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The Beatles

In 1995, twenty five years after The Beatles had stopped working together, a TV series telling the group’s story was broadcast. Called Anthology, it featured recently filmed interviews with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr; John Lennon, who had died in 1980, was represented by archive footage. To complement the documentaries, three albums of previously unreleased Beatles material were issued under the same title.

The time span covered by Anthology 1 ranges from the group’s early private recordings through to studio outtakes from 1964 - the year they became hugely popular around the world. However, its bonus track was something unexpected and extraordinary - a ‘new’ Beatles recording featuring all four members of the group. in February 1994, Paul, George and Ringo came together in a studio to work on John’s rudimentary songwriting demo of ‘Free As A Bird’. The completed track was the result of inspired musical input and the technical ingenuity required to enhance the poor sound quality of John’s cassette tape from 1977. Once this new Beatles song was completed, to Ringo’s ears, it sounded ‘just like them!’. ‘It sounds like them now - that’s what I think’, George added.

The earliest recording in the collection is a cover version of Buddy Holly’s ‘That’ll Be The Day’ by skiffle group The Quarry Men, featuring John, Paul and George. The solitary disc cut in 1958 in a house in Liverpool for a fee of less than a pound captured the nascent sound of The Beatles. Other fascinating recordings from the time before the group found success include three songs taped at Paul McCartney’s home in 1960, three tracks made in a Hamburg studio in 1961 and five items from their failed audition for Decca Records on New Year’s Day 1962. Producer George Martin entered The Beatles’ lives following his request to meet them at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios; two of the songs they played to him in June 1962 are included: ‘Besame Mucho’ and ‘Love Me Do’. The group’s ascent to unprecedented fame swiftly followed that exploratory session.

Anthology 1 presents a wealth of historical material, including the sound from milestone TV appearances watched by many millions in the UK: Sunday Night At The London Palladium, The Royal Variety Show, The Morecambe And Wise Show and Around The Beatles. International broadcasts include the note perfect performance in February 1964 of ‘All My Loving’ in front of 73 million American viewers of The Ed Sullivan Show and an exuberant concert performance recorded by Swedish Radio a few months earlier. In addition to these live performances, there are intriguing glimpses into how they arranged and perfected songs in the studio. Listen for the experimental backing vocals of ‘Eight Days A Week’ and different time signatures tried for ‘I’ll Be Back’. Other highlights include an unused first attempt in 1963 at recording ‘One After 909’, revisited six years later during sessions for Let It Be, and an exhilarating performance of ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’. For an unfathomable reason, that track from 1964 remained unreleased until the arrival of this satisfying collection 31 years later. Anthology 1 reveals the sound of world-changing music in the making.

In 1995, twenty five years after The Beatles had stopped working together, a TV series telling the group’s story was broadcast. Called Anthology, it featured recently filmed interviews with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr; John Lennon, who had died in 1980, was represented by archive footage. To complement the documentaries, three albums of previously unreleased Beatles material were issued under the same title.

The tracks in the Anthology 2 collection date from February 1965 to February 1968 - the period when The Beatles became the ultimate record makers. It was during 1965 that, as John Lennon recalled, The Beatles ‘got knowledge of the studio’. That year had been as hectic as the previous one with concert tours around the world, a film to shoot and two albums to make. But although studio time was still restricted and the group continued to face the pressure of fast approaching record release dates, they were constantly searching for new sounds. One of the most radical innovations was heard on ‘Yesterday’ from Help! when a recording of Paul’s guitar and voice was embellished by a sombre string quartet. Anthology 2 includes the first take without the added strings. There is also a solo performance by Paul with an orchestra taken from the British TV show Blackpool Night Out. ‘’Thank you, Ringo, that was wonderful’, John quips when he returns to the stage. The other songs from that show prove how proficient The Beatles were in live performance.

However, in this era, it was mostly inside the studio - in collaboration with producer George Martin and the skilled Abbey Road engineers and technical staff - that The Beatles’ creativity flourished. For the first time, sessions for their 1966 album Revolver stretched over nearly three months. They began recording with the startlingly different ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and the first take of the song, called at that point ‘Mark I’, is a stark reminder of its revolutionary basis. Frequently, tracks might be considered finished, only then to be rerecorded with a different approach. An example on Anthology 2 is the first unreleased version of ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ which features the sound of John and Paul dissolving into giggles as they attempt to overdub harmony vocals. In contrast, a ‘strings only’ mix of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ reveals in mesmerising detail the dramatic sound of the double string quartet. Elsewhere in the collection, it is fun to hear George Harrison’s ‘Taxman’ with different backing vocals and his composition ‘Only A Northern Song’ presented in a much simpler form compared to the released version. Ringo’s drumming is impressive throughout - just listen to his exciting drum fills on the versions of ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ and ‘Good Morning Good Morning’.

The zenith of The Beatles’ experiments in changing sounds and bringing in musicians from outside the pop world was reached during the sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Anthology 2 charts the evolution of trailblazing tracks such as ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, ‘Penny Lane’, ‘A Day In The Life’, ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!’ and ‘Within You Without You’. Indeed, listening to Anthology 2 gives a remarkable insight into the quantum leaps of imagination made by The Beatles as they worked on tracks recorded during this adventurous musical era.

