A second volume of BBC radio recordings from The Beatles is on its way in November, so everyone now has the perfect holiday gift for the Beatles fan in the family.
The two CD set will feature 40 performances recorded by the fab four at the BBC during the early years of their career together. Titled On Air - Live At The BBC Volume 2, it follows the original 1994 2 CD set. It will hit stores on Nov. 11 and will be accompanied by a vinyl release.
“There’s a lot of energy and spirit,” Paul McCartney said in a statement. “We are going for it, not holding back at all, trying to put in the best performance of our lifetimes.”
As the New York Times notes, the original 1994 set was met with acclaim from fans but really only scratched the surface of the hundreds of recordings the Beatles made at the BBC from 1962 to 1965. In fact, there is a bootleg out that has 10 CDs worth of material.
On Air will at least not feature any of the same recordings from the 1994 release, but it does have different versions of six cover songs that the group did. Recordings of Little Richard’s “Lucille,” Chuck Berry’s “Memphis, Tennessee,” Chan Romero’s “The Hippy Hippy Shake,” Ray Charles’ “I Got A Woman,” and the Chuck Berry songs ““Glad All Over” and “Sure To Fall” will appear on On Air.
There will also be different performances of beloved Beatles classics like “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Do You Want To Hear A Secret,” “And I Love Her” and “Twist and Shout.”
It is important to note that these are all essentially live performances without overdubs. The recordings capture how the Beatles sounded live without the annoying screaming fans making it hard to hear them. That’s why Capitol Records and Apple have never released a full Beatles live show on CD (although, segments from live shows are available on the Anthology albums).
The set will also include excerpts of interviews with the Beatles. A remastered edition of the 1994 release will be out on the same day as the new set.
image: TheBeatles.com