The Beatles Announce Anthology 4 Featuring Unreleased Take of “I’ve Just Seen a Face”

The Beatles will expand their archival series this fall with Anthology 4, a new 36-track collection that includes 13 previously unreleased recordings. Leading the release is a raw early version of “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” recorded during the Help! sessions in 1965 and unheard until now.

The newly surfaced take was captured at Abbey Road Studios on June 14, 1965, during the same day’s session that produced the final album version. Titled “I’ve Just Seen a Face (Take 3),” the recording opens with studio chatter between the band and engineers before the group launches into a brisk, informal run-through. John Lennon can be heard joking that “Lonnie”, likely a reference to skiffle singer Lonnie Donegan, “is gonna regret not singing this one,” before missing his cue as the guitars come in.

Unlike the polished master take that appeared on Help!, this earlier version captures the quartet’s working dynamic in real time, showing how Paul McCartney’s acoustic arrangement took shape through quick trial and error.

Set for release on November 21 through Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMG, Anthology 4 continues the retrospective series first launched in the mid-1990s. Alongside “I’ve Just Seen a Face (Take 3),” the collection features alternate versions of “In My Life,” “Nowhere Man,” and “If I Fell,” plus an unreleased rehearsal for the BBC broadcast of “All You Need Is Love.” The set also includes newly remixed editions of “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” using the same separation technology employed on the 2023 single “Now and Then.”

All four Anthology volumes will be reissued together as a 12-LP 180-gram vinyl box set, an eight-CD box, and a digital release. The packaging includes updated liner notes and restored artwork overseen by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, continuing the team’s recent archival work for Revolver and Let It Be.

The Anthology film series has also been fully restored and expanded. The original eight-part documentary will return as a nine-part series premiering November 26 on Disney+, featuring unseen outtakes and material from the 1994–95 sessions when Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr reunited to complete Lennon’s demos. A revised 25th-anniversary edition of The Beatles Anthology book will follow in October, adding previously unpublished photos and new commentary from the surviving members and estates.

While Anthology 4 extends a project that began three decades ago, its intent feels consistent: to document the Beatles’ studio evolution rather than mythologize it. The new release favors historical precision over sentiment, presenting the band’s work as a continuing archive rather than a commemorative artifact.