Wednesday 18 November 2015

Thursday 22 October 2015

Hello Goodbye #1



Today's free video by The Beatles is a version of "Hello Goodbye". Directed by Paul McCartney at the Saville theatre in London, three different videos were made on the 10th of November 1967. Film no. 1 saw the Beatles dressed up in their Sgt Pepper uniforms, and Ringo's drum kit was rather small. For film no. 2 they wore their everyday clothes, and film no 3 was put together of outtakes from the first two, with the Beatles hamming it up for the camera. Here's a snippet of film no. 3, courtesy of the Beatles' own YouTube channel:



All three of these will be published as part of the Beatles 1+ package. Videos 1 and 2 are quite commonly found, thanks to having been aired more frequently on TV. Number 1 was shown on Norwegian TV once in the eighties.
Video no. 2 was distributed to TV stations when the Red and Blue albums were released on CD for the first time, in 1993.
Apple also made a fourth version in the nineties, which was shown on the Anthology TV series. This was merely video no. 1 until the coda, then it switched to footage from video no. 3. For some reason, the Anthology edit also rendered the opening footage of the film in black and white.

The third full length video will be released by Mashable, and the two remaining ones by other outlets.

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Official Revolution video



Today, the full video of "Revolution", directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg was published on YouTube and Vevo. This is the first of five full length music videos to be published as promotion for the upcoming new editions of Beatles 1 and the DeLuxe Beatles 1+.
"Revolution" was filmed in tandem with "Hey Jude" on Wednesday 4 September 1968 at Twickenham film studios. Whereas "Hey Jude" was introduced by David Frost to be part of his television programme Frost on Sunday, "Revolution" was filmed to act as a music video to promote John's side of the single. There were three versions of "Hey Jude" and two of "Revolution" recorded and filmed. The songs all had live vocals on top of pre-recorded elements, a method that may have been inspired by the "All You Need Is Love" session for the satellite broadcast of "Our World". As a result of this, the audio tracks to the finished versions of each video are all unique and haven't previously been released in an official capacity.

The version of "Revolution" featured here is the one where it looks like George is saying to Paul, "John smells like sh*t!"

The Beatles arrived at the studios at 1.30pm and worked until evening.  For the "Revolution" clips, Paul McCartney performed the scream during the introduction, and the 'shoo-be doo-wop' backing vocals were ad-libbed from the slower, then-unreleased "Revolution 1".

The only contemporary UK screening of the "Revolution" clip was on the BBC's "Top Of The Pops" on Thursday 19 September.

Long time Beatles video collector and expert Steve Shorten informs us that when he watched this side-by-side with the original clip, he noticed some changes. In addition to trimming the beginning and end of the clip, a roughly 10-second segment of alternate footage has been inserted into the original edit of the promo at around the 1:30 mark. Shorten suspects we will be seeing several other changes of this nature throughout the disc(s).

As far as the sound is concerned, this is a new mono mix, with Nicky Hopkins' piano track added. It's a well known fact that John Lennon preferred the mono "Revolution", he didn't like the stereo mix which they released on "the blue album", Beatles 1967-1970. So it seems they have honoured his wish. Or perhaps they never had the live vocals taped separately, they may have only been recorded as part of the full mix including the backing track. Back in 1992 when Ron Furmanek remastered and remixed the promo videos for the first time, he also went with mono for "Revolution".

The next video is coming up in two days, on 22 October.

Thursday 8 October 2015

Restoration of The Beatles 1 Collection



The Beatles' YouTube account has premiered episode 1 in a series of 5 about the restoration and remastering/remixing of the 2015 "Beatles 1" and "Beatles 1+".

Wednesday 7 October 2015

McCartney's collaborations

Say Say Say 2015 remix


Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson 'Say Say Say [2015 Remix]'
Song taken from 'Pipes of Peace 2015 Remaster' - video finished too late to make it to the DVD.
This video was directed by Ryan Heffington

Friday 18 September 2015

Thursday 17 September 2015

Beatles 1 Blu-ray / DVD trailer



THE BEATLES’ VIDEOS AND TOP HITS COME TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME

All-New Editions of The Beatles 1 Pair Beautifully Restored Promotional Films and Videos with Brand New Stereo and Surround Audio Mixes 

Preorder your copy at http://www.thebeatles.com

Beatles 1+ Deluxe Edition Celebrates the Sight & Sound of The Beatles in 50 Films & Videos


London – September 15, 2015 – After The Beatles stopped touring, and because travelling around the globe to promote new releases was impossible, the band increasingly made what could be described as “mini movies”. These pioneering promotional films and videos helped to define the way we have come to watch music, not least because The Beatles approached filming with the same ease and innovative spirit they brought to the recording studio, exploring new creative possibilities with infectious delight. Showcasing the band’s filmed work to accompany their 27 No.1, U.K. and U.S. singles, The Beatles 1 is newly restored and expanded in multiple configurations for global release on November 6 by Apple Corps Ltd/Universal Music Group.

The 27-track CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray pairs beautifully restored videos for each song, with new stereo and 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS HD surround audio mixes. The brand new Beatles 1+ celebrates their career in over 200 minutes through 50 promotional films and videos. This includes the 27 No.1s, with the restored videos, along with a second disc of 23 videos, including alternate versions, as well as rarely seen and newly restored films and videos; all include new audio mixes in deluxe CD/2-DVD and CD/2-Blu-ray packages. The 27-track audio CD is also being made available with new stereo mixes. A 2 LP, 180-gram vinyl package will follow.

The new editions of The Beatles 1 have been made possible following extensive research, and restoration of the original promo films, classic television appearances and other carefully selected videos spanning the band’s history. Apple Corps dug deep into The Beatles’ vaults to select a broad range of films and videos for their rarity, historical significance and quality of performance. An 18-person team of film and video technicians and restoration artists was assembled by Apple Corps to undertake painstaking frame-by-frame cleaning, colour-grading, digital enhancement and new edits that took months of dedicated, ‘round-the-clock work to accomplish.

The result is a visual run down of The Beatles’ number one records, as well as the additional tracks on the bonus disc of Beatles 1+ that show the band in previously unseen standards of clarity and quality; many of the films and videos have never before been commercially released, in whole or in part.

Beatles 1 and Beatles 1+ offers the restored films, including 35mm negatives scanned in 4K and digitally restored with new stereo and 5.1 surround audio remixes, produced from the original analogue tapes by the GRAMMY® winning team of Giles Martin with Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios. For four of the videos, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have provided exclusive audio commentary and filmed introductions, respectively. The 1+ Deluxe Edition, presented in an expanded 124-page illustrated hardcover book includes ‘an appreciation’ of The Beatles’ ground-breaking films and videos by music journalist and author Mark Ellen and extensive, detailed track/video annotation by music historian and author Richard Havers. 

“These videos and films are spectacular reminders of the era we lived in. They also rock!” – Paul McCartney

I think it’s really interesting to see the videos we made, some of them incredible and some of them really incredible. How else would we have got to sit on a horse? – Ringo Starr

Between 1962 and 1970, The Beatles released 27 No.1 hit singles in the U.S.A. and the U.K. In 2000, these timeless songs were collected for The Beatles 1, which topped the charts in 35 countries and became that decade’s bestselling album worldwide. 15 years later, 1 is revisited for this entirely new, visually-inspired presentation.

It’s The Beatles, as you’ve never seen them before.

thebeatles.com

Beatles video restoration



2 versions



"Penny Lane" colour correction



"Strawberry Fields Forever" restored sample

Tuesday 8 September 2015

A Hard Day's Night - speed corrections

© Bettmann/CORBIS
You might recall that one thing the new edition of A Hard Day's Night DVD/Blu-ray didn't address, was the speed issue. The film was shot at 25 fps and played back at 24 fps, but they neglected to speed up the tracks during filming, and as a result the songs sound slower in the film than on the records.

Music Radar interviewed Giles Martin about the speed issue.

MR: I read that the mixes of the songs in the film were slower than the album versions. Why was that?

