It was always odd that there wasn’t a CD single of “the Beatles last ever single” included in the long-awaited big release announcement last week.
Well, now there is.
A CD single, in what looks to be a simple cardboard slipcase, has belatedly appeared on the official UK Beatles site:
Like all other formats, the CD will feature ‘Now and Then’, plus the 2023 stereo remix of ‘Love Me Do’.
The release date is 3 November – exactly the same date as all the other formats – which suggests that physical product has been prepared and is ready to go out to stores. So why was it not part of the launch last week? Did somebody at Apple/Universal Music stuff up?
So far the CD single only appears on the UK Beatle store site but we’d expect it to pop up elsewhere during the day.
By now you’ll be aware that there’s a brand new Beatle song coming. It is called ‘Now and Then’ and is the last Beatles song ever to be released.
Like the singles ‘Free As a Bird’ (1995) and ‘Real Love’ (1996) before it, ‘Now and Then’ is all four Beatles contributing additional music and vocals to a cassette demo that John Lennon was working on in the late 1970’s but never got to properly record. It will now be released in 2023 as a vinyl single (in a variety of colours, plus as a 12″ single), and as a cassette (or a “cassingle” as we used to say), on November 3.
The new single has ‘Love Me Do’, the song that started it all off for the band, on the other side. So, it is listed as a “Double A Side”. The ‘Love Me Do’ news is that it is in stereo in a 2023 mix!
The colours for the 7″ are:
And an exclusive Beatles Shop blue/white marble 7″. Also available at some independent record stores:
There is also a 12″ single.
It’s a little confusing as to whether this is also available on red vinyl. It’s shown on the front page of the official Beatle announcement site, but when you click through to purchase it is not on either the US or UK stores.
Not finished with vinyl yet…..on some official sites there have been links to a black vinyl 10″ pressing. Take the French Beatles store for example:
The 10″ was listed briefly on the UK official site too – as a “Spotify Fans First” exclusive – but the link provided no longer seems to work. However, it is still up on the US Beatles Store, Universal Music Canada, and the Universal Music Brazil sites – but with all now showing as ‘Sold Out’. Strangely it is still for sale on the Universal Music Columbia site though!
In 2022, Paul and Ringo set about completing the song. Besides John’s demo vocal (now much enhanced quality thanks to the use of new technology developed by film director Peter Jackson and his audio team for the Get Back documentary series) ‘Now And Then’ includes electric and acoustic guitar recorded in 1995 by George, Ringo’s new drum part, and bass, guitar and piano from Paul, which matches John’s original playing. Paul added a slide guitar solo inspired by George; he and Ringo also contributed backing vocals to the chorus.
Then in Los Angeles, Paul oversaw a Capitol Studios recording session for the song’s Beatlesque string arrangement, written by Giles Martin, Paul and Ben Foster. Paul and Giles also added one last touch: backing vocals from the original recordings of ‘Here, There And Everywhere’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Because’, which are woven into the new song using the techniques perfected during the making of the LOVE show and album. The finished track was produced by Paul and Giles, and mixed by Spike Stent. Can’t wait to hear it!
Just by the way, the cover artwork is by celebrated US artist Ed Ruscha. That’s a Paul McCartney influence right there because Ruscha did the cover art (in all it’s many variations) for the McCartney III, McCartney III Imagined releases, and the box set McCartney 1,2,3.
Coincidentally, Ruscha is the subject of a major retrospective currently showing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It’s title? “Now Then”. You can see a short CBS News interview and retrospective about the man here.
As if all this wasn’t enough, on November 10, The Beatles’ 1962-1966 (aka The Red Album) and The Beatles 1967-1970 (aka The Blue Album) collections are to be released in 2023 Edition packages.
Both collections have been expanded, with all the songs mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos. Together both sets contain 75 tracks, 36 of which have new mixes for 2023. The booklets will contain new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris.
The UK single version of ‘Love Me Do’ now kicks off the CD version of The Beatles 1962-1966 (2023 Edition) – now expanded with 12 additional tracks added chronologically. ‘Now And Then’ ends the CD version of The Beatles 1967-1970 (2023 Edition) – now expanded with 9 additional tracks also added chronologically – to complete the career-spanning CD collections. Both are 2CD sets.
But is is different with the vinyl.
