1 is a greatest hits album of the British rock band the Beatles, originally released on 13 November 2000. The album features virtually every number-one single the band achieved in the United Kingdom or United States from 1962 to 1970. Issued on the 30th anniversary of the band's break-up, it was their first compilation album available on only one CD. 1 was a commercial success and topped charts worldwide. It has sold over 31 million copies. Since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking US album sales in January 1991, 1 is the fourth-best-selling album in the US, the best-selling album of the 2000s decade in the US, as well as the best-selling album of the decade worldwide.
1 was remastered and reissued in September 2011.The Beatles "1" – Remastered 2011 | Beatles Blog It was remixed and reissued again in several different deluxe editions in November 2015, the most comprehensive of which is a three-disc set entitled 1+, which includes video discs of Beatles promotional films. As of June 2015, 1 was the sixth-best-selling album of the 21st century in the UK, having sold over 3.1 million copies.
1 was the last Beatles album to be released during George Harrison's lifetime, as he died on 29 November 2001, just over a year after 1 was released.
Background 1 was compiled by producer George Martin and former band members Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The album contains the 27 Beatles songs that went to number one in the United Kingdom on the Record Retailer Top 50 chart or in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Despite Harrison's "For You Blue" charting at number 1 on Billboard, along with the A-side "The Long and Winding Road", Capitol Records treated "For You Blue" as strictly a B-side and did not promote it as an A-side. "Day Tripper" was included on 1 since it charted at number 1 in the UK as a double A-side with "We Can Work It Out", while in the US, only "We Can Work It Out" was number 1. Two singles written by John Lennon and released in both the UK and US were omitted as they did not top either the Record Retailer chart or the Billboard Hot 100: "Please Please Me" and "Strawberry Fields Forever". The former was the Beatles' first UK number one single in all British charts except Record Retailer, reaching the top spot in the music magazines New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Disc. "Strawberry Fields Forever" was part of a double A-side single with "Penny Lane", which reached the top spot in Melody Maker and peaked at number 2 in the other UK charts, behind Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me"; while in the US, "Penny Lane" topped the charts, but "Strawberry Fields Forever" did not as it was listed separately. The compilation was created before the release of the single "Now and Then", which reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart in 2023.
The album is a combination of both the US and UK versions of the 1982 compilation 20 Greatest Hits, with the addition of "Something" (which was left off 20 Greatest Hits because of time constraints). On 1, "Hey Jude" was included in its original full-length version (slightly over seven minutes), whereas the American version of 20 Greatest Hits contained a shortened version.
Remastering Before 1, all 27 songs were mainly available on two remastered CD releases: firstly on the respective Beatles studio albums released in 1987 (as well as Past Masters, Volume One and Past Masters, Volume Two, released in 1988). The second remastering was made available on the CD versions for 1962–1966 and 1967–1970, released in 1993.
The songs on 1 were remastered specifically for the release in 2000. According to the liner notes of the album, the original analogue masters were "digitally remastered at 24 bits resolution, processed using Sonic Solutions NoNoise technology and mastered to 16-bit using Prism SNS Noise Shaping". The remastering was overseen by Peter Mew of Abbey Road Studios and took place there. In 2011, 1 was remastered and reissued on CD. In 2015 it was remastered again and remixed by Giles Martin; when Martin began to assist with fixing up the audio tracks for the 1+ video clips, he realised that his goal of making them "more immersive" should also apply to 1. For the remixing project, Martin commented: "The remasters went back to these final mix tapes and remastered them. They cleaned them up and then they EQ-ed them and released them. What we're doing is remixing. We're going not to the final mix, we're creating our own mixes." About his remixing approach, Martin said: "My approach was to be respectful of everything, I had sessions and sessions where I flipped between previously remastered stereos, the mono remasters, and the remixes we've done. I flip between everything and make sure I prefer what we've done."
