The Beatles
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For the first time in 50 years, Beatles fans will get to go inside the making of band’s final album. Let It Be, the 1970 documentary helmed by Michael Lindsay- Hogg, arrives on Disney+ on Wednesday (May 8).
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The documentary, restored by The Beatles: Get Back director Peter Jackson’s production company, shares rare footage of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr from the recording studio to the Apple Corps’ rooftop in London where the Fab Five wrote and recorded Let It Be and performed live for the last time as group.
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“Let It Be was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970,” Lindsay-Hogg recalled, according to Disney. “One month before its release, The Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see Let It Be with sadness in their hearts, thinking, ‘I’ll never see The Beatles together again. I will never have that joy again,’ and it very much darkened the perception of the film.”
“But, in fact, how often do you get to see artists of this stature working together to make what they hear in their heads into songs? And then you get to the roof, and you see their excitement, camaraderie, and sheer joy in playing together again as a group and know, as we do now, that it was the final time, and we view it with the full understanding of who they were and still are and a little poignancy. I was knocked out by what Peter [Jackson] was able to do with Get Back, using all the footage I’d shot 50 years previously.”
“I’m absolutely thrilled that Michael’s movie, Let It Be, has been restored and is finally being re-released after being unavailable for decades,” said Jackson. “I was so lucky to have access to Michael’s outtakes for Get Back, and I’ve always thought that ‘Let It Be’ is needed to complete the Get Back story.”
Read on for ways to join Disney+ and stream Let It Be.
How to Stream Let It Be on Disney+
Let It Be is a Disney+ Original streaming exclusively for subscribers. If you’re not a Disney+ subscriber, here’s a short rundown of how much it costs, and how to land a free subscription.
Disney+ plans start at $7.99/month for the Basic subscription and $11.99/month for Disney+ Premium (ad-free streaming).
Looking for a Disney+ deal? You have a few options, the easiest being a bundle plan, which saves you up to 37% off. Subscribe to the Disney+ Basic Duo plan with Hulu for $9.99/month, or the Trio plan with Hulu and ESPN+ for $14.99/month.
Disney+ no longer offers free trials, but you can go through a third party such as Verizon to get a free subscription. Currently, Verizon customers can score a free six-month subscription to Disney+ with select Unlimited phone plans.
Disney+ offers a huge collection of exclusive TV series, movies, documentaries, concert specials and sports. Let It Be leads a trio of music documentaries arriving on Disney+ this month including Queen Rock Montreal premiering on May 15, and The Beach Boys documentary on May 24.
Watch the trailer for Let It Be below.
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Fifty years ago, Steven Gaines, a New York Sunday News rock ‘n’ roll newspaper columnist, lined up to ask the Beatles‘ John Lennon a question during a press event for the musical Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band On the Road. Gaines blurted out, “Hi, John, does seeing Sgt. Pepper’s being made into an off-Broadway show make you feel old?” Lennon responded acerbically: “I don’t need that to make me feel old, mate. Next!”
It was a humiliating moment for Gaines, and he wandered off. Peter Brown, the Beatles‘ former day-to-day manager and president of the Robert Stigwood Organization, which produced the show, noticed Gaines’ dejection, invited him to talk in a nearby lounge, and the pair became lifelong friends. Later, using Brown’s connections, the duo spent much of 1980 recording exclusive interviews with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Beatles insiders such as Apple Corps’ Neil Aspinall and publisher Dick James. The transcripts became the basis for their 1983 best-seller The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles.
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Reading like a “paperback pulp novel,” as Rolling Stone declared, the book contains revelatory allegations such as Lennon’s brief sexual relationship with the Beatles’ late manager, Brian Epstein, and Lennon and Ono’s journey through heroin addiction. When the book came out, McCartney burned it in his fireplace, and his late wife, Linda, photographed the destruction. Now that Brown and Gaines have released the full transcripts from those 1980 interviews in a new book, All You Need Is Love: The Beatles In Their Own Words, which is out now, Gaines tells Billboard by phone from his East Hampton, N.Y., home that the first book may have been “polarizing,” but it’s based on talks with reliable — and comfortable — sources such as a jovial, weed-smoking McCartney.
