Welcome to Nothing is Real, a podcast about the Beatles.

Everybody thinks they know the Beatles, but how much do we really know?

My name is Jason Carty.

My name is Stephen Corkroft.

And we are live on tape from Dublin.

This week, we are going to talk about compilations, a kind of best of the best of the Beatles.

We're going to look at how the Beatles have been compiled and collected over the years.

What circumstances have led to these albums being released?

And for many of us, a Beatles compilation is the thing that starts all this madness in the first place.

And for that reason alone, they maintain an important place in our hearts.

Was your first Beatles album a compilation, Stephen?

My first Beatles album was a compilation.

And I think it's the first one we're going to talk about which was a collection

of Beatles oldies. Yes. So I think I might have been 10 or 11 so I won't give you the year.

But I remember persuading my mother to buy me an album and it had a lovely garish kind of Carnaby Street

style cover. So that was the one that appealed to me.

So that was my starting point.

And that is, yeah, as you rightly say,

that's kind of the first Beatles' greatest hits compilation.

And it comes out in December, 1966.

And it's there to fill the first Beatleless Christmas since 1962.

So 63, 64, 65, I've had albums and singles.

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