GM: “Yeah, and that’s something I asked them to change. When I was working on the Martin Scorsese-George Harrison film, I noticed it. And I Love Her was a semitone down. It’s got to do with frame rates. I asked them, 'Can you change the frame rate of the film?' and of course, you can’t because that would speed up the film. Pitching the music but keeping it at the same speed might have worked, but then you’re going into a digital world that’s kind of unpleasant. It’s a bit like plastic surgery, and you don’t want to be doing that, putting a new face on something. The thing about And I Love Her in the film is, it’s a different mix. It’s not a double-tracked vocal, whereas the original is.”

Now, a friend of WogBlog has released speed corrected versions on YouTube. Done in computer at 106% playback speed, these versions match the speed of the 09 remastered studio tracks, but with the audio from the film.

And I Love Her


If I Fell



I'm Happy Just To Dance With You


Finale Concert

Carl Perkins & Friends



Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session was a televised concert that was held on 21 October 1985 in London, England, and featured rock n' roll pioneer Carl Perkins and his house band, along with friends as guest stars, including Eric Clapton, former Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr, as well as Dave Edmunds who acted as musical director for the show. Most of the repertoire performed in the concert consisted of Perkins' classic rockabilly songs from the 1950s. It was directed by Tom Gutteridge. The concert special was originally broadcast on january 1, 1986 on Channel 4 in the UK and on Cinemax in 1986 with introductory comments by Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis. The concert is a memorable highlight of Perkins' later career and has been highly praised by fans for the spirited performances delivered by Perkins and his famous guests. It was the first live performance by George Harrison in front of an audience in nearly ten years.

Monday 31 August 2015

The Mersey Sound (1963)


The Beatles were in Southport for a series of six nights at the Odeon Cinema when they also took part in The Mersey Sound, a documentary made by Manchester-based BBC producer Don Haworth. Haworth had first met the group on 21 July 1963 to discuss his idea to capture the spirit of Mersey Beat on camera. He signed a contract with Brian Epstein on 6 August, granting him exclusive access for a time.
Shooting took place in Southport, Manchester and Liverpool between Tuesday 27 and Friday 30 August. On this first day The Beatles were filmed at the Little Theatre on Hoghton Street, Southport, performing on stage without an audience. Haworth knew that if he filmed a real concert the sound and the fury from the fans would have made the footage unusable. Filming began at 9.30am. The Beatles performed versions of Twist And Shout and She Loves You, while wearing their grey collarless suits. They then changed into black collarless suits and performed Love Me Do, with a curtain behind them to suggest a different location.
Haworth later edited in footage of fans from The Beatles' concert on the previous night at the Odeon. In the final cut, however, the EMI recordings of the songs was dubbed onto the footage in place of the live audio.
On the second day, the filming took place in a dressing room at the BBC's Dickenson Road studio in Manchester. They spoke about their past, future plans and their belief that the present beat music boom wouldn't last for ever. They were also shown applying make up and waiting in the wings their instruments, in a sequence which was intended to precede the 'concert' footage filmed the day before.
The BBC's first north of England television studios were situated at the corner of Dickenson Road and Wilmslow Road, Manchester, in the former Dickenson Road Methodist Church. The building was demolished in the late 1960s.
For the third day of filming, The Beatles were filmed in their home city Liverpool.
Two locations were used. The first was aboard a ferry crossing the Mersey from Liverpool Pier Head to Wallasey. They were filmed on board signing autographs and meeting fans. Following this they were taken to Speke Airport - later renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport - where they pretended they were arriving back in England by descending the steps of an aeroplane.
On the fourth and final day, filming took place outside 10 Admiral Grove, Liverpool 8, Ringo Starr's family home. Starr was filmed leaving the house through the front door, being crowded by a horde of local children, and leaving in George Harrison's open-top sports car.
Also present were John Lennon and Paul McCartney, although footage of them from this day wasn't used in the final edit. Afterwards, Haworth filmed a scene in which Starr walked alongside a row of women sitting underneath hairdryers in the salon at the Horne Bros clothes store in Lord Street, Liverpool.

The Mersey Sound was first aired on Lennon's 23rd birthday, 9 October 1963, from 10.10-10.40pm, in the London and northern England regions. It's first nationwide broadcast was on 13 November 1963 from 7.10pm.

Tuesday 25 August 2015

Brother Malcolm



Revolver TV has published another item from their collection, this time it's a clip of "Let It Be" from the filming of the "Let It Be" film. The finished film would be a different take of this song, and included footage of the other Beatle members in the studio, but this camera focuses solely on Paul McCartney. The audio on the original upload was somewhat dodgy, so in this presentation it has been replaced with the same recording, taken from the Nagra tapes.

Many people are complaining about the huge watermarks embedded in Revolver TV's videos. However, the watermarks ensure that the unmarked original in their collection cab still be used in trades with other collectors for more rare material. Without watermarking, these videos would not have seen the light of day at all.

Friday 21 August 2015

Thursday 13 August 2015

John turns 40



Another offering from Revolver TV. John Lennon and his son Sean are celebrating their birthdays. Sean turns five, his dad turns 40, sadly that would be his last birthday. The scenes from the birthday party take place at the Tavern on the Green restaurant near Central Park, NYC, on possibly Monday the 18th, or Tuesday the 19th of October, 1980, while the other footage is from Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. Some of this footage has been used earlier in the official music videos of Yoko Ono's "Walking on thin ice" and John Lennon's "I'm Stepping Out".

Wednesday 12 August 2015

Fifty years later: The Beatles at Shea Stadium


Part I

Part II


The Beatles' concert at Shea Stadium, 1965. LPP 16mm Film Print Digital Telecine version, original audio soundtrack without the 1966 overdubs.

I wonder what TheBeatles.com have up their sleeves for the fiftieth anniversary on August 15?

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Lennon at the Hit Factory, 1980



Incredibly, footage of John Lennon recording "I'm Losing You" at the Hit Factory Studio, NYC, August 19th, 1980 has emerges after 35 years.

Sunday 9 August 2015

4-way Paperback Writer

Nowhere Man in Munich in colour



Our friend HIWAX in Japan keeps getting better at colourisation. This is a clip from the six-song broadcast of the Beatles' concert in Munich 1966, which was broadcast on TV in black and white, now colourised by HIWAX. You can compare his efforts with this clip, which was filmed the same day, only in real colour:

Wednesday 5 August 2015

"Rain" multi-view



Four different promotional films (aka music videos) for the song "Rain" in multi-view, two in black and white, two in colour.

Monday 3 August 2015

Paul McCartney at the Jonathan Ross Show 2014



Here is the appearance of Paul McCartney on the Jonathan Ross show aired on 6/12/2014 from the British channel ITV.

Sunday 2 August 2015

Paul McCartney: Lollapalooza Music Festival 2015

Recorded at Paul McCartney's brilliant performance at the Lollapalooza Music Festival held in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois USA on July 31st, 2015. This is the complete, uncut performance with all songs and dialogue included.

Sunday 26 July 2015

Beatles ticket buyers

A crowd of Beatles fans are lining up to buy tickets for The Beatles Show at the Lewisham Odeon for December 8th, 1963.  Silent raw film. This is one of the films now available from the new British Movietone / Associated Press channel on YouTube.

Friday 24 July 2015

Paul McCartney: South Bank Show revisited



Melvyn Bragg revisits his 1978 interview with Paul McCartney from the first ever episode of the South Bank Show. His comments along with those of Clive James provide added insights to the original interview

Thursday 23 July 2015

Ringo 75th birthday interview on Access Hollywood



The most interesting bit comes at the very end of the interview.
Q: Is the "Let It Be" movie ever going to see the light of day?
A: Well, it'll see the light of day, everything sees the light of day, you know. And ... yeah I'm sure it will come out, it's not planned for this year. But yeah, it'll be out.

John Cage, John Lennon & Yoko Ono



New York, 1972. There's that Beetle outside their flat again.

