A new biography of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is due to hit bookshelves next April, but if you happen to be in New York and at Strawberry Fields in Central Park on December 8 (for the tribute to Johnon the anniversary of his death) you could score yourself a complimentary pre-release copy. Check out the details on this below.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney knew each other for twenty-three years, from 1957 to 1980. Using a selection of songs they wrote and performed before, during, and after The Beatles this book is the biography of a relationship that changed the cultural history of the world.
An extract from the Prologue to John & Paul sums it up well:
This is a book about how two young men merged and multiplied their talents to create one of the greatest and most influential bodies of work in history. The partnership of Lennon and McCartney was responsible for159 of the Beatles’ 184 recorded songs, and they were the dominant creative decision-makers within the group. “There is no doubt in my mind that the main talent of that whole era came from Paul and John,” said George Martin. “George, Ringo and myself were subsidiary talents.” This is also a love story. John and Paul were more than just friends or collaborators in the sense we normally understand those terms. Their friendship was a romance: passionate, tender, and tempestuous, full of longing, riven by jealousy. This volatile, conflicted, madly creative quasi-marriage escapes our neatly drawn categories, and so has been deeply misunderstood.…
This book tells the story of John and Paul’s friendship, from when they meet until John’s death. It does so by way of the richest primary source of all: their songs. Each chapter is anchored in a song that tells us something about the state of their relationship at the time, either in its words or in how it was created or performed.
Ian Leslie draws on extensive research and on song versions released right up to the present day, garnering insights even from the latest studio outtakes and films – right up to Peter Jackson’s Get Back opus. His book promises a unique perspective too because he’s not coming from a music journalism background. Far from it in fact. Leslie is a writer and author of acclaimed books on human psychology and creativity, relationships and communication, and he writes about the intersection between psychology, popular culture and business. He’s co-hosted the podcast series Polarised (on the way we do politics today), created and presented the BBC radio comedy series Before They Were Famous, and writes the influential Substack newsletter The Ruffian.
John & Paul is due for publication by Celadon Books on April 8, 2025 and we’ll publish our full review here closer to the official release, but until then here are the details of a special book giveaway you might like to attend. It will take place on December 8 at Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York. From 2-3PM on December 8 staff members from Celadon will be attending the tribute to John at Strawberry Fields. If you would like to come by while they are there, you can learn more about this new Beatle book and take home an early copy.
We reviewed Volume 1 last year and can vouch for the level of research, knowledge and insight Perasi brings to the task. As an author he has credibility. Perasi one of the two official Italian translators of Paul McCartney’sThe Lyrics, and in 2022 he collaborated with MPL on the label copy for the massive The 7” Singles Box.
“Keeping in with the structure of the previous volume, this is the second part of the ‘musical biography’ of one of the most important song composers ever,” says the author. This latest volume covers the next 23 years (and 250 songs) in the McCartney catalogue.
The book consists of individual song entries across the period 1990-2012. It includes songs written by other composers as well as 26 unreleased tracks – each providing detailed information of musicians and recording dates, anecdotes and contemporary interviews, together with many exclusive interviews with key personnel by the author.
Paul’s classical works are also explored in detail. “I am very proud of the interview I did with Maestro Carl Davis a long time ago, there are some incredible insights into the process of the Liverpool Oratorio,” adds the author.
This book is enriched with almost 1,000 footnotes, with illustrations and QR codes for an even broader multimedia experience. Albums, tours and other events provide further background to the stories behind the songs.
As we said in our previous review, it all adds up to an intriguing mix of information that truly demonstrates that music is about ideas, and that the prolific PaulMcCartney is never short of them.
Music Is Ideas – The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol.2) 1990-2012 is guaranteed to inform, stimulate, and lead to further exploration of the music.
With Record Store Day Black Friday 2024 coming up we started thinking about all the RSD releases there had been over the years involving The Beatles both as a group and as solo artists. Just when did they start to get involved? And has anyone done a complete look back on all the releases associated with RSD over the years?
Record Store Day was conceived in back in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding the nearly 1,400 independently-owned record stores in the US – plus thousands more stores internationally.
The very first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Now in its 17th year it has grown in prominence as a day when fans and collectors are encouraged to physically visit their local record store to hunt down unique and limited items released specifically on the day.
While there’s only one Record Store Day proper in April each year, 2010 saw the first RSD Black Friday also join as an event each November. Like Record Store Day, the Black Friday event also provides local stores with exclusive releases to encourage bricks and mortar record store visits. And it helps them be a part of what has become the biggest sale shopping event of the year.
