Tag Archives: Beatles Collecting

Paul McCartney – Kisses on the Bottom Latest

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Paul McCartney has updated the information available about his forthcoming new release “Kisses On The Bottom” his album of sentimental covers (plus two new original tracks written and performed in the same vein). Here’s the cover artwork:From the McCartney official website news page:

Paul’s tribute to personal favourites & two new self penned compositions out February 6th/7th 

On December 19th 2011 Paul announced that February 2012 would see the release of his brand new studio album. Scores of fans then streamed the new original track ‘My Valentine’, many assuming it would be the new record’s title track.  While a few Twitter hints have been dropped and rumours have run rampant, Paul puts an end to speculation today, confirming that the album will indeed be titled ‘Kisses On The Bottom’.

Paul has apparently had some fun with his choice of album title—while causing some confusion amongst those who have historically subjected his every move to microscopic scrutiny (with many fixating on an anatomical interpretation!). The phrase ‘Kisses On The Bottom,’ however, actually comes from the album’s opener ‘I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter’. Originally made a big hit by Fats Waller in 1935, the song opens with the lines ‘I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter and make believe it came from you.  I’m gonna write words oh so sweet.  They’re gonna knock me off of my feet.  A lot of kisses on the bottom , I’ll be glad I got ‘em’.

‘Kisses On The Bottom’ is a collection of standards Paul grew up listening to in his childhood as well as the two new McCartney compositions ‘My Valentine’ and ‘Only Our Hearts’.  With the help of Grammy Award-winning producer Tommy LiPuma and Diana Krall and her band—as well as guest appearances from Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder, McCartney’s new album is a deeply personal journey through classic American compositions that, in some cases, a young Paul first heard his father perform on piano at home.  The full tracklisting reveals that Paul has been both reverent and adventurous in his song choices.

Kisses On The Bottom

1. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter   

2. Home (When Shadows Fall)                                                                   

3.  It’s Only A Paper Moon                                                                      

4. More I Cannot Wish You                                                                       

5. The Glory Of Love                                                                                   

6. We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me)                                          

7. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive                                                               

8. My Valentine                                                                                              

9. Always                                                                                                          

10. My Very Good Friend The Milkman                                                       

11. Bye Bye Blackbird                                                                                     

12. Get Yourself Another Fool                                                                        

13. The Inch Worm                                                                                            

14. Only Our Hearts                                                                                           

The Deluxe CD Album will feature two bonus tracks plus access to a download of an exclusive live show (available from Tuesday 14th February via paulmccartney.com), plus longer liner notes and expanded packaging featuring three postcards)

15.  Baby’s Request                                                                                        

16.  My One And Only Love                                                            

The album will also be available digitally. You will be able to pre-order the album directly from PaulMcCartney.com soon!

The album was recorded at the legendary Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, New York and London throughout 2011.  It also features guest musicians Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder, respectively, on the original compositions  ‘My Valentine’ and ‘Only Our Hearts’.  Eric also appears on the track ‘Get Yourself Another Fool’.

The album artwork concept was conceived by Jonathan Schofield (Visual Director at Stella McCartney) and designed by Matthew Cooper (who has worked with artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand).  Paul was photographed by his daughter Mary McCartney for the album sleeve.

The Wogblog website says the deluxe CD package will contain longer liner notes and expanded packaging featuring three postcards, along with the two bonus tracks mentioned above. He also reminds us that”Baby’s Request” is a McCartney composition that can be found on the Wings album “Back To The Egg” from 1979.

For vinyl collectors there’ll be a double LP version of “Kisses On The Bottom” released.

John Lennon – a Jazz Reinterpretation

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I’m usually not a big fan nor collector of Beatles cover versions. But I must admit that when I first saw this CD cover I was intrigued:

It’s a Lennon reinterpretation that is very worthy of further investigation. Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell is one of the world’s great musicians – as the small sticker on the front of this CD proclaims:

While he’s been around a long time I only became aware of Bill Frisell relatively recently when Elvis Costello teamed up with veteran composer and arranger Burt Bacharach in 1998 to produce an album of new songs called “Painted From Memory”. Both Costello and Bacharach are favorites and this album is great. The interesting thing about their project is that they gave all their new songs to guitarist Bill Frisell very early in the process to create his own jazz versions of their new work. As a result he released his album “The Sweetest Punch” almost simultaneously with their “Painted From Memory” disc. Quite unusual in the music business. I got both “Painted From Memory” and “The Sweetest Punch” back then and have enjoyed them immensely since…..hence my interest in the work of one Bill Frisell.

Then, late in 2011 came this record – “All We Are Saying” – Frisell plays Lennon. Naturally I was interested to hear how it sounded – and was lucky enough to be given it as a Christmas present from my son:

As you can see from the rear cover song-list, Frisell does a wide range of Lennon compositions from the Beatles days (both early and late), through to the Plastic Ono Band, Lennon’s early solo work, and right up to songs from the final John Lennon/Yoko Ono album “Double Fantasy”.

