THE BEATLES 1962-1966; 1967-1970 3 x LP/ 2 x CD – 2023 (EMI/ Apple)

The last reissue of “The Beatles 1962-1966” was in 2014, if memory serves, and a new copy can still be bought on Amazon for around £40. The track listing was Love Me Do/ Please, Please Me/ From Me to You/She Loves You/ I Want to Hold Your Hand/ All My Loving/ Can’t Buy Me Love/ A Hard Day’s Night/ And I Love Her/ Eight Days A Week/ I Feel Fine/Ticket to Ride/ Yesterday (LP 1); Help!/ You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away/ We Can Work it Out/ Day Tripper/Drive My Car/ Norwegian Wood (This Bird has Flown)/ Nowhere Man/ In My Life/ Michelle/ In My Life/ Girl/ Paperback Writer/ Eleanor Rigby/ Yellow Submarine. It was first released in 1973. A third LP adds twelve tracks: I Saw Her Standing There/ Twist and Shout/ This Boy/ Roll over Beethoven/ You Really Got AaHold on Me/ You Can’t Do That/ If I Needed Someone/ Got to Get You Into My Life/ I’m Only Sleeping/ Taxman/ Here, There and Everywhere/ Tomorrow Never Knows.

A near mint/ very good+ (record grading first) early pressing can be found on DISCOGS for £20 + P&P. Comments on these include “sound is amazing – crisp, detailed, and they are not expensive.” This latest group of remixes/ remasters are retailing at £75 in my local HMV, but can be found online sold by the likes of NORMAN RECORDS at £10 less, and with free postage if you add something priced £10 or over into your order (£75 worth = free P&P).

A run-down now on the track listing for “The Beatles 1967-1970” (the mix years are in brackets): Strawberry Fields Forever (2017)/ Penny Lane (2017)/ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2017)/ With A Little Help from My Friends (2017)/ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (2017)/ A Day in the Life (2017)/ All You Need is Love (2015)/ (LP 1)/ I Am the Walrus (2023)/ Hello Goodbye (2015)/ The Fool on the Hill (2023)/ Magical Mystery Tour (2023)/ Lady Madonna (2023)/ Hey Jude (2015)/ Revolution (2023) (LP 1)/ Back in the USSR (2018)/ While My Guitar Gently Weeps (2018)/ Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (2018)/ Get Back (2015)/ Don’t Let Me Down (2021)/ The Ballad of John and Yoko (2015)/ Old Brown Shoe (2023)/ Here Comes the Sun (2019)/ Come Together (2019)/ Something (2019)/ Octopus’s Garden (2019)/ Let It Be (2021)/ Across the Universe (2021)/ The Long and Winding Road (2021) (LP 2)/ Now and Then (2023)/ Blackbird (2018)/ Dear Prudence (2018)/ Glass Onion (2018)/ Within You Without You (2017)/ Hey Bulldog (2023)/ Oh! Darling (2019)/ I Me Mine (2021)/ I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (2019) (LP 3).

It's hard to find a near mint early pressing of this album. When you consider that a lot of people consider this the greatest collection of songs of all-time (and I find it hard to disagree) then I would imagine they would be much played!! Still, around £40 might be the market value. So, I suppose when you compare that to a brand-new compilation, with what I would regard as six essentials it’s not bad value – and there are always the double CD options at around £25. You must also take into consideration that there is a 36-page booklet and 180-gram half-speed mastering. Some people have been asking why not ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ – well they have already appeared on the “Anthology” albums, and there surely would have better contenders as bonus tracks. Although I have not personally heard them (would have to be on a quality deck – horrified to see an advert for a cheap record player alongside the Amazon advert), I will, of course, take other people’s words of “utterly amazing” and “outstanding” in relation to the sound.