The expected announcement for the new and final Beatles song ‘Now and Then’ and the expanded ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ compilations will be made today (26 October 2023).
UPDATE: Go here for the full announcement
TheBeatles.com website updated at 2pm Wednesday UK time, 9am New York time (25 October, 2023) with a 4 seconds video winding of a cassette winding backwards.
The announcement will be made at 2pm BST (UK), 9am ET and 6am PT (USA) 26 October and midnight AEDT 27 October (Australia).
The Beatles fans have been expecting the announcement of the Red and Blue expanded editions since July after Penn Jillette and Penn & Teller leaked word of the project after a visit with Giles Martin at Abbey Road.
Speculation was for an official announcement in August with a released in September. That would have been in line with the annual Beatles box set releases that started with the ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ box set release in 2017. Next came ‘The Beatles’ (The White Album’) in 2018, ‘Abbey Road’ in 2019, ‘Let It Be’ in 2021 (delayed to co-incide with the release of the ‘Get Back’ movie because of the 2020 covid year) and then ‘Revolver’ in 2022.
The expanded ‘The Beatles 1962-1966’ (Red album) and ‘The Beatles 1967-1970’ (Blue album) will most likely undergo a name change to take into consideration the additional eras with the newly produced ‘Now and Then’ track as well as the Anthology additions ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’.
‘Now and Then’ was meant to be included on ‘Anthology 3’ but the three Beatles Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were not confident what they had to work with at the time could be achieved with the raw demo. Now nearly 30 years later, new technology developed by Sir Peter Jackson and used for the ‘Get Back’ movie makes it possible to separate every sound into its own channel. The technology was used for the recent ‘Revolver’ reissue and well as The Beach Boys new ‘Pet Sounds’ remaster.
The Beatles 1962-1966 (The Red Album) Track Listing:
LP1
1. Love Me Do
2. Please Please Me
3. From Me To You
4. She Loves You
5. I Want To Hold Your Hand
6. All My Loving
7. Can’t Buy Me Love
8. A Hard Day’s Night
9. And I Love Her
10. Eight Days A Week
11. I Feel Fine
12. Ticket To Ride
13. Yesterday
LP2
1. Help!
2. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
3. We Can Work It Out
4. Day Tripper
5. Drive My Car
6. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
7. Nowhere Man
8. Michelle
9. In My Life
10. Girl
11. Paperback Writer
12. Eleanor Rigby
13. Yellow Submarine
The Beatles 1967-1970 (The Blue Album) Track Listing:
LP1
1. Strawberry Fields Forever
2. Penny Lane
3. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
4. With a Little Help From My Friends
5. Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds
6. A Day In the Life
7. All You Need Is Love
8. I Am the Walrus
9. Hello, Goodbye
10. The Fool On the Hill
11. Magical Mystery Tour
12. Lady Madonna
13. Hey Jude
14. Revolution
LP2
1. Back In the U.S.S.R.
2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
3. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
4. Get Back
5. Don’t Let Me Down
6. The Ballad of John & Yoko
7. Old Brown Shoe
8. Here Comes the Sun
9. Come Together
10. Something
11. Octopus’s Garden
12. Let It Be
13. Across the Universe
14. The Long and Winding Road
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