Let It Be… Naked, the stripped down (heh) 2003 re-release of the Beatles’ 1970 swan song, just bared it all (heh, heh) for iTunes today (April 3).
As the NME points out, the decade-old collection debuted on Apple’s iTunes Store with several bonus features, including music videos for the Naked versions of “Get Back” and “Don’t Let Me Down,” plus notes from radio producer and Beatles historian Kevin Howlett. According to iTunes, the expanded edition of Let It Be… Naked also comes with an extra audio section filled with snippets recorded during the Fab Four’s 1969 studio sessions. Completists can finally hear the rehearsals, song fragments, and “witty banter” that helped bring the Beatles closer to breaking up.
Let It Be… Naked famously features a different track list from the original Let It Be and also lacks that LP’s overdubs, which were applied by producer and “Wall of Sound” mastermind Phil Spector, the subject of a recent HBO film and star of this horrifying, real-life mug shot.
This late iTunes addition isn’t out of character for the Beatles, who were longtime holdouts on the whole “mp3” thing; the Liverpool lads’ legendary catalog didn’t make its way onto the digital retailer until 2010.
Meanwhile, another bit of Beatles-related news: A signed copy of the foursome’s 1967 masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, was recently auctioned off to an unnamed buyer from the Midwest for a record $290,500. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the autographed album, which sports signatures from all four “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” hitmakers, shattered the previous sales record for a signed Beatles album cover, an honor once held by a copy of Meet the Beatles that fetched $150,000. Let’s just hope the John Hancocks are legit.
