15 Years Ago Today: The Beatles Anthology Aired on ABC

On November 19, 1995, ABC aired the first of a three-part documentary: The Beatles Anthology. They aired it after misleading ads: ABC stars talking about the Beatles. Soon after watching, I purchased Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I don't know which was the first one that the cashier rang up but I have pretty much all of the mainstream albums that they released save for the re-issued Yellow Submarine following the movie's re-release a few years ago.

There's so many songs to choose from if I had to pick my absolute favorite. I feel like if I had to choose one, I'm not being fair to the other songs. As for favorite album...it's a close call between Sgt. Pepper's and Abbey Road. Honestly, you couldn't go wrong with any of them if you had to make a choice. They were the first band that came along that wrote, played the music, and sang. Back in those days, it was a rarity to find someone that could do all three.

Of course, it's a shame of the events that transpired in December 1980. Through music, the Beatles were able to digitally reunite and issue two more songs. There's been talk of another one but following George's death, it's impossible. Wouldn't it be cool if that happened? You bet it would!

But I really love the music video for Real Love, it makes it seem as if it is an actual reunion with all the old footage that they use of John, mixed in with the new footage of Paul, George, and Ringo.

I realize that I am linking to the mobile version of Reuters but this is one thing I want to touch on:

4. iTunes LP scores a big win
Ever since iTunes launched its "iTunes LP" album format in September 2009, the enhanced artwork, lyrics and videos it offered have failed to excite the mainstream digital music market.

Making the entire Beatles discography available only as iTunes LPs provides the format with its biggest marketing boost yet. It also helps justify the higher $12.99 retail price point for individual Beatles albums, which is a few dollars higher than the $9.99 that iTunes charges for albums by other heritage acts, like Led Zeppelin and (the solo) Paul McCartney.

The songs from the Beatles--they can't be listened to individually but through whole albums. The only exceptions could be the singles but that's what both Past Masters albums were for. They came out in the early days of CDs being the new music standards. Without those two volumes, getting ahold of the singles would have been made harder.

There's usually a song or two originally on the albums that I don't like but over time, you warm up to it to the point that you no longer skip it.