Beatles

Before leaving for a long planned mid-February 1968 trip to India to meet with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (a/k/a “Sexy Sadie” but not back then) The Beatles began work on “Lady Madonna”, the gorgeous “Across the Universe” and the now somewhat obscure “The Inner Light”, which was chosen as the “Lady Madonna” “B” side but only because Lennon wasn’t happy with “Across the Universe” for reasons known only to him and not to anyone else because everyone else loved it.

The producer Ralph Sall had an idea ten years ago or so: why not get some of the greatest musical talents of our time to pay tribute to Sir Paul McCartney by having them cover his songs? What could possibly go wrong?

It all started as a misheard request for a condiment, Paul McCartney recollects in one of the introductions to the box's sumptuously produced book. During a flight back from America, the band's roadie Mal Evans asked Paul to "pass the salt and pepper", which he misheard as "Sergeant Pepper".

2012 wasn’t all that long ago and culturally not that much has changed, yet from that year to the September 27th release this year of the 50th anniversary edition of Abbey Road is how long The Beatles made records.

Before I get further into this follow-up review, a short disclaimer: other than the US Apple/Capitol singles of “We Can Work It Out”/“Day Tripper” and “Hey Jude”/“Revolution” (which, as expected, sound lousy), I don’t have any Beatles 7” singles other than this new The Singles Collection box. All my Beatles listening is on LP (the 2014 mono series, the Giles Martin remix LPs, and a few mono and stereo UK and European pressings) and the occasional lossless digital format, therefore from these recordings I’m used to great sound quality. My expectations for The Singles Collection (generously gifted to me by AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer) were likely different from most others’: sure, I expected the all-analog lacquer cuts to sound good, but sound quality on 7” singles isn’t the first thing I think about. With the 7” format, it’s primarily about the musical content, collectibility, packaging (when applicable), and finally, sound quality.

This month, AnalogPlanet launches The Rear View Mirror, an ongoing series extensively reviewing notable albums from the past. Entries, which will be posted at least once a month, are limited to one album per artist per year. And what better way to launch it than with a 50th anniversary review of Yoko Ono’s Fly?