I accidentally skipped one compilation in the order here - damn ruined my own thread - I forgot about this one and it's not one I ever recall seeing even though it was released in the US and UK.

Between the Ballads album and 20 Greatest Hits in 1982 there was a compilation called Reel Music. It is a collection of some of the best songs from the 5 different Beatles movies between 1964 and 1970. The release of this was timed to coincide with the re-release of the movie A Hard Day's Night re-edited with Dolby sound for the theater.

Honestly it's not a bad set of tracks if that is what you want and some of the songs were in stereo for the first time in the US. Nine tracks were #1 songs in the UK/US and three others also charted as singles.



There was also a promotional single released in the US initially called "The Beatles' Movie Medley" compiled from seven songs from Reel Music ("Magical Mystery Tour", "All You Need Is Love", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", "I Should Have Known Better", "A Hard Day's Night", "Ticket to Ride" and "Get Back") edited together to make a single track. The B side was "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" another song from "A Hard Day's Night" film that was not on the album.

Parlophone Records initially refused to issue the single in the UK, regarding the medley as "tacky". But after the import demand for the US release grew, it was finally released and reached #10 on the UK chart, #12 in the US.

In the US the album went Gold and peaked at #19. In the UK the album fared worse and peaked at #56. It was discontinued just two years later, and never put on CD. It is hard to find that single now but bootleg copies of the vinyl album have that song included.

The cover and inside artwork are not bad (imo) featuring a montage of images inside and outside of a movie theater with the Beatles images from the different films.

Cover:


Back cover:



It also came with a 12 page album sized booklet with details of each of the Beatles films and many pictures. The front and back covers are below.





Youtube of some fan made video for the medley single:

So I talked about the CD era starting in 1984ish but The Beatles were in multiple lawsuits with EMI and Capitol so it was not until 1987 that their catalogue started being released on CD. Those releases helped settle the suits as the increased revenue made everyone more negotiable I think.

I remember these being released vividly. As I've said before the only Beatles albums I had to that point were the Red/Blue albums on vinyl and The US 20 Greatest Hits on cassette. Buying their entire catalogue seemed futile on vinyl and I had most everything I wanted to hear (at that time as I was still into just their big hits). But the CD releases intrigued me and I bought them all up as they were released in batches throughout 1987. I was still in college and more into CDs then. I had stopped buying vinyl because of the durability, capacity and portability of CDs (although I did not have a car CD player until 1989 I think).

They were released in batches all using the UK songs and mixes except for MMT as noted. And there were some related box sets of the first few batches and then the individual albums after Sgt. Pepper.

February 1987
Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Nigh
Beatles for Sale
Box set with those 4 albums

April 1987
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Box set with those 3 albums

June
Sgt. Peppers
Sgt. Peppers box set

August
White Album
White Album box set
Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine box set

September
Magical Mystery Tour (US version)
Magical Mystery Tour box set

October
Abbey Road
Abbey Road box set
Let It Be
Let It Be box set

All of them sold quite well in the US and UK charting for several weeks each again.

The made the catalogue uniform worldwide for the first time and the US versions would never be seen again (except MMT).

But of course that catalogue was incomplete as the UK editions lacked tons of songs that had only been released as singles or EPs in the UK and a few other tracks.

That was rectified just a year later in 1988 with these collections - sometimes called the black and white albums at the time.

Past Master Volume 1 - contained recordings originally released between 1962 and 1965:

• Eleven tracks from British singles (including B-sides)
• Both tracks from the German single "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" / "Sie Liebt Dich"
• All four tracks from the Long Tall Sally EP
• The US-only track "Bad Boy", from the album Beatles VI (although the song was also on the 1966 A Collection of Beatles Oldies album released by Parlophone)
• "Love Me Do" was the original Parlophone version with Ringo on drums
• The first five songs were mono (two were later released as stereo in the 2009 re-issue)

Past Masters Volume 2 - contained recordings originally released between 1965 and 1970:

• Fourteen tracks from British singles (including B-sides)
• The "Wildlife" version of "Across the Universe" from the charity album No One's Gonna Change Our World

4 of the Vol 2 tracks had been album tracks too but these were the different versions of those songs

• Revolution (single version)
• Get Back (single version)
• Across the Universe ("wildlife" version)
• Let It Be (single version)

With that everything that had been commercially released in the UK and US was now contained on the 13 album releases and the two Past Masters collections.