In 1995, twenty five years after The Beatles had stopped working together, a TV series telling the group’s story was broadcast. Called Anthology, it featured recently filmed interviews with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr; John Lennon, who had died in 1980, was represented by archive footage. To complement the documentaries, three albums of previously unreleased Beatles material were issued under the same title.

Anthology 3 encompasses the recordings the group made between May 1968 and January 1970. The seven tracks dating from May 1968 are acoustic demos recorded at George’s home in Esher, Surrey. Four of the demos featured on Anthology 3 were later recorded at Abbey Road for the double-LP The Beatles - forever known, because of its plain white sleeve, as the ‘White Album’. ‘Mean Mr Mustard’ and ‘Polythene Pam’ were completed over a year later for inclusion on Abbey Road. ‘Junk’ was eventually recorded for Paul’s first solo album McCartney.

There are twenty more songs included in this collection that were recorded during the nearly six months of ‘White Album’ sessions. There is the menacing Take Two of ‘Helter Skelter’, which is very different to the raucous released version. Ringo’s first solo composition ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ is heard without the added violin part, which enhanced its country flavour. ‘Blackbird’ is an early take without the chirruping mixed into the master take. ‘Glass Onion’ is a fascinating blend of the finished musical performance with sound effects, including a football commentator exclaiming ‘It’s a goal!’ These elements were removed and replaced by an orchestral arrangement for the final version. Two George Harrison songs leave the listener wondering why they were not released at the time. ‘Not Guilty’ was completed, yet remained unreleased by The Beatles until Anthology arrived in 1996. His gentle acoustic take of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ sounds too beautiful not to have been issued alongside the familiar rock version in 1968.

Group recordings included from 1969 were eventually completed for the albums Abbey Road and Let It Be. The tracks dating from January 1969 were recorded live, with a strict rule of no overdubbing. The initial concept was to introduce new songs to a global audience in a televised live performance, but once that scheme had been abandoned, orchestral arrangements were added to some of the tracks. Anthology 3 uncovers the group’s elegiac performance of ‘The Long And Winding Road’ that lay beneath a lush score overdubbed onto it by Phil Spector. There are also several impressive solo demos of songs made during 1969 at Abbey Road. Paul created a demo of ‘Come And Get It’ as a template for his production of a version by Apple Records group Badfinger. George completed three demos in a session on 25 February 1969, his 26th Birthday. ‘Old Brown Shoe’ and ‘Something’ were eventually recorded by The Beatles, but they never did complete a version of ‘All Things Must Pass’.

One of the most moving tracks on Anthology 3 is ‘Because’. A new mix stripped away all the instrumental accompaniment to leave the sound of John, Paul and George singing intricate and delicate harmony vocals. This was the last time John was present at a Beatle session. He was in Denmark when ‘I Me Mine’, the last Beatles song to be recorded, was humorously introduced by George in a session on 3 January 1970.

Anthology Highlights

‘The kids of AD 2000 will understand what it was all about and draw from the music much the same sense of well being and warmth as we do today. For the magic of The Beatles is timeless and ageless.’ That prediction in the sleeve notes for Beatles For Sale was made by Derek Taylor in 1964, when pop stars had a limited shelf life of perhaps two years. But sure enough, since its release in November 2000, the success of The Beatles’ album 1 proved him right in spectacular fashion with over 30 million sales worldwide …and counting. Decade after decade, the music of The Beatles continues to captivate generation upon generation.

Proving that the simplest ideas are often the best, the compilation included every number one Beatles single listed in the British chart published by Record Retailer and the Hot 100 of Billboard magazine. Fortunately, the 27 chart-toppers fitted onto a single CD with just a few seconds of playing time to spare. For those keeping score, six songs were number one just in the UK; eight reached the top only in America. ‘Eight Days A Week’, ‘Yesterday’ and ‘The Long And Winding Road’ were not released on singles in the UK. Thirteen songs reached number one in both countries.

The tracks play in the chronological order of the dates when the singles were first released. The US fell under the spell of The Beatles a little late, so in 1964 ‘She Loves You’ and ‘Love Me Do’ followed the number one breakthrough of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. From ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ onwards, the world was in sync as it waited for the next exciting single. Rightly, we celebrate the group’s achievements with their albums, but the release of the next Beatles single was always a much anticipated event. Listening to 1, you can hear the group’s dazzling progression in performance, songwriting and recording.

Released first on seven-inch vinyl discs, these songs have been heard over the years on a range of formats, including eight-track cartridges, analogue cassettes, compact discs and digital downloads. Now streaming on a device near you, the magic of The Beatles continues to be ‘timeless and ageless’.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Remastered)

The frequency of The Beatles’ albums seems startling now but as ten months passed between the release dates of Revolver in August 1966 and the next LP on 1 June 1967, there was much speculation about what was seen as a long gap. The wait was the result of The Beatles pursuing a new direction. They had decided that their concert at Candlestick Park, San Francisco on 29 August 1966 would be their last. Touring had become musically frustrating and too dangerous. In December 1966, Paul explained: ‘We feel that only through recording do people listen to us, so that is our most important form of communication. We take as much time as we want on a track, until we get it to our satisfaction.’

With Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles and producer George Martin showed the world what could be achieved with this approach. Their experimental and painstaking work meant that around 400 hours were needed to complete the LP - an astonishing total at that time. Unusual studio techniques were applied throughout Sgt. Pepper. Artificial Double Tracking, or ‘phasing’ as it was nicknamed, was used to alter the true sound of an instrument or a voice. There was also the speeding up and slowing down of tapes during recording and mixing, which changed the tempo and pitch of a voice, instrument or whole song.

No singles were released from Sgt. Pepper, although it includes two of the best known Lennon/McCartney hits - ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ and ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’. The songs range across styles from the poignant ballad ‘She’s Leaving Home’ to the jaunty music hall pastiche ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ and the giddy fairground atmosphere of ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!’. The album ends with ‘A Day In The Life’ - a composition seamlessly combining two distinct ideas originating from John and Paul. The most radical aspect of its arrangement was the superimposition of an orchestra building to a cacophonous climax. George Harrison’s ‘Within You Without You’ introduced pop fans to the unfamiliar sound of an Indian ensemble trading licks with a classical string section. However, it is not only the exotic instrumentation on the album that dazzles, listen for the soulful drum fills, exciting guitar flourishes, elastic bass lines and characterful vocals.

As the sessions for Sgt. Pepper progressed, George Martin recognised the commercial risk he and the group were taking: ‘As it was getting more and more avant-garde... there was a slight niggle of worry. I thought, “Is the public ready for this yet?”’. It was.

Abbey Road (Remastered)

In September 1969, The Beatles delivered the last album they recorded together. Measured in terms of its enormous popularity and boundless musical ingenuity, Abbey Road challenges the status of Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band as their greatest achievement.

A key element of Abbey Road is the quality of the harmony singing. There are comic backing vocals in the cautionary tale of ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ and delicate choral work in ‘Sun King’. The most impressive example is heard on ‘Because’. The vocal blend of John, Paul and George was recorded three times to create a choir of nine voices. However, the album’s opener demonstrates how The Beatles’ great talent for arranging their songs did not necessarily lead to something elaborate. Adopting the principle of ‘less is more’, the combination of space with a tight performance creates the funky feel of ‘Come Together’. John’s singing provides a rock master class in controlled tension, energy and commitment. He gives another one with ‘I Want You (She’s so heavy)’, which brought the first side of the album to an astounding climax. Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash described it as a ‘huge influence as far as where I come from as a musician. The guitar melody on that is so perfect.’ Paul’s impressive rock vocal gymnastics are heard in ‘Oh! Darling’.

George’s compositions on Abbey Road showed his writing at a creative peak. ‘Something’ became one of the most covered songs in The Beatles' catalogue. His uplifting ‘Here Comes The Sun’ featured the newly invented Moog synthesizer - one of the first times it was heard on a pop LP. Ringo’s ‘Octopus’s Garden’ was a sparkling surprise amongst the variety of styles on side one. However, the character of Abbey Road is dominated by what was referred to as ‘The Long One’ on side two of the original LP. Starting with ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’, a medley of eight titles flowed together until ‘The End’ - its concluding couplet gained more significance once it was clear that the LP contained The Beatles’ last recordings.

Since its release, Abbey Road has continued to grow in stature. The sheen of George Martin’s production and the group’s immaculate performances make it tempting to think they pulled out all the stops for their last musical statement. But that is just speculation. They might have continued to record, but The Beatles stopped at the end of the decade they had helped to define. However, Let It Be, made in January1969, was still waiting in the wings.

The Beatles 1967 - 1970 (Remastered)

In April 1973, three years after news broke that The Beatles would not work again as a group, two compilation albums were released. Called simply 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, each became known by the dominant colour in its artwork. Just as their 1968 double LP was soon called the ‘White Album’, the 1973 collections were forever referred to as the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums. Together, they included the 26 A-sides of The Beatles’ British singles and a further 27 tracks from the catalogue.

The 1967-1970 album includes eleven hit songs plus a single not released in the UK - ‘The Long And Winding Road’ - which became The Beatles’ twentieth and final American number one. Remarkably, so many of the classics featured - ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, ‘A Day In The Life’, ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, ‘Here Comes The Sun’, ‘Across The Universe’ - had only been available on albums.

The tracks on the ‘Blue’ album were made in the era that followed The Beatles’ decision to stop doing concert tours, which had become musically frustrating and frequently dangerous. After August 1966, they were able to focus all their energies on songwriting and pioneering work in the studio. The first disc released in this new phase of their career was the double A-side ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’/‘Penny Lane’. Its arrival in February 1967, showed the extent of The Beatles’ ambitions in musical and technical experimentation. ‘They didn’t just write songs, they wrote records’, reflected producer T Bone Burnett. ‘That was a first, I think. Nobody had done that before.’