Billboard: Why put this book out now, 41 years after the publication of The Love You Make?
Steven Gaines: I had the tapes in a bank vault for 40 years while we tried to figure out what to do with them. I wanted there to be full access to the tapes for historians, for the public. Peter and I, getting up in years, decided we had to make a decision now. Publishers were interested. We didn’t do it for the money, because there’s not a huge amount of money involved.
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My favorite detail in the book is “Dalí’s coconut” — a $5,000 gift Lennon commissioned for Starr in which the surrealism master Salvador Dalí created what appeared to be half a coconut lined with a sponge and “a long, curly black hair that he’d plucked from his mustache, he claimed, although I had my suspicions,” as Brown writes in the book.
A young man working for the Beatles in New York, Arma Andon, came in from America, because Dalí wanted to be paid in cash, and you couldn’t bring cash, especially in American dollars, out of England. He went out with Peter Brown and Dalí and his wife Gala to dinner. When it was over, Salvador Dalí asked Arma Andon if he’d like to go with him to a whorehouse. We didn’t put that in the book because it had nothing to do with the Beatles.
The other weird thing was … the hair in the coconut. We don’t know if Dalí got that from his mustache or his pubic hair. John wanted so badly to give Ringo something special, because Ringo felt so maligned and [like] such an outsider and they didn’t appreciate his drumming. When Peter showed it to John, they wet the hair, and the hair curled up, or straightened out, or — I forget what it did. John loved it so much. I forget what they gave Ringo instead. Ringo never knew about the coconut.
I was surprised at the bluntness of your questions, especially to McCartney: “Rock ‘n’ roll bands had a reputation for being bad on the road, like tying groupies to bedposts and f—– them with a fish. But you guys were supposed to be celibate.”
It was one of the things I always wondered about. They were always painted as such angels. Then, of course, there was Hamburg [where the Beatles performed in Germany in the ’60s] and all the hookers. It really shocked me that Paul said there were lots of girls on the road. Why hadn’t any of them come forward?
Paul invited me and Peter to his house in Sussex for the weekend. Paul whispered to me, “Do you smoke grass?” I said, “Not since I’ve been here.” He said, “I’m not allowed to smoke in the house because of the kids and because I’ve been arrested. Let’s go out in my car and we’ll drive around and smoke a joint.” We got into his Mini, the fanciest Mini I’d ever seen. He put one joint on the dashboard of the car.
Then the second joint fell down around the windshield-wiper defroster slot. Paul said, “Oh, no, no, no, they’ll find it, they’ll pull me over for a ticket, and Linda, and they’ll find it! We’ve got to get it out of there.” So we pulled over to the side of the road. We opened up both the doors to the car. He got some screwdrivers out of the bonnet and we started unscrewing the dashboard. His neighbors were walking down the street: “Having car trouble, Mr. McCartney?” “Oh, no, that’s OK, that’s fine, thank you very much.” We never found the joint. We screwed everything back together.
That was my experience in the interview: He was really shockingly forthcoming.
For decades, Yoko Ono was said to have broken up the Beatles, but the studio footage in Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back suggests it was really about business — particularly regarding Allen Klein, whom Lennon wanted to hire as manager, while McCartney and others disagreed. All You Need Is Love indicates all these reasons are true, and others as well.
The first thing was that Brian [Epstein] died. He was the glue that held the Beatles together. Then the guys were getting tired of each other. They couldn’t go out on the street, they were the most famous people on earth, everything they did, every gesture, everything they said, was blown up, and they could only see each other, and it created tremendous tension.
If the feelings behind them weren’t so bad, they maybe would have solved those financial problems. There is a moment in Get Back when John and Yoko go over to speak with Peter Brown. Peter says, “Allen Klein is here,” and John and Yoko say, “Oh, when can we see him?” Peter says, “He’s at the Dorchester [Hotel in London], you can see Allen Klein tomorrow.” What they do behind everyone’s back is call the Dorchester and see him that night. And he brainwashes them. He made everything worse. He picked at all the scabs. He made the Beatles fight with each other.
