Directly From Santa Claus

Santa Claus, 1984

A very obscure picture disc chock full of rare (at the time) BBC Radio performances.

Side 1:

- Besame Mucho

- Some Other Guy

- Side By Side

- Boys

- I'll Be On My Way

- Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby

- Misery

- Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey!

- She Loves You

- Words Of Love

- There's A Place

Side 2:

- Long Tall Sally

- From Me To You

- Memphis, Tennessee

- This Boy

- I Want To Hold Your Hand

- Chrimble Medley

- Roll Over Beethoven

- I Forgot To Remember To Forget

- And I Love Her

Amikky Mendip Multiplus

March, 1964 was one of the busiest months in The Beatles' career. They began on March 1st with an EMI recording session, spent the next week on a train filming A Hard Day's Night, continued filming at Twickenham and various locations the rest of the month, appeared on Top Of The Pops and Ready Steady Go!, accepted Variety Club and Carl-Alan awards, sat for TV, print, and radio interviews, and closed out the month recording music for Saturday Club.

In the midst of all this, they found time to record special inserts for BBC Radio's The Public Ear. On March 18th and 19th, George commandeered a tape recorder and interviewed his fellow Fabs as they worked on the film and drove to the Dorchester Hotel to pick up their Variety Club awards. Ringo helped by introducing the show and reading out the credits, Paul joked with George in the back of a limo, and best of all, John treated listeners to a reading of his poem "Alec Speaking". The results were aired March 22nd.

March 18th

March 19th

Cinelogue Yellow Submarine

CBM, 1974

The nearly-complete soundtrack to the film Yellow Submarine. This is from a US TV broadcast, so "Hey Bulldog" is absent, and oddly, so is "Only A Northern Song".

Side 1:

- Yellow Submarine

- Eleanor Rigby

- Love You To

- A Day In The Life

- All Together Now

Side 2:

- When I'm Sixty-Four

- Nowhere Man

- Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Side 3:

- Yellow Submarine

- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

- With A Little Help From My Friends

- All You Need Is Love

Side 4:

- Baby You're A Rich Man

- It's All Too Much

- All Together Now

Cow Cow Boogie

On August 29th, 1965, The Beatles visited the Los Angeles headquarters of their US label. At the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, radio, TV, newsreel, and print journalists assembled to cover the Beatles' press conference, presided over by Tony Barrow. Capitol's president Alan Livingston listened as the group disparaged his company's version of the Help! LP, and then presented them with a Gold Record award for it.

Here is a 36-minute composite recording of the press conference, created from five sources (film footage, an unreleased audio tape, two interview CDs, and a bootleg CD).

Stars Of '63

Swingin' Pig, 1989

Issued simultaneously with the CD version, this LP contains a major upgrade of the Stockholm radio concert from October 1963, along with unrelated interview snippets from 1964 and 1965.

Side 1:

- I Saw Her Standing There

- From Me To You

- Money (That's What I Want)

- Roll Over Beethoven

Side 2:

- You Really Got A Hold On Me

- She Loves You

- Twist And Shout

- Copenhagen interview

- The Beatles Abroad interview

Half A Scotch Egg

Ringo's first major film role was Youngman Grand in the movie adaptation of Terry Southern's novel The Magic Christian. He and co-star Peter Sellers spent much of February-April 1969 filming the movie on various locations in London and at Twickenham Film Studios.

Concurrent with the film's production, Tony Palmer directed a documentary, Will The Real Mr. Sellers..., for airing on BBC December 18th to promote the movie's release. Here are some brief excerpts from the documentary, with Ringo and Peter playing wine connoisseurs, and Paul falsely denying Linda's pregnancy.

Will The Real Mr. Sellers...

The Decca Audition Tape

Berkeley, 1975

Not the Decca Audition, but BBC Radio performances in the familiar form of Yellow Matter Custard.

Side 1:

- I Got A Woman

- Glad All Over

- I Just Don't Understand

- Slow Down

- Don't Ever Change

- A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues

- Sure To Fall (In Love With You)

Side 2:

- Nothin' Shakin' (But The Leaves On The Trees)

- Lonesome Tears In My Eyes

- So How Come (No One Wants Me)

- I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)

- Crying Waiting Hoping

- To Know Her Is To Love Her

- The Honeymoon Song

Commotion In Cleveland

August 14th, 1966 saw The Beatles' last tour visit Cleveland for a concert at Cleveland Stadium.

Prior to the show, they were interviewed by Cleveland-based disc jockey Jerry G. Bishop, who had traveled with the group throughout their 1965 North American tour.

Taking the trip this year was Ken Douglas, who spoke with Ringo and then brought his recorder to the concert. During "Day Tripper", hundreds of fans broke through police barricades and ran towards the stage, causing a temporary delay. Douglas captured both the chaos and the recommencement of the performance with "I Feel Fine".

