MUMBAI: After The Beatles stopped touring, and because travelling around the globe to promote new releases was impossible, the band increasingly made what could be described as “mini movies.” These pioneering promotional films and videos helped to define the way we have come to watch music, not least because The Beatles approached filming with the same ease and innovative spirit they brought to the recording studio, exploring new creative possibilities with infectious delight. Available now worldwide on The iTunes Store, The Beatles ‘1+ ‘longform video presents the ultimate sight and sound of The Beatles with 50 meticulously restored promotional films and videos, each with new stereo and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround audio mixes. ‘1+ ‘includes restored videos for all 27 of The Beatles’ No.1 U.K. and U.S. singles, plus 23 more, including alternate versions and other rarely seen clips.
The Beatles ‘1+ ‘has been made possible following extensive research and restoration of the original promo films, classic television appearances and other carefully selected videos spanning the band’s history. Apple Corps dug deep into The Beatles’ vaults to select a broad range of films and videos for their rarity, historical significance and quality of performance. ‘1+’ presents the films in previously unseen standards of clarity and quality, including 35mm negatives scanned in 4K and digitally restored. An 18-person team of film and video technicians and restoration artists was assembled by Apple Corps to undertake painstaking frame-by-frame cleaning, color-grading, digital enhancement and new edits that took months of dedicated, ’round-the-clock work to accomplish. The new audio mixes were produced from the original analogue tapes by the Grammy winning team of Giles Martin with Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios. Jeff Lynne, the original producer of ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love,’ remixed the audio for those two videos with engineer Steve Jay.
For several videos, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have provided exclusive audio commentary and filmed introductions, respectively. ‘1+’ also includes a 124-page illustrated book with ‘an appreciation’ of The Beatles’ groundbreaking films and videos by music journalist and author Mark Ellen and extensive, detailed track/video annotation by music historian and author Richard Havers.
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“These videos and films are spectacular reminders of the era we lived in. They also rock!” – Paul McCartney
“I think it’s really interesting to see the videos we made, some of them incredible and some of them really incredible. How else would we have got to sit on a horse?” – Ringo Starr
Between 1962 and 1970, The Beatles released 27 No.1 hit singles in the U.S. and the U.K. In 2000, these timeless songs were collected for The Beatles ‘1’, which topped the charts in 35 countries and became that decade’s bestselling album worldwide. 15 years later, ‘1’ is revisited for this entirely new, visually-inspired presentation.
It’s The Beatles, as you have never seen them before.
