Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe A special gift for Beatles fans will be arriving this year just in time for Christmas. A new vinyl box set called The Christmas Records, which gathers together the annual holiday messages that the Fab Four sent to their fan club members from 1963 to 1969, will be released on December 15.
Each Christmas, The Beatles sent the members of their fan club, known as “Beatle People,” a newsletter that included an exclusive flexi-disc containing an audio greeting from John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The new collection features those seven messages pressed on separate seven-inch vinyl discs, each one boasting a different color.
The box set comes with a 16-page booklet containing notes on the recordings and reproduced versions the aforementioned newsletters that were mailed to fan-club members. The discs are packaged in sleeves recreating the ones that accompanied the original flexi-discs.
The same day that The Christmas Records is released, a high-def digital-audio version of the 50th anniversary deluxe reissue of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band also will be made available for purchase. The expanded collection includes the 2017 stereo mix of Sgt. Pepper, alternate takes of the album’s 13 tracks, recent mixes of the non-album singles “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and more.
In addition, single-disc, 180-gram vinyl editions of the 2017 stereo mix of Sgt. Pepper will be released on black vinyl and as a limited-edition picture disc December 15.
Here are details about the discs featured in Christmas Records box set:
1963: The Beatles’ Christmas Record, one-sided (Recorded: October 17, 1963)
1964: Another Beatles Christmas Record, one-sided (Recorded: October 26, 1964)
1965: The Beatles’ Third Christmas Record, one-sided (Recorded: November 8, 1965)
1966: Pantomime — Everywhere It’s Christmas: The Beatles’ Fourth Christmas Record, one-sided (Recorded: November 25, 1966)
1967: Christmas Time (Is Here Again): The Beatles’ Fifth Christmas Record, one-sided (Recorded: November 28, 1967)
1968: The Beatles’ Sixth Christmas Record, two-sided (Recorded: 1968, various locations)
1969: The Beatles’ Seventh Christmas Record, two-sided (Recorded: 1969, various locations)
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