Beatlemania returns with hefty price tag

Fans of The Beatles had a lot to look forward to this week, but those fans who are also fans of money were put in a major dilemma where one of their loves had to be put on the backseat.
Even though John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr last performed together as a band 40 years ago, and two of them – Lennon and Harrison – are dead, Beatlemania pops up every few years, usually the result of some sort of new Beatle-related merchandise, film, television special or new album that becomes available.
The last time this happened was in 2000 when “1,” an album featuring 27 of their No. 1 hits, was released. Since then it’s sold more than 10 million copies, making it the best-selling album of the decade, a remarkable fact that attests to the group’s popularity.
This time Beatlemania can be attributed to the release of remastered CDs of their 14 albums. With a crisper and fuller sound than the original CDs that came out in 1987, the new versions should leave thousands of people happy who have been clamoring for better-sounding versions for decades now.
A videogame, “The Beatles: Rock Band,” released on the same day as the CDs, is also stirring up Beatlemania. It’s the first videogame to feature the legendary rock band, and like some of the other popular music videogames, people can “play” along to Beatles’ songs on fake, plastic guitars and fake, plastic drums while singing the songs on real, albeit not loud, microphones.
Both items come with hefty price tags. A box set containing all of the remastered CDs retails for approximately $200, while the videogame sells for $60. Experts are predicting the two surviving Beatles, and the widows of the dead ones, will make $1.6 billion from the two items.
That’s enough to run a small nation, or a fairly large hamburger stand in a large nation like this one.
The Beatles, and I love them to death, probably won’t get any of my money, as I can’t justify spending that much on CDs I already own or on a videogame that would be fun for a while but would probably get old fast.
It would be nice to have better-sounding Beatles’ CDs, but my stereo speakers are small and don’t have the power to make them sound any better than my now out-of-date Beatles’ CDs. If I had that type of extra cash lying around, I’d buy new speakers, but then I wouldn’t have any money to buy the new CDs. I’d be stuck listening to weak CDs on a good system, which is just as bad as listening to good CDs on a bad system.
Besides, the place I listen to the most music is at work in front of my computer, and those speakers, which are connected to my iPod, are computer speakers, which are even worse than my stereo speakers.
The only place the new CDs would make any difference to me would be in my car, and even then I usually have a 4-year-old in the vehicle who prefers Tom Petty, an artist greatly influenced by The Beatles. I can’t win.
I might rent “The Beatles: Rock Band,” and hopefully I can beat it during the span of a five-day rental. I’d be happy, although The Beatles and widows might miss the $60 I would have spent buying the game.
But as a bigger fan of money, I’m going to wait another few years for the next Beatlemania merchandise to appear. I dished out money in the 1990s for the “Anthology” series, although I haven’t listened to any of those CDs in more than 10 years, but I could be inspired to spend a few Beatles’ bucks again, for the right product.
Or maybe for a reunion concert. Granted, that would be hard for them to do, but technology may find a way to bring John and George back in some sort of creepy way. It might have to bring all four back if it’s not invented any time soon.
But it might keep Beatlemania around forever. That wouldn’t be a bad thing; just an expensive one.