Thursday 16 July 2015

Hall of Fame backstage film

Rain footage



Those naughty people at Revolver Records and Video have done it again! Set to an extended version of "Rain", here are outtakes from the filming of the "Rain" video. We'd also like to draw your attention to a previously released video from the outfit, outtakes from the "I Am The Walrus" sequence from "Magical Mystery Tour":

One Knight at a Judo Arena



Televised edit of Paul McCartney's concert at Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
April 28, 2015. Debut of the concert version of "Another Girl".

Setlist:
01. Can't Buy Me Love
02. Save Us
03. All My Loving
04. One After 909
05. Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady
06. Paperback Writer
07. My Valentine
08. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
09. Maybe I'm Amazed
10. I've Just Seen a Face
11. Another Day
12. Dance Tonight (First time played live since 2012)
13. We Can Work It Out
14. And I Love Her
15. Blackbird
16. New
17. Lady Madonna
18. Another Girl
19. Got to Get You into My Life (The Beatles song) (First time played live since 2012)
20. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
21. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
22. Back in the U.S.S.R.
23. Let It Be
24. Live and Let Die
25. Hey Jude
Encore:
26. Yesterday
27. Birthday
28. Golden Slumbers
29. Carry That Weight/The End

Thursday 18 June 2015

Happy birthday, Paul



Dance 'Til We're High



Wanderlust



Don't Get Around Much Anymore (live)



Figure of Eight



Get Out of My Way



Celebration (soundcheck)

Friday 12 June 2015

Paul McCartney Live Concert Amsterdam Ziggo Dome 2015


Full concert.
Setlist:

Eight Days a Week
Save Us
Another Girl
Listen to What the Man Said
Temporary Secretary
Let Me Roll It / "Foxy Lady" outro
Paperback Writer
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
The Long and Winding Road
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen a Face
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
Hope for the Future
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Give Peace a Chance
Here Today
New
Queenie Eye
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Lovely Rita
Eleanor Rigby
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band on the Run
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude

Encore I

Can't Buy Me Love
Hi, Hi, Hi
I Saw Her Standing There

Encore II
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End

Made for all the Fans!!

Monday 8 June 2015

The John Lennon Sketchbook



Created six years after John Lennon’s assassination in 1980, Yoko Ono and Oscar-winning animator and historian John Canemaker’s cartoon short John Lennon Sketchbook finally appeared on YouTube May 18, 2015. Executive produced by Ono and designed, directed, and animated by Canemaker, it is a poignant peek into the fertile mind of a Beatle whose prodigious talents extended well past creating immortal music.
“It was created from original drawings by John Lennon and a soundtrack that I also edited together, consisting of snatches of conversation between John and Yoko and song excerpts,” Canemaker told Cartoon Brew. “It is the first time a large general public has seen it (on YouTube).”

The short first came to life in 1985, after Canemaker visited Hiroshima for Japan’s first International Animated Film Festival and serendipitously found himself with an interpreter named Yoko Ninomiya (no relation to Ono), according to a 1987 How magazine explainer. After engaging in small talk about Yoko Ono, Ninomiya contacted Ono, and Canemaker received a scant few months later a holiday card from Lennon’s widow, marking the beginning of their collaboration.

Lennon was an “inveterate doodler” with “genuine ability as a graphic artist,” Canemaker explained in How. “His landscapes are as strange as George Herriman’s. Taken as a whole, Lennon’s drawings are another valid aspect of his creativity—a visual one, as biographical, imaginative and individualistic as his music.”

Choosing around 75 sketches as well as samples of songs and conversations from John and Yoko’s catalogues and interviews — including the epochal “Imagine,” the pragmatic “Whatever Gets You Through the Night,” and even a Lennon conversation about Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. that anticipated his own murder — Canemaker set about transforming the late, great Beatle’s personal artistry into a public film. John Lennon Sketchbook’s officially premiered arrived during a 1986 retrospective of Canemaker’s work in Syracuse, New York, before moving to parts outward and even back to Hiroshima, “where this story began,” Canemaker mused in How.

Thursday 4 June 2015

Paul: Temporary Secretary multi-angles



From the song's debut performance in London, several fan made cam recordings are combined to create a multi-cam version of the song. The soundtrack is from the best of these recordings.

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Wednesday 8 April 2015

The Beatles on "Ready Steady Go!"

The Beatles, Helen Shapiro, Dusty Springfield, Eden Kane and Keith Fordyce on the set of RSG!
Ready Steady Go! (or RSG!) was a British rock/pop music television programme every Friday evening from August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allans wanted a light entertainment programme different from the "bums and tits" style of light entertainment transmitted by ATV. The programme was produced without scenery or costumes and with a minimum of choreography and make-up. Allan recruited a fellow journalist, Francis Hitching, as producer. Hitching became a major figure in light entertainment in the 1960s. Robert Fleming was the first director, followed by the documentary director Rollo Gamble, then Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Daphne Shadwell and Peter Croft.

The programme was produced by Associated-Rediffusion, the weekday ITV contractor for London, called Rediffusion-London after 1964. The live show was eventually networked nationally.

The show gained its highest ratings on 20 March 1964 when it featured the Beatles being interviewed and performing "It Won't Be Long", "You Can't Do That" and "Can't Buy Me Love". That particular show also starred Dusty Springfield, Bobby Vee, The Animals, Alma Cogan and Millicent Martin. With the growing increase in popularity the show was extended and moved to a 50 minute slot starting at 6:08 p.m.

The Beatles performed on the show on three occasions. Unlike their appearances on other regular UK TV shows "Top of the Pops" and "Thank Your Lucky Stars", all Beatles material from "Ready Steady Go!" has survived. In the eighties, this material was used to produce several archival episodes of "Ready Steady Go!" for TV as well as products for the home video market.

The show went out early on Friday evenings with the line "The weekend starts here!", and was introduced by the Surfaris' "Wipe Out", later by Manfred Mann's "5-4-3-2-1", then Manfred Mann's "Hubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble", then the Stones, lastly, with "Goin Home"). It was more youth-orientated and informal than its BBC rival (from 1964), "Top of the Pops". It was notable for featuring the audience as dancers and for the interaction of artists and audience. Artists appeared on different mini-stages, sometimes on studio gantries and stairs, or on the main floor for solo artists, closely surrounded by the audience. The producers choose the audience in London clubs, picking out the best or the most fashionably dressed dancers. This ensured a hip audience in tune with the artists.

Initially, RSG! artists mimed but by late 1964 some performed live, and the show switched to all-live performances in April 1965. It was noted for allowing artists to perform the full version of songs rather than short versions demanded by other shows.

The show was recorded at small studios in Rediffusion's headquarters in Kingsway, London. Although the company had bigger facilities at Wembley, it was easier to attract stars and audiences to central London. The best known presenters of the show were Keith Fordyce and Cathy McGowan, though early shows were introduced by Dusty Springfield.

Cathy McGowan was recruited as an advisor from 600 applicants, and had been in the fashion department of "Woman's Own". While McGowan had answered an advert for 'a typical teenager' to work as an advisor, she found herself presenting the show. Her strength was that her status as a fan of the artists was evident in her style; stumbling over her lines, losing her cool and apparent inexperience only made her more popular, and by the end she was presenting the show alone. She may have been the inspiration for Susan Campy from the Beatles' 1964 film "A Hard Day's Night", when George Harrison tells the producer of a fictitious teen television show that Campy is "... that posh bird who gets everything wrong", to which the producer played by Kenneth Haigh replies, "She's a trendsetter. It's her profession." McGowan was the same age as the national audience; she wore all the latest trendy shifts and mini-dresses; and she spoke with an earnest, ceaseless barrage of teenage slang, praising whatever was 'fab' or 'smashing', and damning all that was 'square' or 'out'.

Cathy McGowan: "Keith Fordyce, the other presenter on the show, was down to interview John, leaving me with Paul, George and Ringo. Bit of a job, you might think, interviewing three Beatles. That's what I thought. But they could not have been more considerate. They sat down with me over tea to help work out the kind of things we might discuss. During transmission, they seemed to sense when I was having to think hard about the next question, and they just kept on talking till I was ready. They even asked me questions from time to time". From Keith Badman's book: "The Beatles Off The Record".

