A Look at Some of the Freshest Beatles Tribute Albums

There are tribute albums, and then there are Beatles tribute albums, ever sprouting like mushrooms. And boy, do we love to consume those ’shrooms! Some fresh ones picked for your pleasure after the jump.

Sgt-peper-live 

Cheap Trick: Sgt. Pepper Live (Big3). Yup, the entire album, with orchestra — and with Geoff Emerick co-producing/mixing. Bonus “Medley Song” is “Golden Slumbers,” “carry That Weight,” and “The End.”

Abbey-road-now

Various Artists: Abbey Road Now! (MOJO, U.K. import). That is, given away free with the October issue of the British music magazine MOJO. collection includes Gomez’s “Sun King” and Robyn Hitchcock’s “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” 

Baroque-Beatles

Joshua Rifin: The Baroque Beatles Book (Nonesuch). Released in 1965 and first reissued by collectors’ choice in 2006, this curio now returns to its original Nonesuch home. Do the math: Beatles + Bach. Pick hit: “Les Plaisirs (Ticket to Ride).”

Beatallica

Beatallica: Masterful Mystery Tour (Oglio). Do the new math: Beatles + Metallica. Pick hit: “Everybody’s Got a Ticket to Ride Except for Me and My Lightning.”

Rockabye

Rockabye baby! More Lullaby Renditions of the Beatles (Rockabye Baby!). And I quote them: “These instrumental interpretations will glide your little one across the universe, through an octopus’s garden, and lay them down in a golden slumberland.”

Easy-Beatles

But before it’s time to say good night, check out my fave tribute in this batch, from a bunch of Various artists: Easy Beatles — Irresistible In-Sound Interpretations from ’the 60s and ’70s (Bureau B, German import; bureau-b.com). From last year, but I’m still diggin’ it. Not just Easy Listening but soul, jazz, jet-set pop, and more. What’s crazier, the Lettermen doing “I’m Only Sleeping” or Ella Fitzgerald doing “Savoy Truffle”?! Great liner notes in English. — K.R.

-- Ken Richardson

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