Personally I listened to the Vol 2 CD repeatedly it was like a greatest hits of their later material. I had a lot of CDs by then and some cases for them that were mostly kept in the bottom section of my component cabinet. But the Beatles collection of all 13 albums and the two collections I kept in a 20 CD wood case on top of my cabinet in plain view. They were chronological of course except for The White Album which I had to put in the bottom slot for a double CD. I later added the CD for the album 1 to my collection. But that was everything.

The covers were simple and elegant.





Those two CDs were also included in The Beatles Box Set as a collection with the 13 albums in November of 1988.

This was the first case of CD's being released before vinyl for The Beatles but 9 months later they released the vinyl versions as Past Masters Volumes One & Two (a double LP release) using the black design on the front and the white design on the back with the track listing.

Vinyl front and back covers





The double set was re-released on CD as a double CD set, titled simply Past Masters, on 9 September 2009, as part of the remastering of the entire original Beatles catalogue, and was included in The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings) box set. This release includes stereo mixes of both "From Me to You" and "Thank You Girl", whereas the original 1988 issue contained the two tracks in mono.

The release date of 09/09/09 was considered significant given the well known audio from "Revolution 9" on The White Album repeating "Number 9.... Number 9.... Number 9" at the start before a cacophony of sound effects and periodically throughout the track.

This is the set you will see on streaming services now.



By the way the simultaneous release of all 13 albums and both a Stereo and Mono Box set and Past Masters and 1 all sold very well. In the US and UK charts all 13 albums, both collections and both box sets were all in the top 100 the first week of release and several charted for many weeks:

This is the UK album sales chart the week of release.

History 1985-1995

In the early 1980s, while needing a task to distract him from his cancer treatment, Abbey Road Studios house engineer John Barrett was assigned the task of listening to and logging the studio's collection of multi-tracks and master tapes of the group. This research unearthed more previously unknown recordings. Some of these recordings were remixed for inclusion in the 1983 multi-media tour of Abbey Road Studios, titled The Beatles at Abbey Road.

A year later in the summer of 1984, EMI began work on a compilation album of previously unreleased material. Former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick was hired to remix and edit the recordings to a commercial standard. There was a planned release date of November 1984 for an album then called Sessions, but EMI did not want to clash with Paul McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street soundtrack scheduled for release in late October, so the compilation was shelved.

Proposed Sessions album cover, the photo was taken in an alley outside of Abbey Road Studios.





McCartney later throughout the 80s and early 90s objected to the release of Sessions in its then current form, while George Harrison, joined by John Lennon's estate, objected to the album entirely. As a result, Sessions was cancelled indefinitely. Ringo was fine with whatever.

This effort was restarted in 1995 under the direction of George Martin. With assistance from Paul, George and Ringo they began to re-listen and mix tracks intended for what would become The Beatles Anthology albums.

I'm afraid I won't be able to do these justice. Perhaps someone else who appreciated them and knows them well can chime in. I've just never really listened to them. I'm not someone who usually gets into demos, outtakes or other versions of recordings for bands I'm into. they are interesting historically.

I'm a little surprised to learn that these were so well received in terms of sales as each was a multi Platinum album in the US at least. They were released over a 9 month span and each of them debuted at #1 in the US, while only Anthology 2 reached #1 in the UK.

