If you follow The Beatles you’ll know that the full release plans for the Abbey Road 50th anniversary have just been made public.
In one big photo, here’s what we’ll be getting (click on images to see larger versions):To flesh that out a little, there’s a 3 CD, 1 Blu-ray (audio) plus hardback book super deluxe edition:
There’s more lovely visuals and info in the official “unboxing” promo:
And for a full description and background to each of the formats and some of the extras see Paul Sinclair’s very detailed article at superdeluxeedition.com. It has complete track listings as well.
Yes, it is the video version of the Beatles“1” CD, plus a bit more, newly restored and expanded in multiple configurations for global release on November 6.
At first glance it is a little confusing (see the full press release below) – but this is it in a nutshell:
There’s a new 2015 remixed and remastered version of the single-disc audio CD (containing 27 songs)
There’s a pack with either 1 DVD or 1 BluRay (each containing videos of all 27 songs that are on the CD), plus the CD
There’s a Deluxe set with either 2 DVDs or 2 BluRays (one disc has the videos of all 27 songs that are on the CD, the second disc contains 23 bonus videos), a 124 page hard cover book, plus the CD
Or you can buy just the single BluRay or the single DVD (each containing 27 songs)
A 2 LP, 180-gram vinyl package will follow
The single CD:
The single DVD (or BluRay), plus CD:
The Deluxe 2 DVD (or 2 BluRay), plus book and CD:
The single BluRay:
The single DVD:
How they did the video restoration, repairs and remastering:
A “before” and “after” comparison:
And a short example of how “Strawberry Fields Forever” (only available in the Deluxe set) will look:
THE BEATLES’ VIDEOS AND TOP HITS COME TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME
All-New Editions of The Beatles 1 Pair Beautifully Restored Promotional Films and Videos with Brand New Stereo and Surround Audio Mixes
Beatles 1+ Deluxe Edition Celebrates the Sight & Sound of The Beatles in 50 Films & Videos
London – September 15, 2015
After The Beatles stopped touring, and because travelling around the globe to promote new releases was impossible, the band increasingly made what could be described as “mini movies”. These pioneering promotional films and videos helped to define the way we have come to watch music, not least because The Beatles approached filming with the same ease and innovative spirit they brought to the recording studio, exploring new creative possibilities with infectious delight. Showcasing the band’s filmed work to accompany their 27 No.1, U.K. and U.S. singles, The Beatles 1 is newly restored and expanded in multiple configurations for global release on November 6 by Apple Corps Ltd/UMG.
The 27-track CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray pairs beautifully restored videos for each song, with new stereo and 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS HD surround audio mixes. The brand new Beatles 1+ celebrates their career in over 200 minutes through 50 promotional films and videos. This includes the 27 No.1s, with the restored videos, along with a second disc of 23 videos, including alternate versions, as well as rarely seen and newly restored films and videos; all include new audio mixes in deluxe CD/2-DVD and CD/2-Blu-ray packages. The 27-track audio CD is also being made available with new stereo mixes. A 2 LP, 180-gram vinyl package will follow.
TThe new editions of The Beatles 1 have been made possible following extensive research, and restoration of the original promo films, classic television appearances and other carefully selected videos spanning the band’s history. Apple Corps dug deep into The Beatles’ vaults to select a broad range of films and videos for their rarity, historical significance and quality of performance. An 18-person team of film and video technicians and restoration artists was assembled by Apple Corps to undertake painstaking frame-by-frame cleaning, colour-grading, digital enhancement and new edits that took months of dedicated, ‘round-the-clock work to accomplish.
The result is a visual run down of The Beatles’ number one records, as well as the additional tracks on the bonus disc of Beatles 1+ that show the band in previously unseen standards of clarity and quality; many of the films and videos have never before been commercially released, in whole or in part.
Beatles 1 and Beatles 1+ offers the restored films, including 35mm negatives scanned in 4K and digitally restored with new stereo and 5.1 surround audio remixes, produced from the original analogue tapes by the GRAMMY® winning team of Giles Martin with Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios. For four of the videos, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have provided exclusive audio commentary and filmed introductions, respectively. The 1+ Deluxe Edition, presented in an expanded 124-page illustrated hardcover book includes ‘an appreciation’ of The Beatles’ ground-breaking films and videos by music journalist and author Mark Ellen and extensive, detailed track/video annotation by music historian and author Richard Havers.
“These videos and films are spectacular reminders of the era we lived in. They also rock!”
Paul McCartney
“II think it’s really interesting to see the videos we made, some of them incredible and some of them really incredible. How else would we have got to sit on a horse?”
Ringo Starr
Between 1962 and 1970, The Beatles released 27 No.1 hit singles in the U.S. and the U.K. In 2000, these timeless songs were collected for The Beatles 1, which topped the charts in 35 countries and became that decade’s bestselling album worldwide. 15 years later, 1 is revisited for this entirely new, visually-inspired presentation.
It’s The Beatles, as you’ve never seen them before.
Is Australia the very first country to see the new Beatles Remastered Stereo Vinyl Box Set delivered?
