Next week brings a triple dose of The Beatles

The big news out of London is the release of "Let it Be ... Naked," a remixed and re-assembled upgrade of the band's penultimate album, recorded in the early weeks of 1969.

Two DVDs will also be issued Tuesday. "Concert for George," documenting a 2002 Royal Albert Hall concert, features many of George Harrison's closest musician friends performing the late guitarist's songs with great reverence; "Lennon Legend" is a collection of videos John Lennon made in his lifetime, a few of which have not been seen since before Lennon's death 23 years ago. Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, has created new clips for others.

As released in 1970, "Let it Be" was hardly a stellar Beatles album. Producer Phil Spector was hired after the Beatles had released "Abbey Road" and promptly broken up; his job was to make something palatable out of the earlier tapes and create a cohesive album.

What Spector did was edit, edit, edit, and much to Paul McCartney's chagrin, he added orchestras and heavenly choirs to such songs as "The Long and Winding Road" and "Across the Universe."

"Let it Be ... Naked" removes all signs of Spector, presenting the songs, ostensibly, the way the Beatles created them. It's a vast sonic improvement over the original "Let it Be" album.

Sadly, however, many of the songs weren't very good to begin with, and with a few exceptions, "Let it Be ... Naked" isn't any more satisfying than its previous incarnation.

Collectors will enjoy alternate versions of "I've Got a Feeling" and "Don't Let Me Down," even though they're extremely similar to the familiar takes. These songs and several others were recorded live on the roof of the Beatles' Apple Records building in the heart of London, with Billy Preston sitting in on electric piano.

Sonically, "Let it Be ... Naked" is a wonder, with the elaborate remixing, from the master multi-track tapes, lending clarity that's never before existed. It literally sounds as if it were recorded yesterday.

"Let it Be ... Naked" comes with a 20-minute bonus disc with "fly on the wall" excerpts from the '69 sessions, including such gems as the Fab Four rehearsing Harrison's "All Things Must Pass," which they never properly recorded.

Ironically, that song, which provided the title to Harrison's debut solo album a year later, is a highlight of the two-DVD "Concert for George," filmed on Nov. 29, 2002, exactly one year after Harrison's death.

McCartney sings it, and for once, he's not schmoozing for the crowd. Backed by a stellar group of players including Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne and fellow ex-Fab Ringo Starr, McCartney gives "All Things Must Pass" a vivid and highly emotional reading.

"Concert for George" is a beautifully filmed documentary, and the emotion from Harrison's famous friends -- also including Tom Petty, Preston, Ravi Shankar, Jools Holland, Gary Brooker and more than a dozen others -- is palpable.

Clapton brought the core band together and rehearsed them for three weeks before the big names flew in to do the show. Petty and the Heartbreakers sing "Taxman," "I Need You" and "Handle With Care" (with fellow Traveling Wilbury Lynne on the latter); Starr does "Photograph" (which he co-wrote with Harrison) and Carl Perkins' "Honey Don't" (a favorite of George's); Clapton and McCartney duet on a gorgeous "Something" and a riveting "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"; Preston gives "Isn't it a Pity" a soulful interpretation.

Members of Monty Python give us "Sit on My Face" and a particularly hilarious "Lumberjack Song" (another Harrison favorite). Shankar's daughter Anoushka plays sitar on an otherwordly reading of "The Inner Light," sung by Lynne, and conducts an Indian orchestra on a composition written for the occasion by her father.

The band also includes Harrison's 24-year-old son, Dhani, on guitar; the spitting image of his father, circa 1965, Dhani's omnipresence gives the proceedings a bittersweet poignancy.

The "Concert for George" DVD package includes the entire concert on one disc, and a second disc containing the theatrical release of the film, which includes an edited version of the show and extensive interviews with the performers.

It is also being released as a two-disc audio CD Tuesday.

Somewhat anticlimactic after the Harrison DVD, "Lennon Legend" will nevertheless be an essential purchase for collectors, if only for the inclusion of a live 1970 TV performance of "Instant Karma" and rarely seen performance clips of "Slippin' and Slidin' " and "Imagine," the latter from a 1975 TV program -- Lennon's last-ever live appearance.