It took until last Christmas to listen to the Beatles’ studio albums on streaming services but, even then, there was still a sizeable gap in their repertoire that did not make it from analogue to digital. However, on April 4, at 12.01 am, the Fab Four offered a remastered version of their Anthology albums across all major streaming services.
Anthology (volumes 1-3), which were originally released as two-disc sets, the first volume in 1995 and, the balance two, in 1996 included rare and previously unreleased recordings, plus studio outtakes, alternate versions, and their singles Free As A Bird and Real Love. Each of the collections sold multi-platinum quantities across several countries, whereas Free As A Bird (the song being completed by George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr from a 1977 demo originally recorded by John Lennon) became the Beatles’ 34th ‘Top 10’ hit in the U.S. which, at the time of release, was 25 years after the break-up of the band and 15 years after the demise of Lennon. For those interested, Free As A Bird was co-produced by Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), who had worked on Harrison’s 1987 album, Cloud Nine, and as part of the Traveling Wilburys with him. Free As A Bird won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance By A Duo or Group With Vocal.
The same group of engineers who worked on the band’s Grammy-winning 2009 studio album remasters remastered all three volumes at Abbey Road studios. Tracks from the Anthology albums can be heard on major international streaming services now, including Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play, Microsoft Groove, Prime Music, Rhapsody, and Spotify, among others, as well as on local streaming partners across the world, including India.
While the surviving Beatles and the executors of the demised members’ estates should be commended for the ongoing digital initiatives, there still remains a massive catalogue of unreleased content, at least for streaming. For instance, The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl, a live album first released in May 1977, which was compiled from two performances by the band at the legendary Hollywood Bowl in August 1964 and in August 1965, is one of them. Although the album was a huge hit when released —peaking at second in the U.S. and first in the U.K. —the album was only released on vinyl, and on no other format since.
Then there is 2003’s Let It Be Naked, a remixed and remastered version of the band’s 1970 album, Let It Be, a project that was initiated by member Paul McCartney, who felt aggrieved that producer Phil Spector did not accurately reflect the band’s “stripped-down” intent and, hence, reference to “Naked” in the album name at the time of re-release. Love is another Beatles album, the genesis of which occurred in 2006 when Beatles producer George Martin, who passed away on 8th March this year, and his son, Giles Martin, remixed 80 minutes of Beatles music for the Las Vegas stage performance called Love, a joint venture between Cirque du Soleil and the Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd. There is also the band’s better compilation, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, ’which I had purchased as a double-vinyl disc from the now historic retail outlet, Mumbai’s Rhythm House, in 1976 but, unfortunately, it was never issued on CD.
The Beatles’ discography remains further complicated as their U.K. album releases and those released in the U.S. had separate track listings. Although A Hard Day’s Night (1964), Help! (1965), Rubber Soul (1965), and Revolver (1966) were released in the U.S., they all contained alternative tracks to the British counterparts. It was only after Revolver, with the release of 1967’s Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, that the track listings, across both sides of the Atlantic, achieved conformity.
Several U.S.-released albums (Meet the Beatles!, Something New — of which I have a German vinyl pressing that contains “I Want To Hold Your Hand” sung in German —‘Beatles ‘65’, all released in 1964, and more) are still not available for streaming but, hopefully, with one of the guarded album bastions giving way with the release of Anthology, the balance Beatles albums should also water down into streaming!
Beatles’ 10 most popular albums on a leading global streaming site 1) 1 [2000] 2) Abbey Road [1969] 3) The White Album [1968] 4) Let It Be [1970] 5) Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band [1967] 6) Revolver [1966] 7) Rubber Soul [1965] 8) Magical Mystery Tour [1967] 9) Please Please Me [1963] 10) Help! [1965]
(The writer has been part of the media and entertainment business for over 23 years. He still continues to pursue his hobby, and earns an income out of it.)
