Had
he lived, there’s no doubt that John Lennon would have
reunited The Beatles—the band he founded way back at the
end of the ‘50s. The advent of the CD in 1984 made the Beatles
back catalog as priceless as gold and Lennon would have just loved
the compact disc. The incredible success of the Beatles In Mono
CD box set in 2009 has led to the 2010 creation of a new 17
CD Apple Records box set appropriately
entitled
The Apple Records Box Set. In the spirit of the
Beatles In Mono box, and looking somewhat stylized like the
2010 John Lennon reissue series, The Apple Records Box Set has
immense historical repercussions for those interested in The Beatles
and their Apple Records music company, which was really envisioned
just after the 1967 Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
Club Band. Sonically, as well as something visually to behold,
The Apple Records Box Set is a pure joy. The box (yes it’s
literally a small box), contains 16 original Apple Records albums
on 14 CDs, remastered for sonic excellence by the Beatles In Mono
crew at Abbey Road in London, with each title fitting neatly into
newly designed cardboard LP jacket style CD covers featuring original
artwork, new CD booklets and additional key bonus cuts. Each CD contains
many of the same bonus tracks featured on the first Apple CD remasters
released during the early 1990s plus
different rarities.
Protégés of Paul McCartney, Badfinger was
the most famous of all the Beatles related signings on Apple 
and
the late lamented pop combo is represented on the box with four individual
CD remasters—Magic Christian Music (1970), No
Dice (1970), Straight Up (1972) and Ass
(1974). Mary Hopkin was another discovery of Paul
McCartney, and the Beatle sensibly paired her with a song he developed
from an old Russian folk song called “Those Were The Days”—possibly
the most famous Apple Records single except for “Hey Jude”
and “Let It Be.” Ms. Hopkin is featured on The Apple
Records Box Set with two CDs featuring her albums Post Card
(1969 w/ “Those Were The Days”) and Earth
Song, Ocean Song—the latter produced by Brooklyn's own,
the great Tony Visconti. James Taylor, another Paul
McCartney discovery for Apple, is here with his famous first solo
album on Apple, James Taylor, featuring all the
Beatles sans John Lennon. Same could be said about George Harrison
protégé Jackie Lomax, with this historic
Apple box set inclusion of the Harrison produced album Is This
What You Want? Funny, I had interviewed Jackie for mwe3.com
in 2009 and we were saying how there really should be an Apple Records
box set and lo and behold, one year later, here it is! During that
interview, me and Jackie were also talking about the fabled mono mix
of his Is This What You Want? album and amazingly, there are
several Is This What You Want? tracks right here in this 
box
in mono! Talk about coincidence or is somebody at EMI reading my interviews?
Okay, there’s so much more here including a 2 albums on 1 CD
remaster from John Lennon's jazz favorites The Modern Jazz Quartet—Under
The Jasmine Tree (1968) and Space (1969), two
George Harrison produced albums from Billy Preston—That’s
The Way God Planned It (1969) and Encouraging Words
(1970), the George Harrison produced / self-titled album from
Radha Krsna Temple, the Harrison produced, self-titled
Doris Troy and a 2 albums on 1 CD from Ringo Starr
favorite, classical music composer John Tavener—The
Whale (1970) and Celtic Requiem (1971). In addition
to the 14 superbly packaged CDs—comprising 16 albums in total
including the two 2 on 1 CDs—the box also features a special
single Apple Records CD singles collection, mostly in stereo, entitled
Come And Get It - The Best Of Apple Records, including
a number of rarities that will amaze even diehard Beatles collectors.
As with each of the above titles, the 21 track Come And Get It
compilation CD features an easy on the eyes full color booklet
chock full of vital information on each of the artists here.
Interestingly, the box set's Come And Get It collection features
well known Apple artists such as Badfinger, James Taylor, Mary Hopkin
and Jackie Lomax as well as lesser known Beatles produced Apple artists
filed away in the pages of history like Hot Chocolate Band,
Ronnie Spector, The Elastic Oz Band, Lon & Derrek
van Eaton and others. Even with so much musical greatness, perhaps
the coolest thing in the box is a double CD set of tracks—otherwise,
available only with the digital download purchase of each of the individually
available above albums—simply entitled Apple Studios.
Looking almost like a bootleg, CD one of the double disc Apple
Studios collection features twenty rarities from Badfinger including
a batch of
never heard before tracks
featuring lush orchestrations from George Martin, with disc
two of Apple Studios featuring various rarities from Mary Hopkin
and Jackie Lomax—including some rare mono mixes of Jackie’s
sole Apple album topped off by a stirring mono mix of “Sour Milk
Sea.” One of the best reissue box sets of 2010, The Apple
Records Box Set is the ultimate box set tribute to The Beatles
and their genius vision for the sadly short lived, yet still highly
collectable Apple Records. www.AppleRecords.com
