Beatles Remastered: All You Need is Cash

Good Lord - as the Rutles so eloquently pointed out all those years ago, all you need is indeed cash. And who is back to prove it? Why The Beatles are. And MTV Games along with all its partners has decided that the fact that the re-release of the Fab Four's canon in a variety of re-mastered forms just happening to coincide with the release of of the The Beatles: Rock Band on September 9, 2009 is worthy of attention.

The story is that "the original Beatles catalogue has been digitally re-mastered for the first time..." and "Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original UK album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. On the same date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will also be released."

You get the idea. You don't? It's like this, The Beatles via EMI (Parlophone) and/or Capitol Record and/or Apple Corps (geddit?) released music on vinyl. That sold well. Then this music was released on cassette tape. That sold well too. The some of the music was released on CD. That sold extremely well too.

Now it's being re-re-released on CD (again) but this time it's been re-re-mastered. Easy.

We are informed that "The collection comprises all 12 Beatles albums in stereo, with track listings and artwork as originally released in the UK, and 'Magical Mystery Tour,' which became part of The Beatles’ core catalogue when the CDs were first released in 1987. In addition, the collections 'Past Masters Vol. I and II' are now combined as one title, for a total of 14 titles over 16 discs. This will mark the first time that the first four Beatles albums will be available in stereo in their entirety on compact disc. These 14 albums, along with a DVD collection of the documentaries, will also be available for purchase together in a stereo boxed set."

And that's not even for the hardcore collector!

"A second boxed set has been created with the collector in mind. 'The Beatles in Mono' gathers together, in one place, all of the Beatles recordings that were mixed for a mono release. It will contain 10 of the albums with their original mono mixes, plus two further discs of mono masters (covering similar ground to the stereo tracks on 'Past Masters'). As an added bonus, the mono “Help!” and “Rubber Soul” discs also include the original 1965 stereo mixes, which have not been previously released on CD. These albums will be packaged in mini-vinyl CD replicas of the original sleeves with all original inserts and label designs retained."

Yes, re-re-re-mastered monophonic recordings for that authentic "Weren't mono records rubbish I can't wait until they invent stereo" experience.

Oh, still no agreement with anybody (yes, you iTunes) for digital delivery. We're assuming that some of the re-masters-re-release-re-run tunes will appear in the game.

We refer all true fans of The Beatles to track four, side two of their The Beatles whitely coloured long player.