The group’s adventurous work with producer George Martin on the majority of the tracks on the ‘Blue’ album sounded revolutionary when first released. Groundbreaking art and mainstream popularity do not often converge, but did so in 1967 with the critical and commercial success of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. What The Beatles created in a recording studio, changed everything. As Mark Ronson confirms: ‘Everything that we take for granted - they absolutely invented it. It’s because you have the best band of all time with the best producer of all time.’ Producer Rick Rubin agrees: ‘It’s the reference point for everything. It’s the bar that’s set so high that you can never reach it. But thank God it’s there, because we all strive.’

The Beatles 1962 - 1966 (Remastered)

In April 1973, three years after news broke that The Beatles would not work again as a group, two compilation albums were released. Called simply 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, each became known by the dominant colour in its artwork. Just as their 1968 double LP was soon called the ‘White Album’, the 1973 collections were forever referred to as the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums. Together, they included the 26 A-sides of The Beatles’ British singles and a further 27 tracks from the catalogue.

Within the 1962-1966 album, there are fifteen British A-sides and four singles not released in the UK. The tracks were made when The Beatles pursued a demanding concert schedule, which after their international breakthrough in 1964, took them all over the world. Time for writing and work in the studio was restricted by their tours and many other commitments, such as acting in the movies A Hard Day’s Night and Help!. Yet, despite these pressures, the advances made on their records in performance, songwriting and sound are startling. At the time, each new disc sent a message to their musical contemporaries. Beat that!

Beginning with ‘Love Me Do’ from 1962, after following a chronological sequence, the ‘Red’ album closes with songs on the last of the group’s singles in this time span - ‘Eleanor Rigby’/‘Yellow Submarine’. While that double A-side was at the top of the UK chart, The Beatles played the last concert of their North American tour in San Francisco on 29 August 1966. They never played live to a paying audience again.

For those who missed the phenomenon of The Beatles as it was progressing, the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums provided an excellent introduction to the group’s work. Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters has acknowledged their formative influence on his musicianship ‘It was with those two albums that I really fell in love with music. I would sit and play along and that’s, basically, how I learned to play guitar. That’s the foundation of my understanding of composition and arrangement. It’s all rooted in those two albums. Had I sat down with any other albums to learn to play guitar, I don’t think I’d be doing what I do.’

The Beatles (Remastered)

After the longest wait yet for the ‘official’ next album, there was widespread and heightened anticipation of what The Beatles would do to follow Sgt. Pepper. Issued on 22 November 1968, the stark white cover of their ninth UK album signalled they had, once again, overturned all expectations. Called simply The Beatles, but forever to be known as ‘The White Album’, the double-LP may be the most eclectic album ever released. The Beatles seemed determined to write and play in every style imaginable.

The origins of the music are rooted in The Beatles’ visit to Rishikesh, India where they studied transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Their trip in March 1968 was a communal experience that reinforced the group’s unity. It certainly inspired a prolific phase of songwriting. In May, before sessions began at EMI Studios, The Beatles taped acoustic demo versions of 27 songs at George Harrison’s house. They began recording these new compositions at Abbey Road on 30 May and studio work occupied most of their time until the final date on 16 October 1968. ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Revolution’ were the first songs to be heard from the sessions when they were released as a stand-alone single on 30 August 1968. It is doubtful whether any other artist would have even considered leaving off their album such a monumental hit single.

The juxtaposition of loud and soft is one of the reasons ‘The White Album’ is so surprising. The raucous rocker ‘Helter Skelter’ precedes the delicate ‘Long Long Long’. The pastoral calm of ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ is placed between the fiery ‘Yer Blues’ and the wildness of ‘Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey’. As usual, there are many humorous touches - as heard in ‘The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill’, ‘Rocky Raccoon’, ‘Piggies’ and ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’. In 1968, The Beatles changed their approach to recording. As Ringo remembered: ‘On “The White Album” we ended up being a band again and that’s what I always love.’ Conversely, more than ever before, it was not considered necessary for all of The Beatles to play on every song. Only sixteen out of 30 tracks featured the participation of all four. Uncredited, Eric Clapton played lead guitar on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.

It was clear to everyone in 1968 that The Beatles had recorded an album that was in sharp contrast to its predecessor. As George Harrison explained: ‘We always tried to make things different. There was no chance of a new record ever being like the previous one.’ The group’s remarkable achievement in creating ‘The White Album’ is that, despite such dazzling diversity within the collection, each track is stamped with the unmistakable sound of The Beatles.

Revolver (Remastered)

In 1966, The Beatles’ world tilted on its axis. Their previous album Rubber Soul had marked a turning point in their approach to studio work. The group’s focus on making something revolutionary in the studio was pursued even more fervently upon their return to Abbey Road on 6th April, 1966. The result of 300 hours of work in three months of sessions, Revolver is a towering artistic achievement.

