Black Friday is our “Big Ticket Day” here in The 2019 PopCult Gift Guide, and to kick it off we’re tying it in with an all-day marathon of Beatles Blast on The AIR, which you can listen to at this link, or on this embedded radio player…

Our next gift suggestion is expensive, and it’s a luxury. The people who will appreciate this gift are the die-hard Beatles collectors, not casual fans, but people who search out releases from different countries so they can get different sleeve and label designs, and maybe an alternate mix.

The Beatles : The Singles Collection is a collectible Boxed Set that presents  46 tracks on 23 7-inch vinyl singles, in faithfully reproduced international picture sleeves, accompanied by a 40-page booklet with photos, ephemera, and detailed essays by Beatles historian Kevin Howlett.

These singles, plus an exclusive new double A-side single for the mid-1990s-issued tracks “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” are newly remastered from their original master tapes and cut for vinyl at Abbey Road Studios for a new limited edition boxed set.

Keep in mind that this is the gift of an object, not the music. You can track down the individual songs on CD for under twenty bucks, instead of dropping over two hundred on this boxed set. However, for the die-hard collector, this box includes perfect reproductions of extremely rare singles in picture sleeves from 22 different countries. It would cost thousands of dollars to buy the originals. Plus I think this is the only commercial release of “Free As A Bird” on 7-inch vinyl.

It’s a pricey and specialized gift, but you may know the perfect person to receive it. Available where ever records are sold.