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Beatles’ Christmas fan club recordings, ‘Sgt. Pepper’ on tap for holiday release

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Christmastime is (almost) here again, and in recent years that’s meant something new from the Fab Four.

This year, it’s the first official collection of the Beatles’ annual Christmas recordings made for their fan club members in the 1960s.

The group issued recorded messages and special music each year from 1963 through 1969 targeting its most devoted fans, seven recordings that will be packaged as “The Christmas Records” on seven vinyl singles slated for Dec. 15 release.

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Each single will be pressed on different color of vinyl and packaged with the original sleeve artwork, along with a 16-page booklet with reproductions of the fan club’s national newsletters and other notes.

All feature whimsical and sincere holiday greetings from each Beatle as well as musical snippets and run just a few minutes.

The singles will be packaged in a box with images of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s heads adorned with Santa hats. The set lists for $72.98 and can be preordered at the Beatles Store website.

Additionally this year, the Beatles’ label is releasing the 2017 stereo remix of the group’s “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album from 1967 in high-resolution digital audio (96Khz/24-bit).

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It includes the original album’s 11 tracks plus 18 additional tracks, including alternate takes of each “Sgt. Pepper” song plus remixes of “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Both were originally recorded during the same sessions that yielded “Sgt. Pepper,” but they were released as a double-sided single ahead of the album and not included on that disc.

The “Sgt. Pepper” stereo remix also will be issued in two vinyl versions: a 180-gram black vinyl LP and a picture disc vinyl LP. The single LP black vinyl lists for $24.98, and the picture disc list price is $35.98.

When the 2017 remix of “Sgt. Pepper” was released in May, it was offered on vinyl only in a two-LP version: one with the new mix of the original album, the second LP with the alternate mixes of each song. This is the first time the new stereo remixes of the original tracks are available on a single LP.

randy.lewis@latimes.com

Follow @RandyLewis2 on Twitter.com

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