There is an astonishing variety of moods in the songs by Lennon/McCartney - ranging from the feel-good bounce of ‘Good Day Sunshine’ to the scary paranoia of ‘She Said She Said’. The LP’s two ballads have contrasting emotions. The joyful ‘Here, There And Everywhere’ has an uncluttered arrangement distinguished by exquisite harmonies. The melancholy narrative of ‘For No One’ unfolds over a backing track with a classical mood, which is heightened by a rhythmic clavichord accompaniment and a French horn solo. The LP contained the biggest songwriting contribution to date from George Harrison. His caustic ‘Taxman’ was given the status of the album’s opener. ‘Love You To’ reflects his growing fascination with Indian music and is mostly devoid of Western instrumentation. ‘I Want To Tell You’ is a more straight forward rocker but, as with the other two, has an unconventional lyric.

During the first session for the album The Beatles began recording ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. The track introduced many of the new sonic ideas that were used throughout Revolver, including innovative techniques to record the drums, a much more prominent bass guitar, electric guitar played back on a reversed tape and a special vocal sound. With other musicians, the use of studio effects might have sounded gimmicky and, before too long, quaintly old-fashioned. But The Beatles and George Martin always applied an unerring sense of taste while they experimented. The unusual sounds enhance the songs. The home-made tape loops on ‘Tomorrow Never Know’ create an ethereal atmosphere that matches the spirit of the song. The ‘backwards’ electric guitar on ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ has a yawning quality that complements the dreamy nature of the words and the languorous performance. The many sound effects on ‘Yellow Submarine’ amplify the track’s sense of childish fun. Unlike anything else on the album - and in the music world to that date - ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is a solemn masterpiece. With little evidence of the electronic manipulation of sound heard throughout Revolver, it was the score for double string quartet that made ‘Eleanor Rigby’ sound so stark and radical. These were adventurous times.

Rubber Soul (Remastered)

The Beatles released their sixth album in three years at the end of 1965 - a golden year for British and American music. Distilling the influence of the inspirational records of Bob Dylan and the soul singles released by Atlantic, Motown and Stax, they created an album of startling originality. Upon its release, their contemporaries were left trailing in the dust, wondering how The Beatles had done it.

Despite a pressing deadline, the group had set themselves the creative challenge of making an LP that was entirely self-composed. They succeeded with melodic songs that provide fascinating examples of the group’s aspiration to write more ambitious words for their music. For example, the reflective lyric of ‘In My Life’ conveys both sadness and hope. ‘I’m Looking Through You’ and ‘You Won’t See Me’ have a darker atmosphere than earlier relationship songs. So does ‘Girl’ with its beguiling central character. Musically, the heartbeat of the album is the combination of Ringo’s inventive drumming and Paul’s melodic bass playing - as demonstrated by the rhythmic pulse of ‘Drive My Car’. On top of this foundation, the intricate harmonies sung by John, Paul and George are interwoven throughout the album. This vocal blend, heard on tracks such as ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘Michelle’ and ‘The Word’, is one of the most distinctive qualities of Rubber Soul.

Surrounded by all the madness that came with their fame, the studio served as a safe refuge and a space where their imaginations could run free. A month of sessions was scheduled in Abbey Road, allowing The Beatles to try out adventurous recording techniques and add exotic instrumentation, such as the use of a sitar on ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’. ‘The sitar on it blew my mind!’, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys recalled. ‘I was so impressed with that album and that sound.’ He responded by working tirelessly on the innovative songs and arrangements devised for his group’s next album - Pet Sounds. Rubber Soul has continued to inspire subsequent generations of musicians. As Dave Grohl recalled: ‘It was the one that everyone in Seattle listened to. I think it‘s why I got hired to be the drummer in Nirvana, because I said the word “Beatles”!’ Rubber Soul is the pivotal album in The Beatles’ catalogue. Where once there had been songs of innocence, now there were songs of experience.

Let It Be (Remastered)

The original concept for Let It Be had been particularly ambitious: to write and rehearse a fresh batch of songs for a live television broadcast - in less than a month. Rehearsals began at Twickenham Film Studios on 2 January 1969, with a film crew capturing every moment while the group worked. The sometimes stressful circumstances led to George Harrison quitting The Beatles on 10 January 1969. He agreed to return on two conditions. First, rehearsals must be switched from the cold environment at Twickenham to the cosier surroundings of the basement studio in the Beatles’ Apple office building at 3, Savile Row in London. Second, the group would not perform in a live television concert.

While at Apple, the group stuck to the initial ‘back to basics’ idea of recording ’as live’ - without the studio effects and elaborate overdubbing of instruments and vocals that had distinguished their recent albums. The plan now was to be filmed making a record as simply as when they had first visited Abbey Road. With their old friend Billy Preston joining them on keyboards, half of the tracks on Let It Be were recorded in two days. On 30 January, to give the movie a dramatic final sequence, The Beatles braved the winter weather for an unannounced lunchtime concert on the roof of their Apple building. The open air versions of ‘Dig A Pony’, ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ and ‘One After 909’ are heard on the album. The following day, the cameras rolled for what was called the ‘Apple Studio Performance’. Three songs unsuitable for the rooftop concert were recorded: ‘Let It Be’, ‘The Long And Winding Road’ and ‘Two Of Us’. A studio version of ‘Get Back’ taped a few days earlier was released as a single in April 1969 and reached number one. Apart from its B-side ‘Don’t Let Me Down’, everything else from January remained under wraps until 1970.