The first two contained one new song on each. A new song was also planned for the third album but it did not get done then. These songs came about because Yoko Ono gave Paul, George and Ringo a tape she had with John's home recorded demo of three songs. In 1995 they went in the studio with that and recorded their own vocals, guitar and drums to complete two of the tracks. The third the vocal was so low compared to the music that they could not isolate it and gave up on finishing the third song. But later (in 2023) using technology Peter Jackson had used in the Get Back movie they were able to extract the audio cleanly. By then George Harrison had been dead for over 20 years but fortunately he had recorded his vocal and guitar parts in 1995. Paul and Ringo then completed the third track. Those songs were:

• "Free As A Bird" on Anthology 1 which went to #2 in the UK and #6 in the US in 1995
• "Real Love" on Anthology 2 which went to #4 in the UK and #11 in the US in 1996
• "Now and Then" which went to #1 in the UK and #7 in the US and was included on the 2023 expanded re-release of the Blue/1967-1970 compilation which added 8 other songs (and 12 more songs to Red/1962-1966)

Every song from the shelved Sessions album would appear on one of the Anthology albums except for the Christmas song "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" which appeared officially on the B-side of the "Free as a Bird" single but was edited for length. It was previously on the compilation fan club Christmas album as well although in its longer form.


Anthology 1 - November 1995 - 8x Platinum in US
The album includes material from the Beatles' days as the Quarrymen, the Decca audition and sessions for the albums up through Beatles for Sale.

• "Free As A Bird" the remaining Beatles added new music and lyrics, instrumentation and backing vocals, with McCartney and Harrison both taking a turn at a lead vocal. Credited to all four Beatles as songwriters.
• Stuart Sutcliffe, the band's original bass player during 1960, and sporadically during the group's second Hamburg run in 1961, appears on the disc-one tracks "Hallelujah, I Love Her So", "You'll Be Mine" and "Cayenne"
• Pete Best, who was the official drummer from just prior to the group's first departure for Hamburg in August 1960 until 15 August 1962 when he was replaced by Ringo Starr, is on Disc One, tracks 10-12, 15-19 and 21-22.
• Tracks 10-12, were recorded at a session in Hamburg where the Beatles served as the back-up band to the English rock and roll musician Tony Sheridan. Some songs from this session were released on the 1962 album My Bonnie, credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. The song "My Bonnie" would be their introductory single in England, featuring Sheridan on lead vocal and guitar.
• Tracks 21-22 are the only surviving recordings of the Beatles' first EMI session.
• Track 22 is the original recording of "Love Me Do", which would be re-recorded by the group four months later for their first single.
• Track 24 features EMI session drummer Andy White in place of Starr.
• Disc Two contains performances from comedy duo Morecambe and Wise's popular television show Two of a Kind and the opening song from their famed performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which introduced the band to most of the US in 1964.

Anthology 2 - March 1996 - 4x platinum in the US

• "Real Love" - As the remaining Beatles did not rework the lyrics or music it is solely credited to Lennon, becoming the only Beatles song to have Lennon by himself in the writing credit.
• Three previously unreleased compositions, one being an instrumental entitled "12-Bar Original", recorded for Rubber Soul but subsequently unused. Two other songs recorded for Help!, "If You've Got Trouble" and "That Means a Lot", were abandoned and never returned to again by the band.
• The version of "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" from the group's famed August 1965 show at Shea Stadium but left out of the documentary about the show appears for the first time.
• "I'm Down" was originally listed as Track 7 (in its correct place chronologically) but was shifted out of sequence to Track 3 at the last minute, at Paul McCartney's request. The album had already gone to press and McCartney reportedly paid the re-printing costs himself.
• Disc two contains work-in-progress versions of tracks from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. The take of "Strawberry Fields Forever" that made up the first minute of the released record appears in its entirety on track three.
• Also included are three songs that were started during this period "Only a Northern Song", "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" and "Across the Universe" but would not see release until years later, in 1969 and 1970.

Anthology 3 - October 1996 - 3x platinum in the US

• "A Beginning", an orchestral instrumental track by the band's producer George Martin, initially intended for the White Album as the intro to "Don't Pass Me By".
• demos from Harrison's Kinfauns home for most of the Abbey Road songs
• studio takes and demos for many songs from of the White album through Let It Be including Savile Row sessions for what would result in the rooftop concert.

The three covers can be connected together forming one collage painted by Klaus Voormann featuring Beatles-related imagery designed to appear as a wall of peeling posters and album covers.






Montage




Beside the albums there was a documentary TV special released in 1995 in both the UK and US called Anthology, and a book describing the history of the Beatles. The documentary used interviews with the Beatles and their associates to narrate the history of the band as seen through archival footage and performances. The Anthology book, released in 2000, paralleled the documentary in presenting the group's history through quotes from interviews.