The Red and the Blue will have the first two discs just as they were originally released when they were double LPs, with the third disc containing all the expanded material. In other words, 12 extra tracks on Disc 3 for the Red, and 9 extra tracks Disc 3 for the Blue. Quite a different approach to the CD. No slotting in the newly added songs in chronological order here. In fact the new song ‘Now and Then’ is Track 1 of Side 6 of the Blue. A little bit odd.
Both are 180 gram Half Speed Mastered. They will be available on black vinyl separately as triple LP sets, and they’ll be sold together as a 6LP box set:
The Beatles Store is also offering exclusive limited editions of the box set and individual albums on red and blue colour vinyl:
And here’s the CD packaging:
And a 4CD collections will pair the Red and Blue in a slip-cased set.
The new music video for ‘Now And Then’ will debut on Friday, November 3. It is directed by Peter Jackson.
There’s also going to be a short “making of” documentary film released on November 1. Here’s the teaser:
If you’ve been following any of the forums you’ll be aware that speculation has been rife over the last month or so about new Beatle or Beatle-related releases. Now Ringo Starr has emerged as the first to announce a new release for the Summer.
His record – another EP in what is quickly becoming a series – is called Rewind Forward. It contains four new songs – one of which is written, produced and played on by Paul McCartney.
Rewind Forward is available to pre-order on the official Ringo Starr Store website from today ahead of its release on October 13, 2023.
It is available on digital, cassette, CD, and on 10” black vinyl.
Also, the title track ‘Rewind Forward’ will be available to stream or purchase everywhere this Friday August 25, 2023.
The EP features four new songs: 1. Shadows On The Wall 2. Feeling The Sunlight 3. Rewind Forward 4. Miss Jean
Paul McCartney wrote ‘Feeling The Sunlight’. He also produced and, according to rumours, sings and plays four instruments on the track. So, it’ll be interesting to hear that one.
As to the ongoing speculation about a new Beatle release…..
In 2021 Ringo’s EP Change The World preceded the release of the super deluxe edition of Let It Be in 2021, and his last EP (simply called EP3) preceded Revolver last year. So, theoretically, are we all clear now for a big Beatles announcement?
In addition to the two Dark Horse Records releases that came out on Record Store Day just past (see our post here), there are two more physical titles from the newly-revitalised label you might like to track down.
The first came out just a couple of weeks prior to Record Store Day.
Its the late, great Leon Russell’s Signature Songs, an album of solo piano and vocal recordings originally released in 2001 and which has been long out-of-print since.
Signature Songs features stripped-down, unique takes of songs from across Russell’s long and illustrious songwriting career. Songs you will definitely know either recorded by him, or the many artists who covered his songs and had hits with them: ‘A Song For You’, ‘Tight Rope’, ‘Delta Lady’, ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’, and the classic ‘This Masquerade’.
Signature Songs is available on CD, digital download, and is now pressed on vinyl for the very first time.
Here’s the hype sticker:
And the label:
Sometimes you just have to bide your time when it comes to waiting for new releases.
We reported way back in January 2022 that the Mobile Fidelity company intended to issue an audiophile pressing of the1974 George Harrison-produced Dark Horse album Shankar Family ૐ Friends. On it Indian musical virtuosos Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha, Ashish Khan, Kamala Chakravarty, Hariprasad Chaurasia are joined by Western musos like Ringo Starr, David Bromberg, Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voorman and Tom Scott.
Well, truth is we’re still waiting for this one, so you’ll have to be patient.
But, there has been movement at the station…
A press release page has appeared on the Mobile Fidelity website inviting pre-orders. Still no firm release date sadly, but at least you can now pre-order and secure this Dark Horse “Beatle-related” extra for your collection:
The Record Store Day 2023 release list has just come out and come April 23 there’ll be at least three titles of interest to Beatle collectors.
Probably the most interesting and hard-to-get will be a re-imagining of John Lennon’sGimme Some Truth best-of compilation which is being re-issued as a boxset containing 9 x 10” white vinyl EPs. Each EP will feature four tracks. Only 500 copies of this will be produced, hence the ‘hard-to-get’ moniker….
Next is the highly speculated 50th anniversary release of Paul McCartney’sRed Rose Speedway in limited edition, Half Speed Master vinyl form:
According to the RSD list there will be 5,000 pressed so this should be much easier to secure. It follows similar Half Speed Master editions of McCartney, Wings Wild Life and RAM.
