Before the official announcement, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr teased the release of a new set of anthologies.
There was a countdown of 1-4 which included portions of photos from the original Anthologies collection. Of course the big news is that there is a 4th collection to go with the original three. The first three anthologies are remastered (but not remixed), and the fourth one adds more songs and outtakes from throughout The Beatles time together. Owners of the original set were wondering if Anthology 4 will be sold separately, and after giving the entire set some time for pre-orders, Apple made the 2-CD or 3-LP Anthology 4 available on its own. (The track list for #4 is farther below in the article.)
It was released on November 21st, 2025.
Here’s how the sets look in The Beatles online store…the regular 8-CD & 12-LP sets, and two slightly higher-priced sets with Photo Art Cards.
(The cards are underwhelming…$10 more with CDs, $25 with vinyl.)
As expected, the new Anthology 4 spans The Beatles career with tracks not on the previous three sets. 17 of the 36 tracks are taken from the box sets for Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road, & Let It Be.
Apple’s description:
Here’s the audio for the 2025 Mix of “Free As A Bird”:
This is so much better! John sounds like he could be in the studio, the instruments are clearer, and George’s voice sounds so good on the second break…”Whatever happened to the love that we once knew?” If it had originally sounded this good, “Free As A Bird” might have made #1 in the U.S. the way it did in the U.K.
A Quick Review: Volume 4 is an interesting listen. The early takes have a raw sound, and the voices really stand out as they’re developing how they’ll eventually sing their parts. They’re fun to listen to, and we hear some impressive early takes; however, the tracks are sometimes incomplete, and none of the versions are as good as the final recordings we know. The best cuts are actually the remixes of “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” with their much enhanced audio, and the 2023 release, “Now And Then”.
The instrumentals reveal how important the correct accompaniment is to each song. The orchestration of “I Am The Walrus” shows how amazing producer/arranger George Martin was for the group. His innovative arrangement greatly enhanced the song. Other good instrumental tracks are “She’s Leaving Home”, “Hey Bulldog”, and “Something”. Beatles fans should definitely give Volume 4 a listen online, but it’s probably not an album you’ll listen to regularly.
Apparently the new Anthology 8-CD collection is more popular than expected. I ordered mine months before the release, then the day before it was due to arrive, Amazon told me it wouldn’t make it. I checked online at Walmart & Target, and they were sold out too.
The video anthology is available to stream on Disney+. If the “new” 9th episode looks familiar, that’s because much of the film was taken from the Special Features disc that was part of the original 2003 DVD set. Here’s mine:
The key to the new anthology is that the video has been restored and the music remixed. It looks and sounds great. The episodes were also tightened up a bit, with each one being about one-hour long. That trimmed about 12 to 20 minutes from each episode.
They even rereleased the Anthology book. The only thing new is the cover, and that’s paperback. It lists for $50, and became available October 14th.
Update: A playlist of Anthology Highlights has been released on streaming.
Here are the tracks (click to enlarge).
Other than the great new mix of “Free As A Bird”, the tracks have been released previously on the original Anthology (although remastered now), and from the extra tracks that were in the 50th Anniversary box sets. Now that the new mix of “Real Love” is released, it should take the place of the 1996 mix at the end of the playlist.
Extra: Click to enlarge tracks that are on Anthologies 1, 2 & 3
