What year is it?
1970?
The Beatles sold 60,000 copies of their “Let it Be” super deluxe edition box set last week. The collection enters the Billboard album chart at number 5, number 5 on the Buzz Angle chart, sits at number 9 on Amazon.
The set costs $117 and has 5 CDs. There are several versions, and they’re all over the charts as well. “Let it Be” was first released in May 1970.
Sixty thousand copies of a box set? These days, that’s like a million.
Adding to the box set success, “Get Back,” a companion back that Amazon is selling for $36, is on the New York Times best seller list this week at number 6.
The book is itself a companion to Peter Jackson’s three part documentary called “Get Back,” headed to Disney Plus streaming at the end of November. The documentary re-tells the making of the “Let it Be” documentary directed Michael Lindsay Hogg and released also in 1970.
And that’s not all: coming next Tuesday, November 2nd, is Paul McCartney’s “The Lyrics,” a two volume book collection of 154 lyrics with anecdotes. Amazon is selling it for $79.99 and the set is already number 46 on their best seller list with pre-orders.
The Beatles are never going away, thank god. They have turned into the classical music of our time. And remixed boxes of “Revolver” and “Rubber Soul” are still coming, I guess for 60th anniversaries. And so on.
Of course, all that”s left is the McCartney world tour celebrating his 80th birthday next June. And as touring ramps up with vaccine restrictions etc, there’s no doubt we’ll see Paul live again, soon. Count me in!
