What’s new in the Beatles Anthology 2025 edition set for release this fall? Full track listing

Rumors which have been circulating for months were confirmed today – Apple Corps will be re-releasing The Beatles Anthology series and accompanying three audio releases, fully remastered and digitally upgraded with additional material – plus a bonus disc: Anthology 4, which features unreleased tracks culled from the archives.

And an updated version of the Anthology book – a chunky tome packed with fascinating personal anecdotes and unpublished photographs, charting the group’s meteoric transformation from scruffy, leather-clad rockers playing sweaty cellars and ballrooms in Merseyside to cultural shapeshifters and trendsetters who turned popular music on its head, changing it forever.

The original Anthology set out to tell The Beatles’ story, in the words of the three surviving members (McCartney, Harrison and Starr), archive audio of John Lennon interviews, peppered with memories from their associates (producer, George Martin, roadie, Neil Aspinall… but curiously no Pete Best, the original drummer). It’s their story – as they remember it: vivid, personal recollections looking back to their childhood in wartime Liverpool to how the group formed.

Some of the anecdotes are amusing, such as McCartney’s first impression of George Harrison and his magnificent, Brylcreem-sculptured quiff: “Like a fucking turban!”. Other parts of the story are heartbreaking – such as the untimely death of original bass player, the effortlessly stylist Stu Sutcliffe, aged 21. There would be other casualties when the group hit the big time, like manager Brian Epstein.

Audiovisual technology has vastly improved since the original television series was broadcast in 1995-6, which means that the original footage can be digitally enhanced, visually revitalized and restored to HD. Similarly, audio can now be separated, ‘demixed’ and improved using the same AI-powered software which Peter Jackson used for the recent Get Back trilogy.

Also quite a lot of audio and video material that was either not known about or believed lost has come to light in the 30-odd years since the original project began.

[embedded content]

The Beatles: what unreleased music is left in the vaults?

The original Anthology soundtrack featured many songs that have been circulating on the black market since the 70s – mostly in superior sound quality, plus a few surprises – including the first recording, Buddy Holly’s ‘That’ll be the Day’ and an original: ‘In Spite of All the Danger’ recorded directly onto a shellac acetate in Percy Philips front parlour in 1958.

From what we know, the 2025 Anthology 4 will feature 13 unreleased tracks and 17 songs selected from Super Deluxe versions of five classic albums (White album, Revolver, Abbey Road, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Let it Be).

Almost certain to be included will be ‘The Beatles’ official last song’ Now and Then – a John Lennon home demo, overlaid with bass, guitar and drums by Macca, George and Ringo in 1994 before being rejected by Harrison. The song was resurrected and released in November 2023.

[embedded content]

Of the new material to have surfaced in recent years, Dick James demo acetates of It’s For You (given to Cilla Black) and a demo of What Goes On from 1963, two years before it appeared, reworked with different lyrics, on Rubber Soul. Another early demo recording, Misery – a cut from the group’s debut album Please Please Me, believed to have been recorded at a Cavern Club rehearsal is also gathering dust in the vaults.

From the early, pre-EMI days, there are a couple of versions of Richie Barrett’s Some Other Guy and Little Richard’s Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, both recorded in front of a frenzied Cavern lunchtime audience. There is also at least one rehearsal tape, recorded by the Beatles themselves at the Cavern – plus a live performance from July 1962 with Pete Best on drums, but the quality is reported to be so bad, it is practically inaudible.

Rough and ready Beatles rocking the Star Club

Audio quality and performance quality has definitely been an issue with The Beatles in the past. In the early 1970s, they vetoed and tried to block the release of a live recording from Hamburg’s Star Club in December 1962. The recording itself, made on a Grundig tape recorder with a professional mic, isn’t so bad – and it’s fascinating to hear what a raw, electrifying band they were (on a good day!).

In 1977, the Star Club recordings were released against the Beatles wishes – and you can see why. The remastering is a dog’s dinner – missing parts of songs were poorly reconstructed, noise reduction filters and amateur EQing made the whole project a horrible mess. But the original tapes exist and went up for auction a few years back. With today’s technology, the sound quality could certainly be improved.

Allegedly, the Beatles didn’t really want to spend that Christmas in Hamburg and it’s hard to say if that comes across in the recording. Billy Kinsley, bass player for NEMS stablemates The Merseybeats saw the pre-fame Fabs many times and believes that the Star Club recordings “aren’t really representative of The Beatles as a live band – they were much, much better than that. At their best, they’d blow you away”.

Another live audience recording, from Stowe School in April 1963 recently came to light. Again, the quality is what you would expect – not great, but again who knows what AI trickery could do to knock it into shape.

Some other recordings of live concerts have also been discovered – some of them soundboard recordings: Walthamstow May 1963, Johanneshovs Isstadion, Sweden from July 1964, Shea Stadium, New York in 1965 and Grugahalle, Essen from 1966. Then there’s the audience recording of the last concert in front of a paying public, Candlestick Park.

[embedded content]

‘Money’, ‘Carnival of Light’, ‘Oh Darling’ with Lennon on vocals

What hidden gems are left in the EMI dark and dusty vaults? Not a great deal. There’s the sizzling undubbed version of Barrett Strong’s barnstormer Money from With The Beatles, which is much rawer and authentic-sounding than the issued version. It was available for a few hours on iTunes before being taken down, presumably a move to extend EU copyright restrictions.

The mystical Holy Grail of all unreleased Beatles tracks which diehard fans have known about for years, but never heard is Carnival of Light – an experimental sound collage created by McCartney for the Light and Sound Rave in 1967.

There’s Shirley’s Wild Accordion, scored by Lennon and McCartney for the Magical Mystery Tour film soundtrack but eventually left out. It’s not strictly the Beatles, the track is played by accordionist Shirley Evans with McCartney shaking his maracas.

The Beatles notoriously exercised their own strict quality control on their back catalog – nothing sub-standard should be released by democratic vote. So if one of the four voted against putting something out commercially, it remained in the can.

Of course, completists are desperate to hear any unreleased material. We’ll see what Anthology 2025 brings, bearing mind that the surviving Beatles and the estates of Lennon and Harrison have always endeavored to ensure their legacy is not diluted.

The Beatles Anthology 2025 will be available to stream exclusively on Disney+ from November 26.

Get your game on! Whether you’re into NFL touchdowns, NBA buzzer-beaters, world-class soccer goals, or MLB home runs, our app has it all.

Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more – plus, stay updated on the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.