The Beatles To Release A New Album While Ron Howard Creates New Documentary About 1960s Beatlemania Tours
The Beatles music catalog just got bigger, and Beatlemania just breathed new life into the present day. The newly remastered and previously unreleased Live at the Hollywood Bowl contains different tracks than the well-known Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl album released in 1977.
The new album by that title is pure vintage 1964 and 1965, according to Rolling Stone. The best news is that in addition to classics like “Twist and Shout,” there are four unreleased songs not heard before by most fans. New songs include “You Can’t Do That,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” and “Baby’s in Black.” There is also a previously unreleased version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Ron Howard is making a documentary about John, Paul, George, and Ringo traveling on the road during their tour from 1962 to 1966. The film was produced with the full cooperation of Paul McCartney and Ringo Star, who are the surviving band members. John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono Lennon, and George Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, also cooperated fully with the documentary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVeYI6YcjEE
The Beatles album, coupled with the Ron Howard documentary titled Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, is hoped to bring Beatlemania into the 21st century.
George Martin’s Son Giles Martin worked with engineer Sam Okell to remix and remaster the original three-track tapes into modern digital music. Giles proudly told The Rolling Stone the results were amazing. The new technology, coupled with the great music of the 1960’s is a winning combination.
“Technology has moved on since my father worked on the material all those years ago. Now there’s improved clarity, and so the immediacy and visceral excitement can be heard like never before…. What we hear now is the raw energy of four lads playing together to a crowd that loved them. This is the closest you can get to being at the Hollywood Bowl at the height of Beatlemania.”
The Beatles new album, which promises to stir real Beatlemania into the hearts of fans young and old, will be released on November 18 on classic vinyl and includes a 24-page booklet. David Fricke of Rolling Stone supplied the liner notes for the beautiful collector booklet. A CD and digital edition will be released earlier than the LP. These will be available on September 9.
The Ron Howard documentary, Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years, is intended to coincide with the release dates for the new Live at the Hollywood Bowl LP. The documentary will hit the theaters on September 16. Hulu will be streaming the movie on the following day, according to Entertainment Weekly. It will be the first time in the short history of streaming that a feature film will be streamed so soon after it is released in theaters.
Getting the Beatles music and information out there is apparently being treated as an imperative by Howard. We must have Beatlemania now, judging from the sudden nature of streaming the newly released film. Ron Howard isn’t wasting any time getting his documentary out to as many people as possible.
Ron Howard was just a cute little kid playing Opie on The Andy Griffith Show when the Beatles were touring. That too was part of the magical time that encompassed Beatlemania. It is fitting that he revived the music of his childhood with all that it represented. Perhaps those good feelings of Mayberry and Beatles, with all the peace, love, and neighborly communities, will spread into a new century. Will the Beatles save the world again with a new surge of Beatlemania?
As the Beatles wrote long ago, “All You Need Is Love,” and Ron Howard seems to agree.
[Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images]