The Beatles Anthology is the name of a
documentaryA documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
series, a set of three double albums and a book focusing on the history of
The BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
.
Paul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
,
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
and
Ringo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
all participated in the making and approval of the works, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the
Anthology project.
The Beatles Anthology documentary series was first broadcast in November 1995, with expanded versions released on
VHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in 1996 and on
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in 2003. The documentary used interviews with The Beatles and their associates to narrate the history of the band as seen through archival footage and performances. The initial volume of the album set was released in conjunction with the documentary in November 1995, with the subsequent two volumes released in 1996. The albums included unreleased performances and outtakes presented in roughly chronological order, along with two new songs based on demo tapes recorded by
John LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
after the group broke up. The
bookThe Beatles Anthology is a book released in October 2000 as part of The Beatles Anthology film project. It includes interviews with all four band members, John Lennon , Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, and others involved, most notable, George Martin, plus over 1,200 rare photos...
, released in 2000, paralleled the documentary in presenting the group's history through quotes from interviews.
Documentary series
Approximately coinciding with the release of the "
Free as a Bird"Free as a Bird" is a song originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995 a studio version of the recording incorporating contributions from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr was released as a single by The Beatles.The single was released as part of...
" single and
Anthology 1Anthology 1 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in November 1995. It was released as the first part of the Anthology trilogy of albums with Anthology 2 and Anthology 3, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. It contains "Free as a Bird",...
album (the first of three double-CD albums),
The Beatles Anthology series of documentaries was broadcast on
ITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1995. The
Anthology series takes a form similar to that of the
Anthology book, by being a series of first-person accounts by the Beatles themselves, with no external "objective" narration. Footage in the
Anthology series features
voice-overVoice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
recordings of all four Beatles to push the narrative of the story, with contributions from their producer, road manager and others. As well as telling their story through archival footage,
Paul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
,
Ringo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
and
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
appear in interview segments recorded exclusively for the series itself;
John LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
appears only in historic archival footage. The Beatles' wives, past and present, do not appear (excluding archival footage such as video from India and the music video for Harrison's "Something").
The series, which was made over five years of planning and production, is composed of numerous film clips and interviews that present a complete history of the band from the Beatles' own personal perspectives. When it aired on ABC, the series comprised six hour-long programs, aired on three nights in November 1995. The series was later released, as eight expanded episodes, on VHS, laserdisc and as a boxed set of five DVDs (4 discs with 2 episodes apiece and a disc of extras).
Air dates on
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
:
- Sunday, 19 November 1995: 9-11 p.m.
- Wednesday, 22 November 1995: 9-11 p.m.
- Thursday, 23 November 1995: 9-11 p.m.
In promoting the series during this time, ABC identified itself as "ABeatlesC" and several of the network's prime-time sitcoms replaced their regular opening credit themes with Beatles tracks.
Albums
To accompany the
Anthology series, three double music albums were released, each containing two CDs or three vinyl discs of mostly never-before-released Beatles material (the exceptions being the Tony Sheridan-era material), although many of the tracks had appeared on
bootlegsA bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
for many years prior.
Two days after the first television special in the series had aired,
Anthology 1Anthology 1 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in November 1995. It was released as the first part of the Anthology trilogy of albums with Anthology 2 and Anthology 3, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. It contains "Free as a Bird",...
was released to stores, and included music recorded by
The QuarrymenThe Quarrymen are a British skiffle and rock and roll group, initially formed in Liverpool in 1956, that eventually evolved into The Beatles in 1960...
, the famous
Decca RecordsDecca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
audition tapes, and various out-takes and demos from the band's first four albums. It also included the song "Lend Me Your Comb", omitted from the collection
Live at the BBCLive at the BBC is a 1994 compilation album featuring performances by The Beatles that were originally broadcast on various BBC Light Programme radio shows from 1963 through 1965. The monaural album, available in multiple formats but most commonly as a two-CD set, consists of 56 songs and 13 tracks...
, released the previous year (1994). The song "
Free as a Bird"Free as a Bird" is a song originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995 a studio version of the recording incorporating contributions from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr was released as a single by The Beatles.The single was released as part of...
" was included at the very start. 450,000 copies of
Anthology 1 were sold in its first day of release, the most sales for an album in a single day ever. The Beatles' first drummer
Pete BestPete Best is a British musician, best known as the original drummer in The Beatles. He was born in the city of Madras, British India...
, replaced by Ringo Starr in 1962 before the Beatles recorded professionally for EMI, received his first substantial Beatles royalties from this album, for the inclusion of early demo tracks on which he played.
Anthology 2Anthology 2 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in March 1996. It is the second of the three-volume Anthology collection, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. The opening track is "Real Love", the second of the two recordings that...
was released on 17 March 1996. The second collection presented out-takes and demos from the Beatles' sessions for
Help!Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
,
Rubber SoulRubber Soul is the sixth studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released in December 1965. Produced by George Martin, Rubber Soul had been recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market...
,
RevolverRevolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous LP, the folk rock inspired Rubber...
,
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BandSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
, and
Magical Mystery TourThe soundtrack was far more favourably received than the film. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for best album in 1968 and reached number 1 in the US for eight weeks...
. These included selected early demos and takes for Lennon's "
Strawberry Fields Forever"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and attributed to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. It was inspired by Lennon's memories of playing in the garden of a Salvation Army house named "Strawberry Field" near his childhood home."Strawberry Fields...
", previously available only to bootleg collectors. The new song "Real Love" — which, like "Free as a Bird", was based on an unfinished Lennon recording — was also included in the two-CD collection.
