THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY 2 - 1996 Triple Vinyl LPs Nr MINT

	£		32
	$		42

YOU ARE BIDDING FOR A NEAR MINT TRIPLE LP SET OF THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY 2. PLEASE LOOK AT MY OTHER ITEMS, I'M ALSO SELLING THE VINYL SETS FOR ANTHOLOGY 1 & 3.

To accompany the Anthology series, three double music albums were released, each containing two CDs or three vinyl discs of mostly never-before-released Beatles material (the exceptions being the Tony Sheridan era material), although many of the tracks had appeared on bootlegs for many years prior.

Two days after the first television special in the series had aired, Anthology 1 was released to stores, and included music recorded by The Quarrymen, the famous Decca Recordsaudition tapes, and various out-takes and demos from the band's first four albums. It also included the song "Lend Me Your Comb", omitted from the collection Live at the BBC, released the previous year (1994). The song "Free as a Bird" was included at the very start. 450,000 copies of Anthology 1 were sold in its first day of release, the most sales for an album in a single day ever. The Beatles' original drummer Pete Best, fired by the band in 1962 before they hit it big, received his first substantial Beatles royalties from this album, for the inclusion of early tracks on which he played.

On March 17, 1996, Anthology 2 was released. The second collection presented out-takes and demos from the Beatles' sessions for Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Magical Mystery Tour. These included selected early demos and takes for Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever", previously available only to bootleg collectors. The new song "Real Love" — which, like "Free as a Bird", was based on an unfinished Lennon recording — was also included in the two-CD collection.

On October 28, 1996, Anthology 3 was released. The third collection featured out-takes and demos from The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be.

The three album covers, when laid side-by-side, become one long painted collage of various peeling posters and album covers representing the different stages of The Beatles' career. This was the work of Klaus Voormann, who also created the album cover for Revolver in 1966. The Anthology covers required Voormann to recreate elements of his cover for Revolverwithin the collage. During the music video for "Free as a Bird", the Anthology collage appears as posters on a shop window as the camera pans quickly across the street. The design also adorned the VHS, laserdisc and DVD releases, again to be properly encountered by laying the cases side-by-side. Upon the release of Anthology 3, HMV stores made available a cardboard sleeve designed to hold all three CD volumes of which each side of the sleeve make up half of the collage.

Anthology 2 features outtakes, rarities, and alternative performances from the 1965 sessions for Help! to sessions just prior to their trip to India in February of 1968. It starts off with the second new Beatles track, "Real Love", as with "Free As A Bird" again based on a demo made by John Lennon and given to Paul McCartney by Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. The three surviving Beatles added guitars, bass, drums,percussion, and backing vocals, but unlike with the previous song, did not re-work either lyric or music. "Real Love" remained solely credited to Lennon, becoming the only Beatle song to have Lennon by himself in the writing credit.

Disc one contains three unreleased compositions, one being an instrumental entitled "12-Bar Original" recorded for Rubber Soul but subsequently unused. Two other songs recorded for Help!, "If You've Got Trouble" and "That Means a Lot", were abandoned and never returned to again by the band. The former was originally slated to be the usual vocal spot for Ringo Starr on Help!, and the latter was eventually given to singer P.J. Proby. The version of "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" from the group's famed August of 1965 show atShea Stadium but left off the documentary appears here for the first time. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" and "I'm Looking Through You" appear in early versions before they were remade in the forms known from their release on Rubber Soul.

Disc two contains work-in-progress versions of tracks from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. "Your Mother Should Know" also appears in an early version different from the known release, and tracks one and 15 are demo recordings respectively by Lennon and McCartney. The take of "Strawberry Fields Forever" that made up the first minute of the released record appears in its entirety on track three. Although recorded or started during this period, "Only a Northern Song", "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" and "Across the Universe" would not see release until years later, in 1969 and 1970.

One track that remains officially unreleased from this time, "Carnival of Light", was vetoed off this set by George Harrison.[6]

Like its predecessor, Anthology 1, Anthology 2 sold well. In the United States, it debuted at #1, selling 442,000 copies the first week. The next week, it fell to #2, selling 201,000 copies, being replaced by Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill. The album spent two more weeks on the Top 10, at #4 and then #8, remaining for 22 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 and then re-entering the charts twice, marking a #96 reach during the Christmas season of 1996. In all, the album spent 37 weeks on the charts (eight more than Anthology 1) and sold 1,707,000 copies. In the United Kingdom, the success was similar. Anthology 1 debuted at #2 album when released in 1995; but its successor reached #1, where it remained for one week. The album spent a total of 13 weeks on the UK Album Chart.

