Stretching our imagination through the imagery of lyrics and music, the writing team of McCartney and Lennon proved to be the most influential force within the world of music up to that point! Most young fans that gravitated to the guitar from the radically changing 60’s era, can without question, credit the Beatles for providing the inspiration and that is why they are so inspiring today.

My dream for a long time in my life was to somehow create my own personal tribute. It has taken this long mainly because these chosen pieces are almost like (in the minds of us Beatle lovers) sacred songs that shouldn’t or needn’t be messed with. No one can improve “Sgt Pepper,” as an example. It is simply my deep affection that hasn’t faded through the years and never confusing the nostalgia for substance and quality. It simply was a search to find a way to combine my world (whatever that is) into theirs, as I set out to do when I recorded the solo guitar CD of Piazzolla, “Diabolical Inventions and Seduction” in 2006.

So, as I only carried this as a thought for many years, it hadn’t become a reality until a spur of the moment decision during the late spring of my 2012 tour in Europe! I got the incentive in May 2012 to enquire about Abbey Road Studios. The place has a magic. I mean a kind of magic that transcends its nostalgic history. The sound we loved from those early recordings is the result of some serious lab technicians who rewired the heck out of everything there! My co-producer and I agree that the rooms were by far the best sounding, acoustically-perfect rooms we had ever heard! Nowhere else came close!

The studio today is primarily used for major motion picture film scoring and private recording artists. From the onset, it proved to be the most incredible studio experience I had up until this point!

I returned later to Abbey Road Studios in November to record another four tracks in two days and then the last time in Feb 2013, we completed the recording and mixes of the final five tracks. There is so much meaning and passion involved with this project and stories that go along with it. I am just glad The Beatles existed, for in my eyes the world would have never been the same without them and here is my little example of my own personal tribute for the immense joy they brought me and the millions of others! They simply transformed modern music! –Al Di Meola

LP Version Comes In: 2 x LP 45 rpm 180g audiophile