Fall 2002 - New Releases

New and Upcoming Releases

It Was 40 Years Ago: October 2002 marks the 40th anniversary date of the Beatles first single release in the UK, "Love Me Do". In addition to speculation regarding the release of the Beatles Anthology video series on DVD, there have been unconfirmed reports regarding how the surviving Beatles and Apple Corp. will recognize this milestone:

The release of a 2 Disc, 50 track 'ultimate compilation' album as soon as October. This set is hoped to repeat the success of the Beatles "1" CD and will serve as a more condensed version of the Beatles' "1962-1966" and "1967-1970" double disc sets. Update (08/30/02): While The Beatles "1" album re-entered the Billboard Top 200 album chart at #98, it appears that plans for the above compilation have been scrapped: "While Paul McCartney's spokesman Geoff Baker told NME.COM that plans for such a one-off Greatest Hits set were "bullshit" he admitted "a lot of exciting things are in the pipeline", all due to appear in October."
The release of the Beatles' individual albums in deluxe 40th anniversary editions, possibly in the DVD Audio format. This will commence in 2003 with 'Please Please Me' and 'With The Beatles'.

My comments: Since the Beatles "1" CD is still fairly recent, it is too soon for another CD compilation, however well done it might be.

It would be a good idea to release a DVD set of the Beatles' promotional video clips, unedited and in state of the art quality. However, for the immediate future, I would still like to see the release of the Beatles' Anthology video series on DVD (in tandem with the reissue of the Anthology book in paperback).

The 2nd idea has merit. The 1987 Beatles CDs really do need an upgrade.

The period from late August - early December is usually an intense period for Beatles related product, with some effort by Apple to stagger it's release schedule around the various solo projects. The following table is my effort to make sense of what can be a rather confusing time of year:

Date	Artist	Title	Format
August 6th (US) August 27th (Canada)	Ringo Starr	"The King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Ringo Starr"	CD
September 11th	Paul McCartney / Wings	"Wingspan: Paul McCartney's Band on the Run"	Book
September 17th	John Lennon & Yoko Ono	"John & Yoko's Year of Peace"	DVD and VHS
September 24th	Beatles	"A Hard Day's Night"	DVD - 2 Disc Collector's Edition
October 1st	Various Artists (including Paul McCartney)	"Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records"	DVD and VHS
October 1st	Ringo Starr	Ringo Starr and his New All Starr Band - recorded live in concert (Chicago, August 2001)	DVD
October 7th (UK) November 5th (US)	John Lennon	Mind Games reissue with bonus tracks	CD
October	Beatles	"Beatles Anthology" reissue	Book (paperback edition)
November 4th	George Harrsion	"I Me Mine" reissue	Book (new intro by Olivia Harrison)
November 19th	George Harrison	"Brainwashed" (his final album)	CD
November 26th	Paul McCartney	"Back In The U.S."	DVD
November	Paul McCartney	"Back In The U.S."	CD
Spring 2003	Beatles	"Beatles Anthology"	DVD (4 or 5 Disc Set)

Please Note: In the UK, it is customary for new CDs to be released a day before the US and Canada. The difference will be indicated if it's more significant.

Go Back To: The Beatles: From Abbey Road To Cyberspace .