Beatles hits, promo films come together in new ‘1,’ ‘1+’ collections

A new career-spanning set that brings together the Beatles’ 27 No. 1 hits and accompanying music videos will be released worldwide on Nov. 6.

Noteworthy in this extensively retooled version of the 2000 collection “1” are new stereo and surround-sound mixes of each of the 27 songs, running from “Love Me Do” in 1962 through “The Long and Winding Road” in 1970, along with newly curated videos for each and a bonus “1+” version of the album including 23 additional promotional films the Beatles made.

“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,” according to a statement issued Tuesday by Apple. “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.”

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Surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have provided new audio commentary and introductions for the films, and the new audio mixes are produced from the original analog tapes by Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin and producer of several Beatles reissue projects in recent years, and Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios in London.

“These videos and films are spectacular reminders of the era we lived in,” McCartney said in the same statement. “They also rock!”

Starr added, “I think it’s really interesting to see the videos we made.... How else would we have got to sit on a horse?”

Chris Carter, longtime host of the “Breakfast With the Beatles” radio show, told The Times: “It’s beyond fab to see this collection is finally being released. High quality versions of all the stuff we fans have been painstakingly attempting to collect for the last 50+ years in one shiny place! I’ll be glad to finally throw all those VHS tapes away! An A+ move.”

Upon its release in 2000, “1” became the biggest selling album of that decade worldwide, and has sold more than 11 million copies in the U.S. alone, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

The “1+” deluxe edition includes 50 promotional films running more than 200 minutes, as well as a 124-page hardcover book with detailed track and video annotation by music historian Richard Havers.

Among that batch, 20 were not used in the Beatles “Anthology” project, and the other 30 were shown only in part or in alternate edits. The films are drawn from 35mm negatives and newly scanned in 4K high resolution.

The releases will be offered in various formats, as CD only, CD plus DVD and CD plus Blu-ray, and individually in each of those formats.

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