Package
The package of 1 was intended to be simplistic and ambitious at the same time. Its cover was designed by Rick Ward, and consists of a pop art-style yellow number one on a red background. The emphasis on the 1 digit was used on many of the compilations of number-one hits by different artists that followed this album; for example, ELV1S by Elvis Presley and Number Ones by the Bee Gees. The album's back cover features the famous photos of the Beatles taken by Richard Avedon and copyrighted on 17 August 1967. The design exclusively uses variations of the Helvetica typeface.
1 was released worldwide on CD and cassette. The vinyl format was released only in the United Kingdom. The CD includes a 32-page booklet with a coloured page with international picture covers (a total of 163 covers are displayed on the whole booklet) and details (recording date, location, release date, chart stats) for each of the singles. It also includes on its first two pages a collage with 27 1s in different colours (all of them following the same art as the cover) with the sentence "27 No. 1 singles = 1" (which was used as a catch phrase for the promo ads for the album), and a foreword by George Martin.
The LP and cassette keep the main art of the CD version, but in a different form. The double vinyl record version was not released in the US, but the imported British edition was available. The vinyl version features a large full-colour fold-out poster showing 126 picture sleeves (37 fewer than on the CD), and reproductions of the four Richard Avedon photos. The Avedon portraits also appear on the inside of the gate-fold cover. The records have custom labels featuring the same graphics as the front cover and are packaged in custom inner sleeves. The deluxe packaging of the vinyl album, with its four portraits and poster, is reminiscent to that of their eponymous 1968 album. The cassette included a 20-page insert, including the collage, the George Martin commentary and paged Avedon's portraits on its inlay and the whole description for the tracks as a total of 36 covers on its inlay reverse.
Reception
1 received universal acclaim. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album five stars out of five. He stated that there is "no question that this is all great music", although to him "there's really no reason for anyone who owns all the records to get this too".
Legacy 1 went on to inspire the release of a wave of compilation albums, in particular three other "number ones" albums: Elvis Presley's ELV1S (2002), Michael Jackson's Number Ones (2003) and the Bee Gees' Number Ones (2004). Other compilations inspired by 1 issued included Prince's The Very Best of Prince (2001), Pink Floyd's Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001), The Who's The Ultimate Collection (2002), the Rolling Stones' Forty Licks (2002) Nirvana's Nirvana (2002) Elton John's Greatest Hits 1970–2002 (2002), The Beach Boys' Sounds of Summer (2003), and Dean Martin's Dino: The Essential Dean Martin (2004).
Sales and chart performance The reception of 1 surpassed all critical and commercial expectations. It became the highest-selling CD of 2000 and, some time later, of the entire decade. This achievement made the Beatles the first and only artist to have the best-selling albums of two different decades: they also released the best-selling album of the 1960s, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. No tracks from Sgt. Pepper appear on this album. With this album, the Beatles also achieved having an album hit the number 1 position in the US in four non-consecutive decades (1960s, 1970s, 1990s and 2000s).
In the United Kingdom, 1 became the Beatles' 15th number 1 album with sales of 319,126 copies (achieving record sales for only one week in 2000). On 18 December 2000, Ananova.com reported that the album has "become 2000's biggest-selling album—in only five weeks." 1 was the first album to stay at the top spot for nine weeks in almost ten years (the last being the Eurythmics's Greatest Hits), the best-selling album of 2000, and the sixth-best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK. In its eleventh week, 1 had sold a total of two million copies in the UK. It spent a total of 46 weeks inside the Top 75. In July 2013 it was certified 10× platinum by the BPI, for over 3 million copies sold in the UK. It is the 21st-best-selling album in the UK, according to an assessment by the Official Charts Company and the British Phonographic Industry that counted album sales in the UK from 28 July 1956 to the present day, and the second-best-selling Beatles album in that country (only beaten by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is the UK's third-best-selling album). As of July 2016, the album has sold over 3,230,000 copies in the UK.
In the United States, the response was similar. 1 debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 during the week of 2 December 2000 with sales totaling over 595,500 copies.