Then there’s a re-issue of the 1981 Ringo Starr title Stop and Smell the Roses. This is being re-issued on vinyl as a 2LP with six bonus tracks for the first time. It will come in a gatefold with printed inner sleeves, original record labels and specialty color vinyl described as lava lamp effect clear red/white for LP1 and lava lamp effect clear red/pink for LP2. There are 2,500 copies being pressed.
Stop and Smell the Roses will also be issued on RSD as a CD (500 copies).
But wait, there is a George connection too. Dark Horse, the record label he started up (now run by son Dhani Harrison) is releasing not one but two LPs.
The first is by Stairsteps, a band originally signed to the label back in 1975. For Record Store Day 2023 we’ll see their 1976 album 2nd Resurrection re-issued on black vinyl. Billy Preston played synthesizer and served as co-producer alongside Robert Margouleff.
Dark Horse will also have a 20th Anniversary edition of the Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros album Streetcore as a limited edition pressing on white vinyl for RSD:
We’ve had readers doing a lot more detective work and research into the photographs that Klaus Voormann used for his collage and line drawings for the famous Revolver cover.
In case you’ve missed it the story on our blog started here and here when we stumbled across a terrific montage detailing all the then known images used for the cover.
Turns out the author of that montage was Ukrainian Beatle fan Sergey, one of our readers! He wrote to us letting us know he’d first created it (way back in 2012!) for a Russian Beatles discussion forum called beatles.ru.
Sergey has since tracked down the source of the image of Ringo used as inspiration for the line drawing of him Klaus placed at the bottom left of the Revolver cover – the one where he is looking skywards.
We’re still not sure of the photographer, but it was published in a German booklet Das sind die Beatles which features a series of black-and-white photographs and short comments about each. It was produced by Bravo magazine for the 1966 Bravo Blitztournee tour, under the auspices of Beat Publication Ltd. The photographer details are not indicated, but Sergey sent us these photographs of the actual publication:
We then published what we feel is another piece in the mystery – the photograph of John Lennon that was very likely the inspiration for Klaus’s line drawing of John at the top right-hand side of Revolver. You can read about that here.
That prompted two other readers – Tom and burnham42 – to offer up even more clues. These revolve around the source images for the three small Beatle faces (and two hands) on this part of the cover:
burnham42 wrote:
I think the one of the three small photos top left is in The Beatles Anthology book page 70 (in my French edition). You can also find it on pinterest. The photo was taken on the way to Hamburg. There is John, Paul, George and Gerry and the Pacemakers in the photo. The man on the floor (George?) is pulling a face and you even have the hands that Klaus also used.
Well, drag out your English edition of The Beatles Anthology book too if you have one because the image is also on page 70 there as well:
The Anthology Book says the photo is from George Harrison’s private collection. The caption in the book reads: In a lay-by on the road to Hamburg and the Ost See. Me, Paul and John with Gerry and the Pacemakers.
We have George and Paul, who are standing on the left, and John sitting on the ground pulling a funny face.
Voormann has cut out three sections of this image. Paul has been placed to the left, his raised arm now just below George’s face. And he’s cropped John’s face to make it appear he has a Beatles hair-cut, and tilted it so that it is more upright. His hand from the image is also used, but also at a different angle.
So, one more mystery solved!
Following all this, Sergey has been back in touch and has offered up a revised, updated version of his original Revolver cover “sources” montage. Here it is:
Please click on the image to see a larger version.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Concert for George event at London’s Royal Albert Hall on November 29 2002, the Harrison Estate, film distribution company Abramorama, and Craft Recordings have announced a global theatrical screening of the film of the same name.
The Concert for George is to be shown – for one night only – in select theatres around the world on November 29, 2022:
First released in 2003, the GRAMMY®-winning concert film captures the concert event which celebrated in spectacular style the life and music of George Harrison. It features performances by Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Ravi Shankar, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston and many others.
You now have the opportunity to experience the concert on the big screen in immersive Dolby Atmos sound for the first time – newly remastered by GRAMMY-winning engineer Paul Hicks. The anniversary screenings will also feature a brand-new introduction by Olivia and Dhani Harrison.
Paul Hicks has also produced a new Dolby Atmos mix for the film’s accompanying Concert for George soundtrack album – available now on digital platforms. Listen here.
