History Music / PastMasters

''Past Masters'' is a [[GreatestHitsAlbum compilation album]] by Music/TheBeatles, released in 1988. Released one year after a massive reissue campaign that brought the iconic Liverpool quartet's UK studio album backlog (plus the US version of ''Music/MagicalMysteryTour'') to the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc format for the first time, it marks the culmination of the first phase of the ongoing second wave of Beatlemania that ensued in the wake of Music/JohnLennon's murder at the start of the decade. In this sense, it's the Beatles' version of Music/NewOrder's ''Music/{{Substance|NewOrderAlbum}}'' singles compilation released the previous year.

* ProtestSong: "Get Back", aimed at the anti-immigration laws that were under consideration in Great Britain in 1969.

* LyricalDissonance: It includes of the most fun, upbeat songs they ever did--about a guy in a bad relationship, entitled "I'm Down".

* [[NewSoundAlbum New Sound Song]]: "The Inner Light" features sitar music.

* AlbumFiller: "Bad Boy" was originally recorded solely to fill out the U.S. album ''Beatles VI''. (''Beatles VI'' was a CutAndPasteTranslation featuring six songs from ''Music/BeatlesForSale'' along with some other odds and ends).

* VariantCover: As shown above, the omnibus and "volume" releases feature variants of each other's cover art to distinguish each other; the omnibus cover would eventually become the "canon" one once its configuration was adopted for the 2009 remaster.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the 1966 UK album ''A Collection of Beatles Oldies'', a GreatestHits album which shares 9 of its 16 tracks with ''Past Masters'', and was for a long time the main UK album source for them, plus the 1970 album ''Hey Jude'', a collection of non-album singles (8 of its 10 songs are ''Past Masters'' tracks) instigated by then-manager Allen Klein and released in most of the world (but not Britain), and the vastly different UK and US versions of ''Rarities'', from 1978 and 1980, respectively (the UK album even had a bland text-only cover similar to ''Past Masters'', done in blue and gold).

** "I'm Down" was inspired by Music/LittleRichard, one of Paul's favorite singers.

* BoleroEffect: "Hey Jude" uses this in its repeated chorus.

* AbsenteeActor: None of the Beatles play on "The Inner Light", which features George on lead vocal, John and Paul very briefly on backup vocal at the end, and Indian session musicians; Ringo is absent. "The Ballad of John and Yoko" features only John and Paul as George and Ringo weren't around and John didn't want to wait for them to get back to London; Paul plays drums. All four Beatles play on the backing track of "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", which was recorded in 1967, but the vocal is just John and Paul, recorded at a separate 1969 session.

* LoungeLizard: Paul's "Denis O'Bell" character in "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)", who sounds like a cross between Music/DeanMartin and Music/BingCrosby.

* OneWomanSong: "Long Tall Sally", "She's A Woman", "Day Tripper" and "Lady Madonna".

* RefugeInAudacity: At the time "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" didn't receive much airplay, because of Lennon's use of the word [[UsefulNotes/JesusChrist "Christ!"]] as a swear word. This lack of commercial attention is probably one of the reasons why it is the lowest-selling Beatles single in existence.
* ShaggyDogStory: "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", in which John and Yoko's travel everywhere and are met with scorn, disbelief and venom, until they finally arrive back in the UK and people say "it's good to have both of you back".

* SillyLoveSongs: "Love Me Do" (a slightly different version than the official studio release), "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". The genuine silliest must be "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)".

* TitleDrop: "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)".

# "From Me To You" (1:58)

# "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (2:27)

# "She's A Woman" (3:03)

# "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" (3:00)

# "Across The Universe" (3:49)

# "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" (4:19)

--> ''Without going outside his door, one understands (all that takes place) under the sky; without looking out from his window, one sees the Tao of Heaven. The farther that one goes out (from himself), the less he knows. Therefore the sages got their knowledge without travelling; gave their (right) names to things without seeing them; and accomplished their ends without any purpose of doing so.''

* SpecialGuest: Prolific session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins plays the solo on "Revolution", Billy Preston plays keyboard on "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down", Music/BrianJones plays saxophone on "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)".

* TheUnintelligible: The mumbling near the end of "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)".