Anthology 3Anthology 3 is a compilation album by The Beatles released in October 1996 by Apple Records as part of The Beatles Anthology series. The album includes rarities and alternative tracks from the final two years of the band's career, ranging from the initial sessions for The Beatles to the last...
was released on 28 October 1996. The third collection featured out-takes and demos from
The White AlbumThe Beatles is the ninth official album by the English rock group The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is also commonly known as "The White Album" as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed on its plain white sleeve.The album was written and recorded during a...
,
Abbey Road, and
Let It Be as well as several post-Beatle tracks from Harrison and McCartney.
The three album covers, when laid side-by-side, become one long painted collage of various peeling posters and album covers representing the different stages of The Beatles' career. This was the work of
Klaus VoormannKlaus Voormann is a German Grammy Award-winning artist, noted musician, and record producer. He designed artwork for many bands including The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Wet Wet Wet and Turbonegro. His most notable work as a producer was his work with the band Trio, including their worldwide hit "Da Da...
, who also created the album cover for
Revolver in
1966-Events:*January 3 – Hullabaloo shows promotional videos of The Beatles songs "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work it Out".*January 8 – Shindig! airs for the last time on ABC, with musical guests the Kinks and the Who...
. The
Anthology covers required Voormann to recreate elements of his cover for
Revolver within the collage. During the music video for "
Free as a Bird"Free as a Bird" is a song originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995 a studio version of the recording incorporating contributions from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr was released as a single by The Beatles.The single was released as part of...
", the
Anthology collage appears as posters on a shop window as the camera pans quickly across the street. The design also adorned the VHS,
laserdiscLaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
and DVD releases, again to be properly encountered by laying the cases side-by-side. Upon the release of
Anthology 3, HMV stores made available a cardboard sleeve designed to hold all three CD volumes of which each side of the sleeve make up half of the collage.
All three albums were made digitally available on the
iTunesiTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
Store on 14 June 2011, alongside a new
Anthology Highlights album which featured a selection of tracks from all three albums.
Book
In October 2000,
The Beatles Anthology book was released, which included interviews with all four band members and others involved, plus rare photos. Many of the interviews quoted are from those featured in the documentary films. The book is designed as a large-format hardback, with imaginative artwork throughout, and several visually impressive and colourful spreads featuring graphics relevant to the proceeding chronology, photographic arrays and a variety of text styles and layouts. The book went straight to the top of the
New York Times bestsellers list. In 2002, the book was released as a large-format paperback. In 2011 it was voted Best Non Fiction Book On Earth on the popular opinion rating site Best Things On Earth.
Unreleased recordings
During early 1995 as work on
The Beatles Anthology continued,
Yoko Onois a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
and McCartney recorded an
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
piece called "Hiroshima Sky Is Always Blue". Ono provided vocals and McCartney played bass, while
Sean Lennonis an American singer, songwriter, musician, guitarist and actor. He is the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. His godfather is Sir Elton John.-Early life and education:...
,
Linda McCartneyLinda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
, and McCartney's children played various instruments. The piece was broadcast on Japanese public television in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the
atomic bombing of HiroshimaDuring the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
.
The track "
Carnival of Light"Carnival of Light" is an unreleased experimental piece by The Beatles. It was recorded on 5 January 1967, after the vocal overdubbing sessions for the song "Penny Lane"...
" recorded during the
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BandSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
sessions was intended to be released on the
Anthology 2Anthology 2 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in March 1996. It is the second of the three-volume Anthology collection, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. The opening track is "Real Love", the second of the two recordings that...
album, but was vetoed by George Harrison.
It was reported that McCartney, Harrison and Starr worked on a new composition called "All for Love" in March 1995, intended as a track on
Anthology 3, but the effort was abandoned. No version of the song has reached the public.
Promotional items
Each of the three
Anthology albums was accompanied by a promotional CD sampler sent to radio stations shortly before the official release dates. These CDs have since become highly sought collector's items. Even rarer is a
vinylA gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
version of the sampler for
Anthology 2, which was only sent to college radio stations and featured a different cover (though the contents were the same).
In October 1996 there was a strictly limited release from
EMIThe EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, a slip case cover to house all three CD volumes, which have since become extremely rare, fetching high prices among collectors.
Parodies
The success of the
Anthology albums was parodied by the release of the
RutlesThe Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
'
ArchaeologyThe Rutles Archaeology is an album by the comedy band The Rutles. Like their previous release, the album contains pastiches of Beatles' songs....
some months later. This album even included a spoof of "Free as a Bird", entitled "Don't Know Why." Perhaps fittingly, delays in the release of the third volume of the Beatles' series ultimately meant that the Rutles' parody arrived in shops on the same day as its inspiration.
"Weird Al" YankovicAlfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
parodied
The Beatles Anthology in an
Al TVAl TV is a series of comedy/music video specials created by and starring singer-songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic.-Overview:The premise of the show is that Yankovic uses his private satellite transmitter to commandeer the airwaves of a music video station in order to show the videos that he wants to...
special. He said he had a copy of a fictional
Anthology 17, which he claimed would not be available to the public for a while. He played for the audience a track of Paul McCartney brushing his teeth and Ringo Starr shaving before
The Ed Sullivan ShowThe Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
.
The Dana Carvey ShowThe Dana Carvey Show is an American sketch comedy television show that aired on ABC during the spring of 1996. Dana Carvey was the host and principal player on the show while Louis CK served as head writer....
aired multiple interview parodies shortly after the broadcast, titled "Leftover Beatle Memories". These parodies inspired a new parody, also called
The Beatles Anthology, on the Fun With Numbers video titled
Rambo VI.