In 2020 the global pandemic saw Record Store Day morph into three “RSD Drop” dates which split the official list of releases between them – August 29, September 26 and October 24. There were two similar “Drops” in 2021 in June and July, and one additional “Drop” in 2022 (June). Record Store Day Black Friday continued throughout the pandemic.
So, looking back, just when did The Beatles start to get involved in dropping their own special releases for Record Store Day and RSD Black Friday?
Early information is a bit patchy because the official RSD Archive only dates back to the Black Friday releases of 2011. Before then we need to trawl through our own collection, consult articles we wrote for this site way back in the day, cross check in Discogs and generally snoop around the Internet. If you have any corrections or additional information please don’t hesitate to let us know!
Based upon that, we reckon the very first Beatle RSD-related release was in 2009. We gave this a brief (and it must be said a little bit vague) mention in November of that year:
Now, we say RSD-related for a reason. The Abbey Road Deluxe Vinyl Box was released in November. That is prior to RSD Black Friday starting up. However, publicity around the release at the time stated:
In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the original release of Abbey Road, there will be a special vinyl edition of the album released on November 7, 2009. The Beatles Abbey Road Deluxe Vinyl box will include a vinyl copy of the album, a t-shirt featuring the original artwork from the 7″ single Come Together/Something, and a corresponding poster. This boxset will be released on Vinyl Saturday, which is sponsored by the folks behind Record Store Day and will be limited to 5,000 copies worldwide.
Information is difficult to find but “Vinyl Saturday” seems to have been a November precursor to the Black Friday event we now know and love. So, we’re nominating the Abbey Road Deluxe Vinyl Box as the first association between The Beatles and the RSD folks.
The following year for Record Store Day in April, 2010 came the very limited 7″ single, ‘Paperback Writer’/’Rain’ – just 1000 copies in the UK, and 5000 (some say 4000) in the US:
Also issued for RSD proper that year was the John LennonSingles Bag containing 3 x 7″ singles in an individually numbered Kraftpak envelope with button and string closure. Also inside were a custom plastic adaptor hub, a 24” x 36” poster and three postcards. The three 45 RPM vinyl singles (‘Mother’/’Why’; ‘Imagine’/’It’s So Hard’ and ‘Watching The Wheels’/’Yes, I’m Your Angel’) came in replicated original artwork covers. this was a limited edition and individually numbered, 7000 copies total.
The front of the box had a replica Apple hype sticker:
And a special RSD sticker on the rear:
The following year, 2011, contained just a couple of releases – both were for RSD Black Friday. These were The BeatlesSingles Box:
Inside this glossy red box were 4 x 7″ singles (‘Ticket To Ride’/’Yes It Is’ and ‘Yellow Submarine’/’Eleanor Rigby’ in replica US picture sleeves and on Capitol “swirl” labels, plus ‘Hey Jude’/’Revolution’ and ‘Something’/’Come Together’ on the Apple label in generic US Apple sleeves) plus a poster, plus a cool 45rpm record adapter with Apple printing on it. 10,000 copies for the US and 5700 for the rest of the world.
Also released for Black Friday 2011 was John Lennon’sImagine in a unique 2-record box set to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album:
This was a limited edition with 6,700 produced worldwide. The box contained the remastered Imagine album on vinyl. It also included a poster and a 12″ EP on white vinyl which included songs previously released on the John Lennon Anthology.
RSD 2012 was fairly slim pickings for Beatle and solo fans. The only item that came out for the whole year was a replica Paul McCartney single ‘Another Day’/’Oh Woman Oh Why’. Limited to 2000 copies worldwide this was issued to help promote the forthcoming box set of Ram, the next title in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection:
2013 saw just two Beatle-related releases – both for RSD proper. These were a Wings 12″ re-issue of ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, and the 3 x 7″ box set of singles simply called Ringo.
The Ringo StarrRingo singles boxis three 7″ singles, accurately reproduced in their original picture sleeves, in an Apple Records lift-top box. It came with a poster and a custom spindle adapter. The singles inside are ‘Photograph’/’Down And Out’; ‘It Don’t Come Easy’/’Early 1970’ and ‘(It’s All Down to) Goodnight Vienna’/’Oo-Wee’. It’s thought there were 5000 copies released – 2500 in the US plus 2500 in the UK.
