‘The Beatles Anthology’ project is returning in 2025 with a new book, album and video. Find all the details below.
- READ MORE: Inside ‘Now And Then’: With a little help from AI, The Beatles live again
Speculation that the cult-favourite ‘Anthology’ series would be returning began yesterday (August 20), when Paul McCartney shared a cryptic post online that seemed to allude to its previous releases.
The original series, ‘Anthology 1’ arrived in November 1995, around the same time as an eight-part documentary, and some of the first new music from the band since the death of John Lennon, with McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr working with Jeff Lynne on ‘Real Love’ and ‘Free as a Bird’.
It was followed up by two more albums, aptly named ‘Anthology 2’ and ‘Anthology 3’, which both arrived in 1996.
Now, it’s been confirmed that a new instalment is arriving this year, with the documentary series restored, remastered and set to include a brand new Episode Nine.
The new episode features unseen behind-the-scenes footage of McCartney, Harrison and Starr coming together between 1994 and 1995 to work on the original ‘The Anthology’. It will be available to stream exclusively on Disney+ from November 26.
Alongside the documentary, ‘The Anthology Music Collection’ – originally curated by George Martin – will be re-released as three double albums, remastered by Giles Martin. This will include a new ‘Anthology 4’, with 13 previously-unreleased demos and session recordings, as well as new mixes of ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’.
The collection will be available digitally, as well as in deluxe 12LP 180-gram vinyl and 8CD box sets, and is released on November 21. You can pre-save/pre-order it here.
The original ‘Free As A Bird’ music video has also been restored, which you can watch below.
Also included is a new The Beatles Anthology Book – 25th Anniversary Edition, which will be available on October 14 (pre-order here).
Per a press release, the book sees the four Beatles share their “honest, intimate and revelatory recollections of the band’s journey” as well as insight from colleagues and collaborators including Neil Aspinall, George Martin and Derek Taylor.
The book will include 1,300 photos, documents, artwork, and other memorabilia from the band’s archives.
The original ‘Anthology’ release also included remnants of a song called ‘Now And Then’, which was developed by Lennon back in 1978. In 2023, McCartney confirmed that, having received the demo from Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono in 1994, and ultimately deciding against including it on the ‘Anthology’, he and Starr had used AI to save the track and give it an official release.
In other Beatles news, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s NYC era and political activism is set to be explored in an extensive new box set called ‘Power To The People’, and McCartney has recently announced a North American leg of the ‘Got Back 2025’ tour.
