Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - Despite nearly 40 years since their last album together, Let It Be, the Beatles still dominate the charts as the number-one selling artists in U.S history with, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, 170 million records sold. Since SoundScan began tracking U.S. sales in 1991, the Beatles have sold 57.7 million albums, a number that will continue to swell with the Sept. 9 re-release of the Beatles entire back catalog in a new re-mastered format.

Indicative of their long-awaited arrival, Amazon reported selling out both the re-mastered stereo and mono box sets a day before the official release.

Last updated in 1987, the new CDs were four years in the making and offer a noticeable upgrade in sound quality.

"We're quite fussy," Paul McCartney told USA Today, explaining why fans had to wait so long for the refurbished sounds of the iconic band.

The 9.09.09 release—selected for its correlation to the The Beatles (the “White Album”) track “Revolution 9”—also coincides with the release of The Beatles: Rock Band™, the first version of the popular video game series devoted solely to one musical act. The game features 45 tracks, including “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Come Together” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”

And with the video game expected to fly off the shelves, it will soon become apparent to millions that, similar to the painstaking re-mastering process, the game’s creators went to great lengths to ensure that the digital depictions of the gear used by the Beatles are as authentic in every detail as possible.

The game’s period-correct authenticity came at the insistence of the Beatles themselves—Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison.

“The only stipulation we made was that we get it right and be the best,” McCartney also told USA Today.

The meticulous research by Rock Band™ designers into the musical equipment used by the Beatles in the game’s montage of animated performances that trace the group from its Liverpool beginnings to its final London rooftop performance in 1969, is reflected in the detail of the Gretsch Duo Jet replica controller and various digital depictions of Gretsch guitars seen in the game.

In summer 1961, Harrison saw an ad in a Liverpool newspaper for a Gretsch guitar being sold by a sailor who’d bought it in the United States. It was a black 1957 Duo Jet™. Harrison bought it for about £75. He referred to it as his “first good guitar.” It was this model that served as the inspiration for Rock Band’s Gretsch Duo Jet replica controller.

With input from key people at Gretsch, including Fred Gretsch himself, the game’s developers replicated the design of the Gretsch Duo Jet for The Beatles: Rock Band™ game controller in great detail, including the classic Bigsby® tailpiece.

To get a closer look at Harrison’s Gretsch, check out this commercial!

To order The Beatles: Rock Band now, click here!