Here comes the sun — again!
On Friday, The Beatles made like contemporary greats (Kanye, Taylor) with a surprise album drop: a reissue of “Abbey Road,” which celebrated its 50th anniversary Thursday.
The rerelease of “Abbey Road” — the band’s 11th and penultimate album — was produced by Sam Okell and Giles Martin, whose dad, George Martin, did the original stereo mix back in the ’60s.
They worked with audio restoration experts at — where else — Abbey Road Studios in London, where The Beatles recorded all but 20 of their 210 songs.
CDs and LPs of the remastered “Abbey Road” are available on The Beatles’ website, starting at $19 for a single CD up to $110 for a deluxe box set with a book and additional tracks. It’s also on Amazon, Apple Music and Spotify.
The longer versions of the reissue include multiple takes of some of “Abbey Road’s” iconic tracks, including “Come Together,” “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun.” These versions showcase snippets of conversations from the band members as they try out different sounds.
On “Come Together: Take 5,” you can hear The Beatles goofing off at the start of the recording before someone in the studio gets them back on track.
“OK, sorry,” says a chastened John Lennon, before counting down the track. “I get very involved, you know.”
And the guys sound understandably exhausted on take 36 (!) of “You Never Give Me Your Money” — a track that documents the band’s personal and financial struggles near the end of their career.
“OK, come on, lads, come on now, boys, here it is,” Paul McCartney says. “It’s exactly half-past 2 and it’s 36. Here we go.”
Although The Beatles’ final album, “Let It Be,” came out a year after “Abbey Road,” most of “Let It Be” was actually recorded before “Abbey Road” — meaning that “Abbey Road” marks the last time all four Beatles would “Come Together” in the studio before the band dissolved in 1970.
It’s regarded as “their last album, and one of their greatest ones,” Giles Martin says in an introduction to the rerelease.
“Abbey Road” Anniversary Deluxe Edition (2CD)
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