A set of previously unreleased outtakes, demos and BBC recordings by The Beatles has been released on the iTunes store.
The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963 contains 59 tracks which are being issued to prevent them falling out of copyright.
Copyright law in the European Union last for 70 years if recordings have previously been officially released, or 50 years if they have not.
The song collection first appeared on iTunes’ New Zealand store, where it retailed for $15.99. However, it was later withdrawn and reappeared at $69.99. The US and UK stores followed, retailing at $39.99 and £34.99 respectively.
The tracks, which include demo recordings of two songs never performed by The Beatles – ‘Bad To Me’ and ‘I’m In Love’ – have all previously appeared on bootleg. The official release is designed to stop the recordings entering the public domain.
Following a recent change to the law, the master tape for the Please Please Me album remains under copyright protection until 2033, but the unreleased recordings from the sessions would not.
Also on this day...
- 2010: Paul McCartney live: 100 Club, London
- 2009: Paul McCartney live: Kölnarena, Cologne
- 1991: George Harrison live: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo
- 1979: Wings live: Apollo, Glasgow
- 1974: George Harrison live: Spectrum, Philadelphia
- 1969: Mixing: Plastic Ono Band live: Lyceum Ballroom, London
- 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono are interviewed by WABC-AM radio
- 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono give a press conference in Toronto, Canada
- 1963: Radio: Saturday Club
- 1962: Television: People And Places
- 1961: The Beatles live: Casbah Coffee Club, Liverpool
- 1961: The Beatles’ first photo session
- 1960: The Beatles live: Casbah Coffee Club, Liverpool
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
So what exactly prompted this? Can we expect to see something very similar to this coming out every year so the music recorded during that time doesn’t go out of copyright as well?
I hope so!!! They will have much to choose from in ’69 and ’70 from the Let It Be Twickenham Sessions! 🙂
I already have all of those.
Getting to this party late. Hope this is not a repeat question: Does this mean that this is ALL that is in the vaults from 1963, or is it just the tracks that have escaped over the years and needed the copyright protection?
To answer your question, Gseventh, this stuff is all available on bootlegs. They have many hours more from the studio which haven’t already been traded or sold or on bootlegs by collectors, but this is stuff that I bought on european bootlegs in the early 90s.
It appears, where the studio out takes are concerned, that only complete takes are being released as there are countless false starts, breakdowns and edit pieces on the bootlegs that aren’t presented on the iTunes set.
It’s too bad these are mastered in the old Vocals-on-one-side-instruments-on-the-other faux stereo instead of mono. Plus this is way overpriced for a bootleg, even an official one. They’ll never “stop the recordings from entering the market when bootlegs are available free all over the InterWebs.
Actually fredthepig, these were remastered in their original, two-track, true stereo mixes, not faux mixes. And I am glad that for once they did that, as there were some tracks available in mono only.
“Stereo” was at best an afterthought. They were recorded as they were as premixed MONO. That was the method, and the intent, as George Martin himself explains in his “All You Need is Ears”.
Which is why he was infuriated when EMI released the pre-mied MONO as “stereo,” because they sound horrible when palmed off as being “stereo”.
They were not recorded in mono. They may have been recorded with the intention of only being released in mono, but they were recorded onto two-track tape, meaning the instruments were recorded onto one tape and the vocals onto another. This allowed them to create stereo. It’s not like modern stereo (because two-track eventually progressed to four-track, eight-track, etc. and now digital), but it’s still true stereo. They do sound better in mono though.
And the release has nothing to do with preventing the songs from entering the bootleg market. The article says it’s to prevent them entering the “public domain”, which is a copyright term meaning that anyone can use them for free without permission for any purpose.
Just on iTunes, not in a physical format? For some of us older folks who don’t mess with that stuff, how do I go about getting this, short of buying bootlegs (which I won’t do)…
You can send me $40, and I’ll give you the 2 disc set I burned. 🙂
Shame on you, bill just download and burn to disc very simple.
Crossing my fingers hoping that, when they reach 1967, Carnival of Light will finally be released!
The graphics remind me of the Purple Chick bootlegs.
If Bad to Me and I’m In Love demos were included in the Bootleg Recordings, why are they not listed under your songs category? Interested in reading a little more into them.