The movement you need is on your shoulder

Declan says I have to listen to The Beatles today. Oh, darn. Their altogether new collection of hits, 1, is next on the list. Now 1 is an interesting piece of marketing. Mr. Amazon says it was released on November 14, 2000. If you'll think back to that time, you may recall that Elvis was having quite a bit of success with repackaged hits collections back then as well. The Beatles were not about to be left off that nostalgia train so they brought us 1.

The hook for 1 was supposed to be that all the songs were number one hits. While that technically is true, they never say in what country the songs were number one. Since everything The Beatles looked at went to number one in the U.K. the answer to almost every question is England.

So that pretty much opens up their entire catalog for this album. I actually appreciate that, because it's the minor hits that provide most of the enjoyment for this collection. Sure, "Can't Buy Me Love" is fine but songs like "Paperback Writer", "We Can Work It Out" and the almost obscure "Ballad of John and Yoko" helps keep 1 from just being a collection of songs you might hear on oldies radio.

Was it all necessary? I'm not sure. 1 did sell tons of copies, though. I decided it was worth it when Rolling Stone proclaimed them the world's hottest band in a 2001 cover. Yeah, 2001.