WHEN Sarah Groves (The Witness, January 4) has bought all 13 albums for her seven-year-old Beatles fan daughter, Lael, she might want to add the new album of Beatles’ music that came out in 2009. It’s called Off the Beatle Track and it is by a Seattle-based band called Apple Jam.

The CD comprises 14 Lennon-McCartney songs and one by George Harrison. They were songs written mostly around 1963- 64 and, with three exceptions, were never recorded by the Beatles. Instead, with the exception of one track, they were given to other artists such as Cilla Black who enjoyed varied chart successes with them.

But it is not just the material that is new to one’s ears. It is the way Apple Jam has produced it. They sound exactly like the Beatles: the guitar riffs, harmonies and falsetto notes. Even the album cover bears a striking resemblance to that of the first Beatles LP, Please Please Me.

Playing Apple Jam’s Off the Beatle Track is evocative of the thrill and fascination one experienced all those years ago when a new Beatles record came out.

Thanks to Apple Jam it’s possible to have those feelings again — 40 years after the Beatles disbanded as a group.

DUNCAN DU BOIS
Brighton Beach, Durban