Tag Archives: Music

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.

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – 40th Anniversary

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Now in its 40th year – the peace campaign and song by John Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Plastic Ono Band and the Harlem Community Choir.

The single “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)” was released in December, 1971 in the United States (but due to a publishing dispute not until November the following year in the UK and worldwide). Here are some single releases from around the world – not all in my collection! (On most images you can click to see a larger version):

To find out more and to download the original poster in your language and in a range of sizes just click here.  And keep praying for peace in the world.

Happy Xmas (War is Over)

McCartney – The Love We Make

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This new McCartney feature film, made by Albert Mayles (of “The Beatles First US Visit” fame), is now out on BlueRay, on DVD, and as a digital download:

If you’d like to see this trailer in a larger format click here. And there are some short comments and further information on the film here.

The Mammoth Book of the Beatles

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Stumbled across yet another discount book this week. Not bad for A$5.95:

“The Mammoth Book of the Beatles” contains a LOT of information across its 594 pages.

This is a compilation book edited by Sean Egan who has gathered together more than 30 contemporary accounts, articles, and interviews about the Beatles (from Maureen Cleave’s “Beatles Bigger than Christ” feature, to their debunking in the News of the World just before the release of “Sgt Pepper”. Hmmm. Good timing News of the World. It was a dodgy newspaper back then, too). There are also latter-day memoirs and re-assessments. Contributors include Paul Gambaccini, Dave Marsh, Greil Marcus and Alan Clayson. There’s also a short section on the Beatles cartoon series – written by Mitch Axelrod (from the Fab Forum radio show and podcast). The book also includes reviews of each album and single release, interviews, and a comprehensive Beatles and solo Beatles UK discography.

Published by Constable and Robinson in the UK, and by Running Press in the US. I have the US paperback edition that came out in 2009.

There’s a pretty good review of the book here by blogger David Marx.

Guitar World Magazine “Ultimate Beatles” Edition

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Guitar World magazine in the US has released a special holiday edition that focuses on the Beatles as guitarists. They are calling it their “ultimate guide” to the recordings, songs and gear of the band.

The issue is devoted to an in-depth examination of the Beatles 13 albums – from “Please Please Me” to “Let It Be” – and includes commentary culled from original interviews with producer George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick and Alan Parsons.  The magazine explores the Beatles through their musical instruments and the unique recording equipment inside EMI’s Abbey Road studios.

According to the press release I was sent by the magazine, each album is explored in detail – from the story behind its creation to the guitars and amps used in its making, for example the George Harrison Rickenbacker 360 12-string guitar used on “A Hard Day’s Night” and numerous other classic-era songs, as well as his custom-made rosewood Fender Telecaster, used during the making of  “Let It Be”. There’s also behind the scenes stories of selected tracks from each album including “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Ticket to Ride,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and others.

The Holiday 2011 issue of Guitar World is out now. To find out more visit the magazine’s website.

 

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.

Beatles Target Ltd Release Singles – Part 2

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Here’s some more on the limited edition Beatles 45 and tee-shirt packs only available at Target stores in the US.

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).

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.