The Beatles soared up the iTunes record charts yesterday as five of their classic albums entering the US Top 20 less than 24 hours after the band's catalogue was released for the first time on the digital retailer.
Abbey Road was leading the pack on last night, with The White Album and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band also proving the most popular Beatles album downloads on Apple's iTunes store. The special digital Beatles Box Set was also climbing up Top 20 along with the Blue Album of greatest hits.
On the US iTunes singles charts, Here Comes the Sun, Let it Be and Blackbird were among six Beatles singles moving steadily up the top 100 downloads, according to real-time data on the iTunes website.
Apple's iTunes store yesterday released 13 of the albums made famous more than 40 years ago by the band, ending years of fruitless negotiations between Apple founder Steve Jobs, the Beatles management company Apple Corps, and record label EMI.
Paul McCartney said it was "fantastic to see the songs we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as they did the first time around".
Drummer Ringo Starr said he was "particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes", and John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono said it was an appropriate move in what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday year.
In London, the Official Charts Company said it was certain that "their music will make a big impact" on the official UK singles charts, starting on Sunday when weekly sales and download figures are released.
According to Apple, the band had sold more than 600 million records, tapes and CDs of its 1960s songs before yesterday's iTunes releases.
Reuters