The Wings ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ (recorded live) was a replica of a 12″ originally sent as a radio-only promotional single back in 1976 ahead of the release of Wings Over America. It has mono and stereo versions of the song in two durations. This time around it served as a promo for what was to be the next installment in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection – Wings Over America. 3,500 copies.
The following year was a quiet one with collectors having to wait until Black Friday 2014 for a faithfully replicated Beatle EP, Long Tall Sally, cut from the original analogue tapes at Abbey Road Studios and complete with period-correct fold-back tabs on the rear. This served to promote the vinyl edition of the Beatles In Mono box set, which had been released just two months earlier. 7000 copies:
The whole of 2015 was given over entirely to Paul McCartney releases. The first was a Record Store Day re-issue of The Family Way, his 1967 soundtrack to the film of the same name. Long out of print in vinyl (there had been a CD re-issued in 2011), this served as a good way for collectors to add it to their libraries:
The next, also for RSD proper, is probably one of THE rarest Record Store Day releases of all time.
Sweet Thrash was a secret Record Store Day 2015 release signed by Paul McCartney. It never appeared anywhere in any lists or pre-publicity for the day.
From Discogs: “A first wave of records appeared in selected shops in the UK on 6th-7th of April, 2015. Selected shops in the US received a single copy and were instructed to not advertise it or include it with the rest of the RSD releases, but to hide it under the Paul McCartney section at RSD 18th of April. Each side contains a different unreleased alternate mix of “Hope For The Future”. Allegedly limited to 100 copies worldwide. The record was originally released in a white generic die-cut cardboard jacket, a thin white inner sleeve and an inserted card with details of how to download a ‘3D printable Paul’ figurine.”
‘Say Say Say [2015 Remix]’ came out as a 12″ single on transparent clear vinyl for RSD Black Friday 2015. The track, which had been included as part of the bonus audio for the Paul McCartney Archive Collection – Pipes of Peace box set, features previously unheard vocals by Paul and Michael Jackson, with the parts they sing on the original swapped in position in a remix by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent. For the full story check out this article on the official McCartney site. The B-side is an instrumental version of ‘Say Say Say’ mixed by John “Jellybean” Benitez as featured on the original 12” single, remastered for this limited edition release. This was limited to 3700 copies.
For 2016 Beatle fans (and their wallets) got a reprieve – until RSD 2017 when things picked up again….
For Record Store Day 2017 came an exclusive, limited edition (7000 copies) 7″ single of The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’/’Penny Lane‘. The hype sticker states “New Stereo Mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell” – a clear teaser product for the much-anticipated 50th anniversary edition of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which would be along in the following month.
Also released that year was a single-sided, three-song cassette of Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello Flowers In The Dirt demos. The limited edition, cassette-only release (on a replica Hog Hill Mill Studio label) was clearly designed to help promote the just-released Paul McCartney Archive Collection edition of Flowers In The Dirt. It was the first time these recordings (‘I Don’t Want To Confess’; ‘Shallow Grave’ and ‘Mistress And Maid’) had been be made available in the same form as when Paul and Elvis first cut them directly to tape.
Then, for RSD Black Friday, came more McCartney in the form of two 7″ singles of the song ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ in a new recording originally performed on The Tonight Show and featuring Jimmy Fallon and The Roots. One came in a green cover on green vinyl, with the song ‘Jesus Christ’ by The Decemberists as a B-side. The other came in a red cover on red vinyl, with the song ‘Peace’ by Norah Jones as the B-side. 3500 copies of each were released:
RSD proper 2018 came and went and it wasn’t until Black Friday that year that we saw a new Paul McCartney single released – in two different forms. It was a double A-side with ‘I Don’t Know’/’Come On To Me’, both taken from the Egypt Station LP. And there are two different pressings of this single, one for the US market and one for the UK. The US version is hand-numbered on the rear (from a total of 5600 copies) and comes with a non die-cut inner sleeve:
Note the rear cover top left hand-numbering (plus the FBI Anti-Piracy Warning below):
While the UK/Europe version is not individually numbered on the rear, has no FBI Anti-Piracy logo, and comes with a die-cut inner sleeve that reveals the labels:
The EU die-cut inner sleeve:
Welcome RSD 2019 and an 180 gram “audiophile” black vinyl LP called Imagine [Raw Studio Mixes] from the Lennon camp. This brought to vinyl for the first time CD3 in the Imagine – The Ultimate Mixes box set from the year before. Quantity was 5500 copies and it included a poster and printed inner sleeve containing credits, photographs, and liner notes.