Friday 4 October, 1963

The Beatles performed three songs during their first of three appearances on Ready, Steady, Go!

The show was recorded at Television House on London's Kingsway. During the afternoon The Beatles rehearsed for the cameras, and recording took place from 6.15pm onwards.

"A friend was designing sets for Ready, Steady, Go!, and he invited me to their first live TV performance. They were wearing the famous grey, buttoned-up suits, which really stood out at the time. I was the only one at the rehearsal when they played this song. To me it sounded like very good rock 'n' roll. But it wasn't just the music, it was their personalities, the way they looked, the whole thing."  Peter Blake, artist.

The Beatles mimed to "Twist And Shout", "I'll Get You" and "She Loves You", and were interviewed by hosts Dusty Springfield and host Keith Fordyce. Helen Shapiro made an appearance performing the song "Look Who It Is" in a sequence with three of The Beatles. When asked why only three of the four Beatles (facing away from the cameras until she turns them around) she advised "The song had just three verses, so only three of them could appear. They flipped a coin, or something, to see who would be on, and Paul came up short." The episode was transmitted from 6.15-7pm.




During a competition of miming performances, Paul McCartney was the judge, and he chose Melanie Coe as the winner. A few years later, Melanie created news headlines when she ran away from home. The headline inspired McCartney to pen his song "She's Leaving Home", not realising that he had actually met the girl!

The performance of "She Loves You" was repeated on RSG! on 8 November 1963, and the full set was shown again during a special New Year show on 31 December.

Friday, 20 March, 1964

Recording took place at Television House on London's Kingsway. Following a quick rehearsal The Beatles appeared on the show, which was broadcast live from 6.15pm-7pm.

The Beatles mimed to three songs: "It Won't Be Long", "You Can't Do That" and "Can't Buy Me Love".

During the show they also took part in a mock fashion parade and were given an award from US magazine Billboard in recognition of holding the top three singles chart positions simultaneously. They were also interviewed by host Cathy McGowan.

The performance of "Can't Buy Me Love" was broadcast again at 6.10pm on 24 April, during the show Ready, Steady, Go To Montreux!, and again on 15 July 1965 on the programme "Pick Of The Songs".

"In March 1964 The Beatles were appearing and a huge crowd started to form in the morning up Kingsway. When we opened the big glass doors at the front of the building there was mayhem and the doors buckled and nearly smashed. The police had to be called and several avid fans managed to get in through the boiler room. Good for them! Suddenly the meaning of FAME and how big they were hit home." Vicki Wickham, editor of the original Ready Steady Go! series, and also Dusty Springfield’s manager.




Monday 23 November 1964

The Beatles recorded their third and final performance for pop music show Ready, Steady, Go!, this time at Wembley Studios in London.

Members of the audience clapped and danced while the group performed. The Beatles mimed to four songs: "I Feel Fine", "She's A Woman", "Baby's In Black" and "Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!". They were also interviewed by presenter Keith Fordyce.




The recording was edited into the 27 November 1964 edition of the show, broadcast from 6.08-7pm on the ITV network.

Friday 16 April 1965

In early 1965 the Musicians' Union threatened to 'black' the show if the lip-synch miming to recorded music wasn't stopped by 31st March, so April 1965 saw a temporary name change to 'Ready Steady Goes Live' to highlight the fact that, for the first time, all the artists were actually singing, and performing to live backing music. After having performed on the show Ready, Steady, Go! on three prior occasions, The Beatles preferred not to do so again. However, in order to promote their "Ticket To Ride" single, John Lennon and George Harrison gave an interview at production company Rediffusion's Wembley Studios.

The Good Friday show was broadcast live from 6.08-7pm. Lennon and Harrison were interviewed by the host Cathy McGowan. The other guests included Adam Faith, Doris Troy, The Kinks and Herman's Hermits.

In late 1966, when the 'beat boom' was fading, the show was cancelled, despite its popularity. Michael Lindsay-Hogg: "Most of the shows were wiped because tape was so expensive, so stuff like the James Brown special and The Who special are gone forever. I took home £37 a week but, every so often, I'd buy a video tape and preserve it. It cost me £1 a minute, but the only reason any shows survive is because I did that."

According to "LostShows", out of an original total of 178 episodes, 170 episodes are missing and a further 3 are incomplete.

Eighties revival

In December 1981, it was announced that drummer Dave Clark from the Dave Clark Five had bought all footage and copyrights to the surviving recordings from the estate of the original production company and planned to release it worldwide. Lucky for him and us, all the Beatles' appearances on the show had been preserved. Compilations released on VHS as well as Beta video cassettes included a Beatles live special and The Sounds of Motown special edition. A video cassette series titled Volume one, respectively two and three were also compiled from many performances with different groups and artists on the show.

Released by Picture Music International in association with Dave Clark International, the following Beatles performances were included.

Ready Steady Go! Volume 1 released in November 1983, featured The Beatles' performances of "You Can't Do That" and "Can't Buy Me Love" from March 1964.

Ready Steady Go! Volume 2 released in May 1984, featured The Beatles' performances of "Twist and Shout" and "She Loves You" from the 1963 show.

Ready Steady Go! Volume 3 released in November 1984, featured The Beatles' performances of "She's A Woman", "Baby's In Black" and "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey" from November 1964, as well as interviews with the Beatles.

In June 1985, the first of seven TV episodes titled "The Weekend starts here" (catch phrase of the original RSG! series) was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK and during its run, the television series had quite a bit more footage than previously released on video cassettes.

In the USA, the video cassettes were also released as laserdiscs by Pioneer - Picture Music International.

In Japan and Norway, a special edition of just The Beatles' performances on Ready Steady Go! was released on laserdisc (Japan) and video cassette (Norway).

Japan Laserdisc

The contents of this laserdisc/video cassette was:
  1. Love Me Do (just played over captions)
  2. Twist and Shout
  3. Interview with George
  4. I'll Get You
  5. Interview with John
  6. She Loves You
  7. Interview with John, Paul, George and Ringo
  8. It Won't Be Long
  9. Interview with the group including Billboard award for singles no 1, 2 and 3 in the US chart and an interview with Paul.
  10. You Can't Do That
  11. Interview with George
  12. Can't Buy Me Love
  13. Interview with Ringo
  14. Please Mr Postman (over shots of the group, Ringo dancing) Interview with John about his book
  15. I Feel Fine
  16. This Boy (over shots of the group with fans' painting contest)
  17. She's A Woman
  18. Baby's In Black
  19. Interview with the group
  20. Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey!
  21. Interview with the group
  22. Yesterday (footage of Liverpool in the sixties)
  23. Let It Be (music over end captions)
Ready Steady Go! has not been officially released on DVD or Blu-ray, and this of course has given bootleggers a lucrative market for their products.

A list of the mimed performances from RSG! and where they were officially released:

"Twist And Shout" Ready Steady Go! Volume 2 and the Norway/Japan release
"I'll Get You" Ready Steady Go! Volume 2 and the Norway/Japan release
"She Loves You" The Norway/Japan release
"It Won't Be Long" The Norway/Japan release
"You Can't Do That" Ready Steady Go! Volume 1 and the Norway/Japan release
"Can't Buy Me Love" Ready Steady Go! Volume 1 and the Norway/Japan release
"I Feel Fine" The Norway/Japan release
"She's A Woman" Ready Steady Go! Volume 3 and the Norway/Japan release
"Baby's In Black" Ready Steady Go! Volume 3 and the Norway/Japan release
"Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" Ready Steady Go! Volume 3 and the Norway/Japan release

Advertising poster for the Ready Steady Go! Special Edition The Beatles Live release on VHS and Beta,
An April 1985 "Ready Steady Go! Special Edition; The Beatles Live" video release was a different thing entirely. It was not really part of the Ready Steady Go! series, the release consisted of just the Beatles' musical part of the 1964 show, "Around The Beatles". You may remember that in the original 1964 TV show, they also did a humorous take on a scene from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The songs were not really performed live either, the Beatles mimed to pre-recorded audio, especially recorded for the show.


