Details on Beatles at the BBC Vol. 2, out Nov. 11 - Track listing! Order now

There have been rumors swirling around this release for several weeks now. Finally some specifics:

The double On Air - Live At The BBC Volume 2 will be issued in the UK on November 11 and comes 19 years after Live At The BBC topped the UK artist albums chart and reached No 3 on the Billboard 200 in the US.

The new album will comprise 63 tracks in total, mixing songs with 23 previously unreleased recordings of what are described as in-studio banter and conversation between the band's members and their BBC radio hosts. It will appear on CD as a 180-gram vinyl album with a 48-page booklet and be the first Beatles album issued by Universal (via Apple Corps) since it acquired EMI.

Ten of the album's songs were never recorded by the group for EMI and include a version of Chuck Berry's I'm Talking About You and the song Beautiful Dreamer, both of which make their commercial debuts. There are also alternative versions of six songs that featured in the 1994 BBC album: Little Richard's Lucille, Chuck Berry's Memphis, Tennessee, Chan Romero's The Hippy Hippy Shake, Ray Charles' I Got A Woman and the Carl Perkins songs Glad All Over and Sure To Fall.

An original Beatles song never previously released also appears, Happy Birthday, Dear Saturday Club, the group's tribute to the BBC Light Programme radio show Saturday Club on which they regularly appeared and were avid listeners.

Paul McCartney says of the performances the group did for the BBC and now part of this album: "There’s a lot of energy and spirit. We are going for it, not holding back at all, trying to put in the best performance of our lifetimes.”

The forthcoming album also includes BBC versions of a number of the group's most famous songs, including I Saw Her Standing There, Twist And Shout, Do You Want To Know A Secret and If I Fell.

All the tracks have been mastered by Guy Massey and Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios, while on the same day as this album comes out a remastered version of Live At The BBC will appear.

In all The Beatles recorded some 275 different musical performances for the BBC between March 1962 and June 1965.

The full tracklisting is:

CD ONE
1.              And Here We Are Again (Speech)
2.              WORDS OF LOVE
3.              How About It, Gorgeous? (Speech)
4.              DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET
5.              LUCILLE
6.              Hey, Paul… (Speech)
7.              ANNA (GO TO HIM)
8.              Hello! (Speech)
9.              PLEASE PLEASE ME
10.            MISERY
11.            I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU
12.            A Real Treat (Speech)
13.            BOYS
14.            Absolutely Fab (Speech)
15.            CHAINS
16.            ASK ME WHY
17.            TILL THERE WAS YOU
18.            LEND ME YOUR COMB
19.            Lower 5E (Speech)
20.            THE HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE
21.            ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN
22.            THERE’S A PLACE
23.            Bumper Bundle (Speech)
24.            P.S. I LOVE YOU
25.            PLEASE MISTER POSTMAN
26.            BEAUTIFUL DREAMER
27.            DEVIL IN HER HEART
28.            The 49 Weeks (Speech)
29.            SURE TO FALL (IN LOVE WITH YOU)
30.            Never Mind, Eh? (Speech)
31.            TWIST AND SHOUT
32.            Bye, Bye (speech)
33.            John - Pop Profile (Speech)
34.            George - Pop Profile (Speech)

CD TWO
1.              I SAW HER STANDING THERE
2.              GLAD ALL OVER
3.              Lift Lid Again (Speech)
4.              I’LL GET YOU
5.              SHE LOVES YOU
6.              MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
7.              HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SATURDAY CLUB
8.              Now Hush, Hush (Speech)
9.              FROM ME TO YOU
10.            MONEY (THAT’S WHAT I WANT)
11.            I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
12.            Brian Bathtubes (Speech)
13.            THIS BOY
14.            If I Wasn’t In America (Speech)
15.            I GOT A WOMAN
16.            LONG TALL SALLY
17.            IF I FELL
18.            A Hard Job Writing Them (Speech)
19.            AND I LOVE HER
20.            Oh, Can’t We? Yes We Can (Speech)
21.            YOU CAN’T DO THAT
22.            HONEY DON’T
23.            I’LL FOLLOW THE SUN
24.            Green With Black Shutters (Speech)
25.            KANSAS CITY/HEY-HEY-HEY-HEY!
26.            That’s What We’re Here For (Speech)
27.            I FEEL FINE (STUDIO OUTTAKE)
28.            Paul - Pop Profile (Speech)
29.            Ringo - Pop Profile (Speech)

My comments: Not much on here that collectors of Beatles bootlegs haven't heard before. The Beeb recordings have been well-exploited on the black market. However, it'll be nice to have an "official" package of more Beeb recordings in, presumably, better sound.

The addition of the Pop Profile interviews is nice. Those are great, early interviews with the individual Fabs. In terms of music, there's a lot of repetition overall with BBC Vol. 1, but there's a lot of repetition, period, in the Beatles' BBC performances. They played the same songs  over and over many times during their live radio appearances.

The glaring omission, I think, is a version of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" performed by the band with that song's originator Rolf Harris. Harris is currently embroiled in a sex scandal, which may be a reason for excluding it. I was surprised it wasn't on the first BBC volume. Maybe Paul and/or Ringo just don't like the tune. I don't know.

At any rate, I'm sure it'll be yet another enjoyable, if flawed, collection of Fab rarities.