Comprised entirely of number 1 hits from the UK and the U.S, '1' was originally released in 2000, breaking records by debuting at the top of the charts in 35 countries, and going on to sell over 31 million copies worldwide. It was and remains to this day a most emphatic introduction to and collection of The Beatles' career-spanning dominance of pop music through the 1960s.

For 2009 remasters, each track was remastered by a dedicated team of engineers at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London over a four-year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.