Beatles Flac

In the mid-’70s, long after The Beatles had officially parted ways, John Lennon recorded a series of demos straight to cassette tape in his home in New York City. After his death in 1980, his wife, Yoko Ono, passed the tapes to the remaining Beatles, and in 1995, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison began work on a trio of new Beatles songs born from Lennon’s sketches. You’ve heard a couple of them before—“Real Love” and “Free as a Bird”—but one of them never came to fruition during those sessions.

So much has been said and written about the Beatles – and their story is so mythic in its sweep – that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and they introduced more innovations into popular music than any other group of their time. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline who were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and didn't let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity and never losing the ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience. Their supremacy as rock icons remains unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970. It's hard to convey the scope of the Beatles' achievements in a mere paragraph or two.

A superb-sounding double CD of alternate mixes and (just a few) actual alternate takes, named after the late Abbey Road engineer John Barrett, who catalogued and copied many Beatles vault tapes in the early '80s. At first glance, this appears to be a goldmine of unreleased Beatles goodies, spanning "From Me to You" to the Let It Be sessions, but read the fine print carefully. Most of the takes are in fact stereo and mono mixes that happen to be rare or commercially unavailable, not performances that are commercially unavailable. To some fans, these different mixes are revelations; to many, however, they are barely or completely indistinguishable from the familiar versions on official Beatles albums.

January 1969 – The Beatles planned to return to live performance, setting up in Twickenham Film Studios, London, for 21 days of rehearsals. They then decamped to their new studio in their Apple office building in Saville Row and on January 30th performed their last ever live group performance on the rooftop. All of this was filmed for a proposed documentary (eventually released in 1970).

This landmark compilation has introduced generations of fans to the incredible history of the most storied band in music. For its 50th anniversary, the collection has been expanded with 12 additional tracks added chronologically, including for the first time some of George Harrison’s earliest songs and some classic Beatles versions of R&B and rock ‘n’ roll hits that were so influential on the band.

As part of Radio 2's Great British Songbook, Bob Harris investigates the songs the Beatles gave away. The most popular group in the world for over 45 years, a recent issue of re-mastered albums saw four Top 10 entries in the UK chart, while their compilation '1' looks set to be America's biggest album this decade. The fevered excitement that accompanied every release in the 1960s is well documented but less is known about the music written, though not necessarily recorded or released, by the Beatles during the same decade.

The Beatles So much has been said and written about the Beatles – and their story is so mythic in its sweep – that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and they introduced more innovations into popular music than any other group of their time. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline who were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and didn't let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity and never losing the ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience.

Beatles covers are a dicey proposition at best. Even the most ingenious and unique rendition seems destined to suffer in comparison to the original, and the potential for failure is virtually limitless – either way, it's an idea as sound as remaking Citizen Kane with Pauly Shore in the title role. And yet artists are drawn to the Lennon/McCartney songbook like bees to honey, their desire to cover these songs best likened to a creative death wish – We Can Work It Out assembles 16 of these kamikaze missions, and believe it or not, despite the inevitable wreckage there's also a handful of survivors. Setting loose these familiar songs in jazz and funk modes far removed from the Beatles' original recordings enables greater room for personalization and innovation, and the artists featured here are hardly slouches, either – Ike & Tina Turner (who know a thing or two about making covers their own – ask John Fogerty) deliver a gritty, low-down version of "Come Together," Stevie Wonder invests "We Can Work It Out" with the boundless optimism and sensitivity of his own music, and Earth, Wind & Fire update McCartney's Motown tribute "Got to Get You Into My Life" in accordance with the updated rules of the soul handbook. A bonus-mix CD courtesy of 4hero's Marc Mac rounds out a set far better than it has any right to be. (AMG)