The Beatles on Calderstone: Singles next?
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| The Beatles – The Singles was a 7″ vinyl box set, Record Store Day Black Friday 2011 exclusive. |
The joint venture between The Beatles/Apple and Universal Music, Calderstone Production Limited, has been very busy this year, shifting records over from their once home at EMI and over to their new Universal Music life. It happened with the USA albums in January, continued with some of the Japan releases and the UK mono vinyl albums. Now a limited edition of the UK EP “Long Tall Sally” is due out, and industry insiders are now talking about the Beatles’ singles being next.
We don’t know if these are the British singles, which has been re-released several times while the Beatles were under contract with EMI, or the USA singles, which has so far only seen partial individual re-releases, like the recent Record Store Day package (photo above).
Back in 1987 when the Beatles EMI catalogue was to be released on CD for the first time, Apple Corps Ltd decided that from now on, only the British catalogue (incorporating the US made “Magical Mystery Tour” album) was to be the one, official version of the Beatles’ recording history to be continued, and the various records (singles, EPs and albums) released in other countries worldwide, USA included, was to be discontinued.
Obviously times have changed, and USA now being the primary market which Apple Corps Ltd is catering for, it was a good idea to give the old Capitol albums a proper re-release this year. It would make sense to give the Americans another nostalgic trip back in time by bringing out the old US singles – now of course in their remastered form.
Not counting the Tony Sheridan sessions, there were 32 different USA singles, mainly on the Capitol and Apple labels, but also Vee Jay, United Artists, Swan and Tollie. Since Universal Music now also handles the Hamburg Polydor recordings, these can also be included. Originally these were on Decca, Atco, MGM and Swan in the USA. Including these, a boxed set containing all the USA singles will contain thirty-seven 45s, most of them with individual picture sleeves.
We have to say though, that there is absolutely no official word about any of this, so file under speculation.
on amazon germany/jpc is list a EP called Long Tall Sally for November 21
1 Long tall sally
2 I call your name
3 Slow down
4 Matchbox
Could be tricky. George Harrison, in 1996, while more or less at the helm of Apple, was sufficiently aggrieved at press reaction to 'Free as a Bird' and especially 'Real Love' (which as UK listeners will remember was controversially "banned" from airplay on Radio 1 as part of a shake-up in its auidence-orientation) to issue a statement saying that never again would The Beatles issue or reissue a single.
As we already know, George's project ideas and/or vetos since that period have determined much of the new Apple projects. I'm doubtful that such a strong policy statement, which must have been agreed at the time, could easily be overturned, although I'd hope it can.
Which I must add, leads me to speculate that part of the mysterious and complex Calderstone business partnership might contain the means to circumvent some Aspinall-period 'statutes'
Well, they certainly did rerelease a few for Record Store Day, and also the anniversary foul ups for "Love Me Do"
I would love The U.S. Beatles remastered singles and and EPs to be released on CD just like the U.S. albums were done.
I wouldn't say the Capitol LPs were give a "proper" re-release this year, since many of the unique US mixes were omitted in favor of the 2009 remasters.
Yes. It is true to say that none of the recent outputs from the Calderstone partnership have been 'reissues' in the technical or legal sense.
The Love Me Do single, the Record Store Day box, even the forthcoming vinyl '1' and 'Love' all featured remastered tracks issued for the first time on vinyl and the US Albums were also all fresh mechanical copyrights with fresh catalogue numbers despite any artwork facsimiles etc.
I can definitely foresee new Beatles singles when the agenda moves on to remixed material as per Yellow Submarine Songtrack.
Have never seen a confirmation as such but it's highly likely that be given the 'from multitrack' reworkings that first featured on the Anthology DVD, and most recently on Rock Band.