All songs written by Lennon/McCartney and in stereo except where noted.

1. "Real Love" (Lennon) – 3:54
   • Lennon demo recorded at The Dakota, 1979; Beatles version recorded February, 1995
2. "Yes It Is" (takes 2 & 14) – 1:50
   • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 16 February 1965
3. "I'm Down" (take 1) – 2:53
   • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 14 June 1965
4. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (takes 1, 2 & 5) [mono] – 2:45
5. "If You've Got Trouble" (take 1) – 2:48
   • Tracks 4-5 recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 18 February 1965
6. "That Means a Lot" (take 1) – 2:27
   • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 20 February 1965
7. "Yesterday" (take 1) – 2:34
   • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 14 June 1965
8. "It's Only Love" (takes 2 & 3) [mono] – 1:59
   • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 15 June 1965
9. "I Feel Fine" [mono] – 2:16
10. "Ticket to Ride" [mono] – 2:45
11. "Yesterday" [mono] – 2:43
12. "Help!" [mono] – 2:55
    • Tracks 9-12 recorded live at ABC Theatre, Blackpool, on 1 August 1965 for the Blackpool Night Out television broadcast
13. "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (Carl Perkins) [mono] – 2:45
    • Recorded live at Shea Stadium, New York City, 15 August 1965
14. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" (take 1) – 1:59
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 12 October 1965
15. "I'm Looking Through You" (take 1) – 2:54
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 24 October 1965
16. "12-Bar Original" (edited take 2) (Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey) – 2:55
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 4 November 1965
17. "Tomorrow Never Knows" (take 1) – 3:14
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 6 April 1966
18. "Got to Get You Into My Life" (take 5) [mono] – 2:54
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 7 April 1966
19. "And Your Bird Can Sing" (take 2) – 2:13
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 20 April 1966
20. "Taxman" (take 11) (Harrison) – 2:32
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 21 April 1966
21. "Eleanor Rigby" (take 14) – 2:06
    • Backing string section without vocals; recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 28 April 1966
22. "I'm Only Sleeping" (Rehearsal) [mono] – 0:41
23. "I'm Only Sleeping" (take 1) [mono] – 2:59
    • Tracks 22-23 recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 29 April 1966
24. "Rock and Roll Music" (Chuck Berry) [mono] – 1:39
25. "She's A Woman" [mono] – 2:55
    • Tracks 24-25 recorded live at Nippon Budokan Hall, Tokyo, 30 June 1966

1. "Strawberry Fields Forever" (demo sequence) [mono] – 1:42
   • Lennon demo recorded at Kenwood, Weybridge, November 1966
2. "Strawberry Fields Forever" (take 1) – 2:35
   • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 24 November 1966
3. "Strawberry Fields Forever" (take 7 & edit piece) [mono] – 4:14
   • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 24 November and 9 December 1966
4. "Penny Lane" (take 9 horn overdub) – 3:13
   • Composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 29 December 1966–17 January 1967
5. "A Day in the Life" (takes 1, 2, 6 & orchestra) – 5:05
   • Composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 19–20 January and 10 February 1967
6. "Good Morning Good Morning" (take 8) – 2:40
   • Composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 8 & 16 February 1967
7. "Only a Northern Song" (takes 3 & 12) (Harrison) – 2:44
   • Composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 13–14 February and 20 April 1967
8. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" (takes 1 & 2) – 1:05
9. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" (take 7 & effects tape) – 2:34
   • Tracks 8-9 composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 17 & 20 February 1967
10. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (takes 6, 7 & 8) – 3:06
    • Composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 1–2 March 1967
11. "Within You Without You" (Harrison) – 5:27
    • Instrumental backing track; composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 15 March–3 April 1967
12. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" (take 5) [mono] – 1:27
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, April 1, 1967
13. "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" – 5:43
    • Composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 17 May–30 April 1969
14. "I Am the Walrus" (take 16) – 4:02
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 3 September 1967
15. "The Fool on the Hill" [mono] – 2:48
    • McCartney demo recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 6 September 1967
16. "Your Mother Should Know" (take 27) – 3:02
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 16 September 1967
17. "The Fool on the Hill" (take 4) – 3:45
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 25 September 1967
18. "Hello, Goodbye" (take 16 and overdubs) – 3:18
    • Composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 2 & 19 October 1967
19. "Lady Madonna" (takes 3 & 4) – 2:22
    • Composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 3 & 6 February 1968
20. "Across the Universe" (take 2) – 3:29
    • Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, 4 February 1968