The cover art is also interesting. Inside the gatefold digipac it’s revealed that the project has the blessing of Yoko Ono and the Lennon Estate because they have officially licensed the cover art which is a John Lennon original drawing.

Here’s the detail from the image above:

So – it all looks and feels very original. These are all songs I know well, and the interpretations that Frisell and his band deliver are fresh takes on familiar material. As I say, Beatles cover versions are not my thing – but this album delivers on many levels, not the least being that it comes from an artist who respects and loves the originals.

For the Beatles Fan Who Has Everything?

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For a last-minute Christmas gift who could go past this really fine Beatles poster?

Too bad it’s sold out. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Originally released in the lead up to Christmas 2010, this has been re-printed again this year by popular demand. Only 250 copies were made though….

Visit artist Maxim Dalton’s site for more. I like his “Guitar Lessons” poster too.

Listen to “My Valentine” – New Paul McCartney Track

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Paul McCartney has issued a sneak preview of his forthcoming album of cover versions (plus two new McCartney originals). The full album will be released by Hear Music/Concord Records on February 7.

Wogblog has the full track-list, while the Beatles Examiner says that the album will definitely not be called “My Valentine” – this is despite the fact that it will be released in time for Valentine’s Day, 2012.

Special guests on the album include Diana Krall, Stevie Wonder and, as you can hear on the track below, Eric Clapton on guitar. The record is produced by the legendary Tommy LiPuma and looks to have a strong jazz-influenced tinge to it. It’ll certainly be interesting to hear McCartney exporing this new territory. The song “My Valentine”, while newly composed, sounds like it could have come from the same era as the other songs he has chosen to cover.

First Recordings – Beatles with Tony Sheridan

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Released this week in the USA  –  “The Beatles With Tony Sheridan: First Recordings 50th Anniversary Edition”, a new double CD package released by Time-Life Entertainment to mark the Fab Four’s 50th anniversary. :

This features tracks the band performed with singer Tony Sheridan as Polydor artists after the German bandleader and music executive Bert Kaempfert discovered them performing in Hamburg in 1961.

The CD’s come with a booklet full of rarely seen photographs taken by one-time Beatles guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe’s fiancee Astrid Kirchherr. It also has band contracts, poster art from their early shows and handwritten biographies by each member of the group.

The package was released on November 8. Looks like it comes in a nice gate-fold digipack:

Time-Life has a small website with a little bit more detail. And there’s some good information about these recordings here.

Here Comes the Sun – New Guitar Solo

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There is a great little video from the deluxe materials included with the “Living in the Material World” DVD and BluRay sets. It features George Martin, Giles Martin and Dhani Harrison (George and Olivia’s son) filmed at the mixing desk listening back to the Beatles “Here Comes The Sun” – complete with a previously unheard guitar solo from the song which never made the final mix. Nice.

The Beatles Greatest Hits Volume 1

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A visit to a garage sale this past weekend (you might use the term “yard sale” where you come from) has added another nice LP record to the collection.

It’s the “Beatles VI”, which first came out in 1965 in the US on Capitol. However, the copy I got on Saturday is a New Zealand pressing on the Parlophone label:

 

As you can see, this New Zealand pressing has the same picture cover (front and rear), and the same running order as the US release seen here below:

In Australia the artwork of this album is a bit confusing because the cover photo for the “Beatles VI” LP is the exact same cover photo that EMI Australia chose for a completely different Beatles LP they released back in 1968 called “The Beatles Greatest Hits Volume 1”:

I’ve got this on the orange Parlophone label, which would make my pressing from the 1970’s:

But to make things even more confusing, I also have the same LP (with the same cover) on a black and silver Parlophone label – from New Zealand:

So, two different records with different songs on them, but very similar cover artwork.

In case you are wondering about the origins of the photograph, it is actually the Beatles cutting a cake:

Ltd Ed Beatles Target Singles Box Sets

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I’ve got a feeling that these are set to become quite valuable Beatles collectors items.

Target stores in the USA recently sold an exclusive and official limited edition of four Beatles 45 rpm singles. Each record was packaged along with a Beatles t-shirt in a box. The four vinyl singles are newly-pressed and digitally remastered using the same mastertapes as the 2009 re-issues. This makes these four singles (along with the Record Store Day “Paperback Writer” single released last year) the only vinyl available so far from the recent Abbey Road Studios remasters of the Beatles back-catalogue.

They are “Can’t Buy Me Love/You Can’t Do That“:

“Help!/I’m Down“:

“Hello Goodbye/I Am The Walrus“:

And “Let It Be/You Know My Name Look Up The Number“:

According to sources only 10,000 copies of each single were pressed by Capitol Records – very small numbers by Beatles standards. And only ever sold in Target stores in the United States:

All the vinyl singles have Capitol Records labels, except for “Let It Be” which is on the Apple Records label – just as it would have been back in 1970 when it first came out. The singles look like the original issues except that Sony/ATV is listed as the music publisher. The picture sleeves are in a thicker cardboard than the paper ones that were originally were issued. The contents of each box, deatiling the cover, the labels, and the enclosed t-shirt design are pictured on the rear of each package:

You can see from the packaging that these releases are linked closely to the recent re-issue  of the Beatles “1” CD, which has been released in digitally remastered form. Hence the familiar red and yellow theme and the prominent “1” logos on each box.