Songs performed, or should I say mimed to: "Twist And Shout", "Roll Over Beethoven", "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Long Tall Sally", a unique medley of hits consisting of "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me", "From Me To You", "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand", going straight into full length versions of "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Shout!" (the Lulu hit).

Sources:
Wikipedia
The Beatles Bible

Resources:
RSG! Sixties Episode guide
1980's Episode guide

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Whatever Gets You Through The Night footage


John Lennon's last bit of promotion to do for Walls And Bridges, was the promo clip for "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" to be shown on Top Of The Pops. On November 15, 1974 a two-man BBC film crew, directed by John, spent a day with him around Central Park and various other locations in New York, to shoot a 16mm colour promotional film for the song "Whatever Gets You Through The Night".
A two minute long edit was used for "#9 Dream" in February 1975 on BBC1's Top Of The Tops.

This footage, which contained among its various scenes a parody/tribute of the film Breakfast At Tiffany's was later used in 1992 in The John Lennon Video Collection for the video assembled for 'Mind Games'.

A different edit saw the light in 2003 in the Lennon Legend video compilation.

As this wonderful footage has been edited for three different purposes (1: #9 Dream edit 1975; 2: Mind Games edit 1992; 3: Mind Games edit 2003) there was no way to enjoy the whole footage in one viewing and that's why this video has been assembled.

The original 1974 "Whetever Gets You Through The Night" promo is supposedly the one featured here.

Yoko Ono later created an alternate video for the song, featuring an animation of Lennon's drawings.

Sunday 15 February 2015

The Beatles in Northern California



These news clips from KCRA TV feature the Beatles and their concerts at the Cow Palace and Candlestick, press conferences, and reactions of Sacramentans to Beatlemania. Some sections are silent.

Wednesday 21 January 2015

THE BEATLES' MUSIC VIDEOS

THE BEATLES' MUSIC VIDEOS

Various Beatles music videos found on The Beatles' official YouTube channel, sadly only snippets are available.
Tuesday November 25th, 1965, the Beatles filmed ten different promotional clips in black and white for five songs, effectively starting the band's career as makers of music videos.

These promotional clips  were made to avoid the necessity of constant exclusive TV appearances, and to make profit from direct sales to various TV companies throughout the world. Earlier mimed appearances by the group exist, but those were made by TV companies themselves, for a specific TV show, like episodes of Ready Steady Go!, Thank Your Lucky Stars and various other British  television shows by ITV and the BBC.

HELP!

One earlier promotional film had been made for the song "Help!". On 22 April 1965 Richard Lester shot The Beatles performing the song at Twickenham Film Studios in London. The black and white clip, meant to simulate a television performance, served two purposes. The first was that it was used in the opening of the movie as the film at which the villain Klang (played by Leo McKern) throws darts. The second was as a promotional film that could be sent to various television programmes. The “Help!” promotional film aired on Thank Your Lucky Stars on ITV on 17 July 1965 and on Top of the Pops on the BBC on 29 July 1965. A little bit of it was later successfully used as part of the opening shot of the Beatles' Anthology TV series.

The first music video: "Help!" was filmed in black and white.

INTERTEL

The batch of ten music videos, made on November 25th, 1965, also shot at Twickenham, but by Intertel VTR Services, were quick to make. They were "Help!," "We Can Work It Out" (three versions), "Day Tripper" (three versions)," "Ticket To Ride" and "I Feel Fine" (two versions).
The BBC paid NEMS £1750 for several broadcasts of the clips (largely on Top of the Pops), while the cost of the production itself was just £750. And of course, other TV companies around the world also paid good money in order to show these clips.

Although many of the clips made only a semi-diegetic use of music (on "Help!" Ringo simply holds an umbrella, on "I Feel Fine" he rides on an exercise bike). There's also a version of "I Feel Fine" where the Beatles are snacking on fish and chips, while occasionally mouthing the words of the lyrics.

I Feel Fine (fish'n'chips version)

Produced by Tony Bramwell in black and white, still photos were in colour. Many colour photos captured on these film sets later became front covers for internationally released sleeves for singles and EP (four track singles) records.

The new "Help!" music video.

I Feel Fine
One of the "Day Tripper" videos.
With "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out" being the then current single release, more work (and more versions) was put into these music videos. The rest of the songs were older releases.

Large tickets on display for "Ticket To Ride".

The three "We Can Work It Out" music videos, plus a mimed version from "The Music of Lennon & McCartney".

A mix of "Day Tripper" music videos.

Sales presenter from 1965
A 4-page presentation folder was made specifically for the program purchasers of the worlds major TV networks, announcing the completion, for the first time of five video clips of The Beatles newest hit songs ready for distribution.
These music videos marked the start of The Beatles' music video era, and after this, the band always made sure to make a music video for nearly every (British) single they released.

In Germany, a still photo from the second "Help!" music video was used as cover photo for the
"Paperback Writer"/"Rain" sleeve.

PAPERBACK WRITER/RAIN

The next single release for The Beatles was "Paperback Writer" / "Rain", and just like for "We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper", the group made several music videos for both these songs. On 19 and 20 May 1966, The Beatles shot no less than four different films for “Paperback Writer” and three for “Rain”. These were all directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who had already directed several editions of Ready, Steady, Go!.

"Paperback Writer"
THE ABBEY ROAD STUDIO FILMS
On 19 May 1965 The Beatles and the film crew gathered at Studio One at Abbey Road where they shot two promo films for their singles “Rain” and three for “Paperback Writer”. One of the promo films for “Rain” and one for “Paperback Writer” were shot in colour for the American market, while the rest were filmed in black and white.
The colour versions of “Rain” and “Paperback Writer” would air on The Ed Sullivan Show on 5 June 1966, along with a filmed introduction by The Beatles themselves.

The first filmed black and white version of “Paperback Writer” aired on the final edition of Thank Your Lucky Stars on 25 June 1966 and the second black and white version of “Paperback Writer” and a black and white version of “Paperback Writer” aired on Ready, Steady, Go! on 3 June 1966.

"Rain".

THE CHISWICK HOUSE FILMS
On 20 May 1965 The Beatles and the film crew went to Chiswick House in West London to shoot one more promo film each for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”. Both were shot in colour. The film for “Paperback Writer” was more or less a straightforward performance clip, with most of the film devoted to The Beatles miming in the statue garden of Chiswick House.
"Paperback Writer".

The film for “Rain“ followed The Beatles wandering about the grounds of Chiswick House as well as footage of children at play around one of the house’s cedar trees, bringing us step away from standard performance clips towards more conceptual videos. Just like in their work in the studio for new songs and albums, as well as their approach when it came to the Christmas flexis, not to mention posing for photos, 1966 is the year when experimentation starts to blossom.

Both films were shot in colour, but they were aired in black and white on Top of the Pops, as the BBC had yet to make the shift to colour. The second colour promo film for “Paperback Writer” debuted on 2 June 1966 on the show, while the second colour promo film for “Rain” debuted on 9 June 1966 on the show.
"Rain".

PENNY LANE - STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER


"Strawberry Fields Forever".

The Beatles'  next two promo films, one each for “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane”, would be purely conceptual promo films, with no miming.  This was probably because of the then ban on miming on TV, brought about by the Musicians' trade Union. John Lennon can be seen mouthing a few words now and then, eye-witnesses claim that he was merely singing the theme from the Monkees TV-show!
Tony Bramwell again produced the two promotional films for Subafilms. The film crew was provided by Don Long Productions. The director on both films was Peter Goldman from Sweden, who had been recommended by The Beatles’ friend Klaus Voorman.

