enlarge Jack Milton/Staff Photographer

Chris Brown of Bull Moose Music, a fan since his teens, displays some of his Beatles on vinyl. Remastered versions of the Beatles’ studio albums are due out Sept. 9.

Chris Brown felt he was hearing what the Beatles wanted him to hear.

In June, Brown was at the annual convention of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in San Diego when an executive from EMI played him 13 song snippets from the remastered versions of the Beatles' U.K. studio albums. The remastered CDs are due in stores Sept. 9.

For more than 20 years, the Beatles' albums have been circulating on CDs that were made hurriedly, when CD technology was still relatively new. So for Brown, head of marketing for the 10-store Bull Moose Music chain in Maine, hearing the remastered songs was like hearing them for the first time.

"They basically went back to (producer) George Martin's original tapes and did a much better job of getting what the Beatles had wanted you to hear," Brown said from his office in Portland. "It's a big difference. The rock tunes, like 'Taxman' and 'Sgt. Pepper,' rock harder now, and the beautiful songs, like 'Yesterday' and 'The Long and Winding Road,' are just gorgeous now.

"The (old) CD versions were like looking at something through a dirty window; now that's been cleaned up."

Brown was one of about five people attending the convention who got to hear the snippets on a high-quality sound system. A larger group got to hear them on a conference-room sound system, with poor quality. But after that listening session, Brown asked the EMI executive if he could hear some of the work on a better system, and his request was granted.

Brown thinks the remastering of the Beatles studio albums – originally released between 1963 and 1970 – is a much bigger deal than the release of some other hyped remastered discs. The Rolling Stones' 1960s recordings have been remastered more than once, for example, so the most recent remastering didn't represent such a big difference.

But it's been 20 years since the Beatles works were remastered, and technology has improved significantly. The albums were remastered over a four-year period at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London.

"In a lot of people's minds, the original Beatles CDs didn't sound as good as the record, as the vinyl," Brown said.

The remastered CDs will go on sale at first for $12.97 each. Each comes with original album art and expanded booklets with new liner notes and rare photos. For a limited time, the discs will be embedded with a brief documentary about the making of the albums.

There will also be two box sets released on Sept. 9. One will have the 12 original studio albums, plus "Magical Mystery Tour" (originally a TV film soundtrack) and the two-volume "Past Masters" compilation of singles and B-sides. That set's price is listed at $189.97.

Another box set will feature the 10 Beatles albums that were released in mono, the prevailing technology of the early 1960s. That one has a listed retail price of $224.97.

Brown said hearing high-quality remastered versions of the mono recordings is exciting, because the Beatles were present for the mixing of the mono albums. The stereo mixes were done later, by Martin alone.

"If you're a collector or serious fan, you have to hear the mono versions that's what the Beatles spent time on, that's what John Lennon was present for," Brown said.

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:

rrouthier@pressherald.com