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New Beatles Songs to Debut -- in Vegas?

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and producer George Martin -- along with the families of John Lennon and George Harrison -- are overseeing a project that will bring previously unreleased Beatles songs to the stage -- the Vegas stage. The tunes will be featured in a new Cirque du Soleil show that is scheduled to premiere this summer at Siegfried and Roy’s old stomping grounds, the Mirage. It’s a sure bet to open as one of the hottest tickets in town, even (presumably) without a magician-hungry white tiger in sight.

But the truckloads of money won’t be coming just from Vegas; Apple Corps has announced plans to release an album of “completely new music” from the joint venture, which Martin is working on by remastering previously unreleased recordings. This isn't the first time old Beatles material has resurfaced -- in the mid-'90s, the group remastered “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.” And the Beatles proved their continued commercial dominance with 2000’s 1 collection, which was a massive bestseller worldwide despite being released in a nightmarish year otherwise dominated by *NSYNC, Britney Spears, Creed and future Vegas rival Celine Dion.

In the meantime, work has also begun on an ambitious remastering of the Beatles back catalog, which was last given a fresh coat of paint in 1986. When the newly polished songs are ready for the public, they will be available digitally -- ending a long stand-off between the hottest trend in music’s present and the biggest band in music’s past. Some of the Beatle battles on that front continue, however; their digital plans were announced in the midst of a lawsuit filed by the Beatles' Apple Corps against Apple Computer and iTunes.

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
04.17.06