Month: December 2025

The Monkees at 60 – “The A’s, The B’s & The Monkees” Set Celebrates The Monkees 60th with a Stellar Collection of All Their Singles from 1966-1970

Leave a comment

Happy New Year’s Eve!

This upcoming year of 2026 not only celebrates my own 60th birthday, two weeks from today in fact, but for Monkees fans it’s also the 60th anniversary of the “The Monkees” both as a TV show as well as a rock group.

Hard to believe, pardon the pun for those who know, that sixty years have passed since the wacky foursome of Mickey Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith first romped around television screens and blared through radios all over the world.

My own personal introduction to the group came first with the music as my older brother, nine years older than me, had purchased the first four Monkees albums which I proceeded to make into frisbees by playing them over and over as a toddler (see photo below of me in 1968 listening to “More of the Monkees” on a vintage Magnavox stereo my parents owned).

I’m sure I watched the TV show in it’s first run along with my brother but I don’t remember it as well as I remember vividly listening to the first three Monkees albums on the floor as a toddler dancing and singling along to an old portable record player.

I do remember the show more from the Saturday morning reruns as well as collecting Monkees records from the back of cereal boxes circa 1969/1970 or so but by this time I was truly a Monkees maniac and had all of their albums (there is old 8mm silent film of me at my forth birthday party in 1970 opening both “Instant Replay” and “The Monkees Greatest Hits” Colgems albums) if you can believe it.

Okay, that leads us to today.

I just received the 2 CD set called “The A’s, The B’s & The Monkees” (love the “Birds and Bees” reference) which I ordered from the Monkees.com Website. It wasn’t supposed to be out until the end of January so I was quite pleased to see it so early and since I am off today I sat down and gave both CDs a listen and took a look through the groovy booklet.

I was really curious to hear this set as it was advertised online as needle drops of all The Monkees 1966-1970 singles featuring the original 45 mono and stereo mixes of both the A and B sides (thus the title). Of course that seemed really odd yet intriguing to me. I’m all for an authentic sounding collection of their singles and though it may be redundant I think it’s a cool idea.

Well after listening to the set I’m pleasantly surprised. Both CDs do seem to contain all of the original mono and stereo 45 mixes (The “Tear Drop City” mix is the original stereo 45 version not the promo version) and to my surprise they sound excellent!

They also sound like there are from the original master tapes as they are wonderful sounding – rich, warm and not fatiguing to listen to at all.

If any of these mixes is a mono album mix and not the true mono 45 mix I didn’t notice on first listen. While that would be unfortunate I must say everything sounds so good I could live with it. The second disc is especially a good listen and fun to hear all the b-sides together; a very strong disc with some of The Monkees best songs.

The booklet says this set was mastered by Bernie Grundman with digital mastering by Dave Schultz with Bill Inglot and I must say it’s probably my favorite sounding hits collection of Monkees material in my collection – it’s that good.

(Note: a 2 Lp vinyl version of this set comes out in January and will be available to buy at independent record stores)

I know a lot of Monkees fans online are ho hum about this set as they have all the material already but if you want this stuff with the original 45 mixes sounding better than ever then you might want to give this set a listen.

Of course being a physical media guy I love a new physical Monkees release and I hope Rhino Records does some other interesting releases for the 60th anniversary throughout 2026 – we shall see.

Both CDs are mono from tracks 1-8 and then stereo for tracks 9-12 and I believe all the correct mono 45 versions – I could be wrong but I think they are all correct. And if some of these came from need drops I would truly be amazed as they sound so damn good.

Anyway, there you go. I have included photos of the 2 CD set above and below. 

I hope you have a wonderful New Year’s Day tomorrow and truly wonderful 2026 as well.

See you soon here at this blog and hopefully they’ll be more Monkees releases to celebrate soon.

The Return of “The Beatles Anthology” – “Beatles Anthology 2025” is an Amazing Upgrade in Both Picture and Sound

Leave a comment

Let’s just say that for Beatles fans Christmas had indeed come early.

This past November, a mere couple of weeks ago in fact, The Beatles 1995 documentary “The Beatles Anthology” received a splendid upgrade in not only the picture and sound of the documentary itself but the accompanying CD sets of “Anthology 1, 2 and 3” (as well as a brand new “Anthology 4” 2 CD set) 
have also been upgraded and are truly gift to behold.

For anyone who remembers the then hotly anticipated Beatles Anthology documentary and CDs, the Beatles Anthology was not only a well-received project critically but it was also a blockbuster hit commercially.

The Beatles Anthology project spawned three Billboard Top 200 Number 1 albums (the Anthology 1, 2 and 3 2CD sets) that sold in the multi-millions which included the first two new Beatles songs in twenty five years (“Free As a Bird” from “Anthology 1” and “Real Love” from“Anthology 2”) as well as the hugely rated three part TV special of the documentary which was eventually expanded into a multi-hour DVD set that was also a best-seller.

