When the Beatles Anthology first aired worldwide in 1995, the miniseries — paired with the simultaneous release of three double-CD sets that included the first new Beatles songs since the band’s 1970 breakup — played out as a global media event. Although the songs, “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” didn’t quite hold up to “Yesterday” and “Hey Jude,” the sheer bulk of brilliant material and fascinating tidbits collected in the two projects left most fans delighted.

This five-DVD set collects all 8 hours of the original miniseries and adds 81 minutes of bonus features sure to thrill fans old and new — including footage of Paul, George, and Ringo jamming during breaks in the filming of Anthology and reminiscing about their salad days.

For the uninitiated, Beatles Anthology is the most comprehensive video document available on the lives of the Fab Four, spanning virtually every stage of their musical evolution. From the band’s days in Liverpool to the height of Beatlemania and into the era of late-’60s psychedelia, few stones are left unturned. (Barnes & Noble)

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Initially broadcast as a TV miniseries to go with the series of three Anthology double-CD albums, this set of eight documentary tapes has the heft and scope of one of Ken Burns’s expansive projects. Still, unless you are either a historian or a truly committed fan, you’ll find yourself with way more material–particularly about the Beatles’ early lives as lads in Liverpool–than you’ll want to watch.

The documentary material is copious, including early performance films and tapes, at the point before they found their true voices. The actual Beatlemania years–beginning in 1963 and concluding in 1970–feature extensive performance films, as well as home movies and archival material. The best parts, of course, are the interviews with the Beatles themselves, who produced the entire thing.

Along with reworking two previously unreleased John Lennon tracks as “new Beatles songs,” the Anthology includes some unseen Lennon interview tapes so that his acerbic voice can be heard as well. This stands as a comprehensive document of that heady period, the second coming of rock & roll, as the Beatles took what Elvis had started and expanded upon it exponentially. The tapes give a solid sense of the historical context and the way these four musicians changed the world around them in the 1960s. (Amazon)