How did you and Peter come up with this arrangement to write together?
In 1980, I was broke and down and out and unhappy and miserable in New York. He was living in Laguna Beach in a penthouse on a cliff. He said, “You’ve got to get out of New York. Stay here for a while.” It was glorious, and I said, “What about that book now?” He said, “Let’s write a proposal.” Then it exploded. We got $250,000 for the hardcover rights, $750,000 for the paperback rights. It went on and on until we had almost $2 million in advances. The problem was, it was too honest, it was too direct and the Beatles fans weren’t ready for it. But everybody’s grown up now. They’re ready for All You Need Is Love.
Earlier this month, 760 stations owned by iHeartMedia simultaneously threw their weight behind a new single: The Beatles’ “Now and Then.” This was surprising, because the group broke up in 1970 and two of the members are dead. “Now and Then” began decades ago as a home recording by John Lennon; more recently, AI-powered audio technology allowed for the separation of the demo’s audio components — isolating the voice and the piano — which in turn enabled the living Beatles to construct a whole track around them and roll it out to great fanfare.
“For three days, if you were a follower of popular culture, all you heard about was The Beatles,” says Arron Saxe, who represents several estates, including Otis Redding’s and Bill Withers’s. “And that’s great for the business of the estate of John Lennon and the estate of George Harrison and the current status of the two living legends.”
For many people, 2023 has been the year that artificial intelligence technology left the realm of science fiction and crashed rudely into daily life. And while AI-powered tools have the potential to impact wide swathes of the music industry, they are especially intriguing for those who manage estates or the catalogs of dead artists.
That’s because there are inherent constraints involved with this work: No one is around to make new stuff. But as AI models get better, they have the capacity to knit old materials together into something that can credibly pass as new — a reproduction of a star’s voice, for example. “As AI develops, it may impact the value of an estate, depending on what assets are already in the estate and can be worked with,” says Natalia Nataskin, chief content officer for Primary Wave, who estimates that she and her team probably spend around 25% of their time per week mulling AI (time she says they used to spend contemplating possibilities for NFTs).
And a crucial part of an estate manager’s job, Saxe notes, is “looking for opportunities to earn revenue.” “Especially with my clients who aren’t here,” he adds, “you’re trying to figure out, how do you keep it going forward?”
The answer, according to half a dozen executives who work with estates or catalogs of dead artists or songwriters, is “very carefully.” “We say no to 99 percent of opportunities,” Saxe says.
“You have this legacy that is very valuable, and once you start screwing with it, you open yourself up to causing some real damage,” adds Jeff Jampol, who handles the estates of The Doors, Janis Joplin and more. “Every time you’re going to do something, you have to be really protective. It’s hard to be on the bleeding edge.”
To work through these complicated issues, WME went so far as to establish an AI Task Force where agents from every division educate themselves on different platforms and tools to “get a sense for what is out there and where there are advantages to bring to our clients,” says Chris Jacquemin, the company’s head of digital strategy. The task force also works with WME’s legal department to gain “some clarity around the types of protections we need to be thinking about,” he continues, as well as with the agency’s legislative division in Washington, D.C.
At the moment, Jampol sees two potentially intriguing uses of AI in his work. “It would be very interesting to have, for instance, Jim Morrison narrate his own documentary,” he explains. He could also imagine using an AI voice model to read Morrison’s unrecorded poetry. (The Doors singer did record some poems during his lifetime, suggesting he was comfortable with this activity.)
On Nov. 15, Warner Music Group announced a potentially similar initiative, partnering with the French great Edith Piaf’s estate to create a voice model — based on the singer’s old interviews — which will narrate the animated film Edith. The executors of Piaf’s estate, Catherine Glavas and Christie Laume, said in a statement that “it’s been a special and touching experience to be able to hear Edith’s voice once again — the technology has made it feel like we were back in the room with her.”
