Recorded: 16 February 1965 – 30 April 1969; 1995
Producers: George Martin, Jeff Lynne, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
Released: 18 March 1996
Tracklisting
‘Real Love’
‘Yes It Is’ (takes 2 & 14 – 16 February 1965)
‘I’m Down’ (take 1 – 14 June 1965)
‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ (takes 1, 2 & 5 – 18 February 1965)
‘If You’ve Got Trouble’ (18 February 1965)
‘That Means A Lot’ (take 1 – 20 February 1965)
‘Yesterday’ (take 1 – 14 June 1965)
‘It’s Only Love’ (takes 3 & 2 – 15 June 1965)
‘I Feel Fine’ (live – 1 August 1965)
‘Ticket To Ride’ (live – 1 August 1965)
‘Yesterday’ (live – 1 August 1965)
‘Help!’ (live – 1 August 1965)
‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’ (live – 15 August 1965)
‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ (take 1 – 12 October 1965)
‘I’m Looking Through You’ (take 1 – 24 October 1965)
’12-Bar Original’ (take 2 edited – 4 November 1965)
‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ (take 1 – 6 April 1966)
‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ (take 5 – 7 April 1966)
‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ (take 2 – 20 April 1966)
‘Taxman’ (take 11 – 21 April 1966)
‘Eleanor Rigby’ (Strings Only) (take 14 – 28 April 1966)
‘I’m Only Sleeping’ (rehearsal – 29 April 1966)
‘I’m Only Sleeping’ (take 1 – 29 April 1966)
‘Rock And Roll Music’ (live – 30 June 1966)
‘She’s A Woman’ (live – 30 June 1966)
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (demo sequence – November 1966)
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (take 1 – 24 November 1966)
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (take 7 & edit piece – 29 November; 9 December 1966)
‘Penny Lane’ (remix – 29 December 1966 – 17 January 1967)
‘A Day In The Life’ (takes 1, 2 & 6 – 19, 20 January; 10 February 1967)
‘Good Morning Good Morning’ (take 8 – 8, 16 February 1967)
‘Only A Northern Song’ (takes 3 & 12 – 13, 14 February; 20 April 1967)
‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!’ (takes 1 & 2 – 17 February 1967)
‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!’ (take 7 – 17, 20 February 1967)
‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ (takes 6, 7 & 8 – 1, 2 March 1967)
‘Within You Without You’ (instrumental – 15 March – 3 April 1967)
‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (Reprise) (take 5 – 1 April 1967)
‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’ (remix – 17 May; 7, 8 June 1967; 30 April 1969)
‘I Am The Walrus’ (take 16 – 5 September 1967)
‘The Fool On The Hill’ (demo – 6 September 1967)
‘Your Mother Should Know’ (take 27 – 16 September 1967)
‘The Fool On The Hill’ (take 4 – 25 September 1967)
‘Hello, Goodbye’ (take 16 – 2, 19 October 1967)
‘Lady Madonna’ (takes 3 & 4 – 3, 6 February 1968)
‘Across The Universe’ (take 2 – 3 February 1968)
Anthology 2 was the second collection of previously-unreleased archive recordings by The Beatles, following 1995’s Anthology 1.
The album contained a mixture of live recordings and session outtakes, recorded between 16 February 1965 and 30 April 1969, although the bulk of the recordings were from prior to The Beatles’ trip to India in February 1968. It also kicked off with ‘Real Love’, the second ‘new’ recording by the three remaining Beatles, based on a demo by John Lennon.
There’s no way round it, Anthology’s been good to us. I mean, s**t! It’s thirty years later and we’re more successful than ever! And it means I can get back to just recording, playing without any pressure.I’m working on a new album right now, which won’t be released until 1997 because of Anthology, which suits me fine. I’m enjoying just making music without all the farting. I’m working to my own deadlines. I’ve even been working with my old Beatles buddy, Ringo. We got together again, he came down and did a bit of drumming with me… and it felt good. I fit together with him like an old glove. Oh, he’s gonna love me calling him an old glove!
Q magazine, October 1996
The songs
Anthology 2 begins with ‘Real Love’, based on a demo recording by John Lennon, and augmented by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
The first disc contains three previously-unreleased Beatles compositions. ’12-Bar Original’ was a blues jam recorded during the Rubber Soul sessions, and credited to Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey.
The other two compositions were both by Lennon-McCartney. ‘If You’ve Got Trouble’ and ‘That Means A Lot’ were both recorded during the Help! sessions. ‘If You’ve Got Trouble’ was sung by Starr, while ‘That Means A Lot’ was sung by McCartney and later given to singer PJ Proby.
There were seven live songs on Anthology 2. ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Ticket To Ride’, ‘Yesterday’, and ‘Help!’ were all recorded on 1 August 1965 for the television special Blackpool Night Out, while ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’ was from The Beatles’ first Shea Stadium show on 15 August 1965.
The two other live performances – ‘Rock And Roll Music’ and ‘She’s A Woman’ – were both from the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan, on 30 June 1966.
‘I’m Down’ had originally been sequenced chronologically as track seven, but was moved to track three at Paul McCartney’s request. He reportedly paid the reprinting costs for the cover himself.
Disc two contains studio outtakes from 1966 to 1968, plus ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’, a 1967 recording containing overdubs from 1969.
The outtakes mostly date from the time when The Beatles were working on the Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour projects, in addition to the early 1968 sessions in which they recorded ‘Lady Madonna’ and ‘Across The Universe’.
Paul McCartney had hoped to include ‘Carnival Of Light’, an experimental recording from the Sgt Pepper sessions, but it was reportedly vetoed by Harrison, Starr and Yoko Ono. It was replaced with an instrumental version of ‘Within You Without You’.
The release
Anthology 2 was released worldwide on 18 March 1996.
It topped the album charts in the United Kingdom and United States, and went top ten in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. Anthology 2 has been certified 4× Platinum by the RIAA.
All three original Anthology albums were remastered and reissued as digital downloads on the iTunes Store on 14 June 2011.
My abiding mind blowout happened when watching the TV series and one program ended – then in the end titles they played the alternative version of And your bird can sing.
After all those years of hearing one of my fave songs suddenly there was this completely different version. Fantastic! Both are excellent and that maniacal giggling – obviously off their heads on something! It was like you’d snuck into the studio on the sly.
Shows great talent how they could do something so different with the same song.
Does anyone know which volume of Anthology was recalled at the last minute because Paul McCartney wanted to alter the track line-up?
Also, does anyone know how the original track line-up was altered, & did any copies with the original track line-up make it out to the public?
Considering this is about volume 2 of the Anthology series, then that would be the volume that was altered. Add the fact that I’m Down is track 3 on this volume… what the original order was, only assuming that moving I’m Down from track 7 up to 3 would push the other tracks from 3 to 6 down one. But that is just a logical guess.
There were no CDs made with the original track order but a number of the booklets and inserts were printed and “escaped.” I know because I happen to have one of them. On my inserts and booklet, I’m Down is listed as track 6 and You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away is track 3. I think Paul was right. In the original listing, it started with 3 John songs in a row and later, 3 Paul songs in a row. With the revised order, it goes back and forth more equally between the two of them.