The Beatles: Rock Band. This is going to be BIG!

First, take a look at these videos to see for yourself (If these have ads just click the handy mute button and wait 10 seconds).

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/beatlesharmonixproject/video/6213674/the-beatles-rock-band-more-songs-official-trailer

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/beatlesharmonixproject/video/6213669/the-beatles-rock-band-preview-vocal-trainer

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/beatlesharmonixproject/video/6215294/the-beatles-rock-band-video-preview-beatles-beats--more

This “game” looks extremely well crafted. All the backgrounds are relevant to what the band was doing at the time whether its gigging in the Cavern, on a world tour at Shea Stadium, conquering the U.S.A. on the Ed Sullivan show, just hanging out being psychedelic in India, or in London doing the rooftop session.

People are going to get totally into this, and money is to be made for those that realize it in the secondary market like hosting competitions, and ideas unforeseen but certain. For example retailers are offering guitar controllers that are reproductions of the classic Beatles instruments like Paul's Hoffner bass and John's Rickenbacher six-string.

My GameStop clerk informs me there will be many more donwloadable Beatles songs but no sequel release to The Beatles: Rock Band is planned.

The vocal trainer looks poised to teach harmony singing to the masses, which was one of The Beatles greatest strengths especially in the early years.

And if the drum trainer makes drummers play more like Ringo the world of Rock would be a better place. Paul says the band gelled after Ringo joined but I can't find the reference in my Abbey Road session notes book. Its odd I know, but his drumming always sounded melodic to me. In one review, the GameSpot commentator claims Ringo is no Neil Peart (drummer for the Toronto band “Rush”), but according to the link below, Ringo's ranking at 26 compared to Peart at 22 is not that far behind.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/stylus-magazines-50-greatest-rock-drummers.htm

Notes:

I counted seven George Harrison tunes in the 45 song set including the almost entirely unknown “If I Needed Someone”. This is a very slight over-representation as George wrote close to one out of every eight Beatles songs according to "BEATLESONGS" by William J. Dowlding.

We get one Ringo song in the list, Octopus's Garden, which of course way over-represents him since there are only two Beatles songs Ringo gets complete authorship credit for (the other one is Don't Pass Me By). He also gets one-quarter authorship credit for Flying.

Stylus lists one of Ringo’s best drumming credits as “Ticket To Ride” but it was Paul McCartney who told Ringo how to play the drums that time around.