In 2022 exclusive to iTunes / Apple Music there was a release called Anthology Highlights with 23 selected tracks (including both new songs) from the three albums.

After Anthology the next compilation was 1 in 2000 which was a massive success. I already talked about it with the 20 Greatest Hits (US and UK) because it was closely related. That was George Harrison's last Beatles thing he was directly involved with before he passed in 2001.

But the next compilation and major Beatles project was George Harrison's concept.

At some party in Quebec, Harrison met Guy Lalibert a Canadian billionaire and the founder of Cirque du Soleil and they struck up a friendship. George saw some shows in 2000. One night after they sat around a fire at a party and apparently came up with an idea that Harrison was very excited about. Although he passed in late 2001 the idea was carried on and resulted in the Cirque du Soleil show called Love which ran in Vegas at the Mirage from 2006 through 2024.

The music for the project was produced by George Martin (along with his son Giles). It was the last music and album that George Martin worked on before he passed in 2011. The first thing they did was take the masters and transfer them to digital. Giles did a mashup of "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows" which combines the vocals and the dilruba from "Within You Without You" with the bass and drums from "Tomorrow Never Knows". He gave a demo of this to Paul and Ringo who loved it. But even still it took three years of negotiations to bring the show to fruition with all the parties involved at Apple Music, The Beatles, the show creator, the Mirage etc. And then it took another 2 years to launch the show.

The Beatles compilation album Love is basically the soundtrack to that project with 28 songs that mashup/use/sample over 100 Beatles songs combined. It was a massive effort. And the show includes characters from the various songs including - Eleanor Rigby, Lady Madonna, Sgt. Pepper, Lucy, Mr. Kite, Julia,
Father McKenzie, etc.

I never saw the show and I've only heard some tracks from the album. It is very interesting at least and many people praise it as a fresh introduction to Beatles music especially for younger audiences. It is definitely more of a soundtrack and mash-up album then a true compilation. Some songs are medleys but every single song, even if listed with a single song name in the title, includes mashups and sound effects from other Beatles songs.

I won't detail every song but just to give you an idea here are a few:

• "Because" the opening track includes the bird sounds used in the World Wildlife Fund version of "Across the Universe", as well as "Free as a Bird". In addition, a new recording of a wood pigeon was implemented "to make it more British", according to George Martin.
• "Get Back" The track uses the opening guitar chord from "A Hard Day's Night", the drum and guitar solos from "The End", percussion from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)", and the orchestral swell from "A Day in the Life".
• "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing" The medley of 3 songs also features the guitar solo from "Taxman" and the horn section from "Savoy Truffle". The Martins said they also remixed keyboards from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and backing vocals from "Helter Skelter" into the track.

Closing night (as the Mirage was closed to repurpose it as Hard Rock Hotel and Casino) was on Ringo's 79th birthday on July 7, 2024.

The Anthology albums are great because they show the songs coming together and if you go in order, you see their progression from playing cover songs in a bar to writing their own simple songs then getting more and more complex. I have had them since the came out and have listened to them a ton, although it has been a while since I've run through them. If you are only into the clean studio versions of big hits, it isn't for you, but if you want a musical history lesson, its great.

When Love came out I liked it but didn't love it, and there is a bunch of good stuff on there, but its more of a novelty. If you are on a road trip, just put it on and let it roll.

Next up are a couple of itunes/Apple Music exclusive releases. This first one makes me mad a little. So much so that I made my own version.

I love the concept for Tomorrow Never Knows and even the title based on what is maybe my favorite Beatles song. But the execution comes up short for me.

The idea was to make a compilation of The Beatles ROCK songs that influenced harder rock and includes accolades from some big names (Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Maroon 5, etc.) and the Beatles impact on their music.

But the songlist first of all is only 14 tracks - no reason to limit it to that in the streaming era especially when they only made a few vinyl print versions of this album for PR and Apple studio people. It was never for sale as an album on vinyl or CD.