When the documentary film was near completion, Phil Spector was allowed to ‘reproduce’ the recordings for a soundtrack album. Disregarding the rule of no overdubs, he added lavish orchestral arrangements to three songs, including a recording from February 1968 of ‘Across The Universe’. Spector’s freedom to edit, compile and rearrange the material on the album - without ever consulting Paul McCartney - was indicative of how much the group’s unity had shattered by now. When Let It Be was finally released in May 1970, The Beatles had effectively disbanded. The dream was over.

Help! (Remastered)

At the beginning of 1965, John Lennon and Ringo Starr were both 24-years old, Paul McCartney was 22 and George Harrison was 21. A huge weight of expectation was placed on their young shoulders, but by the end of the year The Beatles had delivered records that were both musically innovative and commercially successful. Featuring seven songs from their second movie, Help! was released on 6 August 1965.

A rise in the popularity of contemporary folk music was reflected in the LP’s ambitious lyrics - most notably its title track - and the prevalence of acoustic guitars. However, in addition to the acoustic sounds of ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ and ‘I’ve Just Seen A Face’, there is a strong rhythm and blues presence on tracks such as ‘Another Girl’ and ‘You’re Going To Lose That Girl’. ‘Ticket To Ride’ was the first Beatles single of 1965 and felt so different to every other record around. The powerful guitar riff jangles, Ringo’s impeccable drumming propels the song and the voices make thrilling falsetto leaps. The Beatles had recognised the crucial role the tambourine played in driving the beat on their favourite Motown discs. The tambourine is everywhere on Help!.

A new album guaranteed new guitar sounds from George. The arrangement for his song ‘I Need You’ is characterised by the use of a newly invented volume pedal. There was another fresh sound heard on ‘It’s Only Love’. It was created by recording George’s guitar coming through a rotating Leslie speaker, usually connected to a Hammond organ. There would be much more of that sort of experimentation to come. In The Beatles’ quest for new sounds, their most radical step was the arrangement for ‘Yesterday’. Over the recording of Paul’s guitar and voice was added a string quartet. The distinctly classical score was designed to avoid an over-sentimental treatment that others subsequently gave the song. Soon to become the most covered Beatles composition, in the UK ‘Yesterday’ was not even released as a single in 1965. Not so in the States, where it was a number one.

The group’s first movie, A Hard Day’s Night, was shot in black and white. With the release of their second film Help!, the sixties burst into vivid colour and the music The Beatles recorded in 1965 embodied the transformation.

Yellow Submarine (Remastered)

The Beatles’ tenth album was released in January 1969. Unusually for a soundtrack album, this was exactly six months after the Yellow Submarine movie’s premiere in London. One side of the original LP was devoted to six Beatles tracks and the other featured a new recording of the film’s orchestral score composed by The Beatles’ producer George Martin. Clearly, the title song had to be included so ‘Yellow Submarine’, a number one from 1966, opens the album. It also featured ‘All You Need Is Love’ from 1967, which was, as Paul McCartney saw it, ‘basically the message of the movie’.

The remaining tracks were previously unreleased songs first heard in the film. Three came from 1967. George Harrison’s ‘It’s Only A Northern Song’ dated from the sessions for St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but was replaced on that album by his composition ‘Within You Without You’. Another of his songs ‘It’s All Too Much’ was recorded on 25 May 1967 - a week before Sgt. Pepper was released. It was around this time that The Beatles signed up to provide some new as well as old songs for the movie. The sing-a-long catchiness of ‘All Together Now’ proved perfect for the finale of Yellow Submarine. As John recalled, during the latter part of the film’s production, ‘they wanted another song so I knocked off “Hey Bulldog”. It’s a good-sounding record that means nothing.’ Typical Lennon understatement. This outstanding example of how hard The Beatles could rock together was recorded, overdubbed and mixed in a single ten-hour session on 11 February 1968.

Directed by George Dunning, the innovative animation of Yellow Submarine evoked the psychedelic spirit of Sgt. Pepper to show the triumph of Love over Evil. As George Harrison observed: ‘That film works for every generation - every baby, three or four years old, goes through Yellow Submarine.’ It is an illustration of how easily children fall under the spell of The Beatles’ music - a melodic force more powerful than all the sour Blue Meanies of the world.

With The Beatles (Remastered)

As The Beatles’ popularity in the UK escalated throughout 1963, their second LP was keenly awaited. With The Beatles arrived in November 1963 and did not disappoint. The energy, joy and adrenaline bursting from the grooves made it irresistible. Considering what The Beatles were doing throughout 1963, the vibrancy of the album is not so surprising. A packed schedule with hundreds of concerts and dozens of radio and television shows had allowed very little time for the sessions needed to produce With The Beatles. Fourteen songs were recorded in just 28 hours squeezed into six days.

