Yesterday, the Beatles (what’s left of them, or whoever it is who owns the publishing rights to their music) re-released their iconic compilation albums 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, also known affectionately as 'The Red Album' and 'The Blue Album,' respectively. On these reissues, they’ve included all the updated mixes that Giles Martin has been doing for their individual album reissues. For songs that have previously slipped through the cracks of their recent album reissue projects, they have gone in and done new mixes this year. This amounts to most of their early material that makes up The Red Album as well as a few non-album singles from their later career.

 

When the Beatles originally released their music in the ’60s, their focus was mainly on the mono releases. Stereo was still kind of new, and people hadn’t fully embraced it yet. Therefore, they treated their stereo mixes more as experiments. The result is that many of the original stereo mixes sound very strange to the modern ear (especially when listening with headphones or ear buds). They will pan things that we are used to hearing in the center of the image all the way to the left or right ear — like the vocals, a bass, or an entire drum kit. The remixes that have been done in the past decade aimed to provide more modern sounding stereo mixes of the Beatles’ catalogue, while still honoring the levels and tone of the original mixes.

 

I personally think that they have done a really fabulous job with a lot of these mixes, and it makes listening to the Beatles with headphones a way better experience. Here are my personal top 10 favorite remixes that were featured on the compilation albums:

 

 

I have conflicting thoughts about what they did to the ending of this song. This was a rare example of them using a heavy hand and reinterpreting a part of the mix.

 

During the fade out, they raised the volume of all the radio/TV samples and sound effects and made the drum kit and orchestra a lot quieter, to the point that you could barely hear them. This changed the entire character of the fade out.

 

The reason I have conflicting feelings about this move is because on the one hand, I wanted them to stick to honoring the spirit of the original mixes. But on the other hand, this turned out really cool. Listening to the outro of the original mix, it’s like you’re watching a psychedelic cacophony of chaos on a television screen. With the new mix, you’re thrown straight into it, and the striking clarity of the samples and sound effects that swirl you is both thrilling and unnerving. They took a risk with this one but I think they stuck the landing. That being said, I do also still kind of miss the simplicity and musicality of the old fade out.

 

 

It was right that this song should get a decent mix, since it’s one of their most popular and enduring recordings. Infamously sung by John at the end of a marathon day-long recording session for their first album, it has an incredible, undeniable energy. It was also made more iconic when Matthew Broderick and the people of Chicago sang it in the parade scene of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

 

The original stereo mix had all of the vocals panned all the way to the right, with the vocal reverb panned all the way to the left. It also had the drum kit panned hard left and the drum reverb panned hard right. The guitars are panned similarly. It sounds pretty cool, especially if you are listening on near field stereo speakers. But some of the energy of the song is weakened when you listen on headphones.

 

These new mixes of their older material just do exactly what they needed to do. They put all the lead vocals and bass in the center of the image. They maintain the spirit of the original mixes by still panning things (like the drums, the guitars, the vocal reverb) but to a lesser degree.

 

 

The original mix goes hard and actually almost holds up against modern rock songs, but there are some decisions that hold it back when listening on headphones. The drums being hard panned left and the guitar hard panned right makes them kind of small. The new mix puts them more toward the center of the image which gives them room to breathe and feel even bigger.

 

 

There are some original Beatles mixes that I just will not listen to with headphones because it bothers me so much. This is one of them. It was a mess. The drums and bass are hard panned to the left and all the vocals are panned right. The only things in the center of the image are an electric guitar and one of John’s vocal doubles in the bridge. At the end of the bridge coming back into the A section is the worst edit I’ve heard on any Beatles song, it feels like the last section was copied and pasted there. It happens at around 1:28 in the original mix. I don’t know how this happened, if it really was a sloppy edit or what, but they somehow fixed it in the new mix. It sounds seamless now and everything else is as it should be. It’s a pretty good song too, I’m glad I can listen to it with headphones now.

 

 

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the album that really kicked off their mission to ostensibly remix the entire Beatles catalogue. They’ve released remixes every year since then except for 2020. As it’s the first song on the album, the title track of Sgt. Pepper’s is also kind of the harbinger of all the other new mixes to come.

 

This song really benefitted from the retouch. The original stereo mix had the guitars sounding limp and small. Which is the last thing you want from a hard rock song. And the lead vocals are quiet, drenched in reverb, and panned to the right. The result is it sounds like Paul is shouting the lead vocals from the end of a hallway. It’s an embarrassment. The backing vocals, on the other hand, are loud and up front, which is kind of disorienting.

 

The new mix fixes all that. Everything sounds clear, spacious, and appropriately loud.

 

 

This was another unlistenable original mix. The “da da dun”s in the beginning of the song were unbearably loud and the lead vocals in the rest of the song were quiet and off to one side. After they go through the AABA form once, there’s a terrible jump scare in the form of an ear-piercing harmonica solo.

 

Thanks to the team who remixed this one because it is finally listenable. It really needed it.

 

 

It’s a shame that a good song as this was left with a shitty stereo mix for such a long time. It sounds pretty badly mixed to the modern ear. Usual issues ascribed to hard panning. At least Paul’s bass was in the middle of the image.

 

The new mix separates the piano from the drums in the stereo image, giving them both a lot more space to sound big, especially in an arrangement that leaves them so much space. The bass no longer pokes out as the only thing in the center of the image, which gives all the instruments a better sound of togetherness. I’m grateful that I can listen to this song now without wanting to turn it off.

 

 

Admittedly, this is just one of my favorite Paul songs. The original stereo version was already good, even by modern standards. The lead vocals are doubled by Paul himself, and each of his vocals is panned hard to either side. Even though they are far from the center of the stereo image, they are equal on both sides, so it feels balanced. The bass is not panned too aggressively, nor are the drums.

 

The updated mix boosted some of the high end in the vocals, making them sound brighter and more angelic, and gave all the instruments clearer tones and space in the overall image. Two thumbs up. Good song, good mix.

 

 

I truly never thought we would get remixes for Please Please Me since it was their first album and recorded with the most limitations. But perhaps with Peter Jackson and the instrument-isolating AI music tech, anything is now fair game to be remixed.

 

The original mix is far from unlistenable, but at the end of the day it still sounds lopsided on headphones. For such a high-energy song, it sucks away some of the power to have the instruments feel so small.

 

The new mix was well done. The song retains the overall sonic tone of Please Please Me without the hard panning. The saturation and character in each of the instrument tracks is still there, they just have a little more space in the stereo image, which is more centered.

 

 

If you add up how good a song is and how much the new mix was needed, this song wins out for me. It’s beloved as one of their greatest and most ambitious song recordings. There are many parts that weave in and out of this song, including but not limited to acoustic piano, a full orchestra, and a ton of tape echo.

 

The original stereo mix of this song was already pretty captivating, but it suffered from having the vocals all panned to one side. You could accept it as part of the psychedelic experience of the song, but hearing this new mix affirms that in this case, it sounds best when every instrument has its own space in the stereo image and the vocals are at the center.