But they also (imo) made sure to balance out Paul/John tracks on it which makes it more pop then rock in some cases. While I love Paperback Writer it's not a ROCK song. And they included "The End" which is really more an improvised jam closing out the Abbey Road medley then a stand alone song.

It leaves off tons of heavier Beatles ROCK tracks imo.



The Album cover is simplicity which is fine




This is my rock influence playlist that includes 9 of the 14 songs from that album but 11 others I added in green. I think this covers their rock catalogue better. Still a few others I could have included that are borderline pop or rock. But if I think about Beatles Rock songs this is it.

Of course it has 11 Lennon tracks and only 4 McCartney tracks while Harrison gets 5 and one that is half Paul/John. And we know McCartney would never agree to that - it is said that he loved the compilation as it was released.

Why don't you consider Paperback Writer to be rock?

TXAG 05 said:

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Why don't you consider Paperback Writer to be rock?

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Just feels more pop to me than rock. Maybe power pop. I like the song just fine. But after the opening guitar riff it settles into a jaunty pop tune imo. The vocals too are higher pitched and there are periods where it is more about the harmonies. It's a lovely song. Just not hard rock.

Maybe it had more influence than I give it credit for though.


Same for "You Can't Do That" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" which are Lennon tunes. Too poppy for a rock influence album imo and by far not their best rock songs. I think they wanted some earlier tunes too thus the inclusion of "I'm Down" from the Help! sessions and "You Can't Do That" from A Hard Day's Night sessions without including the big hit singles. Their harder rock era really started with Revolver sessions. So almost all of mine are from after that.

Another I can't do much justice for in 2013 was The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963

Similar to the Anthology series this has 15 outtakes, 42 BBC tracks that were not on the 2 BBC albums, and 2 demos "Bad to Me". and "I'm In Love" which had been given to other artists to record and release.

So this was released on itunes exclusively without advanced word and pulled hours later and then made available again later by demand. It was never put on vinyl or CD. The reason for the release, apparently, was to extend the copyright on these recordings another 20 years. Under EU law it would have expired after 50 years if not released.

But it's weird because that led everyone to believe that would mean an annual release of other tracks like this that were not previously released in 2014 and 2015 in particular. But that never happened and Apple never made any official announcement. Supposedly either they rushed that under the false impression that they had to and later discovered it was not necessary OR there are not as many unreleased tracks from '64 and '65 such that they are not worried about them falling into the public domain OR they simply have tighter control over later material and thus people don't have them to make into a releasable product.


Whatever the reason it is the only one of it's kind. And because they never released it on vinyl or CD it was ironically prone to bootlegging which happened when a Japanese label released it with 5 additional tracks as The Beatles archive recordings 1963.

Official cover version



Bootleg cover version from Japan

It's a never ending rabbit hole apparently - see below. I also had no idea and my knowledge was a fraction of what it is now - but I'm also having so much fun with it. Honestly I was always a fan, initially of the hits (from the red and blue albums) and then got into the album content proper when the CDs were released but really only ever went deep into the last few non soundtrack albums (White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be). 90% of what I heard on the radio was always the big hits but their catalogue is ridiculously deep.

I'm constantly listening to The Beatles now and through this effort I have made four more playlists:

Beatles US Deep Tracks - with 56 songs none of which were #1 singles or even top 10, none were even A side singles. Spans their entire career and some of my favorite songs are on there. It uses the Capitol records releases for the album art which I find kind of fun and some of them were not album tracks in the UK of course (B sides that showed up on Capitol albums).

Beatles My 1's - a personal greatest hits but it only includes 12 #1 singles from the "1" album. 16 are from that deep tracks playlist and another 2 were big hits but not #1 (Strawberry Fields and Nowhere Man).

Beatles Avedon Rock - I use the psychedelic Avedon artwork for this which is a playlist of my favorite more edgy rock songs from Revolver and later that I posted with the Tomorrow Never Knows compilation post.

Beatles Next Album - posted that on another thread before this all started with 14 songs mostly written/rehearsed/introduced or sometimes recorded a demo or otherwise from the Get Back Twickenham or Savile Row sessions or the Abbey Road sessions and some that were written around the time of the India trip but never released until they went solo.

I walk about 3 miles a day and put one of these playlists on usually during that.

