Beatles Anthology – All The Details

It’s now been announced. Here is the official press release with all the details on the Anthology Collection audio releases, the Beatles Anthology documentary series on Disney+, and the re-press of The Beatles Anthology book:

THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY

Award-winning Documentary Series, Music Releases and Iconic Book

All Together Now for Release this Autumn. The Beatles Story… by The Beatles. On screen, on record, and in print.

London – August 21, 2025 – First released three decades ago, The Beatles’ eight-part Anthology series reinvented the music documentary. Instead of a standard treatment centred on an outside narrator and talking heads, The Anthology featured John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr candidly telling their own story, with all its complexities and contradictions. It introduced The Beatles to new generations of viewers and listeners and marked the start of a creative and commercial afterlife that continues to this day.

Now, The Beatles Anthology returns in its ultimate form for a comprehensive global release campaign—on screen, on record, and in print.

The Beatles Anthology Documentary Series

Now a Nine-Part Series Featuring a Brand-new Episode Nine
Streaming Exclusively on Disney+ Beginning November 26

The Beatles’ landmark Anthology documentary series has been restored and remastered.

The series’ original eight episodes trace the legendary journey that began in Liverpool and Hamburg and soon captivated the world. They bring to life the timeless stories — of Beatlemania, the band’s groundbreaking arrival in the USA, their role at the forefront of the 1960s counterculture, their spiritual exploration in India, and their eventual breakup. And through it all, the constant thread: the music, always the music.

There is now a completely new Episode Nine, including unseen behind-the-scenes footage of Paul, George and Ringo coming together between 1994 and 1995 to work on The Anthology and reflecting on their shared life as The Beatles.

The restoration has been overseen by Apple Corps’ production team, working with Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films & Park Road Post teams along with Giles Martin, who has created new audio mixes for the majority of the featured music.

 The Beatles Anthology Music Collections

Restored & Expanded to Four Volumes: 12LP Vinyl, 8CD & Digital Collections
Out November 21

The musical side of The Anthology Collection, originally curated by George Martin, now remastered by Giles Martin, in the form of three double albums of rare material, a shadow story to the one told in the documentaries. They are an enthralling insight into the early development of songs that became the recorded masterpieces that resonate just as loudly today as they did when they were first recorded. 

It also has an important new element. Anthology 4, newly curated by Giles, includes 13 previously unreleased demos and session recordings and other rare recordings. It also includes new mixes of The Beatles’ Anthology-associated hit singles: the GRAMMY-winning “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” given new life by their original producer, Jeff Lynne, using de-mixed John Lennon vocals.

The original “Free As A Bird” music video has also been beautifully restored:

Both new mixes are placed alongside the band’s most recent UK No. 1 hit single, 2023’s GRAMMY-winning “Now And Then,” the last Beatles song. All three singles were created from rudimentary home demos John recorded in the 1970s, later completed with vocal and instrumental parts recorded by Paul, George and Ringo.

Across all the Anthology albums, there are 191 tracks which will be released on November 21 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMG for digital purchase and streaming, and in deluxe 12LP 180-gram vinyl and 8CD box sets. Both box sets include the original sleeve notes for Anthology 1, 2 and 3; the new Anthology 4 includes track notes written by Kevin Howlett and an introduction compiled from 1996 interviews recorded with The Beatles’ close friend and adviser Derek Taylor. The Beatles Store’s exclusive editions for both box sets add four 12-inch band photo art cards in a numbered envelope. 

The Beatles Anthology Book

The 25th Anniversary Edition
Out October 14

Finally, the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Beatles Anthology book will be released on October 14th by Apple Corps Ltd. and Chronicle Books. Throughout its pages, John, Paul, George and Ringo share their honest, intimate and revelatory recollections of the band’s journey. Their memories are accompanied by impressions from their closest colleagues, including Neil Aspinall, George Martin, Derek Taylor and others. The bestselling 368-page book is beautifully illustrated with more than 1,300 photos, documents, artwork, and other memorabilia from the band’s archives.  

Everything The Beatles did involved change. Listening to their songs and watching their story unfold brings us closer to the shifts in culture, ideas and music that they helped shape—and which continue to resonate today. The Anthology was always about their past, but this new edition confirms its enduring place in the present and future. (ends)

The packaging of the 12LP and 8CD has come in for criticism as being a “low rent” looking for a proper Beatle release. It turns out that they are indeed using Klaus Voormann’s amazing original montage for the box on all editions. The image with that black and white photo is called a “belly band” or “O” card which slides over the outer case and wraps around the whole box. (This “belly band” is also on the Anthology book – if you look closely at the image above you can see it).

Here are some high res images of the Anthology box set configurations:

The four art photos shown in the pack-shot above come in a numbered envelope and are exclusive to the Beatles Store (or if you order through Universal Music). The photo pack:

The 12LP exclusive is limited to 8,500 in the UK and 8,500 in the U.S.

Other editions come without that photo pack:

And here it is with the “belly band” in place:

Below is the 8CD set with art photos only available from the official stores. This is limited to 8000 copies in the UK and 8,000 in the U.S.

And the standard issue, minus the art photo pack. (Click here for the full track listing):

This is an un-cropped version of the image that’s used on the “belly band” or “O” card. It was taken by photographer Bruce McBroom/© Apple Corps Ltd.:

Again, if you like to watch your updates instead of read about them, check out Andrew Dixon’s informative and very reasonable video just uploaded:

UPDATE (17 SEPTEMBER):

Apple has just announced that the Anthology 4 double CD and triple LP sets will be available to purchase separately. See our report here.