For RSD Black Friday 2019 there was another Paul McCartney double A-side single released. It was again from his Egypt Station LP. This time it was the turn of ‘Home Tonight’/’In A Hurry‘ – on a picture disc with new artwork exclusively created for this Black Friday release. 12000 copies were pressed. Check out this article about the single on the official McCartney website too:
In August (Drop 1) came ‘Instant Karma!’ from John Lennon in newly mixed audio the hype sticker was describing as the Ultimate Mix version. This was a clear foreshadowing of how all Lennon reissues would be referred to in future. The artwork is a faithful reproduction of original UK sleeve. 7000 copies.
Then in September (Drop 2) came the 50th anniversary of Paul McCartney’s debut solo album, McCartney. It was being released as a Half-Speed Master, pressed from a master cut by Miles Showell at half speed using the original 1970 master tapes at Abbey Road Studios. It was made as a vinyl specific transfer in high resolution and without digital peak limiting for the best possible reproduction. 7000 copies pressed.
For October (Drop 3) there were no Beatle or solo releases, but RSD Black Friday 2020 still went ahead in November. That saw a George Harrison single ‘My Sweet Lord‘ on clear vinyl and in a very nice numbered, reproduction picture sleeve that replicated the one made for the Portuguese market in the former Portuguese colony of Angola back in 1970. The RSD site says 7500 copies, but going on the limited edition numbering system on the rear cover some speculate this could be as high as 15000.
We then see a two-year hiatus in Beatle and solo releases. It’s not until 2022 that some new titles are put forward. The first came in June that year as RSD instituted an additional mid-year “Drop”. Included was the 12″ single ‘Women and Wives’. On Side A was the Paul McCartney song of the same name, taken from his McCartney III LP, while on Side B was St Vincent’s version of the same song lifted from his collaborative album, McCartney III Imagined. The whole thing was also designated the inaugural ‘Record Store Day Song of the Year’. Limited to 3000 numbered copies this was tricky to get hold of:
For Record Store Day Black Friday 2022Ringo Starr joined in for the first time as a solo artist with a flurry of product. There was Old Wave on “brown smoke” colour vinyl (2000 copies), and on CD (500 copies):
There was Ringo the 4th on orange translucent (1000 copies) and blue translucent vinyl (755 copies):
And not satisfied with just those four, he also put out a RSD Exclusive Ringo Starr and His All-Starr BandLive At The Greek Theatre 2019, a double LP limited to 2000 copies on yellow vinyl:
The Lennon Estate issued for Record Store Day 2023 a very classy, numbered box set of 9 x 10″ EPs on white vinyl. In fact everything was white or whited out, including all the packaging. There were 36 songs in all, replicating the running order of the LennonGimme Some Truth Ultimate Mixes box from 2020. Limited to 1,500 copies (RSD site incorrectly states 500):
Paul McCartney had been looking for opportunities to keep releasing 50th anniversary Half-Speed Master editions of his albums and in 2023 he used Record Store Day to issue Red Rose Speedway. Once again the vinyl was cut by Miles Showell at half speed using high-resolution transfer of the original 1973 master tapes at Abbey Road Studios, London. It came with an OBI strip, a 12 page booklet and a ‘Half-speed Mastering’ certificate. 5000 copies.
Also in 2023 a re-issue of Ringo’sStop and Smell The Roses came out as a double red and white vinyl LP which included for the first time six bonus tracks (2500 copies). It also came out on CD (500 copies):
First up, a format first in the form of a tiny Beatles Limited Edition RSD3 Turntable set that plays tiny 3″ Beatle singles. The turntable sports a branded dustcover and facing and was housed in a Beatles’ box that included four super small vinyl records: ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’; ‘Til There Was You’; ‘She Loves You’ and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. Each record came in an outer box and picture sleeve, plus there was a poster with each too. The package also included a Beatle-branded record carry case that can hold up to ten 3” records. (2300 of these sets were manufactured):
If you didn’t want the record player and carry case, the four 3″ singles were sold separately (1500 copies each). These records only have music on one side:
Earlier this year the Lennon Estate was very busy forward-promoting the forthcoming Mind Games Ultimate Mixes box sets and so issued not one, but two 12″ EPs for Record Store Day. Both featured the same four tracks from the soon-to-be-released SDE’s. One was a “glow-in-the-dark” edition:
The other an “audiophile black 180G vinyl” edition:
The cover was a great photo of John, cleverly showing the image of himself he cut out and pasted on the artwork for the original Mind Games cover:
Ringo Starr also put out an RSD 12″ EP called Crooked Boy. It has a really cool cover too and 2000 copies were available on exclusive black & white marble vinyl :
Dark Horse Records is slowly bringing their rich catalogue under the BMG banner – with whom they now have a distribution and publishing deal. That of course includes the George Harrison back-catalogue. Part of the plan seems to be to eventually release all his titles as Zoetrope discs – and two of them saw light of day on Record Store Day 2024 – Electronic Sound and Wonderwall Music. Limited to 8,000 units globally and exclusive to Record Store Day, each is individually numbered in silver foil and include an insert reproducing the original album artwork:
And that’s about it for Beatle and solo releases across the 17 years of Record Store Day…..so far.
