Today is the second Beatle-centric day in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide. We have another batch of gift ideas for the Beatle-obsessed person on your holiday gift list. Last week four out of five of our Beatle-y selections were for the actual music of the Lads from Liverpool. This week we reverse that, with one music gift idea, two books and two collectibles.

The Beatles: Get Back
by The Beatles (Author), John Harris (Editor), Ethan Russell & Linda McCartney (Photographers), Hanif Kureishi (Introduction), Peter Jackson (Foreword)
Callaway Arts & Entertainment
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0935112962
$60.00 (heavilydiscounted at most retailers)

Any Beatles fan will want this companion coffee-table book to Peter Jackson’s six-hour re-edit of the Beatles’ Let It Be footage. Get Back will debut on Disney+ later this month, and thus far, no Blu Ray or DVD release has been officially announced, but this book is the next best thing.

The most anticipated book in more than a decade by the legendary band, The Beatles: Get Back is the official account of the creation of their final album, Let It Be, told in The Beatles’ own words, illustrated with hundreds of previously unpublished images, including photos by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney. Half a century after the 1970 Let It Be album and film, this milestone book coincides with the global release of Peter Jackson’s documentary feature film, The Beatles: Get Back.

The book opens in January 1969, the beginning of The Beatles’ last year as a band. The BEATLES (The White Album) is at number one in the charts and the foursome gather in London for a new project. Over 21 days, first at Twickenham Film Studios and then at their own brand-new Apple Studios, with cameras and tape recorders documenting every day’s work and conversations, the band rehearse a huge number of songs, culminating in their final concert, which famously takes place on the rooftop of their own office building, bringing central London to a halt.

The Beatles: Get Back tells the story of those sessions through transcripts of the band’s candid conversations. Drawing on over 120 hours of sound recordings, leading music writer John Harris edits the richly captivating text to give us a fly-on-the-wall experience of being there in the studios. These sessions come vividly to life through hundreds of unpublished, extraordinary images by two photographers who had special access to their sessions―Ethan A. Russell and Linda Eastman (who married Paul McCartney two months later). Also included are many unseen high-resolution film-frames, selected from the 55 hours of restored footage from which Peter Jackson’s documentary is also drawn.

Legend has it that these sessions were a grim time for a band falling apart. However, as acclaimed novelist Hanif Kureishi writes in his introduction, “In fact this was a productive time for them, when they created some of their best work. And it is here that we have the privilege of witnessing their early drafts, the mistakes, the drift and digressions, the boredom, the excitement, joyous jamming and sudden breakthroughs that led to the work we now know and admire.” Half a century after their final performance, this book completes the story of the creative genius, timeless music, and inspiring legacy of The Beatles.

The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine (Beatles Album Series)
by Bruce Spizer
498 Productions, LLC
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0983295785
$29.99, available from most booksellers

The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine is the latest installment in the Beatles Album Series by Beatles historian Bruce Spizer. The book covers the songs and projects undertaken by the Beatles shortly after completion of their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in April 1967.

In the following ten months, the group wrote and recorded the song “All You Need Is Love” for the Our World TV program that was broadcast by satellite throughout the world, wrote the songs for and filmed the TV spectacular Magical Mystery Tour, wrote the songs for their feature length cartoon film Yellow Submarine, and recorded the songs “Lady Madonna” and “Across The Universe” before heading to India to study transcendental meditation in mid-February 1968.

The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine covers these remarkable achievements from the British, American, and Canadian perspectives, and includes chapters on the packaging of the albums and the writing and recording of the songs. It also has chapters on how the Beatles influenced our world, the friendly rivalry between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the Beatles Saturday morning cartoons, dozens of fan recollections, and more. The book has over 150 images.

John Lennon Vinyl Stamp Collecting Book
USPS
$32.95 plus tax

This is a very cool collectible item produced by The United States Postal Service. Designed to look like a classic vinyl album, this package includes four new John Lennon Forever Stamps with accompanying mounts; a round book (shaped like a record) with images and text; all housed in an old-school vinyl sleeve, with interactive flaps featuring the photo used on the stamps.

The interactive flaps recall Lennon’s original pressing of the Walls and Bridges album, and in what I’m sure is not a coincidence, the photo used on these stamps was taken at the same photo session as those used on that album.

This is a fun and unexpected crossover collectible, just perfect for the Beatles or Lennon fan on your shopping list who also dabbles in stamp collecting.

You can order this directly from the Post Office.

Hornby Magical Mystery Tour Bus
$35, available from The Beatles Official Store

The Beatles released the Magical Mystery Tour album in 1967 to accompany the film of the same name which was first shown in the UK on Boxing Day that year.

The record proved a huge success, it had multiple weeks at number one in the charts in multiple countries and was nominated for “Album of the Year” at the 1968 Grammy Awards.

The re-release of this replica of the Bedford VAL used in the film is meticulously detailed and will appeal to both die-cast and Beatles collectors alike. It took a long time for somebody to finally make a toy version of this bus, and it’s really cool that Hornby/Corgi finally got around to re-releasing it at an affordable price.

A great gift idea for the Fab Four loving die-cast collector on your list.

McCartney III Imagined
Available in a variety of formats (and prices) from any music retalier
Colored vinyl special editions available from PaulMcCartney.com

Hailed upon its release last year as “vital and comfortable taking new chances” (Rolling Stone) and “cheery, resilient, forever looking forward” (The New Yorker), Paul McCartney’s McCartney III, which topped album charts across the world, has been radically remixed and covered, and has blossomed into a whole new work of art.

Personally curated by Paul, McCartney III Imagined features an A-List assortment of friends, fans, and brand new acquaintances, each covering and/or reimagining their favorite McCartney III moments in their own signature styles.

The result is a kaleidoscopic reinterpretation of an album Rolling Stone accurately tagged “an inspiration to us all”—one was a no-brainer for inclusion in last year’s PopCult Gift Guide.

Note that the only way to get the Idris Elba remix is to buy a physical copy.

Tracklist:
1. Find My Way (feat. Beck) – 4:53
2. The Kiss of Venus (Dominic Fike) – 2:23
3. Pretty Boys (feat. Khruangbin) – 5:48
4. Women And Wives (St. Vincent Remix) – 3:00
5. Deep Down (Blood Orange Remix) – 4:24
6. Seize The Day (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) – 3:29
7. Slidin’ (EOB Remix) – 2:39
8. Long Tailed Winter Bird (Damon Albarn Remix) – 4:10
9. Lavatory Lil (Josh Homme) – 2:53
10. When Winter Comes (Anderson .Paak Remix) – 2:21
11. Deep Deep Feeling (3D RDN Remix) – 11:23
12. Long Tailed Winter Bird (Idris Elba Remix)* – 2:44
*Physical exclusive

It’s a great gift idea fr the McCartney fan on your list who also appreciates new artists.