Casting aside the usual LP formula, none of the tracks was released as a single. An unthinkable move now, but Lennon and McCartney had hits to spare. They had given ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ to The Rolling Stones and many artists would soon acknowledge the appeal of ‘All My Loving’ by recording it with a mellower arrangement. Alongside the original compositions, including George Harrison’s first recorded song ‘Don’t Bother Me’, were six cover versions. Three - ‘Please Mister Postman’, ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ and ‘Money’ - had been recent US hits for the Motown group of labels. These were radical choices. American rhythm and blues was ‘underground’ music in the UK - seldom heard on BBC radio and rarely in the charts. The group’s interpretation of this contemporary material did much to stimulate a wider appreciation of R&B.

In America, the sudden success of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ led to the release in 1964 of the group’s first Capitol Records album Meet The Beatles!. The US LP featured nine tracks from With The Beatles, both songs on the first Capitol single ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’/‘I Saw Her Standing There’, plus the British B-side ‘This Boy’. The debut album Please Please Me had ignited the British musical explosion of the sixties; the super-confident second LP made the group international stars. With The Beatles changed everything.

Please Please Me (Remastered)

Paul McCartney’s exuberant count-in to ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ Is the perfect opening to the album legacy of The Beatles. You feel the excitement of a group making their first LP; turning a dream into reality. As Ringo Starr reflected: ‘You’d sell your soul to get on a record. A piece of plastic was like gold.’

Two singles had been recorded in 1962. While ‘Please Please Me’ - the follow-up to their debut ‘Love Me Do’ - was rising to number one, The Beatles made their fifth visit to EMI’s studios in North London. Their task on 11 February 1963 was to record all ten extra tracks required to complete an album. By this time, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison had been playing together for five years. Hundreds of gigs at The Cavern in Liverpool and all-night sessions in the clubs of Hamburg had honed their talent. The hard-working group was able to rise to the challenge.

Alongside the Lennon/McCartney songs already released, four more originals were recorded. ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’, when covered by Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas, soon became another number one for the composers. George takes the lead on The Beatles’ version. Six songs learnt from recent American rhythm and blues records were also selected. None had been a British Top 40 hit. The last track to be recorded on the productive day was The Beatles’ rocking reinvention of the Isley Brothers’ hit ‘Twist And Shout’. It became as well-known as any of their 1963 hit singles.

Please Please Me was released on 22 March 1963, when the pop music market was still in its infancy. For young pop fans, the exciting action was on singles not albums. The Beatles’ immediate and unprecedented success on Long Players vividly demonstrated the artistic and commercial potential of an album aimed at young record buyers. Paul’s count-in to ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ was not only an exciting start to The Beatles’ first LP, it launched a musical revolution that still reverberates to this day.

A Hard Day's Night (Remastered)

From the impact of their second album to the release of A Hard Day’s Night on 10 July 1964, The Beatles’ career outside the UK took giant leaps forward. At the end of 1963, it had seemed unlikely that an English group playing rhythm and blues could compete in the birth place of that music. Yet during the early weeks of 1964, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ was in heavy rotation at American Top 40 radio and rapidly ascending to the top of the US singles chart. Its success heralded the biggest commercial domination by a recording artist since Elvis Presley had rampaged through the charts in 1956. During a two-week promotional American tour in February 1964, The Beatles made three TV appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Their introduction to the USA changed the lives of a generation and turned the American music scene upside down.

On their return to the UK, the group quickly recorded songs for their first film. Under intense pressure, The Beatles created a landmark album. Their astonishing triumph is twofold. First, it consisted entirely of Lennon-McCartney material when it was unusual for a group to sing their own compositions. Songwriting was thought to be best left to ‘professionals’, but in fact several songs ‘crossed over’ when interpreted by a variety of singers outside the sphere of ‘beat music’. Jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald made a swinging version of ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’. Similarly, ‘And I Love Her’ soon attained standard status and ‘If I Fell’ was recognised as a sophisticated ballad rooted in the classic American songbook tradition. Second, The Beatles’ blend of instrumentation and harmonies on A Hard Day’s Night defined a new musical genre - folk-rock. The album is driven by a combination of shimmering acoustic guitars and the jangle of George Harrison’s Rickenbacker electric twelve string guitar. Inspired by A Hard Day’s Night, Roger ‘Jim’ McGuinn’s adoption of the Rickenbacker created the signature sound of The Byrds in 1965.

The Beatles had recorded their strongest album so far; one brimming with youthful innocence and optimism. The quality of their work in the first half of 1964 makes a convincing case for the beneficial effect of deadlines. There is no better example of recording artists seizing their moment and capitalising on it, but doing so without artistic compromise. The Beatles came of age with this album.

Beatles For Sale (Remastered)

Following the entirely self-composed A Hard Day’s Night, The Beatles’ fourth album sounds like a record with a dual personality. The group’s assimilation throughout 1964 of current musical and lyrical ideas is apparent in the new songs. However, a selection of cover versions reveals a warm acknowledgement of their musical roots. As always, The Beatles were looking ahead, but they had not forgotten their first love: rock ’n’ roll.

