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Sessions
One of the proposed covers for the album
Compilation album by the Beatles
Recorded	1962–1969
Length	38:13
Label	Apple
Producer	George Martin
Singles from Sessions
""Leave My Kitten Alone" / "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (Take 5)" Released: Unreleased

Sessions is a cancelledcompilation album of previously unreleased tracks by English rock bandthe Beatles, planned for release byEMI in 1985 but never issued officially, due to objections by the surviving Beatles.^[1] The album consists of 13 finished but unreleased Beatles songs. A planned single containing two of the tracks fromSessions – "Leave My Kitten Alone", backed with an alternative version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" – was also left unissued. The idea was resurrected in 1995 as the greatly expanded three-volume double CDsThe Beatles Anthology with an accompanyingsix-hour documentary.

When the Beatles' contract with EMI had expired in 1976, the record company began to take stock of the band's back catalogue and look at the hundreds of hours of unreleased recordings stored in the Abbey Road Studio vaults. Over the next couple of years several compilation albums of previously released material would be issued (Rock 'n' Roll Music,Love Songs,The Beatles Ballads) anda live album of their Hollywood Bowl performances. An album of unreleased studio recordings was also considered, with a few attempts being abandoned.^[1]

In the early 1980s, while needing a task to distract him from his cancer treatment, Abbey Road Studios house engineer John Barrett was assigned the task of listening to and logging the studio's collection of multi-tracks and master tapes of the group. This research unearthed more previously unknown recordings. Some of these recordings were remixed for inclusion in the 1983 multi-media tour of Abbey Road Studios, titledThe Beatles at Abbey Road.^[1]

A year after the Abbey Road show, in the summer of 1984, EMI began work on a compilation album of previously unreleased material. Former Beatles engineerGeoff Emerick was hired to remix and edit the recordings to a commercial standard. At the time, the album went under the in-house code name "Mary Jane" and the working titlesBoots andOne-Two-Three-Four beforeSessions was settled upon.^[1]

The original release date ofSessions was to be November 1984, but EMI did not want to clash withPaul McCartney'sGive My Regards to Broad Street soundtrack scheduled for release in late October, so the compilation was shelved. According to reports, McCartney later objected to the release ofSessions in its then current form, whileGeorge Harrison, joined by John Lennon's estate, objected to the album entirely. As a result,Sessions was cancelled indefinitely and the tracks did not appear on any official Beatles release until theAnthology project in 1995–96.^[2]

There were two proposed artworks for the cover, including one colour collage cover and one with a black and white photo of the group in an alley outside ofAbbey Road Studios. In 2014, a complete slick set for the black and white cover was auctioned oneBay by well-known Beatles collector and dealer Perry Cox; the bidding stopped at US$2,910.00, which failed to meet the reserve. This was the complete artwork, including the front cover, the back cover, and the inner sleeve.

This was as far as production ever reached before the entire project was cancelled by EMI Records and no album was pressed for it.^[3]

• An early version of the album had "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" edited into two parts and cross-fading at the beginning of the album into "Come and Get It" and at the end of the album from "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", the latter of which was cut from the album and planned to be released as a B-side.^[1]
• Somebootlegcompact disc editions include "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as a bonus track.^[4][5][6][7]

• Outline of the Beatles
• The Beatles timeline

• Albums produced by George Martin
• The Beatles compilation albums
• Unreleased albums

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