 2004 and in 2006, Capitol began releasing the U.S. editions of Beatle albums - twice. The second box set of U.S. albums came in 2014 and were specialty remastered sets. So as it stands now, the U.K. albums, along with Past Masters, are the final word on what is an official Beatles album.

 

And Parlophone/Capitol Records did a beautiful job on the sets. Complete with a background on the songs, photos and classy, plain no-nonsense covers - reminiscent of The White Album.

 

Both CDs/Albums play out as a singles discography, minus singles culled from albums, posting a single, followed by it's B-Side and then adding the four Long Tall Sally  tracks, "Long Tall Sally", "I Call Your Name", "Slow Down" and "Matchbox". plus the bonus track, the Wildlife version of "Across The Universe" in addition to two further bonus tracks, the two German language versions of "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand".

 

Past Masters  also included the track, "Bad Boy", which had previously been available on Rock N' Roll Music in 1976, and in the U.K. only on A Collection Of Beatles Oldies... But Goodies. However, in America, it was an album cut from Beatles VI  in 1965.

 

"The Inner Light" and "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" were included, which were more rare for the American album market, except for their inclusion on 1980's Rarities. But now became standard track releases for the U.S. market.

 

Past Masters  was included in two box sets, The Beatles Box Set  in 1988 (which was a collection of the 1987 CDs all in one place) and again on The Beatles Box Set  in 2009. 

 

The 2009 edition of Past Masters  had remasters equal to the original U.K. CDs remasters, making all songs now evenly mastered throughout.