The use of AI tech to recreate a star’s speaking voice is “easier” than attempting to put together an AI model that will replicate a star singing, according to Nataskin. “We can train a model on only the assets that we own — on the speaking voice from film clips, for example,” she explains.
In contrast, to train an AI model to sing like a star of old, the model needs to ingest a number of the artist’s recordings. That requires the consent of other rights holders — the owners of those recordings, which may or may not be the estate, as well as anyone involved in their composition. Many who spoke to Billboard for this story said they were leery of AI making new songs in the name of bygone legends. “To take a new creation and say that it came from someone who isn’t around to approve it, that seems to me like quite a stretch,” says Mary Megan Peer, CEO of the publisher peermusic.
Outside the United States, however, the appetite for this kind of experimentation may differ. Roughly a year ago, the Chinese company Tencent Music Entertainment told analysts that it used AI-powered technology to create new vocal tracks from dead singers, one of which went on to earn more than 100 million streams.
For now, at least, Nataskin characterized Primary Wave as focused on “enhancing” with AI tech, “rather than creating something from scratch.” And after Paul McCartney initially mentioned that artificial intelligence played a role in “Now and Then,” he quickly clarified on X that “nothing has been artificially or synthetically created,” suggesting there is still some stigma around the use of AI to generate new vocals from dead icons. The tech just “cleaned up some existing recordings,” McCartney noted.
This kind of AI use for “enhancing” and “cleaning up,” tweaking and adjusting has already been happening regularly for several years. “For all of the industry freakout about AI, there’s actually all these ways that it’s already operating everyday on behalf of artists or labels that isn’t controversial,” says Jessica Powell, co-founder and CEO of Audioshake, a company that uses AI-powered technology for stem separation. “It can be pretty transformational to be able to open up back catalog for new uses.”
The publishing company peermusic used AI-powered stem separation to create instrumentals for two tracks in its catalog — Gaby Moreno’s “Fronteras” and Rafael Solano’s “Por Amor” — which could then be placed in ads for Oreo and Don Julio, respectively. Much like the Beatles, Łukasz Wojciechowski, co-founder of Astigmatic Records, used stem separation to isolate, and then remove distortion from, the trumpet part in a previously unreleased recording he found of jazz musician Tomasz Stanko. After the clean up, the music could be released for the first time. “I’m seeing a lot of instances with older music where the quality is really poor, and you can restore it,” Wojciechowski says.
Powell acknowledges that these uses are “not a wild proposition like, ‘create a new voice for artist X!’” Those have been few and far between — at least the authorized ones. (Hip-hop fans have been using AI-powered technology to turn snippets of rap leaks from artists like Juice WRLD, who died in 2019, into “finished” songs.) For now, Saxe believes “there hasn’t been that thing where people can look at it and go, ‘They nailed that use of it.’ We haven’t had that breakout commercial popular culture moment.”
It’s still early, though. “Where we go with things like Peter Tosh or Waylon Jennings or Eartha Kitt, we haven’t decided yet,” says Phil Sandhaus, head of WME Legends division. “Do we want to use voice cloning technologies out there to create new works and have Eartha Kitt in her unique voice sing a brand new song she’s never sung before? Who knows? Every family, every estate is different.”
Additional reporting by Melinda Newman
After John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison met each other in the late 1950s, coming together for the latter’s skiffle band The Quarrymen, the world would never be the same. The band faced two notable lineup changes: first, with former bassist Stuart Sutcliffe departing for art school, and then with manager Brian Epstein booting […]
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It’s a Beatles celebration! In honor of “Now and Then,” the band’s final song released on Thursday (Nov. 2), we’ve rounded up a collection of some of the coolest Beatles merchandise that you can find at Amazon and other retailers.
The holidays are coming up soon, and if you’re unsure of what to get The Beatles fan in your life, we’re here to help. Celebrate John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with our list of gift ideas that are perfect for the holidays, birthdays and other gifting occasions.
