Album release: Anthology 1

The Beatles’ Anthology 1 album went on sale worldwide on 21 November 1995.

The release came the day after the premiere of ‘Free As A Bird’. Shortly after its first play on BBC Radio 1, EMI began shipping copies of Anthology 1 from its distribution plant in Hayes, Middlesex, to retailers.

Anthology 1 was released as double compact disc and triple vinyl sets. In the UK retailers including Virgin and HMV opened at midnight to sell the album to eager fans.

In the US there were around 3.5 million initial orders. Anthology 1 became the first Beatles album to enter the Billboard 200 chart at number one, with 855,473 copies sold. It remained at the top of the chart for three weeks, and was certified platinum in America after six weeks.

Anthology 1 also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom the album stalled at number two, behind Robson and Jerome’s eponymous debut album.

The three Anthology albums were made available as digital downloads on the iTunes Store on 14 June 2011.