Also present were Kenny Everett, who filed a report for Radio London, and reporter Bess Coleman, who taped this wrap-up.

Great To Have You With Us

no label, 1986

A bizarre amalgam of solo rarities, promo discs, TV and radio commercials, and "for others" sessions.

Side 1:

- No Values

- No More Lonely Nights

- For No One

- Corridor Music

- So Bad

- Goodnight Princess

- Thingumybob

Side 2:

- Silver Platter Service interview

- Fab Four On Film

- Open-End Interview With The Beatles

- The Beatles Introduce New Songs

- Music City/KFWBeatles

- "The Beatles Decade" radio spots

- Top Of The Pops chat

- Dialogue from The Beatles' Motion Picture "Let It Be"

Side 3:

- I Lost My Little Girl

- Lucille

- Too Bad About Sorrows

- "Melvyn Bragg In The Parlour Having Tea"

- Mull Of Kintyre

- That'll Be The Day

- Desert Island Discs

- McCartney II TV spot

- Wings Greatest TV spot

- Go Your Own Way

- Dark Horse

- The Concert For Bangla Desh radio spot

- Band On The Run radio spot

- I Saw Her Standing There

- All My Loving

- Can't Buy Me Love

Side 4:

- Too Many Cooks

- God Bless California

- Dance The Do

- Ten Years After On Strawberry Jam

- What Do We Really Know?

- Givin' Grease A Ride

- The Holdup

- Let's Love

- I Wrote A Simple Song

- You're Breaking My Heart

- Make Love Not War

- Edward

Moss Thumping

On April 27th, 1964, The Beatles rehearsed their TV special Around The Beatles in front of an audience at Wembley TV Studios. 4,000 miles away, Atlanta disc jockey Paul Drew placed a call to England in hopes of speaking with the busy stars.

In between make-up sessions and other duties, Ringo, George, and Paul took the phone to speak with Drew, while Neil Aspinall filled in for an occupied John Lennon.

Paul Drew phone call

Complete Christmas Collection 1963 - 69

CBM, 1972

Pirated from the Apple Fan Club LP, or equally likely copied from TMOQ's Complete Christmas Collection: 1963-1969.

Side 1:

- The Beatles' Christmas Record

- Another Beatles Christmas Record

- The Beatles' Third Christmas Record

- Pantomime: Everywhere It's Christmas

Side 2:

- Christmas Time (Is Here Again)

- The Beatles' Sixth Christmas Record

- The Beatles' Seventh Christmas Record

Let Me Introduce To You

This blog began almost a year ago with bits of Beatle studio chatter compiled from the Beatles On Record TV special and the CD remaster mini-docs.

Herewith, I present 64 further Fab mutterings, taken from song intros (and outros) heard during gameplay of Beatles: Rock Band.

Rubber Soul

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown): 1 2
Michelle: 1
Girl: 1
In My Life: 1

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Fixing A Hole: 1 2
She's Leaving Home: 1 2
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!: 1 2 3 4 5 6
When I'm Sixty-Four: 1 2
Lovely Rita: 1 2
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise): 1 2
A Day In The Life: 1 2 3

Abbey Road

Maxwell's Silver Hammer: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Oh! Darling: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Because: 1 2
You Never Give Me Your Money: 1 2 3
Sun King: 1 2 3
Polythene Pam: 1 2
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window: 1 2 3 4 5
Golden Slumbers: 1 2
Her Majesty: 1

Miscellaneous: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Recovered Tracks

Bornoby Records, 1981

An interesting mixture of BBC Radio tracks, TV performances, mono mixes, outtakes, and other miscellanea, although not everything sounds as good as it should.

Side 1:

- How Do You Do It

- I Forgot To Remember To Forget

- Dizzy Miss Lizzy

- Lucille

- I Wanna Be Your Man

- A Hard Day's Night trailer

- I'm A Loser

- Love Me Do/Please Please Me/From Me To You/She Loves You/I Want To Hold Your Hand

Side 2:

- The Beatles Come To Town

- She Loves You

- I Feel Fine

- I'm Down

- Act Naturally

- Ticket To Ride

Side 3:

- Savoy Truffle

- Tomorrow Never Knows

- Get Back

- Hey Bulldog

- Love Me Do

- Misery

- Words Of Love

Side 4:

- Back In The USSR

- Don't Let Me Down/Those Were The Days

- Una Sensazionale Intervista Dei Beatles

- Hey Jude

- Revolution

Vibrations

John and Yoko's first joint TV appearance was on LWT's Frost On Saturday, taped August 24th, 1968 in front of a somewhat bemused audience (including earlier guest Stan Freberg). They were there to discuss the recent You Are Here exhibition and their newest creation, Film No. 5 (Smile). Audience members eagerly participated in the "Hammer-A-Nail" installation, although host David Frost remained skeptical.