The new records aren’t due for release in the UK and the USA until next week (12 and 13 November respectively). However, today I got a call from my local record store in Sydney saying “Come on in – your order for the Beatles box set is ready for collection today“. (That’s Thursday, 8 November)
Naturally I high-tailed it down there – and here are the first pictures of it being unpacked. It comes in a big protective outer box:
The large sticker declaring the contents is placed on both sides of the box:
The two shipping labels on the side. Both say “Deliver Thursday”:
When you open the box you see what looks like another box-within-a-box:
It is held in place by two thick white foam inserts that you usually see in packaging for large electrical goods like TV’s, etc. At this point I should say this package is incredibly heavy. You actually have to lie it on its side to slide it out:
What initially looked like an inner box is actually a thick brown cardboard wrap around the main package (above). Once you take it off you see this:
It’s just like the Beatles Remastered Stereo CD box released in 2009. There’s a thin cardboard outer sleeve around the record box itself. As you can see above it has “The Beatles” and an Apple logo printed on the front. This is what’s printed on the rear:
The outer sleeve slides off to reveal the main, lidded box:
Opening the lid – there are two pieces of black foam and two large moisture absorbing packs:
The book and all the LPs are completely sealed in heat-shrink plastic:
“Let It Be” (below) has the green Apple on the rear:
The book is really heavy and looks amazing – even in its heat-shrink wrap:
It has black-edged pages:
One side of the outer sleeve has the record and book edges printed on it. I guess that’s so it’ll look good when sitting on a shelf with that edge facing out:
Well, that’s about it for now. Hope you enjoyed this. Haven’t had time to open up any of the records or the book. Just wanted to get this up quickly for all to have sneak peek at the new Beatles Remastered Stereo Vinyl Box Set.
Thanks to Beatles Blog reader scub75 for sending in the link to a brand new promo video for the soon-to-be released Beatles vinyl remasters. He says:
“Finally they’ve released the video of the vinyl remasters. This was posted on the official YouTube page of Norway EMI. I cannot wait for the release date to have my box set!”
If you look closely it confirms a lot of new details – including that the record labels will be accurate to the original time at which they would have been released, and that the book will be quite lavish with special printing techniques used.
Well the news is well and truly out, and as usual Wogblog had it pretty much ahead of of anybody else (see his posts here, here, here, here, andhere). The guy is amazing.
Apple and EMI are about to formally announce that the entire digitally remastered Beatles stereo back-catalogue (released on CD back in 2009) is finally to be released on vinyl. The albums will be available individually, or collected in a limited edition (50,000 copies) box set:
Accompanying the box will be a new 252 page hardbound book written by Beatles historian Kevin Howlett, with dedicated chapters for every album a wealth of photos – many not used in the 2009 CD booklets:
The box set will contain all twelve studio albums, plus “Magical Mystery Tour” and “Past Masters – Volumes 1 & 2”, all sourced from the original master tapes:
Pressed using 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl, the individual albums will also faithfully recreate the original artwork and come with the same extras as the original albums – for example the poster and four individual photographs with the “White Album”, and the cutout sheet and psychedelic inner sleave in “Sgt. Pepper”. As you can see below the labels (Parlophone and Apple) will be faithful to the originals too:
All-in-all this looks like it will have been worth the very long wait as a lot of time and effort has gone into preparing the vinyl for re-issue. Music Direct has some further technical information on the painstaking process of getting the vinyl properly and authentically pressed to an exacting standard.
The individual LPs and the box set and book will be released on November 12 in the UK and Europe, and on November 13 in the USA.
Some folks have been posting more information and pictures at the Steve Hoffman Music Forums – worth checking out for Beatles information and updates from time-to-time.
Someone put up a photo of the way the boxed sets are displayed in the store – usually at the end of an aisle like this:
As my copies are sealed and will probably stay that way I was interested to see some label images of the records inside:
Just a quick reminder about what we are talking about here:
And here are the copyright and other details on the bottom of one of the boxes – which I forgot to include on my earlier post. This one is for “Hello Goodbye”:
(If you’d like to see this slightly larger just click on the image above).
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?
It was released today (Friday, September 2) in Australia:
This is the re-issue, in newly remastered form, of “The Beatles 1” compilation which first came out in the year 2000. As the sticker on the front cover says: “27 Classic Number 1 Singles – Remastered”. Here’s the rear cover:
These are the remasters done at the same time as the big release of all the albums back in 2009. It comes in a cardboard gatefold sleeve that’s in the same format as all the 2009 re-issues.
Below is the front cover of the booklet, which despite some speculation that it would be different, has exactly the same 30 pages and layout as the 2000 issue:
Each page is dedicated to a particular song and gives the recording place and date, chart information and full colour photographs of various record sleeves of that single from around the world. Even the CD printing is the same as the 2000 issue:
The Beatles and iTunes have today announced that the three, boxed set “Anthology” series will be available for electronic download exclusively on iTunes from June 14.
The “Anthology” Volumes 1 – 3 (each originally released in 1995 and 1996 as three double CD sets) will be available for download separately. There will be an iTunes-exclusive “Anthology Box Set” with all 155 tracks from the three volumes combined, and there will also be an exclusive new 23-track “Anthology Highlights” collection of standout tracks from all three albums.
“Anthology” songs will also be available for individual download.
All tracks have been digitally remastered by the team of engineers at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios who were responsible for the remastering of all the Beatles original UK studio albums in 2009. The result, says the publicity, is “…the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release”. Sadly for collectors though there will be no physical CD’s or vinyl released. EMI Music has confirmed this with Steve Marinucci at Beatles Examiner.
A special “Anthology” video introduction and a “Meet The Beatles” radio show are available for free streaming at iTunes.com/TheBeatles starting today.
The “Meet The Beatles” radio show on the iTunes page has a 2 minute teaser, then three separate parts totaling just over 50 minutes. This is actually a cut-down version of a much longer three-part radio special called “Here, There and Everywhere” which was made for the launch of the Beatles Remastered catalogue in December 2009. It’s narrated by Paul Gambaccini and written and produced by Beatles historian Kevin Howlett.
To flesh that out a little, there’s a 3 CD, 1 Blu-ray (audio) plus hardback book super deluxe edition:
Beatles Blog 