Wow, did we really never have a Beatles thread on here before now? Well, I guess we do now! The Beatles were the first rock band I ever knew and loved, and they are still awesome to listen to. I found this info really interesting and thought some of y'all might think so too:

THE BEATLES' ENTIRE ORIGINAL RECORDED CATALOGUE REMASTERED FOR RELEASE 09-09-097th April 2009

Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are delighted to announce the release of the original Beatles catalogue, which has been digitally re-mastered for the first time, for worldwide CD release on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 (9-9-09), the same date as the release of the widely anticipated "The Beatles: Rock Band" video game. Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original UK album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. On the same date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will also be released.

The albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.

The collection comprises all 12 Beatles albums in stereo, with track listings and artwork as originally released in the UK, and 'Magical Mystery Tour,' which became part of The Beatles' core catalogue when the CDs were first released in 1987. In addition, the collections 'Past Masters Vol. I and II' are now combined as one title, for a total of 14 titles over 16 discs. This will mark the first time that the first four Beatles albums will be available in stereo in their entirety on compact disc. These 14 albums, along with a DVD collection of the documentaries, will also be available for purchase together in a stereo boxed set.

More info on this can be found here: http://www.beatles.com/core/news/

Simply the BEST !

Timeless music that set the standard in popular music but that has never been matched in terms of the sheer volume of brilliant songs produced.

Will have to start saving the pennies now if I am to purchase this mega- boxed set of their back catalogue.

Am i the only one who doesn't think the beatles are that good, and are rather over-rated?

i do love beatles. they are ace.
they are actually one of the few bands where i can say that one album is my favourite, and that is rubber soul. it's ace.

The Beatles invented the modern rock band.
Before them, bands didn't write their own songs, weren't expected to progress musically and they were arguably the first band to be not just backing musicians and one frontman. They wrote the rule book basically. And also tore it to pieces.
In my opinion, they were and continue to be, the most important musicians of the last century.
And they wrote sophisticated but catchy pop songs, the hardest stuff to write of all.

They influenced too much people to be overrated. I prefer their psychedelic stuff of the later years, their early stuff is a bit too harmless for my taste but then they were "dangerous", especially in East Germany where the so called goverment (more a regime) banned it until they noticed, that John Lennon was for the "working class"
Not sure if those folks knew "Revolution" because they might not have liked the line
"But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow"

And what I really like about the Beatles is the way they mixed classic with rock. You might know that I usually don't like that mix that much but the Beatles did it in a very lovely way: "Eleanor Rigby", "She's leaving home", the one and only "Yesterday" and even the huge orchestrated "A Day in a Life"...
And on the other hand they invented Heavy Metal when they did a parody of The Who with "Helter Skelter" (really wonder why John Lennon called Paul McCartney a softie... )

While we're on the subject, many say they wrote the first Prog song, with "She's So Heavy". First time I heard it, I thought it was Pink Floyd until the singing started.

I think the whole "Abbey Road" is a bit early Floydian...I remember, when I heard "Sunking" first it reminded me very much on the first two Floyd records...and if I remember right it might not be sure who influenced who...

My first love affair, so to speak, was with The Beatles. Their music educated me and opened my ears to some of the superb music I listen to today. Elbow is my second love affair with music, even though since 2004 I have heard and loved some great music, these two have really had an impact on me. My favourite Beatles' songs are the ones written by George (that weird?), and A Hard Days Night is one of my favourite films. Weirdly my name is my least favourite Beatles' song, I just have an obsession with birds and thought it sounded nice on the tongue, bit like Elbow.