I'm also starting one that's basically the best of Beatles Vocal Harmony songs.

In my mind I'm pretty much done after these compilations - there are really 2 left. No plan to tackle the nearly endless box sets, special releases of albums and album box sets. I'm afraid there are more of those then all of the albums and compilations.

In 2014 the next compilation released was called Mono Masters.

This is basically the Past Masters collection but in the original mono where available. It was originally released in 2009 as a two-CD set only included in The Beatles in Mono box set. The premise of this box set was to compile only Beatles material which was released or prepared for release with a dedicated mono mix. As a result, the track listing for Mono Masters differs from Past Masters on the second half of disc two, replacing some later songs that never had a mono mix ("The Ballad of John and Yoko", "Old Brown Shoe" and "Let It Be") with several songs released on stereo-only albums that had unreleased mono mixes.

Due to some complaints about the Yellow Submarine LP - particularly that it only had 4 new songs with two previously released songs and the B side was entirely instrumental orchestra pieces there was a plan to release a mono Yellow Submarine EP in March of 1969 in the UK only (2 months after the LP) with the 4 new Yellow submarine songs in mono:
"Only a Northern Song"
"All Together Now"
"Hey Bulldog"
"It's All Too Much"

In addition a mono version of "Across The Universe" (wildlife version) was also intended for the Yellow Submarine EP. The stereo version was later included on Past Masters but the mono version had remained unreleased.

That project was scrapped although you can find printings of it. But those 5 mono versions are included on Mono Masters in lieu of the stereo only tracks listed above.

"Get Back" (with B-side "Don't Let Me Down") was the final Beatles single mixed for mono format. It was released in the UK in mono, though the US release was in stereo. Thus, the songs that were originally released on stereo singles worldwide are omitted on this release.

This compilation was then released individually as a double CD or triple vinyl LP set on 9 September 2014 in Europe and the following day in North America on the same day that The Beatles in Mono box set was released in vinyl LP format. The vinyl format compilation is mastered directly from the original analogue mono master tapes.

I know there are people that prefer the Mono mixes. I don't really get it but I suppose maybe of that is the way you heard them originally. AM radio was the standard in the UK throughout most of the 60s and so mono was necessary there for radio and jukebox singles. In the US FM became much more common and used stereo mixes whenever available.





The cancelled Yellow Submarine EP cover and vinyl punchout 7" disc.

That is a great sleeve, would love to have it!

Chipotlemonger said:

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That is a great sleeve, would love to have it!

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Agreed. It is awesome.

I've never seen one for sale at least not a real one.

That picture is actually a replica non playable disc for sale on Etsy.

By the way I should have mentioned due to the length of the 5 songs on a 7" EP size it was made to be played at LP speed of 33 1/3 rpms intead of the standard 45rpms. You can see that if you zoom in on the punch out center.

After the Mono releases it was then a pretty long gap until the next compilations.

I mentioned the re-released Reb/Blue albums when I covered the originals but did not include this. The impetus for the re-release was the new "Now and Then" single in 2023. You may recall then new songs "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" had been included on Anthology 1 and 2 in 1995 and 1996 respectively. The third new track created from those Lennon demos that Yoko gave Paul and Ringo was not completed until 2023 using technology from Peter Jackson's Get Back movie to extract Lennon's audio cleanly and enable them to finish the song using guitar parts Harrison had recorded in 1995 as well.

Well they wanted an album or compilation for that song and they could have just re-released Anthology 3 adding it there I suppose. That might have been better. Although even those new songs on Anthology 1 and 2 was weird because none of them were of that era. But they decided to re-release the Red/1962-1966 and Blue/1967-1970 compilation albums instead. But that new song doesn't really fit the 1967-1970 concept either so they just had no real good options I guess and a way to market and profit from it. So they added other songs to the Reb/Blue albums and made them a more complete greatest hits double double compilation.


In 2024 60 years after The Beatles arrived in America, we get what is currently the final Beatles compilation album released Beatles '64(Music from the Disney+ Documentary).

