Love (Beatles album)


Love is a soundtrack remix album of music recorded by the Beatles, released in November 2006. It features music compiled and remixed as a mashup for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name. The album was produced by George Martin and his son Giles Martin, who said, "What people will be hearing on the album is a new experience, a way of re-living the whole Beatles musical lifespan in a very condensed period."
The album was also George Martin's final album as a producer before his death in 2016.

Background

George Martin and his son Giles began work on Love after obtaining permission from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. The idea for using the Beatles' music in a Cirque du Soleil production had originally come from Harrison, who died in November 2001, through his friendship with the company's founder, Guy Laliberté.
Speaking to Mojo editor Jim Irvin in December 2006, Giles Martin said that he first created a demo combining "Within You Without You" with "Tomorrow Never Knows", which he then nervously presented to McCartney and Starr for their approval. In Martin's recollection, "they loved it", with McCartney saying: "This is what we should be doing, more of this."
In discussing the project, Giles Martin noted that elements were used from recordings in the Beatles catalogue, "the original four tracks, eight tracks and two tracks and used this palette of sounds and music to create a soundbed". Because he was concerned that they might not get the green light to proceed with Love, he began by making digital back-ups of the original multi-track recordings, just to get started on the project. He also said that he and his father mixed more music than was eventually released, including "She's Leaving Home" and a version of "Girl" that he was particularly fond of, which was eventually released in 2011 as a bonus track on the album on iTunes.
McCartney and Starr both responded very positively to the completed album. McCartney said that it "puts The Beatles back together again, because suddenly there's John and George with me and Ringo". Starr commended the Martins for their work, adding that Love was "really powerful for me and I even heard things I'd forgotten we'd recorded".
Love was first played publicly on Virgin Radio's The Geoff Show. DJ Geoff Lloyd, the show's host, chose to play the entire work uninterrupted, to allow younger fans to experience an album premiere.
Love placed at number 3 in the UK Albums Chart during its first week of release, trailing Westlife's The Love Album and Oasis' Stop the Clocks compilation. It was also successful in the United States, debuting at number 4 on the Billboard 200, where it was certified Platinum in late 2006. At the 50th Grammy Awards on 10 February 2008, the album won Grammys in two categories – Best Compilation Soundtrack Album and Best Surround Sound Album.

Release details

The album was released as a standard Compact Disc version, a two-disc CD and DVD-Audio package, a two-disc vinyl package, and as a digital download. The DVD-Audio disc contains a 5.1-channel surround sound mix, downmixable to two-channel. For backwards compatibility it also contains separate audio-only DVD-Video content with two-channel stereo and 5.1-channel surround.
RegionDateLabelFormatCatalogue
Japan15 November 2006Toshiba-EMICDTOCP-70200
Japan15 November 2006Toshiba-EMICD/DVD-AudioTOCP-70201
United Kingdom20 November 2006Apple, EMI--
United Kingdom20 November 2006Apple, EMICD3798082 / 0946 3 79808 2 8
United Kingdom20 November 2006Apple, EMICD/DVD-Audio3798102 / 0946 3 79810 2 3
United States21 November 2006Apple, Capitol, EMICD0946 3 79808 2 8
United States21 November 2006Apple, Capitol, EMICD/DVD-Audio0946 3 79810 2 3
United Kingdom30 April 2007Apple, EMI--
United Kingdom30 April 2007Apple, EMIVinyl0946 379 808 11

Track listing

The DVD-Audio and iTunes releases contain longer versions of "Revolution" and "Back in the U.S.S.R.", increasing the total running time by about two minutes. All tracks written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted.
  1. "Because" – 2:44
  2. "Get Back" – 2:05
  3. "Glass Onion" – 1:20
  4. "Eleanor Rigby" – 3:05
  5. "I Am the Walrus" – 4:28
  6. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" – 1:22
  7. "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing" – 1:54
  8. "Gnik Nus" – 0:55
  9. "Something" – 3:29
  10. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You /Helter Skelter" – 3:22
  11. "Help!" – 2:18
  12. "Blackbird/Yesterday" – 2:31
  13. "Strawberry Fields Forever" – 4:31
  14. "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows" – 3:07
  15. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" – 4:10
  16. "Octopus's Garden" – 3:18
  17. "Lady Madonna" – 2:56
  18. "Here Comes the Sun" – 4:18
  19. "Come Together/Dear Prudence" – 4:45
  20. "Revolution" – 2:14 / 3:23
  21. "Back in the U.S.S.R." – 1:53 / 2:34
  22. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" – 3:46
  23. "A Day in the Life" – 5:08
  24. "Hey Jude" – 3:58
  25. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band " – 1:22
  26. "All You Need Is Love" – 3:39

