Greatest hits?

I was out and about Monday and Tuesday, transporting kids here and there, and back to here, then there again. This alotted me the time to sit and wait between dance classes, school and Girl Scouts. Now that the sun sets at like 3 p.m., I can't sit in the car and read, so I listen to music and nap.

Anyway, I was listening to The Beatles compilation "Beatles 1," the most recent collection of hits. The CD features singles that reached No. 1. I got to thinking how this really short-changes people on quality Beatles material and I felt bad that many people will go through life without hearing lots of other good Beatles stuff.

Think of this: Radio is more obsolete than ever. Who listens anymore except we old people? And by getting your material online, you exclude all the things you don't want to hear, thus, things you might like but will never know you like because you never heard it.

Missing out

So, people will not hear many classic Beatles tunes. "Beatles 1" has nothing from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "The Beatles," aka The White Album. No singles were released from those LPs. It's missing classics like "I am the Walrus," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes the Sun." It also has the single version of "Get Back" without the banter and the famous, "I'd like to thank you on behalf of the group and myself and I hope we pass the audition."

Thanks, Mo.

The releases "The Beatles 1962-1966" and "The Beatles 1967-1970," the "Red" and "Blue" albums issued in the 1970s, are a better bet. They're each a double album, so you get a better breadth than with "Beatles 1."

But even those have some significant holes. None of those albums have "I Saw Her Standing There," the opening cut on The Beatles first album, "Please Please Me." This song rocks and declares to the world that The Beatles are different than anything that came before, that the music is about emotion, sex and more sex. Oh, and did I say sex?

They're all missing "Every Little Thing" and "Good Day Sunshine." All the kick ass covers like "Dizzy Miss Lizzie," "Money" and "Roll Over Beethoven" are missing.

You can get those on "Rock 'N' Roll Music," the "Silver" album, also from the 1970s, but then you miss the love songs like "This Boy," "Yes It Is," "I'll Follow the Sun," "Julia" and "I Will."

But you can get some of those on the "Past Masters" CDs, but then. ...

What to do

A coworker asked me once what Beatles albums to have in her collection. I don't think I answered very well, and still really can't.

You really ought to have "Sgt. Pepper's," but you should also have The White Album as contrast. And "Meet the Beatles," but you should then have "Abbey Road" and "Please Please Me" as alpha to omega. But you need "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" for the intellect and craftsmanship. And "Let It Be" for persepctive. Even "Magical Mystery Tour" because it has a collection of singles you ought to have. But you won't get "Hey Jude" or "Revolution" that were only singles.

Maybe you should get "Beatles 1." But then you'd be short-changed on quality Beatles material. Maybe you should get the . ...

Thought: This reminds me of the book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."