What do you think? Valuable collectors item of the future?

See also Steve Marinucci’s Beatles Examiner and the Beatles Target Ltd Release Singles Part 2.

Unboxing “Living in the Material World” DVD/BluRay Box Set

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Haven’t got this yet because it is only available in the UK so far….but one fan has posted a video of his unboxing of the Deluxe Edition of the DVD/BluRay/CD set:

The Beatles With Records – Part Five

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The Beatles have sold millions and millions of them – but there are relatively few photographs where they’re seen actually holding LP’s, singles and CD’s.

We’ve uncovered a few though in this series (you can see all the original blog posts here:  Part One; Part Two; Part Three; and Part Four). People are still sending in photos from their own collections, and so here is Part Five. Most of the photos below come from French Beatles collector and author Claude Defer. The first is John Lennon holding up the French “Ticket to Ride” EP.  Claude tells me that this photograph is from the cover of a French record collectors magazine called “Jukebox”. The picture was taken in June, 1965 when the Beatles gave two shows in Paris at the Palais des Sports:

Immediately behind “Ticket to Ride” I think you can just see another French Beatles EP called “Eight Days A Week”. Here’s the cover of that one:

Here’s another Beatles EP (or Extended Play), this time it’s George and John with a copy of the UK version of “Twist and Shout”.  In the UK, “Twist and Shout” was released in 1963 by Parlophone with three other tracks, “Do You Want to Know a Secret”, “A Taste of Honey”, and “There’s a Place”, from the Please Please Me album. Both the EP and album reached No. 1 :

From what must have been around the same time as the photograph above (mid-1963) comes this next photo:

It’s the Beatles with the group called Gerry and the Pacemakers at what appears to be celebratory drinks. Perhaps it was taken in April/May, 1963 when Gerry and the Pacemakers had a number one hit in the UK with “How Do You Do It?”, which came out on the Columbia label and was produced by Beatles producer, George Martin. That song was knocked from its top chart spot in May by the Beatles with “From Me to You”. It came out on Parlophone and was of course also produced by George Martin. It’s a bit difficult to tell from the photograph, but maybe band leader Gerry Marsden is holding up a copy of “How Do You Do It?”, and John is holding a copy of the new number one, “From Me to You”:

Beatles manager Brian Epstein features in previous posts pictured with Beatles records. Claude Defer sent through these next two. The first is Brian looking through a pile of what look like acetates or “test” pressings:

Wow. If some of those are Beatles test pressings (and no doubt they are) then they’d be real collectors items now! The other shot of Brian has him with a copy of “Help!” from 1965:

In 1966 the Rolling Stones released their LP “Aftermath”. Clearly the Beatles were keen to get a hold of it as soon as they could:

The caption says: “The Beatles always took a close interest in the new releases by the other top groups. Neil Aspinall (their road manager) had made a special trip to get hold of “Aftermath”, the new album by the Rolling Stones, and “Bo Dudley”, the single by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore”.

Cook and Moore were a popular British comedy act and “Bo Dudley” was the B-side to their 1966 single “Aint She a Sweetie” on the Decca label:

A year later (1967) the Beatles released “Magical Mystery Tour”. In the UK it came out as a film for TV, and also as a double EP. Here’s John signing a copy for a fan:

Not strictly the Beatles with records, but the lovely Patti Boyd who became a Beatle wife. She had a a very successful career as a model and here she is in a photo shoot featuring some of the work of her future husband, George Harrison:

Three Beatles albums are seen in the shot: “Please Please Me”, “With the Beatles”, and in her hand, “A Hard Days Night”:

John and Yoko posed for some photographs to publicise their new records in 1970. We had a couple of these in The Beatles with Records Part 2. Here’s one more, this time a picture of John and Yoko with their Plastic Ono Band LP’s. According to Claude Defer the man between them is Pete Bennett, Apple Records US promotions manager.  John had just released “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band”, and Yoko had “Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band”.  Both titles were released simultaneously. The front covers were almost identical, but the rear artwork of Yoko’s album showed her as a young girl, while John’s showed him as a young boy:

The Lennon’s have also been photographed with an earlier release, “The Wedding Album”. It was a lavish box set celebrating their union in 1969 and contained amongst other things an LP, a wedding photo album, a picture of a slice of the wedding cake and, as you can see here, a copy of the marriage certificate pasted inside the lid of the box containing all the other goodies:

Finally, a more recent photograph – this time another of Paul McCartney out publicising his alter-ego The Fireman and a recording from 2008 called “Electric Arguments”. You can see a full report on this release here. Paul is photographed holding (upside down) the CD version, while one fan behind him holds the vinyl version, and another (on the left) is reaching for a vinyl copy of “Sgt Pepper”:

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos.

You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:  Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.