We also collect Dark Horse releases and there have been a LOT put out over past Record Store Days, so a separate retrospective on those plus other Beatle-related items is here: Record Store Day and the Beatles – Part Two.
As we said, if you have any thoughts, corrections, or items we’ve missed please do get in touch.
A rare acetate demo recording of the Lennon/McCartney song ‘I’ll Be On My Way’, from January 1963, is up for auction next week:
The single-sided, 7″ 45rpm disc has a Dick James Music Limited Demo Disc label which is pasted over a Melodisc label. It has typewritten recording details and is in its original paper sleeve.
This acetate was given to Mike Maxfield (1944-2023) by Paul McCartney. Maxfield was guitarist with The Dakotas, Billy J. Kramer’s backing band, and they recorded the song exclusively as the B-side of their debut single, ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’ (also a Lennon/McCartney song) released in late April 1963.
Mark Lewisohn, in The Complete Beatles Chronicle, lists the song as being part of The Beatles live repertoire of 1961-62. While credited to Lennon/McCartney, this is a song written by Paul in1959, and he takes the lead vocal on this demo recording, although it is not known when and where it was recorded.
It’s thought the acetate was given to Maxfield around January 1963 for Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas to learn and record their version, which took place in March. The only other known version by The Beatles was recorded to be played on the radio by the BBC at its Paris Studio in London. The band were guests on the show Side By Side. They recorded it “as live” on April 4, 1963 and it went to air on June 24. That Beatle recording was first officially released on the 1994 compilation album, Live At The BBC.
For further information on this lot please visit the lot listing at Bonham’s Auctions.
A very rare Canadian recording of The Beatles live in concert is on the market.
It dates from August, 1965 and was recorded off the mixing desk from an afternoon concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, then a huge ice hockey arena in Toronto.
The two reel-to-reel tapes appear to be the only audio record of the gig in existence, and its sound quality is markedly better than most other Beatle bootlegs.
Well-known Beatle collector and historian Piers Hemmingsen (below), author of the highly-regarded book The Beatles In Canada (which traces the early days of Beatlemania in that country in forensic detail), owns the tapes and wants to use them to fund publication of his next volume, telling the story of the band in Canada up to 1970.
Journalist Ludovic Hunter-Tilney is one of the few people who have heard the recording and he writes about it glowingly in The Financial Times. “The sound quality is raw but the music comes across strongly, especially Lennon and McCartney’s vocals,” he says. “The vigour and accuracy of their singing are striking. Meanwhile, George Harrison firmly strums his guitar and Ringo Starr keeps matters moving at the drum kit.”
Hemmingsen took the tapes to Apple back in 2015, playing them to none other than Giles Martin at Abbey Road Studios. Back then they was deemed too low quality and they passed on a sale, but since that time Hemmingsen has discovered he’d been playing the tapes on the wrong type of machine. Listening back on a half-track player was a revelation. “It was like day and night,” he says.
Add to that the potential now to treat the audio using the new MAL audio technology developed by Peter Jackson’s film production company and who knows how good the result could be.
Check out the full story in Hunter-Tilney’s article here.
As you can see, along with producer T Bone Burnett, there are some heavy hitters helping out including Alison Krauss, Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle.
Variety has just published this in-depth article with a very recent interview with Ringo, and contributions from T Bone Burnett. Well worth a read.
And the online magazine JamBase is running this article with information about the background to Look Up as well:
Billy Strings is not only a star who can fill massive arenas with his band but has also become an in-demand studio musician. For example, Beatles legend Ringo Starr and fellow music icon T Bone Burnett called upon Strings to contribute to Starr’s forthcoming country album.