This album is a compilation of music including The Beatles and other influential artists on the Beatles in those early years as seen through interviews in the Beatle's '64 documentary movie released on Disney+ in 2024. It covers the period from The Beatles arrival in the USA in January of '64 through New York, Washington DC and Miami primarily with lots of fan footage of Beatlemania. It intersperses content that was filmed at the time for a TV special aired on CBS in 1964. And it includes later footage talking about the racial aspects of the Beatles music as they were influenced by black R&B artists of the time. It also has interviews with Little Richard and Smokey Robinson. I found it to be a fascinating little snapshot of that timne complete with some context primarily following the assassination of JFK which played a part in delaying Beatlemania in the US.


This is really the third variation of that documentary footage:

1964 - What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. by Albert and David Maysles seen on CBS variety show The Entertainers.

1991 - The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit was released in 1991, is a re-edited version of the 1964 TV special that adds 22 minutes of the Beatles' live recorded performances on The Ed Sullivan Show and removes several scenes with Brian Epstein resulting in it being 2 minutes longer. It was released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1991 and then on DVD in 2004.

2023 - Beatles '64 the movie was digitally remastered from the 1964 TV special and includes new interviews with McCartney and Starr. Footage of the Beatles' February 1964 performances on The Ed Sullivan Show and at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C. has also been restored, with audio from these performances remixed by Giles Martin using de-mixing technology developed by Peter Jackson's WingNut Films and previously used for Beatles releases on the 2022 reissue of Revolver and the 2023 reissue of Re/1962-1966.


The album contains nothing new from The Beatles of course, but is interesting at least from the point of view of seeing those black influences.

It includes both The Beatles and the original artists versions of various songs:

• The Miracles: "I've Been Good To You" which was a big influence on Lennon's songs "This Boy" and "Sexy Sadie"
• The Miracles and The Beatles versions of "You Really Got a Hold on Me"
• Barrett Strong and The Beatles versions of "Money (That's What I Want)"
• Little Richard's and The Beatles versions of "Long Tall Sally"
• Chuck Berry and The Beatles versions of "Roll Over Beethoven"

It also includes one cover of a Beatles tune:

Smokey Robinson and The Miracles live Ed Sullivan performance of "Yesterday" from 1968

And it includes studio versions of all the other songs from 1963-1964 that are shown in the movie (usually snippets from live performances including Ed Sullivan shows).

The film was nominated for two Emmy's
Outstanding Sound Editing For A Nonfiction Or Reality Program
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Program




And the movie promo

Not done yet.... lol

I covered albums, EPs, Compilations. Now I'm gonna do the Box Sets and Special Editions in one long post. I cannot do these justice like a detailed post because there are 36 of them and I don't have that time plus some of them literally contain hundreds of songs and different mixes. So just some basic info on each and I cut and pasted most of this so it did not take as long as you might think.

PS I've been mostly off from teaching for the summer (I had one in person class and one online) but back to class next week so this project has to wrap up. I do have one more possible post for this thread - you won't believe that one. Not singles or picture discs or any other memorabilia. Just a side pet project that occurred to me while doing this. It is taking a while but hopefully later this week - I have a few busy days ahead with fall semester prep and meetings. So TBD.

I also could not find good cover art for a lot of the box sets or special editions. But here is what I have.













The bold ones are what I consider the big three of the box sets. I've never been a box set guy expect for the Led Zeppelin Boxed Set, I got the original on CD in 1990 and Boxed Set 2 in 1993.

Hold onto your hats..... a lot of internet chat board talk about an imminent Anthology 4 announcement coming soon. Possibly with another release of Anthology 1-3 with some editing/mixing fixes and a new collection.

This is from the official John Lennon twitter account today...



And this was supposedly leaked on Amazon early...

So apparently what we are getting is being collectively called Anthology 2025.

• Nov 21: restored Anthology TV series which adds a 9th episode to the original 8 part series on Disney+
• Nov 26: a re-release of the music Anthology collection with a 4th double disc
• Oct 14: 25th anniversary edition of the Anthology book

It is the 30th anniversary of the Anthology series and albums/discs. And the 25th anniversary of the book.

