Sessions (Beatles album)

When the Beatles' contract with EMI had expired in 1976, the record company began to take stock of the band's back catalogue and look at the hundreds of hours of unreleased recordings stored in the Abbey Road Studio vaults. Over the next couple of years several compilation albums of previously released material would be issued (Rock 'n' Roll Music, Love Songs, The Beatles Ballads) and a live album of their Hollywood Bowl performances. An album of unreleased studio recordings was also considered, with a few attempts being abandoned.[1]

In the early 1980s, while needing a task to distract him from his cancer treatment, Abbey Road Studios house engineer John Barrett was assigned the task of listening to and logging the studio's collection of multi-tracks and master tapes of the group. This research unearthed more previously unknown recordings. Some of these recordings were remixed for inclusion in the 1983 multi-media tour of Abbey Road Studios, titled The Beatles at Abbey Road.[1]

A year after the Abbey Road show, in the summer of 1984, EMI began work on a compilation album of previously unreleased material. Former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick was hired to remix and re-edit the material to a commercial standard. At the time, the album went under the in-house code name "Mary Jane" and the working titles Boots and One-Two-Three-Four before Sessions was settled upon.[1]

The original release date of Sessions was to be November 1984, but EMI did not want to clash with Paul McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street soundtrack, so the compilation was cancelled. According to reports, McCartney later objected to the release of Sessions in its then current form, while the other surviving members and John Lennon's estate objected to the album completely. As a result, Sessions was cancelled indefinitely and the tracks did not appear on any official release until the Anthology project in the mid 1990s.[2]

There were two proposed artworks for the cover, including one colour collage cover and one with a black and white photo of the group in the courtyard of Abbey Road Studios. In 2014, a complete slick set for the black and white cover was auctioned on eBay by Beatles collector Perry Cox; the bidding stopped at US $2,910.00, which failed to meet the reserve. This was the complete artwork, including the front cover, the back cover, and the inner sleeve.

This was as far as production ever reached before the entire project was cancelled by EMI Records and no album was pressed for it.[3]

All tracks are written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted.

• An early version of the album had "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" edited into two parts and cross-fading at the beginning of the album into "Come and Get It" and at the end of the album from "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", the latter of which was cut from the album and planned to be released as a B-side.[1]
• Some bootleg compact disc editions include "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as a bonus track.[4][5][6][7]