Keep reading for a list of 20 of the best Beatles-inspired gear including books, movies, record players, advent calendars, apparel and other fun collectibles and awesome gift ideas for dedicated fans of all ages. And be sure to check out the official Beatles store for “Now and Then merch” and more.
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If you missed a chance to grab Pro-Ject’s Beatles Project Turntable, here’s a more affordable option. This Crossley record player is a good choice for beginners and younger music fans because it’s durable and not very expensive. The three-speed suitcase turntable opens up to reveal a photo of the Fab Five.
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Speaking of music, store Beatles records and more in this Yellow Submarine crate. The crate holds up to 75 vinyl records.
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A fun way to hear The Beatles music, lullaby-style. This luminescent music box plays the band’s 1970 classic, “Let It Be,” plus it’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand (it measures 3.3 x 3.3. inches).
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Paul McCartney released 1964: Eyes of the Storm features in June. The book is comprised of 275 rare photos of The Beatles which McCartney snapped on a 35mm camera early in the band’s career.
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The Beatles Get Back DVD and Blu-ray makes a great holiday gift for Beatles fans and anyone who likes music documentaries. There’s also a hardcover book featuring The Beatles’ official account of the creation of their final album, Let It Be. The book is illustrated with hundreds of previously unpublished photos, including images by famed photographer Ethan A. Russell, who shot the band’s album covers and Paul’s late wife, Linda McCartney.
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The Beatles Sgt. Pepper Drum Advent Calendar features 24-days of gifts such as a keyring, metal bookmark, dish towel, cookie cutters, socks, limited-edition pin badges and a replica of the Beatles’ Christmas card to fans.
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Create a cool art piece with LEGO Art The Beatles Set. This 2,933-piece set for adults measures over 15.5-inches and features four build options, nine canvas wall decor plates, The Beatles’ signature tile, a brick-built LEGO frame, unique new hanging element and piece separator.
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Incorporate the Beatles aesthetic into your next card game. These premium playing cards are available in four different color editions dressed in the style of the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
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Lennon’s legendary style gets immortalized in the form of a Funko Pop! The figure is part of the Funko Pop! Rocks collection and stands almost 4 inches tall.
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All aboard! The Eurostar Beatles Submarine Train Set is perfect for collectors. The train set is a mini-recreation of the Eurostar 737 train wrapped in Beatles scenes from the 1968 musical-comedy, Yellow Submarine.
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For the Beatles fanatic who wants to keep their drinks cool! The Fab Four take center stage on this Igloo Playmate cooler, which is available in 7 qt. and 14 qt. The cooler can hold nine to 26 cans, depending on the size.
Happy Socks
Happy Socks teamed up with the rock icons for this cozy, sock selection made of premium cotton material. This ultimate sock set comes with 24 colorful pairs of socks.
The Beatles Large Recycled Tote is no longer in stock but you this tin tote might just be the perfect alternative. You might also like this collectible tin featuring artwork from The Beatles’ catalog of hit singles and measures 9.96 x 8.31 x 3.9 inches.
Casely
Casley’s limited-edition Yellow Submarine Tin Box includes a Yellow Submarine | Beatles Case (Bold + MagSafe), and a Yellow Submarine | Beatles Power Pod all packed in a collectible tin.
Shopping for a Beatles purse? Sgt. Lonely Peppers bag from Loungefly has an adjustable strap and gold-metal hardware. The faux leather bag measures 10 x 10 x 3 inches.
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This collectible tin set holds 15 medium gauge guitar picks, each of which celebrates some of the legendary Beatles images including Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers and Revolver. Find additional Beatles-inspired guitar picks here.
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We couldn’t make the list without a Beatles T-shirt! This British flag Beatles logo tee is available in black, gray and navy blue in sizes S-5X.
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Also in the fashion department: a Beatles varsity jacket. This particular jacket is inspired by the band’s 1964 tour. You can also fid Beatles varsity jackets at Walmart, and Rockabilia.
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Collect the artwork from every Beatles album cover blended together to make one epic animation. This handheld flipbook makes a great stocking stuffer or White Elephant/Secret Santa gift. It only measures 6 x 4-inches and has 125 pages.
