**2004**

January

The Grey Album - a remix of vocals by rapper Jay Z's from his The Black Album on top of music from the Beatles' The Beatles (the "White Album") is released by one DJ Danger Mouse. Reportedly only 3,000 copies of the album were pressed to disc and sold out immediately, making the disc a collector's item as it made its rounds on file sharing networks. The album was just one of several remix versions, facilitated by a special release of The Black Album containing only vocals so DJs could "mix the hell out of it" according to one engineer. However, EMI issued a cease-and-desist a month later, citing copyright violation - DJ Danger Mouse had neither asked for permission to use the songs nor paid royalty fees.

February

The 40th anniversary of the Beatles arrival in America . The band is featured on the cover of 'Rolling Stone' and numerous radio stations across America feature an "all-Beatles" weekend format. The documentary "The First U.S. Visit" is reissued on DVD with new footage.

May 27

Author Bill Harry claims that former Who drummer Keith Moon once met the Beatles in a club in the early 60s and asked to join the group, only to be rebuffed by Ringo.

June 2

Paul reveals in an interview that he was taking heroin and cocaine around the time of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

November 16

Capitol releases Capitol Albums Vol. 1, a four disc collection of the Beatles' first four Capitol albums pressed from the original stereo and mono masters.