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the 1966 UK album ''A Collection of Beatles Oldies'', a GreatestHits album which shares 9 of its 16 tracks with ''Past Masters'', and was for a long time the main UK album source for them, plus the 1970 Capitol album ''Hey Jude'', a collection of non-album singles (8 of its 10 songs are ''Past Masters'' tracks), and the vastly different UK and US versions of ''Rarities'', from 1978 and 1980, respectively (the UK album even had a bland text-only cover similar to ''Past Masters'', done in blue and gold).

* GreatestHitsAlbum: Sort of, as it collects most of their hit singles. But it's actually a compilation album of every Beatles recording that never appeared on a studio album, so it also includes B-sides and other oddities.

* RecycledInSpace: "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" are in German. "Love Me Do" is only slightly different from the official studio single. "Revolution" is a much more rocking version than the calmer, gentle version found on "Music/TheWhiteAlbum". "Across The Universe" is also mostly the same, save for a different sound effect at the start [[note]]Specifically, "Love Me Do" is the original version featuring Ringo on drums; that version was pulled from record stores within days of its 1962 release and replaced with a version featuring a session drummer and Ringo on tambourine. "Across The Universe" is the original 1968 version released on a World Wildlife Fund charity album, featuring wildlife sound effects and two teenage girls pulled off the street to sing backup vocal. "Revolution" is the harder version of "Revolution 1", recorded by the group after the others felt that John's bluesier White Album version wasn't suitable for a single[[/note]].

* PepTalkSong: "We Can Work It Out", about the hop of finding a way out of a heavy argument. "Hey Jude", where a sad person is cheered up.

* GreatestHitsAlbum: Not officially one, but it functions as one, since it's a compilation of singles otherwise unavailable on the studio albums. Some of them can be found on the red and blue "Best Of The Beatles" albums ''1962-1966'' and ''1967-1970'', released in 1973: "From Me To You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "I Feel Fine", "Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out", "Paperback Writer", "Hey Jude", "Revolution" (the ''hard rock'' version), "Get Back", "Don't Let Me Down", "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", "Old Brown Shoe", "Across The Universe" and "Let It Be". The rest never charted or are extremely rare.

* LogicalWeakness: Because of its intention (to compile all the commercially released material that had was not available on the CD album releases), the set has a number of weaknesses, namely that Volume 1 contains some fluff like the German dubs of the early singles and Volume 2 awkwardly skips the band's 1967 singles since these were part of ''Magical Mystery Tour.''

* A few songs were released as singles with different takes than appeared on studio albums. ''Past Masters'' includes the original single version of "Love Me Do" featuring Ringo Starr on drums. It was pulled from the market in 1962 and replaced with another take featuring a session drummer, and that take is the one on ''Please Please Me''. The single mixes of "Let It Be", "Across the Universe", and "Get Back" (which are different from the ''Music/LetItBe'' album versions) are also included here, as is "Revolution" (a HardRock re-recording of "Revolution 1" from ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'').

* At the time of its original release, the "Red" and "Blue" compilations were unavailable on CD. These would only be issued on CD in 1993, along with the ''One'' compilation in 2000.

* GreatestHitsAlbum: The album is a compilation of singles otherwise unavailable on the studio albums. Some of them can be found on the red and blue "Best Of The Beatles" albums ''1962-1966'' and ''1967-1970'', released in 1973: "From Me To You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "I Feel Fine", "Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out", "Paperback Writer", "Hey Jude", "Revolution" (the ''hard rock'' version), "Get Back", "Don't Let Me Down", "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", "Old Brown Shoe", "Across The Universe" and "Let It Be". The rest never charted or are extremely rare.

* SpecialGuest: Music/BrianJones plays saxophone on "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)".

* AbsenteeActor: None of the Beatles play on "The Inner Light", which features George on lead vocal, John and Paul very briefly on backup vocal at the end, and Indian session musicians; Ringo is absent. "The Ballad of John and Yoko" features only John and Paul as George and Ringo weren't around and John didn't want to wait for them to get back to London; Paul plays drums.

** "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" sounds more like a Music/TheBonzoDogBand number than a Beatles song, with the later sections also very much in the style of ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' (with John's singsongy voice in the "You know me number one" part basically being a Bluebottle imitation).