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Another unique (and tiny) Beatles merch item! The Beatles drum salt and pepper shakers are no longer available but these Abby Road Silhouette Salt & Pepper Set is in stock at Amazon.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Paul McCartney is no stranger when it comes to creating record-breaking music, but fans of the musician are about to get a peek at another skill of his: photography. A new book titled 1964: Eyes of the Storm by McCartney is set to come out June 13, and will feature unseen photos from The Beatles’ first transatlantic tour. Collectors or those looking for gifts for The Beatles fans can preorder the book through Amazon, Walmart and Barnes and Noble.
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It’s almost no surprise that the book is already a chart-topper, reaching No. 1 status for Amazon new releases. The book is currently on sale for $63.75, meaning you can preorder it for a fraction of the price. For those who prefer a digital version, it’s also available in a Kindle edition for $35.99.
According to the description, fans will get “largely unseen photographs [taken by McCartney using a 35mm camera] capture the explosive period, from the end of 1963 through early 1964, in which The Beatles became an international sensation and changed the course of music history.”
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“1964: Eyes of the Storm” by Paul McCartney
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The book features 275 photos captured around six cities, including Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C., and Miami. There is also an introduction by historian Jill Lepore, along with a personal foreword by McCartney as he recalls the emotions and events that took place as the band played for British concert halls, and the excitement from fans following their first visit to the U.S.
With the rise of coffee-table books as a trendy piece of decor, you’ll want to make sure this book has a front and center spot for all guest to see. If you’re a collector, then make sure you display it among your other Beatles merch, such as the band’s Magna tiles set and special-edition record player.
And, while you wait for the book to come out on June 13, you can go back in time and watch the docuseries The Beatles: Get Back, which is available on Blue-ray/DVD and Disney+ for a more in-depth look at the history and rise of the band.
For more product recommendations, check out our round ups of the best record players and turntables, speakers for music lovers and where to take online music lessons.
The Beatles’ Revolver album, first released in 1966, rushes to No. 1 on multiple Billboard charts following its deluxe expanded reissue on Oct. 28. The set re-enters at No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Catalog Albums (all dated Nov. 12) – its first week at No. 1 on all three lists. Revolver also re-enters Top Album Sales, Vinyl Albums and Tastemaker Albums at No. 2.
On the Billboard 200, the former No. 1 – which spent six weeks atop the list in 1966 – re-enters the list at No. 4.
For Revolver’s special edition, the album was reintroduced and remixed in a variety of expanded formats and editions, including many with previously unreleased tracks. The range included a standard digital album priced at $9.99 in the iTunes Store up through a boxed set boasting four vinyl LPs and two seven-inch singles that sold for $200 or more, depending on the retailer.
All versions of Revolver, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes. In the tracking week ending Nov. 3, Revolver earned 54,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. (up 1,963%). Of that sum, traditional album sales comprise 46,000 (up 6,346%).
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Catalog Albums rank the week’s most popular rock and alternative albums, rock albums and catalog albums, respectively, by equivalent album units. (Catalog albums are older albums, generally those at least 18-months old.) Tastemaker Albums ranks the week’s best-selling albums at independent and small chain record stores. Vinyl Albums tallies the top-selling vinyl albums of the week.
Of Revolver’s 46,000 in album sales for the week, physical sales comprise 42,000 (18,000 on vinyl and 24,000 on CD) and digital album download sales comprise 4,000.
The rerelease of Revolver is part of the ongoing series of expanded reissues of select studio albums by The Beatles. It follows reissues of Let It Be in 2021 (first released in 1970), Abbey Road in 2019 (first released in 1969), The Beatles in 2018 (often referred to as the White Album, first released in 1968) and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 2017 (first released in 1967).
Taylor Swift’s Midnights holds at No. 1 on Top Album Sales for a second week, selling 114,000 copies (down 90%). In its debut frame a week ago, the set exploded atop the list with 1.140 million copies sold.
