BEATLES NOT FOR SALE

“Anthology Vol. 3” may bring to a close the rush of archival Beatles releases that began with the 1994 “Live at the BBC” collection--at least for now. Capitol Executive Vice President Bruce Kirkland says that at a recent meeting with Apple Corps.’ Neil Aspinal it was made clear that Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, want to shut the vault doors for a while.

“The anthologies were always in the plans to be released this way,” Kirkland says. “The idea wasn’t, ‘How do we milk this one more time?’ I think they’ve made their statement. I’m not saying the Beatles are going out of business. But they want to create a window for their own projects. Paul and George are each working on their own albums now, and they don’t want to compete with themselves.”

But he adds, “I know the ‘Anthology’ project is not complete.”

Among the possible future editions: A collection of the annual Christmas singles--the special records sent to fan club members each holiday season from 1963 through 1969--and the “Get Back” album, the original release planned from the “Let It Be” sessions that was shelved (but widely bootlegged) and eventually handed over to producer Phil Spector, who layered on strings and choruses to many of the raw tracks.