Tag Archives: 60th Anniversary

Beatles Japan Visit – 60th Anniversary Releases Announced

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The Beatles’ Japan Store has just announced a special 60th anniversary project commemorating the band’s visit to Japan in 1966.

The Beatles performed at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo from June 30 to July 2 – and created something of a sensation throughout the country. Back then the previously unreleased albums Please Please Me and With The Beatles, were issued as special commemorative editions for the visit. Now, in June 2026, they’re being re-issued as special cardboard-sleeve SHM-CDs, recreating the artwork from that time, plus they’ll include a poster:

Additionally, Please Please Me gets a vinyl release in the same style:

Back in 1966 these releases were based on the UK Please Please Me and With The Beatles albums. They included tracks in stereo that had previously only been available in mono in Japan. They both came in a deluxe specification featuring uniquely designed jackets and obi strips, plus 8-page bound-in booklets with color photos and lyrics. The new 2026 re-issues will feature that same specification, recreating the artwork of the first Japanese LP editions as much as possible (though it doesn’t seem to extend to the record labels – these should be black Odeon labels, not the UK Parlophone which is disappointing).

They will however recreate the obi strips from those first Japanese editions, and include a six-panel fold-out 868mm x 580mm poster. At the Beatles Japan Store you can also opt (at extra cost) for a special postcard to be included with the two CD’s and the LP. The songs are in the same order as the original UK albums (they had a different running order on the original Japanese releases) and will use the 2009 remastered audio. It’s not clear why With The Beatles isn’t also getting a vinyl release.

Also back in 1966 a Japanese 7″ single was released following the concert tour and, only at the Beatles Store in Japan, there’s to be a recreation of this single – ‘Yellow Submarine’/’Eleanor Rigby’:

This new 2026 release reproduces the design of the original first-pressing jacket and its company inner sleeve. It comes on white vinyl and features the 2023 mix of the songs. However, again it looks like they’ve opted for non-authentic labels. This too should be black Odeon labels, not the UK Parlophone shown in the promo shots:

In addition, Universal Music Japan will launch a special Beatles pop-up store at the Universal Music Store in Harajuku (near Shibuya in Tokyo) from June 25 to July 5. Only at that store they’ll be selling a limited edition red vinyl of the 7″ single:

60th Anniversary Reissue of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ on Limited White Vinyl

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This is an unusual release. One has to ask why? 

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?

Beatles 1964 US Albums in Mono – More

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The Beatles Official site now has all the details about the November 22 release of the 8LP The Beatles 1964 US Albums in Mono box set, as well as the six LPs available individually.

There’s also a very interesting “behind the scenes” video doing the rounds with mastering engineer Kevin Reeves who cut the records at Nashville’s East Iris Studios, and Pat Kraus, Senior VP Recording Studios & Archives at UMG:

Details are also emerging of some stores getting an “exclusive” blue vinyl version of Meet The Beatles. So far these include Target in the US, Sunrise Records in Canada, HMV in the UK, the jpc chain in Germany, and FNAC stores in Belgium and France. Gotta admit it looks kind of cool:

And Andrew, over at the very good Parlogram YouTube channel, has made this handy introduction/explainer as to what these latest releases from Apple are all about:

The Beatles 1964 Capitol Albums to be Reissued on Vinyl

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Looks like the The Beatles camp is getting set to announce the vinyl re-issue of six US LP’s from released between January, 1964 and March, 1965 on Capitol and United Artists Records. They are Meet The Beatles, Something New, The Beatles’ Second Album, Beatles ’65, A Hard Days’ Night (Original Soundtrack), and The Early Beatles.

The official website briefly had pages published depicting pack shots of each album, but these have have since been taken down.

As you can see, each album comes with a replica inner sleeve from the time, and a sheet or booklet replicating the original tape box. It’s not yet known if the albums will only be available separately or if there’ll also be a box set containing all six LPs on the cards.

Speaking of those images of the tape boxes, before the pages were taken down each album had this Mastering Note text attached:

These albums were cut for vinyl from the original master tapes using a completely analog signal path and with constant reference to first generation pressings of the original albums. They were made using a Studer A80 master recorder with analog preview & program paths, and an Neumann VMS70 cutting lathe originally installed in Capitol Studios in 1971. This specific all-analog cutting technique allows faithful representation of the full musical range and dynamics present on the original tapes.

So, fully analogue AAA pressings is very welcome news. As to whether they’re the original Capitol Mono or Stereo mixes the images seem to confirm Mono as the albums above all show catalogue numbers starting with the “T” prefix – meaning Mono.

These releases tie in well with the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Beatles conquering America and the rumoured The Beatles: The First U.S. Tour re-issue of the famous Mayles brothers’ film – also expected to be announced soon.

UPDATE: It looks like an image of the box set (to be called The Beatles 1964 US Albums In Mono) has also been leaked. This confirms rumours that the box contains a bonus double disc in the form of The Beatles’ Story:

(click on images to see larger versions)

The discs will be on 180-gram vinyl cut from the original mono master tapes and will have a global release on November 22. They’ll feature faithfully replicated artwork and new four-panel inserts with essays written by American Beatle historian and author Bruce Spizer.