Expert: James Michael Anderson - 12/4/2010

Question
I have a copy of the Beatles Extended Sessions album, the label is Rock Solid and it has on the back Number 0761 of 1000.  I won't ask how much it's worth :D but want to find out more about it.  I have tried searching for more information on line, but am coming up with a big zilch.  Can you recommend where I can go to get more information?  
Thanks for your help!!

Answer
"Sessions" is a collection of 13 previously unreleased odds and ends ranging from alternate versions of LP cuts to a George Harrison track that didn't make it on the "White Album."  It was started after the Beatles contract with EMI expired in 1976.

EMI had long acknowledged that it possesses a "few tracks" left over from Beatles recording sessions. In 1980, the company actually planned to release two of them--the Beatles' versions of Johnny Preston's "Leave My Kitten Alone" and Mitch Murray's "How Do You Do It?"--as a single. The plans were cancelled after the murder of John Lennon.

The titles on the "Sessions" label copy were the "most significantly interesting" tracks in EMI's vaults. The album was to begin with the Beatles' version of Badfinger's "Come And Get It"(written by McCartney), possibly featuring only McCartney and Ringo. The rest of side one: "Leave My Kitten Alone," "Not Guilty," an alternate take of "I'm Looking Through You," and "What's The New Mary Jane," the much-bootlegged "debunk the Beatles myth session"(1968) featuring Lennon, Harrison, Yoko Ono and others.

Side two: "How Do You Do It," "Besame Mucho," "One After 909"(an early version dating from 1963), "If You've Got Troubles," "That Means A Lot," an acoustic version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," Lloyd Price's "Mailman Blues" from 1969, and a snippet of an original Beatles Christmas song used in their 1967 fan club message titled "Christmastime Is Here Again."

EMI felt it inappropriate to do more than confirm the track titles. Some of the tracks, especially "Christmastime" and "Come And Get It," are not terribly interesting; they are more or less for the curious. "Kitten," however, is a great recording that rivals the power of the Beatles' reading of "Rock and Roll Music." "Not Guilty" is rumored to feature Eric Clapton. Southall confirmed that Clapton and Mick Jagger might be on one or two tracks, but siad that even EMI doesn't know for sure.

The album concept was shelved after the death of Lennon and hasn't returned.  Since the track listing was made public, that's where bootlegs have filled the void.  "Sessions" has been made into several different versions, "Extended Sessions" being one of them.  The Beatles Extended Sessions has 2 LPs on Green Vinyl. Records have a purple label on them from Amazing Stork Records & back cover shows the Rock Solid insignia.