    Digital bonus tracks

  28. "The Fool on the Hill" – 3:30
  29. "Girl" – 2:43

    Track elements

Love contains elements from 130 individual commercially released and demo recordings of the Beatles, and is a complex remix and polymix of multiple songs known as a mashup. While a complete list has not been disclosed, highlights of how the elements were mixed have been noted by the press.
  • "Because" – An interview in Entertainment Weekly revealed that the opening track includes the bird sounds used in the World Wildlife Fund version of "Across the Universe", as well as "Free as a Bird". In addition, a new recording of a wood pigeon was implemented "to make it more British", according to George Martin. Towards the end of the track, it features the reversed final chord from "A Day in the Life".
  • "Get Back" – As reported, the track uses the opening guitar chord from "A Hard Day's Night", the drum and guitar solos from "The End", percussion from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ", and the orchestral swell from "A Day in the Life".
  • "Glass Onion" – This track is much shorter than the original version, containing fewer vocals. The track contains McCartney's falsetto "Oh, no" and "Hello, hello" both from "Hello, Goodbye", guitar from "Things We Said Today", violin from "All You Need Is Love", brass from "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Penny Lane" and sound effects from "Only a Northern Song".
  • "Eleanor Rigby" – After the "Julia" transition it contains elements from "A Day in the Life" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", as well as sound effects from "Revolution 9".
  • "I Want to Hold Your Hand" – In an interview, George and Giles Martin stated that elements from both the studio recording and the Hollywood Bowl live performance were used in the 5.1 surround sound mix.
  • "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing" – The medley features the guitar solo from "Taxman" and the horn section from "Savoy Truffle". According to an interview with George and Giles Martin, they also remixed keyboards from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and backing vocals from "Helter Skelter" into the track.
  • "Gnik Nus" – The track contains the vocal arrangement of "Sun King" played in reverse and accompanied by tambura drone.
  • "Something" – The track contains vocal elements from "Nowhere Man".
  • "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You /Helter Skelter" – The track contains the whole of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", the guitars from "I Want You ", and heavily delayed vocals from "Helter Skelter". This track also includes horse sounds from "Good Morning, Good Morning", harmonium and other elements from "Cry Baby Cry" and laughter from "Piggies".
  • "Strawberry Fields Forever" – This version builds from an acoustic demo to incorporate sections of take 1 of the song and take 26. At the end of the track, it includes the orchestral section from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", the piano solo from "In My Life", the brass included in "Penny Lane", the cello and harpsichord from "Piggies", and the coda of "Hello, Goodbye". According to author John Winn, part of "I'm Only Sleeping" also appears in the closing mashup.
  • "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows" – This track combines the vocals and the dilruba from "Within You Without You" with the bass and drums from "Tomorrow Never Knows".
  • "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" – This track contains the drum roll from "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", the clavioline from "Baby, You're a Rich Man", horns, guitars, bass and drums from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and sound effects from "Tomorrow Never Knows".
  • "Octopus's Garden" – This track contains the string arrangement from "Good Night", sound effects and vocal elements from "Yellow Submarine", and elements from "Lovely Rita", "Helter Skelter" and "Sun King".
  • "Lady Madonna" – The song includes the percussion intro from "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?", the piano from "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", the guitar riff from "Hey Bulldog", Billy Preston's organ solo from "I Want You " and Eric Clapton's guitar solo from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
  • "Here Comes the Sun" – As mentioned by Giles Martin, the track includes tabla from "Within You Without You", backing vocals from "Oh! Darling" and a bass line from "I Want You ".
  • "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" – A BBC article reported that George Martin chose to use an early version of the recording for the album and wrote a new orchestral backing for the track, which according to Martin's section in the Love liner notes is his final Beatles string arrangement; the demo version used is found on Anthology 3. This was also stated in the fifth chapter of The Beatles 'LOVE' Podcast.
  • "All You Need Is Love" – This track is mostly unchanged until the fade out, which contains vocals from "Baby, You're a Rich Man", "Rain" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and the guitar riff from "Ticket to Ride", as well as elements of "Let It Be". The track ends with orchestration from "Good Night", the sign off from, and the "Jolly Good" line from Pantomime: Everywhere It's Christmas.

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