Could The Beatles ever have dreamed when they first set foot in an EMI recording studio in 1962 that one far-off day half a century later, their music not only still would be enjoyed by fans young and old, but that their recordings would be available on vinyl?
OK, so there is a bit of a full circle aspect to Thursday’s announcement from EMI and Apple Corps Ltd. that the Fab Four’s entire catalog of studio albums is being released once again on vinyl LPs, just in time for the all-important holiday shopping season.
It’s the dropping of the other shoe that began in 2009 when the catalog was brought up to sonic speed with the remastering of the Beatles’ 13 original studio albums, and the two “Past Masters” compilations of non-album tracks, which entered the digital realm a year later on iTunes.
At the time, audiophile and vinyl-loving fans asked whether the core catalog would surface on the original medium with which the world first fell in love with the Beatles. They were told, teasingly, “It’s a matter of when, not if,” by Apple Chief Jeff Jones.
“When” has officially become Nov. 13 in North America, and Nov. 12 for the rest of the world. The new vinyl versions will feature the stereo mixes of each album, which means the group’s first four albums will be available for the first time in stereo on vinyl in their original U.K. packaging and sequencing.
The EMI/Apple announcement also noted that the often significantly different mono mixes of the Beatles albums up through 1968’s “The Beatles” double album, aka “The White Album,” will be issued on vinyl next year. Both configurations were released in 2009 on CD and digitally, individually and in box sets.
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