Grateful Dead’s Dave’s Picks, Volume 44: Autzen Stadium, U. of Oregon, Eugene, OR – 6/23/90 debuts at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 22,000 sold. Dave’s Picks is the act’s continuing live archival release series, named for the group’s archivist, David Lemieux, that has been going strong since its first release in 2012. Releases in the series are issued exclusively on CD and in limited quantities.
On the Billboard 200 chart, Dave’s Picks, Vol. 44 debuts at No. 3 – marking the band’s 54th top 40-charting album on the list. The act continues to have the most top 40 albums among groups since the chart began regularly publishing on a weekly basis in March of 1956. The acts with the most top 40 albums on the Billboard 200 are: Frank Sinatra (58), Elvis Presley (58), Barbra Streisand (54), Grateful Dead (54) and Bob Dylan (51). (Thirty-six of Grateful Dead’s 53 top 40-charting albums are from the Dave’s Picks series.)
A trio of debuts is next up on Top Album Sales as Berner’s From Seed to Sale (14,000), Baby Keem’s The Melodic Blue (11,000) and Polyphia’s Remember That You Will Die (10,000) bow at Nos. 4-6, respectively. It’s the first top 10-charting set for the latter two acts, while Berner notches his second top 10 effort. The Melodic Blue was initially released a little over a year ago as a digital download album, but makes its belated debut on Top Album Sales following its vinyl LP release on Oct. 28; nearly all of its sales for the week were on vinyl. The album has yet to be issued on CD or any other physical format.
LE SSERAFIM’s ANTIFRAGILE falls 3-7 on Top Album Sales in its second week (7,000; down 65%).
Foo Fighters’ new greatest hits compilation The Essential Foo Fighters debuts at No. 8 on Top Album Sales with 7,000 sold. Of that sum, physical sales comprise 6,500 (3,500 on vinyl and 3,000 on CD) and digital album downloads comprise 500. The album also bows in the top 10 across a variety of other charts, including Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Hard Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums. The set also launches at No. 42 on the Billboard 200.
The 21-track The Essential Foo Fighters includes such hit songs as “All My Life,” “Best of You,” “Learn to Fly,” “Long Road to Ruin,” “Rope,” “The Pretender” and “Walk” – all of which hit No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart.
The Essential brand is the long-running compilation series from Sony Music’s catalog division, Legacy, and has charted dozens of charting titles on the Billboard 200 and Top Album Sales since the early 2000s from artists such as Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and Barbra Streisand.
The Essential Foo Fighters is the first in the Essential series to reach the top 10 on Top Album Sales. Previously, the highest-charting effort in the Essential series on Top Album Sales was The Essential Bruce Springsteen, when it debuted and peaked at No. 14 on the Nov. 29, 2003-dated chart.
The Essential Foo Fighters is the highest charting Essential album on the Billboard 200 since The Essential Michael Jackson rose to No. 31 on the Sept. 8, 2018-dated chart. The Essential Foo Fighters is also the highest debut from the Essential line since The Essential Leonard Cohen debuted and peaked at No. 13 on the Dec. 3, 2016 chart, following his death.
Harry Styles’ former No. 1 Harry’s House climbs 12-9 with a little over 6,000 sold (down 2%), while Demon Hunter clocks its fourth top 10 with the No. 10 arrival of Exile (6,000).
In the week ending Nov. 3, there were 1.618 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 42.1% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.237 million (up 46%) and digital albums comprised 381,000 (up 24.4%).
There were 621,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Nov. 3 (down 37.8% week-over-week) and 606,000 vinyl albums sold (down 52.3%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 29.021 million (down 7.1% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 32.574 million (up 3.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 79.244 million (down 6.5% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 62.049 million (down 1.6%) and digital album sales total 17.194 million (down 21%).
Welcome to The Contenders, a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Nov. 12): Taylor Swift’s record-setting Midnights enters its second frame, facing competition from rap star Kodak Black, rising country singer-songwriter Lainey Wilson, and a quartet of up-and-comers from Liverpool.