While Starr hasn’t officially announced Look Up, Ringo spoke about the album with Fox News Digital in July. “I met him [when] Olivia Harrison was reading poems for George. There was about 100 of us there listening, and he was one of them, and I bumped into him [off and on] since the ’70s,” Starr said of Burnett.
“He said, ‘What are you doing? I said, ‘Oh, well I’m doing this, EPs [extended play albums, which have more tracks than a single, but less than a record]. I’m getting people to write a song, put some music on it,” the Beatles legend continued. While Ringo Starr had several pop songs written for the project, he thought Burnett’s tune was “absolutely one of the most beautiful country songs I ever heard. So, I thought, ‘I’m going to do a country EP.’”
When Ringo talked to Burnett about cutting additional tracks, T Bone explained he had nine songs ready to go. “I thought let’s make a real CD, so I’m back making a CD,” Starr said about the decision to turn the EP into an LP.
In May, T Bone Burnett revealed he was working on a country album with Starr while speaking to Variety. Burnett had high praise for Ringo. “He’s such a beautiful singer. Ringo was in a band with two of the best singers in rock ‘n’ roll history, so people never took him as seriously as a singer as they should. If you listen to all the country stuff he did, ‘What Goes On’ and ‘Act Naturally’ and ‘Honey Don’t,’ he did so much great country music, even in the Beatles. And, you know, he’s called Ringo Starr because that’s a cowboy name, and he wanted to be a cowboy when he was a kid. As we all did back in those days; we always all wanted to be Gene Autry.”
Starr’s first solo foray with country was Beaucoup of Blues, an album of country covers he recorded in Nashville in 1970. “Yeah, it’s pretty good. I mean, they whipped it out really quickly; I think they did it in two days or so,” Burnett said of Beaucoup of Blues. “And we’re gonna do something a little more thorough. I mean, Ringo in his third act is deserving of a serious album… I want to make a classic Ringo Starr country record. I think we can,” T Bone added.
Ringo initially planned to put out the country album this fall as per his May chat with Variety. Starr gave a status report to the outlet. “We’ve done 90% of my work. He (Burnett) may want to put other stuff on it. And tomorrow I’m gonna finish off the odd lines I have to re-sing or think about, and then it should be done. As far as I’m concerned, the drums are good and the songs are good and, you know, I sing to the best of my ability, but sometimes I change the melody. That’s the way I am, and I had to back off a bit and do his melody, because he wrote it. So that’s what happened. It just came about and we’re just going with the flow. And now we’ve got a country record. The last country LP was… was it 1970? [Beacoups of Blues]. And now we’ve got one coming out probably in October. Because it’ll be coming out on vinyl and on CD, you’ve gotta get it in, and now it’s like five or six months before you put anything out. I mean, I’d like to finish it here and put it on the radio right now, but you can’t do that anymore.”
Ringo has also announced he’ll be supporting the new country album with two performances at the fabled Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The shows will be filmed for a special. Check out the Ryman page for more.
And here’s the second teaser song, a co-write by Ringo and long-time collaborator Bruce Sugar. It features the great Alison Krauss on back-up vocals:
Apple and Disney+ have announced Beatles ’64, an all-new documentary film from producer Martin Scorsese and director David Tedeschi. It will stream exclusively on Disney+ beginning November 29.
The film captures the moment of The Beatles’ first visit to America and will feature never-before-seen footage of the band and their legions of fans. Beatles ’64 is to include lots of the footage filmed by the famous documentarians Albert and David Maysles, restored in 4K by Peter Jackson’s company, Park Road Post in New Zealand. There will be live performances from The Beatles first American concert at the Washington, DC Coliseum and their Ed Sullivan appearances – demixed by WingNut Films (also a Peter Jackson company). The sound is remixed by Giles Martin.
Beatles ’64 will of course be supported by the November 22 release of seven American Beatles albums, analog cut for 180-gram audiophile vinyl from their original mono master tapes. They include Meet The Beatles!, The Beatles’ Second Album, A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Something New, The Beatles’ Story (2LP), Beatles ’65, and The Early Beatles, available for preorder as a vinyl box set titled The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums In Mono. Six of the titles are also available individually.
Why A Hard Day’s Night now? Why white vinyl? Why the stereo version? Why only in the UK?
It is part of the UK’s National Album Day – which, granted, has “Great British Groups” as it’s theme this year – but their official webpage doesn’t appear to know anything about a Beatle release. A Hard Day’s Night isn’t mentioned at all in the feature news item on their site that goes into great detail about all the releases associated with the day.