"Penny Lane".
Shooting of the music video for “Strawberry Fields Forever” began on 30 January 1967 at Knole Park in Sevenoaks, Kent, and finished on the next day. Many of the films sequences centred on a dead oak tree in the park, under which sat a piano. The “Strawberry Fields Forever” film uses a number of effects that had never been done before as far as promotional music films are concerned. The film includes jump cuts, reversed film, various speed techniques, etc. Along with the promotional film for “Penny Lane”, “Strawberry Fields Forever” has been named among the most influential music videos of the 1960s by the Museum of Modern Art. When the music video was shown during the Beatles' Anthology TV-series and later commercial releases of same, home movie footage shot by the Beatles themselves was inserted into the video here and there, thereby creating a new version of the video.

Shooting for “Penny Lane” began on 5 February 1967, and Peter Goldman later shot some additional footage without The Beatles at a later date. Even though “Penny Lane” was inspired by the street of the same name in Liverpool, only a few shots of buses, the barber shop, and “the shelter in the middle of the roundabout” were actually shot there. Most of the film was shot on Angel Lane in Stratford, London, with several scenes shot in Knole Park as well. As with “Strawberry Fields Forever”, The Beatles do not mime to the song. Instead they wander about Angel Lane and ride horses in Knole Park. The promo clips for "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were shown on Top Of The Pops 16 February, 1967, in glorious black and white.
After this,they were largely forgotten about, and when the popular early eighties Britih television programme "The Tube" discovered a silent colour copy of the "Strawberry Fields Forever" film, they had no clue as to which song it was the music video for, and screened it to the audio of "Good Day Sunshine".

A DAY IN THE LIFE

"A Day In The Life".
Taking the home movie footage idea to it's fullest extent, the Beatles’ next promo film was not made for a single release. The Beatles had planned to make on a television special on the making of the "Sgt. Pepper" album. For this, it was decided to film the recording of the orchestral overdubs on the song “A Day in the Life”. A number of guests were invited to the studio for the recording, including Donovan, Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Keith Richards. The Beatles, the various guests, and even the orchestra dressed up in costumes.
Tony Bramwell was put in charge of a team of seven people with handheld cameras to record the event for the television special.

The idea of a Sgt. Pepper’s television special was quickly abandoned, but the footage was there, and was later edited together with stock footage from other sources to create a promo film for “A Day in the Life”. Unfortunately, “A Day in the Life” would remain unseen for years - although short excerpts of it were shown on various television stations worldwide. Perhaps it was forgotten about when the BBC banned the playing of the song because they thought there were drug references in the lyrics. “A Day in the Life” resurfaced in the in-house 1983 documentary "The Beatles at Abbey Road" and later most of it was later included in The Beatles' Anthology TV series and subsequent home video release.

HELLO GOODBYE


"Plain clothes" version of "Hello Goodbye"

The Beatles next returned to performance clips, although they would have elements of conceptual video. Footage for the promotional films for “Hello Goodbye” would be shot at the Saville Theatre in London on 10 November 1967. Paul McCartney served as the director on the three different promotional films. They were edited by Roy Benson, fresh from editing the television special Magical Mystery Tour.

Three different “Hello Goodbye” music videos would emerge from the footage shot on 10 November 1967. The first film shot featured The Beatles in their “Sgt. Pepper” uniforms performing against a psychedelic backdrop and featured cutaways to The Beatles, seated and waving, wearing their grey, collarless stage suits from 1963.

"Anthology" version of "Hello Goodbye"

At the end of the film they were joined by a group of hula dancers.
The second film featured The Beatles wearing what would be everyday clothing for 1967 (for a Beatle, anyway) performing against a different backdrop, showing a vibrant rural scene.
The third film combined The Beatles’ performance in their “Sgt. Pepper” uniforms from the first clips with outtakes from the second clip of The Beatles hamming it up (including John and then the other Beatles doing the Twist). All three videos show a clean shaven Lennon without his granny glasses. These films for “Hello Goodbye” was the last time The Beatles wore their Merseybeat suits and the last time they wore their “Sgt. Pepper” uniforms - collectively. George's suits would reappear in his own music video for "Ding Dong, Ding Dong", and his "Sgt Pepper" suit again reappeared in his music video for "When We Was Fab". Paul's "Sgt. Pepper" suit had a cameo in his music video for "My Brave Face".

One of the promotional films for “Hello, Goodbye” was scheduled to air on Top of the Pops on 23 November 1967. Unfortunately, as it was clear that The Beatles were miming, the film ran afoul of the Musician’s Union’s ban on miming. For the 23 November edition of the show, then, Top of the Pops ran footage from the movie A Hard Day’s Night instead. Eventually footage from one of the promotional films for “Hello, Goodbye” combined with still photographs was aired on Top of the Pops on 7 December 1967. In the United States Version 1 was aired on The Ed Sullivan Show, introduced by Sullivan reading a telegram from The Beatles. The third version of the “Hello, Goodbye” music video (the one which combined The Beatles in their “Sgt. Pepper” uniforms with outtakes from the second promotional film) is also said to have been aired on The Ed Sullivan Show. One of these Ed Sullivan airings took place on November 26th, but we don't have information whether this was version 1 or version 3.
A fourth promoclip for the song, credited to "Top of the Pops 1967", appeared as a bonus feature on the 2012 DVD release of a digitally restored version of the telefilm Magical Mystery Tour. It is all in black-and-white and features all four Beatles as well as their then-girlfriends at an editing table in an editing room, handling film reels and editing a film referencing the song's lyrics by utilizing simple in-camera editing techniques to make people seen in a field "magically" appear and disappear.
When aired on Anthology, film from the first and the third versions were combined, thereby creating yet another version of this music video.

Of course, the other side of the single, "I Am The Walrus" exists as one of the songs filmed for the Magical Mystery Tour television special, in essence a string of music videos in itself. "Walrus" in particular, looks like a much more contemporary music video.

LADY MADONNA

The Beatles’ next set of films would be for their single “Lady Madonna”. To avoid the Musician’s Union’s ban on miming, it was decided that The Beatles would simply be filmed recording another song. On 11 February 1968 Tony Bramwell then shot The Beatles recording the song “Hey Bulldog”. Two individual promotional films for “Lady Madonna” emerged from the footage. In one the first shot of a Beatle is of Ringo on drums. In the other the first shot of a Beatle is of George eating a plate of beans.

In 1999 the footage would be used again, this time to create a video for the song that The Beatles had actually been recording at the time, “Hey Bulldog”.

"Anthology" version of "Lady Madonna"

In the UK one promotional film for “Lady Madonna” aired on Top of the Pops on 14 March 1968. In the United States one of the promotional films for “Lady Madonna” aired on The Hollywood Palace on 30 March 1968.

When "Lady Madonna" was aired in the Anthology TV-series, unrelated footage of The Beatles recording "Hey Jude" for a TV Special called "Music! Experiment in Television" was inserted here and there, thus creating another varaiation of the "Lady Madonna" music video.

The next two promo films would also be shot with the Musician’s Union’s ban on miming in mind.

HEY JUDE - REVOLUTION

On 4 September 1968 promotional films for “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” were filmed. In order to get around the ban on miming, the vocals for both songs were recorded live, even though they sang over pre-recorded tracks. These colour music videos were directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who had earlier directed the videos for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”.

Hey Jude - 4 versions combined

The footage for “Hey Jude” was shot first, from which three individual but similar looking music videos would emerge: one for release to various television programmes around the world, one that would be shown on David Frost’s show Frost on Sunday in the United Kingdom, and one that would be shown on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the United States. All three music videos would follow the same format, as straight performance clips in which an audience joins The Beatles for the final, long chorus of “Hey Jude”. The differences between the three promotional films were minor at best.
 On the version shown on Frost on Sunday the audience is shown a few seconds earlier and there are more close ups of individual members of the audience.
The version shown on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour tended to be closer to the promotional film meant for general release, although there were a few subtle differences. At the same time that footage was shot for the “Hey Jude” promo films, an introduction by David Frost was also shot for his programme, as well as a short instrumental version of the David Frost theme played by The Beatles.