Certified 8 x Platinum by the RIAA, the acclaimed 27-track album is also still available in a variety of existing physical formats including a 180-gram 4-LP box set; 2-CD/2-DVD and 2-CD/2-Blu-Ray box set; and a 2-CD package. Order here.
This is a really special film of what was an amazing, star-studded tribute to George filled with top performances of his songs. It would be well worth seeing again on the big screen, and with great sound.
With the 2022 remaster and remix of The Beatles‘ Revolver album due to hit stores next month, there’s renewed interest in solving some of the remaining mysteries of just where cover designer Klaus Voormann sourced all those little images that make up the collage he created for this now-famous cover:
As you know last year we published an article about the latest thinking. There were still at least four images (circled in yellow) that remain mysterious as to their source (click on the image to see a larger version):
Now at least three of those four yellow circles have been solved (to an extent) by German fan and YouTuber, Yaacov (Jack) Edisherashvili.
Jack actually took a trip to visit Klaus Voormann in person and spoke with him about the Revolver cover. While there he asked him about where he’d sourced some of those photos.
You can see that video below. It’s interesting because in this first video Klaus talks about the cover and how it will be explained in the new book that’ll be included in the new 2022 release:
After Jack visited Klaus he wrote to us to say:
“The image on the top left corner – the three faces – was never published. This was given privately to Klaus by the band.
The Ringo image – on top right corner – Klaus says was shot on a boat trip.
The John Lennon image with cigarette – I forgot to ask, but looks to me taken from press conference pictures?“
So, that’s more information than we’ve had previously. Following his visit to Klaus, Jack has also uploaded this comprehensively researched YouTube with a detailed breakdown of the Revolver cover:
As you can see still a couple of mysteries remain.
If anyone knows the origins of the John Lennon photo with the cigarette – please let us know.
Also, two other outstanding questions are around the origins of the image of Ringo that Klaus used as inspiration for the drawing at the bottom left of the Revolver cover. Where was it published and who’s the photographer? And also the George image on the right – same questions:
The complete list of Record Store Day Black Friday 2022 titles has been issued and there are a couple of Beatle-related items of interest for collectors.
Black Friday titles will go on sale Friday, November 25 and are only available through at brick and mortar independent record stores.
For Dark Horse Records fans there’s an interesting LP Dark Horse Records – The Best Of 1974-1977 (not to be confused with an album with a similar title by George Harrison from 1989 called The Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989).
This one is a newly-curated selection exclusive to RSD Black Friday of the artists discovered by, and in some cases produced by George Harrison, and includes two tracks each from Ravi Shankar, Stairsteps (formerly known as The Five Stairsteps), Splinter, Attitudes (featuring Jim Keltner, David Foster, Danny Kortchmar and Paul Stallworth), and Henry McCullough (Wings and Joe Cocker’s Grease Band). There’s also one track each from Keni Burke, and the band Jiva.
Ringo Starr fans are well-catered for this time around. There’s not one but five Black Friday releases.
The most interesting of these is the re-issue of a fairly obscure Ringo release called Old Wave. This originally came out in 1983, but only in limited places. Looking at the Discogs site it appears to have been released on vinyl only in Germany, Spain, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil. It did get a CD release in the US in 1994. But that’s about it. Critically known as “Ringo’s most overlooked album” and “Ringo’s solo masterpiece”, it was produced by Joe Walsh and Russ Ballard. It is set to be re-issued in 2022 on CD and on LP. The vinyl package includes an OBI strip, single album jacket, printed inner sleeve, original record labels and comes in a special brown and white smoke color vinyl. It also includes a bonus track available for the first time on vinyl “As Far As We Can Go (Early Version)”:
Here’s the CD image for Ringo’sOld Wave. It gets the bonus track as well and, as yiu can see in the list above there will only be 500 copies made available (in the US at least):
The other two RSD Black Friday releases on the list for Ringo are what is becoming the obligatory coloured vinyl editions of his 1977 LP, Ringo The 4th. This time they’ve announced two different colours. One in translucent orange (1000 copies) and the other in translucent blue (also 1000 copies). We are told the LP’s will be house in a gatefold cover with rare photos and lyrics.
But hey. Wait just a minute. Didn’t they also announce this exact same thing for RSD proper on April 23 this year!?
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