Fans of the legendary musician Sir Paul McCartney are still hoping his “sequel” to a Beatles album will be released.
Though there is no indication his follow-up to one of the Fab Four’s biggest records will receive an official release, fans remain hopeful of having it out there for people to listen to.
Return to Pepperland was the name given to an unfinished recording project by McCartney and American record producer Phil Ramone. It was produced as a tribute to the 20th anniversary of the 1967 Beatles album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
A post to the r/PaulMcCartney Reddit page has seen fans share their reasons for the album not yet releasing, as some suggest it may never be published. Those who have heard the album on a bootleg tape, however, say it is one of McCartney’s best.
One user who has heard the release called it a “great album” with a “fantastic” title track that is in need of an official release.
The album itself is one of McCartney’s most bootlegged albums, meaning dedicated fans have pieced together official recording tapes to assemble what could have been the tracklist to his unreleased follow-up to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
While you can listen to Return to Pepperland, McCartney’s proposed follow-up to the psychedelic classic which defined The Beatles’ image in the mid-1960s, fans are holding out hope for an official release.
One fan asked: “Why hasn’t Return to Pepperland been released? It’s a great album and the title song is fantastic. Cuts have been released but not the whole album. So why not?”
A multitude of reasons could be given for why the album has not yet released, with recordings taking place through the 1980s. One fan suggested there are “albums worth” of material in McCartney’s archive which may never see the light of day.
They wrote: “Basically, I don’t think this is really something we fans can answer. He took 50 years to release One Hand Clapping as an album. Why?
“Before Denny Laine died, him and Paul were talking about rereleasing Holly Days, why did that take so long and why hasn’t it happened since Denny passed? Paul’s just a busy man. He has so much stuff he could release, and for all we know he might be unsure what fans want and don’t really care for.”
One Hand Clapping, the abandoned live recordings from Wings, were released last year, 50 years after a documentary of the same name. The backlog of recorded materials is large and re-releases of classic albums are frequent, too.
Just this year, the veteran songwriter re-released Wings’ Venus and Mars to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Whether Return to Pepperland receives a proper release is yet to be seen, though it remains unlikely given it was never fully assembled at the time.
Another fan added: “It’s not known for sure if it was meant to be an album. It’s possible Paul just put together a collection of songs to show potential producers and someone leaked it. That’s probably why the songs got released over multiple albums instead of just one.”
A third added: “The bootlegged album was a collection of scrapped songs and not necessarily an ‘album’. However I agree all of these songs need to be released or at least addressed.
“Same with a lot of the B Sides to singles that have never been reissued for streaming such as Off The Ground Complete Works and all of those songs that never went to streaming from the deluxe promotional thing.
“There’s a lot of material that would be amazing for an archive collection album release, but I don’t think we will be getting any of that soon.”