Yes, it has been announced on the official Beatles site. And yes, they say it is because it is the 60th anniversary, but there are no links to order it anywhere, and it comes out in 10 days time.
This looks to be the stereo version and not newly remixed by Giles Martin. The Beatles site makes no mention of the mastering, so we can only assume it is the stock-standard 2009 stereo remaster, which has been out since……well 2009 on CD and 2012 on vinyl.
It’s all just a bit odd!
The limited edition reissue on 180g White Vinyl will be released on October 19th. Will you be getting it?
The list for Record Store Day Black Friday 2024 has just been uploaded and there are two Beatle items of interest to collectors, plus one from Dark Horse.
This 7″ single was obviously chosen to tie in with the 60th anniversary of The Beatles’ arrival in the USA, and their subsequent conquering of the US popular music charts. Not to mention the release of the 8LP set The Beatles 1964 US Albums in Mono, as well as the six LPs that will be available individually. The single is limited to 10,000 copies and is cut from the original US version of the master tapes – the same masters used for the albums in that 1964 Mono box set. It is cut by Kevin Reeves in Nashville using an all-analog cutting process and on the same 1970 lathe at the Capitol studios. Read more about it here.
The other Beatle item slated for RSD Black Friday is another of those tiny 3″ vinyl singles designed to play on the similarly tiny Crosley record player.
‘All My Loving’ comes with a Beatle-branded carry case and it too celebrates the 60th anniversary of the group’s 1964 American Tour – and their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that year. With the release of this 3″ record all five of the songs the band played on the show is now complete. The other singles (released for Record Store Day proper earlier this year) were: ‘I Want To Hold Your Had’, ‘Til There Was You’, ‘She Loves You’ and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. Like them, this 3” will be housed in a picture sleeve and includes a limited-edition poster.
Hymns of Christmas dates from 1995 and it’s the fIrst time this has been on vinyl.
RSD Black Friday is on November 29. Check out the home page for the full list and any updates (there are often additional titles added as the time gets closer).
Lots of Beatle items come up for auction and on quite a regular basis too. But it’s a little rare to have an entire auction dedicated entirely to Beatle or Beatle-related content.
TracksAuctions.com was established in the UK in 1989 and has developed a worldwide reputation in the field of pop memorabilia. They have over 35 years experience in trading at the highest level in Beatle and rock ‘n roll collectibles.
Their latest auction is a bit of a treasure trove of items. Anyone looking through the extensive list of lots will have a differtent set of highlights that jump out for them. Or maybe these are interest?
Well, here are the standout items for us.
Lot 7. Apple Employee Telephone and Address Book. This would be truly fascinating to flip through. It is a handwritten telephone and address book from the 1970s and contains Beatles addresses and phone numbers including George Harrison, Ringo Starr (Monte Carlo and L.A), and Paul McCartney.
In the photo above you can see an entry for former Apple Records boss, the late Neil Aspinall. Due to the wonders of Google Maps you can go and have look at where he once lived:
It looks like a very nice area, and if you go for a bit of a wander down the street you might notice the house across the road is called Strawberry Fields! Do you think the owners know they live opposite a former residence of a boss of the Beatles empire?
Other influential names in the book include Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Nat Weiss, Robert Stigwood, Tony Barrow, Peter Brown, Ron Kass, Freda Kelly, Tony Palmer, Denis O’Dell, Derek Taylor, Timothy Leary, Victor Spinetti, Peter Sellers, and Eric Idle, along with numerous record companies, recording studios, media outlets, and other businesses frequented by the Fabs.
Lot 9. Various Artists Apple Records Acetate. This is a 12-inch acetate record containing 23 tracks by various artists. The acetate is on the Apple Corps Ltd. 3 Savile Row Custom Recording label. Was this compilation ever planned for release on Apple, or is it just a party disc put together for fun by the engineers at Apple Studios?