Now, thirty years later, the whole Beatles Anthology project (both video and the accompanying audio CD sets) have been majorly upgraded on the video side by famed director Peter Jackson and on the audio side by original Beatles producer George Martin’s son Giles who is now the overseer of The Beatles audio catalog.

It’s apparent that the remaining Beatles and their company Apple, who release all things Beatles, are aiming to once again expand the audience for The Beatles with this sparking new Anthology project and I’m sure they hope to invite people into The Beatles story with the best looking and sounding Beatles Anthology that the technology of 2025 will allow.

As is the norm for the 2020’s there is a LOT of negativity about how this new The Beatles Anthology has turned out. There are of course a lot of older fans who are enraged at the things that have been changed in the video documentary and not impressed enough by the audio upgrade that they are simply trying to write the entire Anthology 2025 as a cash grab that serves no purpose other then making a buck.

I majorly disagree.

For starters I find both CD sets and the Anthology documentary a joy to listen to and watch and find the upgrades so well done that I personally will lean toward the 2025 versions as definitive.

Let me go case by case.

The Video Documentary:

Wow, what a massive upgrade. I find all nine hours of the new 2025 version of Anthology just glorious to watch. Yes, it’s not perfect. Things have been trimmed from the 2003 expanded addition but new things have been added as well and most of the video is simply stunning to look at – at least all the footage taken from a film source.

There was some funky AI enhancing done to some of the video footage that can smooth out the faces a bit much but overall 90 percent of the video is in my opinion a major upgrade – it’s mostly superb.

Now I don’t subscribe to Disney+ which is the only place you can stream the new 2025 Beatles Anthology so I thought it might be a while for me to judge the video upgrade of the new series myself.

Since this is the 21st century though there are other sources out there, and amazingly fast I must say, where one can find the new 2025 Anthology other than steaming.

I myself have come across a magnificent Blu-ray three-disc set of the entire series that has the same quality of picture as the Disney+ showing, I did see about an hour of it as a friend’s house, and in lovely 5.1 surround sound.

Unfortunately there’s no Atmos mix on this Blu-ray set but it’s a small price to pay to be able to enjoy the entire nine-hour series in this quality in a physical format. I doubt that the series will make it to a physical format as Apple chose Disney as the place to stream it and they don’t want physical formats anymore.

That’s not to say that after the Disney+ contract ends The Beatles couldn’t change their mind and issue it on DVD and Blu-ray I’m just not counting on it.

Don’t ask me where you can find the new 2025 Anthology but I will say that it is out there on the Internet in both DVD and Blu-ray – all you have to do is look.

The Audio CDs:

This is what I hear most fans complain about. A lot of fans don’t think the audio has been upgraded enough for them to buy this material again. Fair enough, to each his own, but the vitriol I hear aimed at both Giles Martin and Apple Records and The Beatles about how they are just cynically making a cash grab with this new Anthology project is just nuts.

Sure they want to make money, it’s a BUSINESS, but there was a lot of work put into the end product and I for one think the audio sounds great.

Take Anthology 1 for instance. Disc one of this set has the oldest and most dodgy sounding recordings from The Beatles pre-EMI years and even I have tended to skip most of disc one whenever I listen to this set.

I have to say though there has been a major upgrade to not only the acetate of “That’ll Be the Day” and “In Spite of All the Danger” (they both sound like new recordings to me) but the live stuff, especially the 1963 tracks live from Swedish radio which now explode from the speakers, is so much more listenable and fun that I want to play disc one again which is a major improvement to me.

And the cream on top of all the new Anthology CDs is the brand new Anthology 4 2CD set that has thirteen newly released outtakes that are a joy to listen to and enjoy. Are these early takes of “Tell Me Why”, “I Need You” and “If I Fell” for example revelations – no. Are they great to hear – yes!

I love how these early stripped down takes basically show how The Beatles would sound live in 1964/65 if they could be heard from the din of the screaming crowds that mare most of their live recordings. If new live songs were discovered fans would be losing their minds I’m not sure why the sound of The Beatles in an almost live fashion in great audio quality is a let down but it sure works for me.

Conclusion:

Anyway, I won’t go into what was cut and what was added to the new video of Anthology all I can say is that this presentation has the right pacing, the right sound and such a superb picture that it stands as the definitive version of The Beatles Anthology, and that goes for the CDs as well, that all I can say is … wow.

Above and below you can see photos of the new Beatles Anthology Collection 8 CD set as well as the Blu-ray of the 2025 Disney+ documentary that also includes screen shots of some of the video content.

As usual be safe and well and have a great Holiday Season if I don’t post before Christmas.

See you soon and have a Merry Crimble Beatle People!

Below is a comparison of the DVD from 2003 vs the new 2025 Blu-ray of the 2025 Beatles Anthology – the DVD is on the left and the Blu-Ray is on the right.