Beatles Anthology Disney Connection and Cover Art

It looks like The Beatles Anthology TV series is destined for a Disney+ streaming release as expected:

When it first aired in 1995 Anthology was a six-part series, so it looks to have been expanded somewhat given the advertising banner says it is now a nine-parter. And that it is due to go to air on November 26 with a three-part premier.

It also looks like those images we got for the accompanying audio box sets are coming true. But what will the final artwork look like? There are currently two different gifs doing the rounds showing variations to the outer box images for the CD set:

More announcements are imminent. Stay tuned!

Beatles ‘Anthology 4’ On The Way?

Let the speculation begin.

The rumoured Beatles Anthology extension is starting to be publicised on official Beatle socials pages:

And on the official website:

And these images here:

But what will the box contain? This image (reportedly from Amazon) shows an 8 CD set called Anthology Collection:

Is it real, or an elaborate fan mock-up?

If you like to watch your speculation instead of reading about it, check out Mazzy’s video just uploaded:

Stay tuned for more…….

“I’m Better Than The Beatles”

Got to admire his courage though!

This was released in 1965, the year The Beatles produced the albums Help! and Rubber Soul. Plus the singles ‘Ticket To Ride’/’Yes It Is’, ‘Yesterday’/’Act Naturally’ and ‘We Can Work It Out’/’Day Tripper’…

Meanwhile, again in 1965, Brad put out this tune, ‘God, Country and My Baby’, which also sank without trace.

Thanks to our mate and regular reader Andrey for sending this one in. Should we do a series on tunes that failed to oust the Fab Four from the charts?

John Lennon’s ‘Power To The People’ Announced

As he promised months ago, Sean Lennon and the Lennon Estate have this week formally announced the release (on 10 October, 2025) of a mega box set focusing on John Lennon playing (mostly) live in New York in the years 1971 and 1972.

It’s called Power To The People (The Ultimate Collection) and the release is timed to celebrate what would have been John Lennon’s 85th birthday.

The big box set comprises 9 CDs and no less than 3 Blu-Ray audio discs, all packaged in the 10-inch sized slipcase size that’s been the hallmark of all the Lennon super-deluxe re-issues so far. This one will come with a cool lenticular cover of John & Yoko’s faces, presenting a “dynamic 3D effect”.

The box set will come with a 204-page hardback book designed and edited by long-time Lennon Estate historian and archivist, Simon Hilton (he’s done all the box sets so far and is great). It will feature an oral history about all the included music through the words of John & Yoko and those involved, sourced from both archival and new interviews.

The book will be illustrated with previously unseen photos, lyrics, drawings, tape boxes and memorabilia. Additionally, the set includes a newspaper print poster, sticker sheets and a VIP envelope containing replica concert tickets plus backstage and after-show passes that have all been uniquely reproduced with textured, archival materials.

The centerpiece of Power To The People is the ‘One To One Concerts’, which were Lennon’s only full-length concerts after The Beatles, and his final shows with Yoko Ono. They raised more than US$1.5 million (2025 equivalent of $11.5 million) to support children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Both the afternoon and evening performances are being released together for the first time, though they’re not complete (see below).

Alongside those two concerts, Power To The People (Super Deluxe Edition) offers an aural time capsule of John & Yoko’s first NYC era, when they traded Tittenhurst Park, their estate in Ascot, England, for a small apartment located at 105 Bank St. in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, and includes the music they were inspired to make during a time of great civil unrest and the deeply unpopular Vietnam War. As a result the set will contain 92 bonus tracks.

Paramount to their recorded musical endeavors at this time was their 1972 political blockbuster album, Sometime In New York City, recorded by John & Yoko with legendary drummer Jim Keltner and New York band, Elephant’s Memory.

For this special collection, songs from the album have been completely remixed from scratch, stripped of the overly heavy production sound that constrained such inspired and inspiring songs as ‘Attica State’, ‘Angela’, ‘New York City’, and ‘Born In A Prison’.

Noticeably missing though is the controversial song (back then and perhaps now even moreso), ‘Woman Is The N***** Of The World’. Some fans are upset about that but the song is still easily available on streaming services and on CD if you want it. Live versions from the ‘One To One’ concerts can also be had on the Lennon Anthology collection from 1998 (evening performance), and on John Lennon – Live in New York City released in 1986 (afternoon performance). For those hoping the song might be a secret hidden track in this new box, a note has been added to the official website pre-order page: NB – This is the full track listing. There are no hidden tracks on the CDs or Blu-Rays.

For this box set the tracks from Sometime In New York City have been re-ordered, rejuvenated and completely re-imagined as a new set of Ultimate Mixes, and is now simply entitled New York City. It includes extended versions of ‘John Sinclair’ and ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, so while we lose one song we gain longer versions of others.

In addition to the Deluxe 9 CD/3 Blu-Ray box there will be a four LP version with the afternoon and evening ‘One To One’ concerts:

There’ll also be a 2LP edition on black vinyl featuring a “hybrid” best-of from both live shows:

This “hybrid” best-of will also be available as a Limited Edition 2LP in transparent green vinyl:

Both the afternoon and evening ‘One To One’ shows will be available as a 2CD Deluxe Edition housed in a triple gatefold digisleeve:

And there will be a 1CD Edition containing the “hybrid” best-of which, like the 2LP edition combines the two shows to create a one show best-of in a digisleeve: