The Beatles have announced a new boxset, comprised of their 1964 US albums and celebrating six decades of Beatlemania.
The forthcoming collection sees albums by the iconic Liverpool band – originally compiled for US release between January 1964 and March 1965 by Capitol Records and United Artists – re-released to mark the huge milestone.
It consists of seven albums made by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, each of which have been analogue cut for 180-gram audiophile vinyl from their original mono master tapes.
Titled ‘The Beatles: 1964 US Albums In Mono’, the eight LP, 180g vinyl box set is set to arrive globally on November 22 via Apple Corps Ltd., Capitol and UMe. You can pre-order it here.
The albums included are ‘Meet The Beatles!’, which was first shared on January 20 1964, and spent 11 weeks at the top of the charts, ‘The Beatles’ Second Album’, which arrived on April 10 of that same year and had five weeks in the Number One spot, and ‘A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Sound Track)’, which came out in June and had 14 weeks atop the charts.
Also included are ‘Something New’ (July 20), ‘The Beatles’ Story’ (November 23), ‘Beatles ‘65’ (December 15) and ‘The Early Beatles’. The latter was shared on March 22, 1965 and peaked at Number 43 on the charts.
Each of the new reissues features faithfully replicated artwork and new four-panel inserts containing essays written by American Beatles historian and author Bruce Spizer.
The albums’ new vinyl lacquers were cut by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios, and the box set collects the seven albums. All of them – barring ‘The Beatles’ Story’ – are also available individually.
“1964 was a banner year for The Beatles in the US (and all around the world), even by the band’s own ‘toppermost of the poppermost’ standards,” reads a press release. “The Beatles racked up 17 US Top 40 singles including six Number Ones, six Top 10 albums including four Number Ones, and a blockbuster film. By year’s end, Capitol had sold more than 15 million Beatles records.”
It continues: “60 years on, Beatlemania is timeless. The Beatles’ beacon is alight evermore, renewed with the wonder of each generation’s joyful discovery and in creative exploration of the band’s music and cultural eminence by musicians, filmmakers, writers, and other fans of all stripes.”
Find a trailer for the new release above.
In other Beatles news, earlier this year it was reported that fans of the Liverpool four-piece will now be able to stay at one of the earliest venues the band played in, as it has been turned into an Airbnb.
Before then, Snoop Dogg revealed that Paul McCartney told him to not put out his blunt when the pair met each other, and news was shared that George Harrison’s 1971 ‘Concert For Bangladesh’ live album, featuring Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and more, was set to arrive across streaming platforms for the first time.
Elsewhere, rumours about the cast of Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles biopics came together – with Charlie Rowe speculated to be playing Harrison, while Lennon will be played by Harris Dickinson, Barry Keoghan plays Starr and Paul Mescal reportedly portrays McCartney.
Earlier this week, NME gave One To One: John & Yoko a glowing five-star review, and praised it for “combining a wealth of archive material with some thrilling concert footage” to “capture the couple at a fascinating time in their lives, when Lennon was forging a post-Beatles life for himself as a social activist.”