Details:

The "Anthology" documentary series has been restored and remastered by Peter Jackson's Park Road Post team. The series traces the band's legendary journey, beginning in Liverpool and captivating the world. The series includes a completely new episode, featuring unseen footage of Paul, George and Ringo working together on Anthology in 1995-96 ( I assume this includes working on the trilogy of new songs).

The Anthology Music Collection (2025 Edition) CD & Vinyl box set includes a new volume featuring unheard and rare material. Arriving alongside 2025 remasters of volumes 1-3 by Giles Martin is Anthology 4 a brand new volume featuring 13 previously-unreleased tracks. Glimpse into the recording process of iconic songs like While My Guitar Gently Weeps, In My Life & Nowhere Man, and also experience the stunning 2025 mixes of Free As A Bird & Real Love (I'm gonna bet "Now and Then" released in 2023 finds a place on the 4th disc as well using that 2023 mix).

The 25th Anniversary edition of The Beatles Anthology Book launches October 14th. Throughout its pages, John, Paul, George and Ringo share their honest, intimate and revelatory recollections of the band's journey. The bestselling 368-page book is beautifully illustrated, containing more than 1,300 photos, documents, artwork, and other memorabilia.

It's wild to think we are farther away from the making of the Anthology release than the Beatles were from ending as a group at the time of production! John's been gone longer than he was alive!

At least we still have the company of a healthy and with it Paul & Ringo to continue to contribute to their Beatles stories. It's pretty remarkable considering all the drugs, alcohol and smoking they have done in their lives. I had the great fortune of getting to meet Ringo in person in 2018 when he was 78. He looked remarkable!

Yeah crazy. And meeting Ringo is VERY cool. Jealous (as a drummer and Beatles fan).

Beatles lasted basically 10 years - from their formation and taking the Beatles name in 1960 with Sutcliffe and Best to 1970 breakup.

Their recording career for commercial Beatles releases lasted less than 7 years - from September 1962 sessions for Please Please Me to the final session with all four lads present on August 20, 1969 working on Abbey Road's I Want You (She's So Heavy). About 4 months later on January 4th 1970 the final touches to songs I Me Mine and Let It Be were recorded without John present. Of course the Spector orchestral stuff came later as well but that was without Beatles involvement.

Then a little over 10 years from then to Johns murder in December 1980 (or 11 years since the last recording session with all 4).

It's now almost 45 years since that or 65 years since they formed.

Did the math.....

213 unique songs released (some with different versions and mixes of course)
188 original and 25 cover songs

87 months from the release of Please Please Me to Let It Be.

Thats
2.5 songs per month
A new song every 12.5 days
29.4 released songs per year average
Basically 2+ 14 song albums per year.

Just an astonishing song writing pace while making multiple movies and several tours through 1966 anyway. Especially considering the quality and depth of their catalogue.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Just an astonishing song writing pace while making multiple movies and several tours through 1966 anyway. Especially considering the quality and depth of their catalogue.

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I heartily agree! I remember the Beatles channel on SiriusXM did a top 100 Beatles songs over a weekend a couple months ago (to commemorate some event or milestone which I have forgotten). And they were all great songs!

Think about how many very successful artists over the past century never even came close to having 100 songs in their catalogs, much less all hits. And the Beatles accomplished that in just 9 short years. Truly remarkable!

85aggie777 said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Just an astonishing song writing pace while making multiple movies and several tours through 1966 anyway. Especially considering the quality and depth of their catalogue.

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I heartily agree! I remember the Beatles channel on SiriusXM did a top 100 Beatles songs over a weekend a couple months ago (to commemorate some event or milestone which I have forgotten). And they were all great songs!

Think about how many very successful artists over the past century never even came close to having 100 songs in their catalogs, much less all hits. And the Beatles accomplished that in just 9 short years. Truly remarkable!

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I'm the biggest Led Zeppelin fan there is and even they released a total of 94 songs in 12 years. Now 85 of them are between great and awesome or incredible. A few ok and 2 duds. I consider them very deep. My GH and Deep tracks playlists for them includes 55 songs.

But the Beatles....I made a deep tracks of the Beatles that includes no hit singles (no A side singles, and for B sides only two in the top 20) and it's got 58 songs that I love. That's crazy.