Beatles For Sale was made during seven sessions that were squeezed into an unremitting schedule during August, September and October. With scarcely a moment to spare, it was hardly surprising that this album reverted to the 1963 formula of combining eight originals with six covers. The first side opened with three melodically strong, if rather melancholy, Lennon/McCartney songs. ‘No Reply’ sets the tone with its musical tension between the despondent verses and a confident middle eight. During their first trip to New York in February 1964, The Beatles were introduced to Bob Dylan. His influence percolated through Beatles For Sale, particularly in the sound and words of ‘I’m A Loser’. Although, for now, the subject matter of their new songs did not stray from conventional variations on matters of the heart, ‘Baby’s In Black’ did suggest something unusually ominous.

In the UK, none of the album’s tracks came out as a single. ‘I Feel Fine’/‘She’s A Woman’ had been released a week earlier and sold a million within twelve days. In the USA, there was no album called Beatles For Sale. Instead, eight of its tracks were included on Beatles ’65 …but not ‘Eight Days A Week’. That song was first made available in America on a single, which reached number one in March 1965. Completing Beatles For Sale involved a race against the clock to hit an immovable deadline. Consequently, they quickly recorded some old stage favourites learnt from discs by four of their heroes from the 1950s: ‘Rock And Roll Music’ by Chuck Berry, ‘Honey Don’t’ and ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’ by Carl Perkins, ‘Words Of Love’ by Buddy Holly and ‘Kansas City/‘Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!’ by Little Richard. Under enormous pressure, they made it. Beatles For Sale was released on 4 December 1964 - just in time for Christmas.

Magical Mystery Tour (Remastered)

The television movie Magical Mystery Tour was devised, written and directed by The Beatles. In the UK, the colour film was first transmitted in black and white on 26 December 1967. Consequently, the impact of some special effects was diminished by watching in monochrome and this may have contributed to the bafflement and disappointment experienced by some viewers. On the other hand, many in the large viewing audience were simply expecting some light entertainment for Christmas, not an experimental fantasy. In America, the film was not shown on TV, which made the artwork on the US album seem all the more mysterious. Nevertheless, The Beatles’ music showcased in Magical Mystery Tour was an undeniable success.

The Beatles’ latest material from the film was released in the UK on an unusual format - a double-EP - with three tracks on each seven-inch disc. The songs range in style from the wistful ballad ‘The Fool On The Hill’ and uplifting ‘Your Mother Should Know’ to the ethereal ‘Blue Jay Way’ written by George Harrison. ‘I Am The Walrus’ is as wildly experimental as the film in which it was featured. But The Beatles trusted listeners to be as adventurous and open-minded as they were as record makers. Jeff Lynne’s life was changed when he heard ‘I Am The Walrus’: ‘The actual sound of it was just like something from outer space to me. The cello parts are just unbelievable.’

In the USA and other countries, EP releases were no longer considered viable. Instead, the six new film songs were compiled into an album with current hit ‘Hello, Goodbye’ and tracks previously released on singles. Now regarded as one of the greatest singles ever released, in February 1967 ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’/‘Penny Lane’ had heralded what was to be a year of groundbreaking recordings. The second Beatles single of the year, ‘All You Need Is Love’, was performed at Abbey Road during a live global TV broadcast on 25 June. The ambitious Our World programme was the first to link five continents by satellite, allowing an audience of 350 million to be introduced to The Beatles' specially written anthem.

Magical Mystery Tour is a perfect companion to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Together, the two albums include all of the group’s 24 recordings released in 1967 - the peak year of what is often described as The Beatles’ ‘psychedelic’ period. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Past Masters, Vols. 1 & 2 (Remastered)

In the UK, The Beatles were able to control how their records were issued, but in other countries extra singles and albums with different track listings were released at will. Nevertheless, at home, The Beatles were guided by the policy stated by John Lennon in a 1964 interview: ‘You can’t release singles off an LP after the LP’s been out.’ Paul McCartney agreed. ‘In America they do that, but it’s a bit of a drag!’ Their rule was broken just once when ‘Something’/‘Come Together’ was released a month after Abbey Road came out in 1969. Five of their albums feature no singles at all.

When The Beatles’ music was first transferred to compact disc in 1987, an opportunity was taken to standardise the catalogue throughout the world by following the form of the British albums - except for Magical Mystery Tour. Through the addition of recent singles, that British double-EP had been expanded to an LP in America and a CD version of the album entered the core catalogue. To round up the remaining Beatles tracks not included on any albums, two CDs were released in 1988 called Past Masters Volume One and Volume Two.

One of the remarkable things about listening to Past Masters is hearing many of The Beatles’ biggest hits - ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘I Feel Fine’ and ‘Hey Jude’ - and realising they were not featured on a UK album. Who would dare do that now? Alongside those classics are high quality B-sides waiting to be discovered, such as ‘This Boy’, ‘I’m Down’, ‘Rain’ and ‘The Inner Light’. The compilation is also a reminder of the vast amount of work that was created in a little over seven years. It was accomplished in an era when even a pause of six months between single releases could be viewed as career-threatening. The way The Beatles kept up their pace, while consistently delivering innovative and memorable hits, is an extraordinary achievement. Viewed from today, it is nothing short of miraculous.

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