Get Back: 50th Anniversary

Get Back: 50th Anniversary is a much-anticipated release marking half a century since the historic Let It Be sessions. The release was delayed multiple times, allowing for the dub of a “Curse of Let it Be”.

Description
The Beatles present their 1970 chart-topping album Let It Be in sweeping new Special Editions, as you’ve never heard it before.

Featuring new mixes by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell in stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos; expanded with previously unreleased session recordings and demos.

Album Release (October 21, 2021)
The groundbreaking album was reissued on CD, Blu-ray and vinyl in numerous cases.

The Super Deluxe CD [5CD, Blu-ray, 150-page hardcover book] and vinyl collections’ beautiful book features Paul McCartney’s foreword; an introduction by Giles Martin; a remembrance by Glyn Johns; insightful chapters and detailed track notes by Beatles historian, author, and radio producer Kevin Howlett; and an essay by journalist and author John Harris exploring the sessions’ myths vs. their reality.

The book is illustrated, scrapbook style, with rare and previously unpublished photos by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney, as well as never before published images of handwritten lyrics, session notes, sketches, Beatles correspondence, tape boxes, film frames, and more.

Also issued were LPs, an EP and other deluxe and singles.

Documentary (November 25-27, 2021)
This was originally intended as a movie [Release date September 4, 2020], but delayed a year thanks to COVID and the fact Peter Jackson (director) restored up to 6 hours of footage.

The final cut covers 21 days in the studio with the Beatles as they rehearse for a forthcoming album, concert and film project, and climaxes with the full 42-minute rooftop concert. Jackson described the series as "a documentary about a documentary", as well as a "tougher" one than Let It Be, since it includes controversial events such as Harrison's brief resignation from the band, which the original film had not covered. With the exception of specific shots where no alternative exists, most of the material that had been featured in Let It Be was not reused in Get Back, and the series primarily used footage captured from alternative camera angles in the case of sequences shared between the two works. According to Jackson, this choice was made out of a desire to "not step on Let It Be's toes so that it is still a film that has a reason to exist, and our [series] will be a supplement to it".

After a bad disk error in February 2022, people flipped recalled copies on eBay of the film. Another official release was scheduled for July 16, 2022. It would be the last one of the anniversary.

Companion Book
To soften the blow of disappointment that the film was delayed, a heavy release of a coffee table book. The most anticipated book in more than a decade by the legendary band, The Beatles: Get Back is the official account of the creation of their final album, Let It Be, told in The Beatles’ own words, illustrated with hundreds of previously unpublished images, including photos by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney. Half a century after the 1970 Let It Be album and film, this milestone book coincides with the global release of Peter Jackson’s documentary feature film, The Beatles: Get Back.

The book opens in January 1969, the beginning of The Beatles’ last year as a band. The BEATLES (The White Album) is at number one in the charts and the foursome gather in London for a new project. Over 21 days, first at Twickenham Film Studios and then at their own brand-new Apple Studios, with cameras and tape recorders documenting every day’s work and conversations, the band rehearse a huge number of songs, culminating in their final concert, which famously takes place on the rooftop of their own office building, bringing central London to a halt.

The Beatles: Get Back tells the story of those sessions through transcripts of the band’s candid conversations. Drawing on over 120 hours of sound recordings, leading music writer John Harris edits the richly captivating text to give us a fly-on-the-wall experience of being there in the studios. These sessions come vividly to life through hundreds of unpublished, extraordinary images by two photographers who had special access to their sessions—Ethan A. Russell and Linda Eastman (who married Paul McCartney two months later). Also included are many unseen high-resolution film-frames, selected from the 55 hours of restored footage from which Peter Jackson’s documentary is also drawn.

Legend has it that these sessions were a grim time for a band falling apart. However, as acclaimed novelist Hanif Kureishi writes in his introduction, “In fact this was a productive time for them, when they created some of their best work. And it is here that we have the privilege of witnessing their early drafts, the mistakes, the drift and digressions, the boredom, the excitement, joyous jamming and sudden breakthroughs that led to the work we now know and admire." Half a century after their final performance, this book completes the story of the creative genius, timeless music, and inspiring legacy of The Beatles.

IMAX Rooftop Concert (January 30, 2022)
A feature of the rooftop concert from the documentary was released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in select IMAX theatres on 30 January 2022, with a global theatrical release from 11 to 13 February. The 30 January presentation was accompanied by a live-streamed Q&A with Jackson. In response to one question during the Q&A, Jackson revealed that there was still additional hours of restored but unreleased footage and interviews. As of 20 February 2022, the film has grossed $936,764 in the domestic box office and $1.2 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $2.2 million.

On 30 January 2022, The Beatles: Get Back premiered in limited theatrical release in 67 theatres, grossing $391,252 at the box office. It was released again on 9 February, when it grossed approximately $50,468 in 80 theatres. It was released to an international audience during the 11–13 February box office weekend, and was shown in 181 theatres worldwide.

On 28 January 2022, the audio of the full rooftop performance, remixed in Dolby Atmos, was released to streaming services.

Cancelled Projects
A restoration DVD of the original Glyn John book was scrapped.