Mills acquires Jim Berkenstadt Beatles LP Collection

October 25, 2022

We are thrilled to announce the latest addition to our Special Collections: the Jim Berkenstadt Beatles LP Collection. Berkenstadt is a writer, record producer, and historical entertainment consultant who also worked as an attorney for many years. He’s a longtime Madison resident who had been amassing his collection for most of his life, and he donated it to Mills Music Library so the curious might be able to use it for research purposes–or simply for pleasure!

Jim Berkenstadt, a white man with a mustache wearing a grey sweater, smiles as he sits at a table behind several LPs from his Beatles collection
Jim Berkenstadt and a few of his hundreds of Beatles LPs

The collection consists of vinyl LPs of Beatles albums, Beatles side projects, and solo works by the members of the Beatles, including commercial, promotional, and bootleg underground releases. Release dates range from 1963 to 2019. Source audio material ranges in date from the Quarrymen’s first recordings at Phillips’ Sound Recording Services in Liverpool July 12, 1958, to Paul McCartney’s 2018 solo album Egypt Station. Recordings include studio outtakes, rehearsals, isolated overdubs, unreleased tracks, alternate mixes, live shows, demos, studio banter, press conferences, TV and radio appearances, film soundtracks (dialog, sounds, and music), interviews, and home recordings. Matt Appleby, Music Technical Services Librarian, has created an inventory and posted the link on our Special Collections page.

An excerpt from the 52-page inventory of the Jim Berkenstadt Beatles LP Collection at Mills Music Library
An excerpt from the 52-page inventory of the Jim Berkenstadt Beatles LP Collection at Mills Music Library

For more about Berkenstadt and his collection, as well as our thoughts about it and our hopes for students and patrons of all types to make use of it, please see Magical Mystery Mills, an article by Megan Provost ’20 in the Fall 2022 issue of Badger Insider, The Magazine for Wisconsin Alumni Association Members.

To view and use any of the items in the Jim Berkenstadt Beatles LP Collection, please contact us before coming to the library to let us know what you would like us to pull and have ready. You may contact us via email or call 608-263-1884. All Special Collections materials are for library use only. Berkenstadt told us he wants people to use his collection, and we’re happy to facilitate it. We have two turntables for patrons to use and we’re happy to teach patrons how to use one.