Meet the Beatles, Again

(CBS)  The four lads from Liverpool are back, in what may be the musical event of the year.

As CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason reports, Wednesday marks the release of 14 newly remastered Beatles albums and a new Beatles version of the video game "Rock Band" - endorsed by the two surviving members, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

"Who would have ever thought we end up as androids," McCartney said at the Rock Band press conference this past June.

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Four million copies of the game, in which players score points by hitting the Beatles' notes, will be shipped worldwide. It introduces a whole new audience to the music made more that 40 years ago at Abbey Road Studios in London.

"It was just the four of them making noise together in one of these rooms, and what came out is sensational," said Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin.

A team of seven Abbey Road engineers spent a full year remastering all 14 Beatles albums.

"These now sound pretty much as close to the master tapes as you're gonna get them," said engineer Allan Rouse.

So millions of Beatles fans are expected to buy albums they already own.

Billboard editor Rob Levine says there's a reason that the Beatles are the best-selling artists of all time, with 170 million albums sold.

"They are one of the few acts on which we all agree," said Levine. "We all like the Beatles. We may not all love the Beatles, but we all like the Beatles."

A recent survey found that the Fab Four were the only act to rank in the top four in all age groups. Beatlemania endures from the London Beatles store, to Web sites like thefest.com, where owner Mark Lapidus sells only Beatles merchandise. Lapidus says they have over 1,500 items, and quickly sold most of his allotment of the new CD's that aren't even out yet.

Already the second-best selling act of this decade, the Beatles could now surpass Eminem to become No. 1.

Four decades after the band split, we still don't want to say good-bye to the Beatles.

[steeepe]

First day of release and the box sets are sold out. What idiot at the record company wanted to disappoint so many people by not providing enough sets? Morons!

[woeisme1]

Today's music ain't got the same soul.

[woeisme1]

Certainly the most prolific band in history. If your were 10 years old in 1964 you would understand better the impact these four from Liverpool had upon the entire world.

We who are old enough to remember that period of time know well that we grew up in the absolute best of times - an exciting era that will never be repeated in some time.

[steeepe]

But it is true that most of the Beatles music makes you happy. That's why they were popular then and why their popularity continues.

[SHANDAR1]

Dear Sirs;
A war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, a failing economy, health care controversy, The President trying to convince our youth to stay in school and sharpen their intelligence....whoever is attempting to make "NEWS" out of a 50 year old pop-rock band is not really doing a very good job! Lets let the video game companies do their own advertising Michael OMalley

[picklepants7]

Hey SHANDAR1, you sound pathetic. there are other types of news in the world, not all bad. you are such a debbie downer. By the way, that 50 year old pop band is the most famous and best selling group ever, so it does constitute as news. Oh by the by, misery called, he wants your company.