Lot 12. Delaney And Bonnie 1969 Apple Records Withdrawn Album. This one was definitely intended for release by Apple on 30th May 1969, but it was withdrawn due to contractual reasons. As such catalogue number SAPCOR 7 has become very rare indeed. What we have here is one of a small number of pre-release copies that were pressed. In his excellent book Those Were The Days – The Beatles And Apple, Stefan Granados says: “Apple had planned to release their album entitled ‘Accept No Substitute’ on 30th May. Copies of the album had been pressed and were waiting for covers when Apple cancelled….The plan may have been scuttled in part by Apple’s reluctance to pay advances but the inconvenient fact that Delaney and Bonnie were under contract to Elektra Records in the United States is likely to have played a more significant role in the non-appearance of a Delaney and Bonnie album on Apple. For the next year or so, lucky visitors to the Apple office would be given copies of the sleeveless Apple pressing of the album. Copies would also be given to any interested Apple staff and artists.“
Lot 41. The Beatles ‘Love Me Do’ A-Label Demonstration Record. Who wouldn’t want a copy of this in their collection. It takes you right back to just before it all began. This is the “demonstration record” sent out to radio stations in the UK heralding an unknown band from Liverpool. An extremely rare Parlophone white and red ‘A-label’ debut single of ‘Love Me Do’/’P.S. I Love You’. The single was released with the catalogue number 45-R 4949 on October 5, 1962. Even McCartney is misspelled as McArtney on both sides!
Lot 43. The Beatles ‘A Hard Day’s Night’/’Things We Said Today’ 78 RPM. Another grail item for many collectors. This an extremely rare 1964, 10-inch, 78rpm pressing from India of The Beatles single, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’/’Things We Said Today’. The record comes in an original Parlophone paper sleeve too.
Lot 114. The Beatles 1968 Mono ‘White Album’ Number 0000012. Yes, it’s a little beat up, but who wouldn’t want a copy of this rare, low numbered UK mono vinyl pressing of The Beatles’ White Album in their collection? It is number 0000012.
Lot 131. Freda Kelly’s Collection of Fan Club Flexi Discs 1963 to 1969. The Beatles UK Christmas flexi discs are collectable at any time. How much more then would be a complete set (all seven discs) from the woman who ran The Beatles Fan Club from1962 to 1972? Freda’s original flexis are housed in a 1960s hardback record case with her handwritten name and address inside.
Added to the value and collectability is that these exact same discs were used by Apple to produce From Then To You, the 1970 UK LP compilation of all the Beatles Fan Club Christmas messages. Freda recalled that when they came to produce the album EMI didn’t have a complete set of tapes, and nobody at Apple owned a complete set of the flexis. She remembers being asked by Peter Brown to take this exact same set down to Savile Row where they were copied in order to produce the Christmas Fan Club album.
Lot 139. The Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney Autographed ‘White Album’. This is a US album sleeve for the 1968 self-titled album The Beatles, aka the White Album. It has the second highest expected sale price in this Tracks auction of between £25,000 – £35,000 (US$33,000 – $47,000 or AUD$48,000 – $68,000). The reason? It is autographed on the gatefold by both John Lennon and Paul McCartney. John has signed in red felt tipped pen and Paul has autographed in black ballpoint pen. The autographs were signed in the USA in the 1970s. Lennon’s autograph dates to circa 1975 and McCartney’s to 1975/1976.
Lot 206. Paul McCartney ‘McCartney’ Album Press Release. This is an original US press release from April 1970. It is on Apple letterhead and is an important document in the history of the band because it became one of the first public signals that The Beatles were no more. Sent out with promo copies of Paul McCartney’s solo LP McCartney, it consists of four sides of questions and answers relating to the recording. The answers McCartney gave to some of the questions were directly responsible for the subsequent “Paul Quits The Beatles” newspaper headlines and a furore over the group splitting up. The final page bears a printed Paul McCartney signature. Also included are three black and white promotional photographs. One of Paul, one of Paul and Linda and one of Paul and his daughter Mary.
Lastly, to the most expensive lot likely in this auction…..
Lot 246. Paul McCartney November 1966 Hand Drawn Stage Designs For The Four Tops London Performance. In November, 1966 the US group The Four Tops were due to play London’s Saville Theatre, then owned by Beatle manager, Brian Epstein. In preparation for the shows he wanted some spectacular backdrops for the stage and commissioned none other than Paul McCartney to come up with the designs. Paul presented his ideas to Epstein and John Lyndon, a NEMS employee and Director of Productions at the Saville. On a large piece of white paper McCartney hand-sketched and annotated 12 images to be considered and one of these was used for the Four Tops first-ever UK performance.
This item is definitely unique and is expected to fetch in the vicinity of £40,000 – £60,000 (US$53,000 – $80,000 or AUD$78,000 – $117,000).
Well, these are some of the standout lots for us. Have a look through the four pages of treasure on the auction site and let us know which are yours. The Beatles Memorabilia Auction starts on September 27 and runs until October 6.
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