A Little More “Love” is All You Need: iTunes to Release Another Beatles Album, Expanded

Despite the less than stellar reception by yours truly, The Beatles’ partnership with iTunes has been a massive boon for The Fab Four’s catalogue. And that boon looks to get a little bigger next week, when EMI and Apple release another one of the band’s albums for download: the soundtrack to Love, the band’s Cirque du Soleil show.

Created in 2006 for The Mirage in Las Vegas, Love combines the artistic and acrobatic aesthetics of the Montreal-based entertainment troupe with the music of The Beatles in an impressive multimedia display. (It was the first marriage between Cirque du Soleil and rock music; Viva Elvis! followed last year and Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour will bow this fall.)

In a bold stroke, the soundtrack to Love was built by Beatles producer George Martin and his son Giles from the multitracks of some 130 Beatles songs and demos. It’s essentially the ultimate Beatles mash-up, and in the days before the remasters of the band’s catalogue it was one of the freshest spins on some old favorites.

Both Love and the 2008 documentary All Together Now (which chronicled the making of the show) will be released on iTunes next Tuesday, February 8. The notable distinction for collectors, of course, is the addition of two tracks not present on the original disc: remixes of “The Fool on the Hill” and “Girl.” It is not known if the tracks will be album-only (so far, the album is able to be pre-ordered as a whole), nor is it known if the versions of “Revolution” and “Back in the U.S.S.R.” will be extended as they were on the DVD-Audio version of the LP. (That would be a particular boon to collectors!)

We’ll report back once the album comes out digitally; in the meantime, reacquaint yourself with the track list after the jump.

The Beatles, LOVE (Apple/EMI 0946 3 79808 2 8/0946 3 79810 2 3 (DVD-Audio), 2006)

1. Because
2. Get Back
3. Glass Onion
4. Eleanor Rigby/Julia
5. I Am the Walrus
6. I Want to Hold Your Hand
7. Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing
8. Gnik Nus
9. Something/Blue Jay Way
10. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She’s So Heavy)/Helter Skelter
11. Help!
12. Blackbird/Yesterday
13. Strawberry Fields Forever
14. Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
15. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
16. Octopus’s Garden
17. Lady Madonna
18. Here Comes the Sun/The Inner Light
19. Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry
20. Revolution
21. Back in the U.S.S.R.
22. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
23. A Day in the Life
24. Hey Jude
25. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
26. All You Need Is Love
27. The Fool on the Hill *
28. Girl *

* iTunes exclusives