New French Remastered Beatles CD

The Beatles: Love Me Do Magic Records 3930949   9,90€

There’s a new Beatles CD from Magic Records in France available, containing the Polydor Beatles songs from 1961 and 1962 mixed in with the two “temporarily out of copyright in Europe” 1962 EMI titles “Love Me Do” and it’s B-side “P.S. I Love You”. What’s interesting is that the CD has been assembled by noted French Beatles author Erik Krasker and his associate Laurent Giacomelli, who assures us that they spent a lot of time to select the tracks from the best available sources, and that they all were remastered in high resolution 96Khz-24bit.

The tracklist:

1.  LOVE ME DO  (Vocals : Paul McCartney & John Lennon – Ringo Starr version)

2.  P.S. I LOVE YOU   (Lead vocal :  Paul McCartney)

3.  AIN’T SHE SWEET   (Vocal : John Lennon)

4.  CRY FOR A SHADOW   (Instrumental – Lead guitar : George Harrison)

5.  MY BONNIE   (Without intro)  (Lead vocal : Tony Sheridan & backing vocals : The Beatles)

6. IF YOU LOVE ME, BABY   (Vocal : Tony Sheridan)

7. SWEET GEORGIA BROWN*  (Lead vocal : Tony Sheridan   &   backing vocals : The Beatles)

8. THE SAINTS   (Vocal : Tony Sheridan)

9.  WHY  (Can’t You Love Me Again) (Lead vocal : Tony Sheridan  &  backing  vocals : The Beatles)

10.  NOBODY’S CHILD  (Vocal : Tony Sheridan)

11. MY BONNIE  (German intro)   (Lead vocal : Tony Sheridan & backing vocals : The Beatles)

12. MY  BONNIE   (English intro)   (Lead vocal : Tony Sheridan & backing vocals : The Beatles) 

Track 7  is the rare mono version from 1962  –  Tracks 1 to 12: mono versions

BONUS TRACKS :   

13. AIN’T SHE SWEET, 14. CRY FOR A SHADOW, 15.  MY BONNIE  (Without intro), 16.  IF YOU LOVE ME, BABY, 17. SWEET GEORGIA BROWN**, 18. THE SAINTS, 19. WHY (Can’t You Love Me Again), 20. NOBODY’S CHILD, 21. MY BONNIE  (German intro), 22. MY  BONNIE  (English intro)

** 1962 – rare stereo version   – Tracks 13 to 22 : stereo versions

Anyway, I spun the disc on my stereo equipment and I have no objections to the sound. However, I’m no Hi Fi geek, so I wouldn’t be the right person to testify to whether or not the sound quality compares to the Bear Family edition or last year’s Time Life 50th anniversary release. What I CAN testify to is that you get awful tired of “My Bonnie” very quickly.

The cover is a replica of a very sought after French original release of said Polydor recordings from back in the day.

Magic Records Website