Abbey Road: 50th Anniversary Edition

• 1. Introduction

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  Abbey Road: 50th Anniversary Edition was one day from its release. On the 26th of September 2019, the Beatles YouTube channel premiered a music video for "Here Comes the Sun." The song was fifty years old. The mix behind it was completely new. The set that arrived the next day held not just a remixed album but a collection of previously unreleased session recordings and demos. It came in more than half a dozen formats, from a four-disc box set to a single LP to digital and streaming releases. At the center of the project was a question: who could be trusted to remix a recording made fifty years earlier? The answer carried a family name.

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• 2. The Martin Legacy

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  Giles Martin is the son of Beatles producer George Martin, the man behind the sound of the original album. For the anniversary edition, Giles took the producer role himself. His central contribution was the new stereo remix of the full record. That mix was one of three audio formats the set offered: stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos.

  Sam Okell worked alongside him as mix engineer. Miles Showell handled stereo mastering. Matthew Cocker served as transfer engineer, and Stefano Civetta as mix assistant. Simon Gibson carried out audio restoration, working to recover the full fidelity of the original studio recordings. Adam Sharp oversaw project management. The full package arrived on the 27th of September 2019.

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• 3. Universal Acclaim

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  On Metacritic, the deluxe version of the anniversary edition received an aggregate score of 99 out of 100. Ten reviews contributed to that total. Metacritic classifies scores at that level as indicating "universal acclaim." Commercially, the set charted in ten territories during 2019. In the United States, it reached number three on the Billboard 200. Canada also placed it at number three. Norway and Greece each gave it a peak of number two. Ireland and Italy matched the Canadian position at number three. Sweden peaked at number four, Mexico at five, and New Zealand at six. Spain's PROMUSICAE chart gave the anniversary edition its only number one position across all the territories where it charted.

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