Vibrations

Soldier Of Love

CBM, 1974

The first Beatleg LP appearances of the title track (branded with "exclusive" voice-overs from a KRIZ-AM broadcast) and two other BBC Radio performances. Also somewhat rare is Ed Sullivan's intro for Ringo's "Sentimental Journey" promo film. Side B is a straight pirate of the Murray The "K" EP.

Side 1:

- I'll Be On My Way

- Till There Was You

- Do The Oz

- Sentimental Journey

- I Got A Woman

- Soldier Of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)

Side 2:

- The Beatles & Murray The "K": As It Happened!

Aktiebolaget

On October 31st, 1963, The Beatles were preparing to fly back to London from Stockholm, having completed a highly successful tour of Sweden. Before departing, Paul and Ringo spoke with presenter Klas Burling, perhaps their biggest booster in Sweden.

Aktiebolaget

As Sweet As You Are

Pumpkin Eater Wreckords, 1977

Audifon's copy of Yellow Matter Custard, using the original TMOQ stampers.

Side 1:

- I Got A Woman

- Glad All Over

- I Just Don't Understand

- Slow Down

- Don't Ever Change

- A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues

- Sure To Fall (In Love With You)

Side 2:

- Nothin' Shakin' (But The Leaves On The Trees)

- Lonesome Tears In My Eyes

- So How Come (No One Loves Me)

- I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)

- Crying Waiting Hoping

- To Know Her Is To Love Her

- The Honeymoon Song

New Blue Soap

While his bandmates recorded "I Me Mine" and overdubs on "Let It Be" and "For You Blue" in London, John Lennon saw in 1970 with his wife Yoko, her daughter Kyoko, and Kyoko's father Tony Cox in Denmark.

The Lennons spent New Year's at the farmhouse in Ålborg, and held a press conference on January 5th to satisfy the curiosity of reporters wondering what they were doing in Denmark.

Another recording supposedly from this press conference features John and a number of people singing the Danish hymn, "O Kristelighed". Here's a composite recording from a good source and an atrocious one.

Finally, here's a snippet from a cassette sold by Tony Cox containing John and Kyoko improvising stories and songs, presumably recorded during this Danish visit.

Studio Sessions Volume One

CBM, 1973

Contra Band's copy of the TMOQ disc Outakes 1, a collection of Pop Go The Beatles and Saturday Club performances. Volume Two was posted last year.

Side 1:

- You Really Got A Hold On Me

- The Hippy Hippy Shake

- Misery

- Money (That's What I Want)

- Till There Was You

- Do You Want To Know A Secret

Side 2:

- From Me To You

- Roll Over Beethoven

- Love Me Do

- Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey!

- Long Tall Sally

- Please Please Me

George III

George became the third married Beatle on January 21st, 1966 when he wed Patricia Boyd at Epsom register office in Surrey. The newlyweds faced the world's media the following day at NEMS's Sutherland House offices in London.

While they posed for photos and news cameras, George and Pattie spoke with reporters from several outlets:

ITV News

ABC News

Reuters

Ultra Rare Trax Volume 5 & 6

BEEB Transcription, 1988

Another double album full of amazing full-fidelity studio outtakes, released alongside Volume 3 & 4.

Side 1:

- All You Need Is Love

- Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

- Not Guilty

- Because

Side 2:

- Lady Madonna

- Rain

- A Day In The Life

- What's The New Mary Jane

Side 3:

- Hello Goodbye

- Paperback Writer

- Hey Jude

- St. Louis Blues

Side 4:

- Strawberry Fields Forever

About Six Or Seven

In February, 1965, filming for Help! began on location in the Bahamas. The Beatles and co-star Eleanor Bron flew from London to Nassau on the 22nd, and the boys occupied their time during the lengthy flight smoking some grass they had just obtained.

This explains the silly mood they are in (John and Paul in particular) during a pair of interviews conducted upon their arrival at Nassau Airport. American DJs such as Dave Hull and Murray the "K" flew over from the States to chat with the group during shooting. Lucky enough to be present that first night were Larry Kane and Gene Loving, to the latter of whom John glibly admits, "We got stoned".

Ultra Rare Trax Volume 3 & 4

BEEB Transcription, 1988

One of the best and most important Beatlegs ever, released by Yellow Dog simultaneously with Volume 5 & 6. Uniformly excellent quality studio outtakes, from tapes and acetates and mostly never-before heard. Mind-boggling material at the time and still impressive!

Side 1:

- One And One Is Two

- Do You Want To Know A Secret

- She's A Woman

- Hold Me Tight

- Ticket To Ride

Side 2:

- Yes It Is

- There's A Place

- A Taste Of Honey

- There's A Place

- I Saw Her Standing There

- Misery

Side 3:

- 12-Bar Original

- Help!

- I Feel Fine

Side 4:

- Day Tripper

- We Can Work It Out

- Yes It Is