One of the promotional films for “Hey Jude” debuted on Frost on Sunday in the United Kingdom on 8 September 1968. Another made its debut in the United States on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on 6 October 1968. A fourth promotional film for “Hey Jude” was later created for The Beatles Anthology in 1995. This version was shorter than the other versions by several seconds, utilising clips from the three videos.

"Revolution", with a smelly John.
While the footage shot for “Hey Jude” would result in three music videos, the footage shot for “Revolution” would result in two versions. The Beatles sang live to a prerecorded tape. One of the promotional films for “Revolution” would make its debut (and only contemporary screening) in the UK on Top of the Pops on 19 September 1968. A promotional film for “Revolution” also aired in the United States on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on 13 October 1968. It has been rumoured that in the eighties, the other version of "Revolution" became standard, because in the first version George moves away from John, audibly commenting to Paul "John smells like s**t!"
The shooting of the promotional films for “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” would be the last time all four Beatles gathered for the shooting of promotional films.

THE BALLAD OF JOHN AND YOKO


The Ballad of John and Yoko


Their next promotional films would be for the single “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, which was released on 30 June 1969. By the time of “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were filming much of their life and the various events in which they were involved. Much of this footage naturally found its way into the promotional films for the song. The promotional films for “The Ballad of John and Yoko” also feature footage of The Beatles rehearsing in the studio in January 1969 (taken from the Let It Be sessions), even though only John and Paul were actually involved in recording the song. As to the two promotional films for the for “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, they were essentially similar.

One of the films for “The Ballad of John and Yoko” aired in the United Kingdom on Top of the Pops on 5 June 1969. A music video for “The Ballad of John and Yoko” aired on the television show Music Scene in the United States on 22 September 1969.

SOMETHING

The final music video made while all four Beatles were together as a band (unless one counts footage from the Get Back sessions) was “Something”. The single “Something”, backed by “Come Together”, was released on 6 October 1969 in the United States and 31 October 1969 in the United Kingdom, just as The Beatles were on the verge of breaking up.

Since the individual Beatles had drifted apart by this time, each of The Beatles and their wives at the time (George Harrison and Pattie Boyd, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Paul and Linda McCartney, and Ringo Starr and Maureen Cox) were shot around their respective homes. The individual footage was then edited together to create the promotional film for “Something”. Very reminiscent of how the 1969 Christmas flexi was made. The film was directed by Neil Aspinall and premiered in the UK on Top of The Pops 13 November, 1969.

"Something".
A newspaper article published while Apple was busy preparing The Beatles Anthology multimedia project in the mid-nineties indicated that a 1969 music video for the other side of the single, "Come Together" existed, and was purchased by The Beatles' company. The music video never materialised in the TV-series or in the later laser disc, video cassette or DVD releases of the series, even though there was a shortage of material for the "Abbey Road" album part of the project.

LET IT BE OUTTAKES

From outtakes from the January 1969 shooting of the "Let It Be" film, at least four music videos were made, three for Paul McCartney's songs: "Get Back", "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road", one for John Lennon's "Don't Let Me Down". The latter premiered in colour on April 30, 1969 on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour in USA, and featured footage of The Beatles rehearsing in the studio as well as performance footage from the rooftop concert.

Multi-view "Don't Let Me Down".

"Get Back" was aired on Top Of The Pops in the UK on 17 April, 1969 in black and white. The clip was reprised several times during the year, and on Christmas Day, it was shown in colour for the first time.
"Get Back".

On 5 March, 1970, Top of the Pops showed a promotional clip of the Beatles performing "Let It Be" from January 1969. The clip was repeated on 19 March.
"Let It Be".

The clip of "The Long and Winding Road" is likely to have been made available as a music video when the song was selected as a single in USA and other countries.
"The Long and Winding Road".

When I first arrived in London in the summer of 1982, I was in a pub which had something I had never come across in Norway: a video jukebox. It was just like a regular jukebox, but along with the song, a TV screen showed the music video. It was here that I first saw these promo films from the "Let It Be" film, or at least two of them, but they were shown in black and white.

After The Beatles broke up in 1970, there have been lots of new Beatles videos released, and new versions of the old music videos have been made.

EMI/CAPITOL MAKE THEIR OWN MUSIC VIDEOS

In 1976, EMI/Capitol was promoting their "Rock and Roll Music" compilation album by releasing the single "Back In The USSR"/"Twist and Shout", and a music video was made for "Back In The USSR". The video was compiled from newsfilms of the Beatles arriving at airports etc.

When the Beatles mimed to a part of "Love Me Do" in 1962, they had no idea that it would become a music video 20 years later.
In 1982 and 1983, music videos were made for the 20th anniversaries of "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me", utilising a short, mimed performance of the former and Washington DC concert footage of the latter, interspersed with unrelated clips from newsfilms and TV-shows.

The "Back in the USSR" music video.

Next up was the music video for "The Beatles' Movie Medley", a single made to promote the compilation album The Beatles: Reel Music, as well as to capitalise on the success of the Stars on 45 cover version single. The music video was made up of clips of Beatles songs from their motion pictures and the Magical Mystery Tour TV-film, in itself a compilation of music videos held together by a thin plot.

In 1984, Capitol Records made a music video for the 20th anniversary of the "I Want To Hold Your Hand" single. Made from old stock non-performance footage, the clip was shown on Friday Night Videos, on the 10th of February, 1964 with Paul McCartney also appearing on the show. The single was also reissued in USA, this time with Paul McCartney's cigarette airbrushed away from the cover photo.

APPLE IS BACK

With Apple on board again, the contract issues between The Beatles and EMI having been settled, the older Beatles music videos are being provided by The Beatles' company for promotional use. In 1993, with the compilation albums "The Beatles 1962-1966" and "The Beatles 1967-1970" (aka "the red album" and "the blue album") coming out on CD for the first time, several music videos were distributed to TV companies around the world. A promotional video cassette featuring short edits of a few of the clips were also made, but the full videos were only available to television stations. These clips were treated with either a prominent, rather large Apple logo on the screen, or with the frame of the screen either decorated in red (for the red album music videos) or blue (you get the picture).
The video snippets included with the promotional video cassette were "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Help!" (Intertel version), "Hello Goodbye" (plain clothes version) and "Fool On The Hill" (from the "Magical Mystery Tour" TV special). More films were released to TV stations only.

"The Fool On The Hill" sequence from "Magical Mystery Tour" was turned into a music video.
Most of the later music videos were put together to promote then current releases, like "The Beatles Live at the BBC", the "Yellow Submarine Songtrack", "Anthology" VHS and Laserdisc releases, "1", "Anthology" DVD series, "Let It Be...Naked", "The Capitol Albums Vol 2", "Love" and "On Air - The Beatles Live at the BBC Vol 2".

In 1995, a 4-track EP was made to promote the new collection of Beatles BBC performances, and a music video was made for the main track, "Baby It's You", from still photos of the Beatles recording at the BBC studios, as well as old home movie footage of the Beatles arriving and departing from the studios. Directed by Mark Haefeli and edited by Jeff Wurtz, two different edits of the film have been televised.

Courtesy of home movie footage, the Beatles come alive in the "Baby It's You" music video.
In 1995 Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr reunited to complete two songs recorded by John Lennon during his solo career (“Free as a Bird” from 1977 and “Real Love” from 1979 and 1980) to create the first new Beatles songs in 25 years as part of the multimedia Beatles Anthology project.

The making of "Free As A Bird" music video.
The music video for “Free as a Bird” was produced by Vincent Joliet and directed by Joe Pytka. It was shot as if from the point of view of a bird, who as he is flying travels back through time and The Beatles’ career. There are several allusions to The Beatles’ songs in the video, including the pretty nurse who was “selling poppies from a tray” from “Penny Lane”, Strawberry Fields from “Strawberry Fields Forever”, and so on. A "Making of..." video was also made.

