Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As much as the Beatles were loved in the USA, we were short-changed. We thought we were getting a lot with an album every ten months, a handful of singles each year, a movie every two years, an occasional tour, and a sloppy Saturday morning cartoon. But, in the UK, the Beatles were doing stage shows--not just their own act, but pantomime and vaudeville-type things--and tons of live radio, where "From Me To You" was converted to "From Us To You" and made their signature tune. LIVE AT THE BBC collects more than 60 of the best moments from their radio appearances in one fabulous package. There are a couple odd glitches--the solo on "A Hard Day's Night" is an obvious edit of the studio solo patched over a live performance, for instance--but the vast majority of the music here is superb. The cover of "Sweet Little Sixteen" is fantastic, really hard stuff the way Lennon always said he preferred the Beatles to sound. Harrison shines on "Nothin' Shakin'" and "Everybody's Tryin' To Be My Baby." McCartney wails on "Long Tall Sally," "Lucille," and "The Hippy Hippy Shake." The whole band delivers a jolt with my very favorite early Beatles rocker, "Some Other Guy." Ringo, as always, is the heart of the Beatles sound. On "Thank You Girl" he sounds like he's going to knock the bandstand to pieces. Why he isn't universally acclaimed as one of the 2 or 3 greatest Rock drummers of all time is beyond me. This is a great record of the Beatles early days, when they were just beginning to step away from a very 1950s sound. Who could have guessed how far they'd go in less than a decade?