The Beatles Remasters – packaging

© 2009 Apple Corps Ltd/EMI

The stereo boxed set features the albums Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles (White Album), Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, Let It Be & Past Masters Vols. 1 & 2.

The remastered Sgt Pepper © 2009 Apple Corps Ltd./EMI

The first four albums feature the stereo mixes, available on legal CD’s for the first time. Help! and Rubber Soul contain the 1987 stereo mixes by George Martin which were done for the original CD’s.
The bonus content on all original albums (not including Past Masters) is a minidocumentary which tells the story of the album using original footage from the Beatles’ own archive as well as other rare footage and the voice-over is entirely spoken by the Beatles themselves and George Martin. The video comes as a Quicktime file for playing on your computer. These mini-documentaries are also packed onto a single DVD which is exclusive to the stereo box set and will not be available anyway else!

The remastered Abbey Road © 2009 Apple Corps Ltd./EMI

All the single albums are housed in triple panel card packages using conservation grade FSC paper and now come with a set of historical notes on each album to accompany recording notes on the actual process of making the records at the time. The Beatles (White Album) comes in a four panel case and includes the original poster from the vinyl release resized for CD. Lastly, the two Past Masters albums have been combined into one pack as a double CD.

We don’t know why the stereo box is so tall, maybe because of the DVD case? © 2009 Apple Corps Ltd./EMI

This set is due to remain on catalogue although EMI tell us that the price will increase after it has been released. Also, the quicktime mini documentaries on the individual album discs will be removed after the initial run of pressings. The extra DVD in the boxed set will remain, we hope.

© 2009 Apple Corps Ltd/EMI

The Beatles in Mono boxed set features the albums Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles (White Album) & Mono Masters Vols. 1 & 2. Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, Let It Be and the documentary DVD are NOT included. However…
The Help! And Rubber Soul discs feature the original 1965 stereo mixes of the albums as well as the mono. These were previously only available on rare CD’s in Canada, due to a mix-up at Capitol/EMI!

© 2009 Apple Corps Ltd/EMI

Past Masters has been renamed Mono Masters and the second disc is slightly different. Ballad Of John & Yoko, Old Brown Shoe and Let It Be are replaced with Only A Northern Song, All Together Now, Hey Bulldog & It’s All Too Much. These titles from the Yellow Submarine soundtrack were originally scheduled for release on an EP in 1969. There is an essay in the Mono Masters booklet that explains in some detail the history of these recordings.
All the albums (apart from Mono Masters) come in their original vinyl-style packaging reduced in exquisite detail to CD-sized format. This includes everything from the recreation of the vinyl label (printed on the CD itself) to the paper inner sleeve complete with the original text. The jackets themselves are exact reproductions of the original UK vinyl releases and since they are being manufactured in Japan, they are of the very highest quality and had the very highest possible attention to detail in the production.
This set will be limited! The rumours say 10 000, but we do not have any information whether that number is on a world basis, just the USA or just Amazon. EMI tell us that they are hoping to supply all their orders but this depends on demand. Please order early to avoid any potential disappointment!
To pre-order, click on the appropriate link below.
Amazon (UK)
Amazon (USA)