Flying instruments in the "Real Love" music video.
The video for “Real Love" was directed by Kevin Godley and Geoff Wonfor. It incorporated archival footage of The Beatles and John Lennon with modern footage of Paul, George, and Ringo recording in the studio. Added to this were scenes of various Beatles artefacts (Ringo’s drum kit, their “Sgt. Pepper” uniforms, and so on) ascending into the sky. Upon discovering that there was quite a bit of footage of Yoko Ono, new clips of the other Beatle wives were edited in, creating a second version of the video.

Several songs from The Beatles' Anthology were edited into music videos and distributed to TV companies in 1996, either to promote the ongoing series or the later release of a longer version of the series on laser discs and video cassettes.

The "Hey Bulldog" video, with some of the same footage as the old "Lady Madonna" promo,
finally with the correct soundtrack.

With 1999's "Hey Bulldog", they were in luck, as the original recording session had been filmed in order to make the 1968 music video for "Lady Madonna". The footage works a lot better when used to illustrate the actual song they were recording! The "Hey Bulldog" video is available from iTunes.

Flash animation: "I Feel Fine".
To promote the highly successful "1" compilation album in 2000, new music videos were produced, and older music videos were also remastered and distributed to TV stations as promotion for the album. "I Feel Fine" and "Come Together" were new animated music videos in the then popular Flash format, produced by Melon Dezign. For The Beatles' Anthology, the black and white footage from the original TV programme "Our World" of the Beatles recording "All You Need Is Love" was colourised, and even though the clip was edited in the TV series, a full length colour music video of the song was made available to TV companies in 2000, to promote the new "1" compilation album.

Flash animation: "Come Together".
Most of the music videos were distributed to TV stations only, and some were used at theBeatles.com website, but were later removed as the projects got old. A new "Get Back" music video was probably distributed around this time. It was still the rooftop performance, like the 1969 music video, but different shots were used, particularly noticable by the inclusion of footage shot from a rooftop across the street, which had previously not been part of the music video.

In 2003, aborting plans for a home video release of the "Let It Be" documentary, clips from the shooting of the film was made into new music videos promoting the reworked "Let It Be" album, titled "Let It Be...Naked". The brilliant 2003 "Two Of Us" video was an example of turning film footage from the Get Back sessions into black and white and augmenting the video with animated pencil drawings in the background. The clip was directed by Matt White of Supergrizzly Ltd.

The animated "Two Of Us" music video.

The 2003 "Get Back" music video had footage from the studio rehearsals.
The new "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down" videos were also released on iTunes in conjunction with the digital download debut of "Let It Be...Naked". The new "Get Back" video used footage from the studio recordings and rehearsals of this and other songs, whereas both the 1969 and the 2000 "Get Back" music videos were made from the live rooftop performance of the track.

The "One After 909" music video
A new music video from the rooftop performance of "One After 909" has been sparingly shown on TV, and probably belongs to the batch of new videos made to promote "Let It Be...Naked".

The 2006 "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" music video was simply taken from the remastered (and still unreleased) Beatles At Shea Stadium film and released to TV stations to promote "The Capitol Albums Vol. 2".



A music video to promote the mash-up album "Love" was a completely new animated music video, set to the "Within You Without You"/"Tomorrow Never Knows" track. Working in close association with Apple Corps, the main concept behind 'Within You Without You /Tomorrow Never Knows' was that it should remain, at heart, truly a Beatles video, and, like the LOVE album and the track itself, be composed by combining 'samples' of existing Beatles material.

After extensively combing the Apple archives for appropriate footage, director Simon Hilton selected and edited appropriate excerpts of 'Rain', 'Strawberry Fields Forever', 'Penny Lane', 'Blue Jay Way', 'Fool On The Hill', 'Hello Goodbye'. 'I Am The Walrus' & 'All You Need Is Love'.

There was no existing lip-sync for the song, so what you see was created by varispeeding, running backwards, and otherwise animating the original Beatles performances. Setting the video in a starfield of the Universe, we begin with a 'message from beyond', and move through the elements of earth, air, fire and water into an infinite mandala-oriented cosmos.

The mandala shapes and silhouettes were designed by Richard Hogg at Airside, Flame by Gary Brown at Munkey and Jason Watts & Steve Murgatroyd at Finish, 3-D by Tim Bacon, Daniel Sidi and Paul McBride, 2-D by Murray John, Roly Edwards and Camille Macmillan at Airside, and Shake by Byron Woolfindon at Finish. Tim Bacon designed the mathematically brilliant 'Cello Tunnel' at the end, while Andy Horner & Russell Farr shot and lit the ink and water effects created by Ray Spencer. You can watch the video here.

Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows from "Love"
Similarly, in 2013 a music video for a BBC recording of "Words of Love" was made by merging old newsfilm footage with new animation and drawings.
Produced by Jonathan Clyde and Katrina Lofaro for Passion Pictures NYC, the video was directed by Lee Gingold and Giles Dill. The company researched stories and footage from 1963 - the year The Beatles progressed from being the opening act on tour to very much the main event. The resulting video captures that heady period with a combination of archive news footage, material shot by director Richard Lester for the Fab Four's first movie A Hard Day's Night, and original frames of animation that create a narrative, part based in the fact of the band travelling Britain during the freezing winter of 1963, with an added whimsical graphic element. A "Making of..." video was also made.
The 2013 "Words of Love" music video

The Beatles' music videos:

1965: "Help!"
1965: "Help!" (new video)
1965: "We Can Work It Out" (three versions)
1965: "Day Tripper" (three versions)
1965: "Ticket To Ride"
1965: "I Feel Fine" (two versions)

1966: "Paperback Writer" (three studio versions)
1966: "Rain" (two studio versions)
1966: "Paperback Writer" (Chiswick House version)
1966: "Rain" (Chiswick House version)

1967: "Strawberry Fields Forever"
1967: "Penny Lane"
1967: "A Day In The Life"
1967: "Hello Goodbye" (three different original 1967 versions exist)

1968: "Lady Madonna" (at least two different versions exist)
1968: "Hey Jude" (at least three different versions exist)
1968: "Revolution" (at least two different versions exist)

1969: "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (At least two versions exist)
1969: "Get Back" (Rooftop performance)
1969: "Don't Let Me Down"
1969: "Something"

1970: "Let It Be"
1970: "The Long and Winding Road"

1976: "Back In The USSR"

1982: "Love Me Do"
1982: "The Beatles' Movie Medley"

1983: "Please Please Me" (at least three different edits were made)

1984: "I Want To Hold Your Hand"

1995: "Baby It's You" (at least two different edits exist)
1995: "Free As A Bird"

1996: "Real Love" (at least two edits exist)
1996: "Two Of Us" ("Let It Be" performance)
1996: "For You Blue" ("Let It Be" performance)

1999: "Hey Bulldog" (created from the raw footage shot in the studio during recording)

2000: "She Loves You"
2000: "Yesterday"
2000: "I Feel Fine" (Flash animated video, new creation)
2000: "Come Together" (Flash animated video, new creation)
2000: "Get Back" (Rooftop performance, this one has footage shot from across the street)
2000: "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
2000: "Ticket To Ride" (Remastered)
2000: "All You Need Is Love" (Colourised)

2003: "Two Of Us" (animated music video)
2003: "Get Back" (Studio clips, new creation)
2003: "One After 909" (Rooftop concert)
2003: "Don't Let Me Down"

2006: "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" (Shea Stadium footage)
2006: "Within You Without You/"Tomorrow Never Knows" (New creation)

2013: "Words Of Love" (New creation)

Each title is linked to it's own entry at BeatlesOnDVD.com, except for "Don't Let Me Down", which is linked to iTunes and "Words Of Love" is linked to the official Vevo video on YouTube.

Of course, music clips of the Beatles from their motion pictures and their Magical Mystery Tour TV special have also been used as music videos on TV.

In late 2013, it was revealed that a collection of Beatles music videos themed to the "1" album was due for release in October 2014, but it failed to materialise.

Sources:
Older postings from Wogblog
The Blackmaria.org: How The Beatles Kinda Did (And Kinda Didn’t) Invent Music Videos