The Beatles, Revolver: Special Edition (Apple)
It was No. 1 for six weeks in September and October 1966, and 56 years later it could top the Billboard 200 again. The Beatles’ Revolver, widely regarded as one of the greatest rock albums of all time, was reissued on Oct. 28 in a new Special Edition, centered around a stereo remix of the album from Giles Martin (son of original Revolver producer George Martin) and Sam Okell.
The set comes in a variety of different packages: a five-CD (or four-LP plus one 7-inch vinyl) super deluxe version featuring dozens of bonus demos and sessions, a two-CD/LP deluxe version with 15 bonus “Revolver Sessions Highlights,” and a one-CD/LP version with just the original remixed album. (All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes.) The Beatles have already released ambitious box sets dedicated to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (The White Album), Abbey Road and Let It Be — all of which returned to the Billboard 200’s top 10.
Kodak Black, Kutthroat Bill, Vol. 1 (Atlantic)
Billboard reported last week that hip-hop star Kodak Black will head to Capitol Records when his current deal with Atlantic is through — but he still owes the latter label two albums. The first of them dropped Friday: Kutthroat Bill, Vol. 1, the Florida rapper’s second 2022 release, following February’s Back for Everything.
Kodak is familiar with the Billboard 200’s top spot, as his 2018 album Dying to Live reigned for one week, while Back for Everything debuted at No. 2 behind the Encanto soundtrack. Kutthroat doesn’t have a crossover single as massive as those sets’ “ZEZE” and “Super Gremlin,” respectively — both of which reached the Billboard Hot 100‘s top five — but it does have a streaming-friendly 19 tracks, and a recent Hot 100 debut with the woozy advance single “Walk.”
Lainey Wilson, Bell Bottom Country (BBR)
“Lainey Wilson is the next superstar for the format,” proclaimed Charlie Cook, vp Country Format at Cumulus, to Billboard in September. Wilson will show how close she’s gotten to fulfilling that prediction with the release of Bell Bottom Country, her second album since signing to BBR. The set — which like her previous release is produced by Jay Joyce — is preceded by two hit Wilson duets from earlier this year: “Never Say Never” with Cole Swindell (a Country Airplay No. 1) and “Wait in the Truck” with HARDY. Neither cut appears on Bell Bottom Country, but her own “Heart Like a Truck” does — hitting a new peak of No. 23 on Country Airplay this week — as does a cover of ’90s rockers 4 Non Blondes’ karaoke classic “What’s Up?”
IN THE MIX
Baby Keem, The Melodic Blue (pgLang/Columbia): Reigning best new artist Grammy winner Baby Keem’s debut album has been on the Billboard 200 since it debuted at No. 5 in Sept. 2021, sitting at No. 105 on the current week’s chart. Expect it to climb higher next week, thanks to a deluxe reissue with seven new bonus tracks, including guest spots from streaming fixtures Don Toliver, PinkPantheress and Lil Uzi Vert.
The Grateful Dead, Dave’s Picks Vol. 44 (Rhino): The legendary jam band is a regular on the Billboard 200 with the Dave’s Picks series, which features live shows selected by Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux. The most recent set, July’s Vol. 43, was the highest-charting on the Billboard 200 to date, reaching No. 11; if Vol. 44 makes the chart’s top 10, it would be the first Dead album to score that high since In the Dark hit No. 6 in 1987.
Smino, Luv 4 Rent (Zero Fatigue/Motown): The acclaimed R&B singer-songwriter’s third album is also his first since announcing the new partnership between his indie/collective Zero Fatigue and the iconic Motown label. The 15-track set includes collaborations with R&B sensations Lucky Daye and Ravyn Lanae, as well as rap superstars J. Cole and (again) Lil Uzi Vert.
Michael Jackson, Thriller (Epic): The best-selling original album in pop music history remains a Billboard 200 fixture; it’s No. 61 this week, in its 545th week on the chart. But it’s also a Spooky Season perennial, thanks largely to its eerie, Vincent Price-narrated title track. Last year the set jumped to No. 25 on the chart following Halloween, and it should be due for another big leap this November.
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