Over 45 years after they first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, 2009 looks like it could be the most lucrative year the Beatles have ever had.
Despite the fact that the Fab Four recorded together as a group for a mere eight years -- from 1962’s “Please, Please Me” until their breakup nearly 40 years ago in 1970 -- John, Paul, George and Ringo remain a money machine that shows all contenders how it's done.
In fact, they have sketched a legacy blueprint that has been adopted by the estates of Elvis Presley and likely Michael Jackson, whose ownership of the publishing of numerous Beatles songs will reap millions this year. (Pictured, fans at the recent 40th anniversary of the "Abbey Road" cover shoot; Getty Images.)
Year after year, Christmas after Christmas, new ways are found to mint money: rarely heard demos or unreleased tracks like “Free as a Bird,” “True Love” and the still unreleased 14-minute improvisational “Carnival of Light”; greatest hits packages and anthologies; reproduced albums like 2003’s “Let It Be … Naked,” where Paul McCartney stripped off the Phil Specter production he always hated so much; even stage shows like Las Vegas’ “LOVE.” (See accompanying article, "Re-Repackaging the Beatles.")
There’s also a library’s worth of coffee-table books, not to mention the officially licensed coffee mugs, fountain pens -- which go for $528.95 on the band’s site -- Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit games, Zippo lighters, limited-edition baseball sets and, among much more, throw blankets.
Which brings us to next month.
For starters, on Sept. 9, remastered versions of all 12 of the Beatles’ British albums plus "Magical Mystery Tour" (not an album in the U.K.) will be re-released on CD. It marks the first significant upgrade of the Fab Four’s canon since the records first arrived on CD 22 years ago -- and the first time the first four British albums will be available in stereo.
Each disc will feature not only startling clarity revealing every harmony, guitar lick and the studio wizardry of the later years, but also a DVD that includes a documentary on the specific album as well booklets full of unseen photographs and a host of other collectables.
The “special editions” discs, with the music and the embedded documentaries,
will cost about $19 individually or as a luxury box set, retailing for around $260, as well as a 10-disc “Beatles in Mono” set.
will cost about $19 individually or as a luxury box set, retailing for around $260, as well as a 10-disc “Beatles in Mono” set.
Then, if Beatles fans repurchasing their entire collections isn’t enough to provide a boon for the ailing music biz, on the same day, “The Beatles: Rock Band” videogame will hit shelves.
The long-awaited Beatles version of "Rock Band" also arrives on Sept. 9. Not only will there be the $59.99 version for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii systems, but a deluxe $249.99 customized-instruments-included edition, as well.
“The Beatles: Rock Band” sees the band portrayed visually as well as musically from all stages of their career.
