Fab Four Blog

The Beatles are on a short break.

NEMS Enterprises, London

The day after The Beatles were interviewed by BBC presenter Brian Matthew for Saturday Club, John Lennon and George Harrison again spoke to him for another radio show, Pop Profile.

The interviews took place separately at NEMS Enterprises' offices on Argyll Street in London. Harrison's was the first to take place, from 4.30-4.45pm. Lennon's interview began from 5pm and also lasted 15 minutes.

Each interview was edited to approximately eight minutes, and in March 1966 were distributed overseas by the BBC Transcription Service on 7" singles. The recordings were not broadcast in the United Kingdom.

Studio One, Aeolian Hall, London

An interview with Brian Matthew, taped between 2:15 and 2:45 pm at the BBC's Aeolian Hall premises in central London for inclusion, in three parts, in the Christmas Day edition of Saturday Club, broadcast in the Light Programme between 10:00 and 11:30 am.

As well as indulging in typically humorous badinage with Matthew, the Beatles also decided to ham-up a quick, vocalized version of the program's instrumental signature tune "Saturday Jump", usually performed by either Ted Heath and his Orchestra or Tony Osbourne and his Jazz Group Listeners on Christmas morning duly heard 15 seconds of the Beatle's scat rendition segued into Heath's disc version at the start of the show.

Source: The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

The Beatles enjoying their weekend break!

The Beatles enjoying a break this weekend.

The Beatles enjoyed a break today.

Harrods, the luxury department store in Knightsbridge, London, opened especially for The Beatles on this evening to allow the group to do their Christmas shopping away from fans.

The out-of-hours shopping spree lasted three hours. John Lennon bought a garden slide for his son Julian, while both George Harrison and Ringo Starr bought items of furniture.

Twickenham Film Studios

Continuing from yesterday......

Three versions of We Can Work It Out were made, for each of which John Lennon sat at an organ. One opened with a photograph of Lennon with a sunflowere over an eye, and in another they wore their stage costumes from their Shea Stadium Concert in August 1965.

There were also three separate clips made for Day Tripper. In the first the group again wore their Shea Stadium suits, and George Harrison and Ringo Starr stood behind a railway carriage prop; Starr brought out a saw and began dismantling the set. Lennon and  Paul McCartney were positioned behind a nearby 1920-style aeroplane. The other two clips were similar, but with slight variations.

One film for Help! was made. The Beatles sat at a work bench and mimed to the song. Starr held a white umbrella, and towards the end fake snow landed on the group.

A single clip of Ticket To Ride saw The Beatles mime before a backdrop of supersized bus and train tickets.

There were two versions of I Feel Fine, the oldest song of the day. In the first Lennon, McCartney and Harrison walked on set, and Harrison sang into a punch ball while the other two sang into the camera. Starr rode an exercise bicycle.

In the second The Beatles made little attempt to mime, and merely sat on the floor and ate newspaper-wrapped fish and chips. Towards the end of the song George Harrison climbed onto the exercise bicycle. This was the only one of the 10 clips not to be sold to television companies, as Brian Epstein was unhappy with the results.

The rest were quickly sold and distributed by NEMS. The BBC paid £1,750 for the right to broadcast several on Top Of The Pops, their flagship music show, on various occasions throughout December, and deals were struck with numerous other broadcasters around the world.

Twickenham Film Studios, St. Margaret's, Twickenham

Increasingly reluctant to do the rounds of television shows every time they issued a new single, the Beatles decided to self-produce and video-tape their own promotional clips and distribute them to TV stations, thereby heralding the dawn of pop's promo-video age.

With the same old demands to perform arriving every few months from British and foreign television companies, it's perhaps odd that they hadn't thought of this before, and it took the Granada taping of The Music of Lennon & McCartney to awaken the Beatles to the possibilities. Now they could be seen not only on Top Of The Pops and Thank Your Lucky Stars with the minimum of fuss and effort, but also appear on TV shows in America, in Australia, in Japan, in fact anywhere, and make a tidy profit too.

This shooting was financed by NEMS Enterprises, appointing Joe McGrath as director and InterTel (VTR Services), reputedly the first independent video facilities company in Europe, to provide the production crew. Nicholas Ferguson, from Ready, Steady, Go! designed the sets, there were four cameramen - Harry Storey, Terry Heath and two others (who, because they were moonlighting from the BBC, wish to remain nameless), there was a lighting man, a sound-man and a 'runner' (David Mallet, later a prominent director). Also, on the set, representing NEMS, were Tony Bramwell and Vyvienne Moynihan (the latter formerly employed at Associated-Rediffusion).

A Hard Day's Night and Help! had been filmed all over the Twickenham complex, on each of the three stages, but these promos were taped only on Stage Three, set-construction having been completed in the two previous days. The Beatles arrived during the late afternoon and worked through until the early hours of the 24th - and, as productive here as they were in the recording studio, ten clips were shot in this time, nine of which have been seen on TV.

Source: The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

Quiet Monday for the Beatles back in '65.

The Beatles were resting after the final production of Rubber Soul.

It's the weekend. The Beatles took a rest.

Today, the Beatles relaxed!

Studio One, EMI Studios, London

FINAL Production for Rubber Soul - Discs were cut, lacquers were rushed to the pressing plant, and the sleeve was quickly printed.

Today, George Martin worked out the LP running order (Rubber Soul) and telephoned it over to Abbey Road.

Studio One, EMI Studios, London

Final production for Rubber Soul was effected from 2:30 to 5:30 pm, with "I'm Looking Through You", "You Won't See Me", "Girl", "Wait", and "Michelle" being mixed into mono, and "Wait', "I'm Looking Through You", "You Won't See Me", "Girl", and "The Word" mixed into stereo.

Source: The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

The Beatles enjoyed a break today.

Week of November 13, 1965

1. The Sound of Music, Soundtrack
2. Help!, The Beatles
3. The In Crowd, Ramsey Lewis Trio
4. Whipped Cream & Other Delights, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
5. Highway 61, Revisited Bob Dylan

Today, the Beatles took a break from recording.

Room 65/Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

Mono and stereo mixes of "The Word" were produced in Room 65, probably in the Beatles' absence, between 4:00 and 5:30 pm. The Beatles began recording at 6:00 pm, one hour ahead of time, in this final Rubber Soul session, and they also worked four hours beyond its 3:00 am scheduled end, clocking up 13 uninterrupted hours in studio two. They knew that the deadline had come, that their new album had to be finished this night. They also knew that they needed three more songs. Paul came up with one, John another, and for the third they pulled off the shelf "Wait", the discarded Help! track, added various bits and pieces and pronounced it fit for inclusion on the new LP. Balance was everything in 1965: a 14-song album meant seven songs per side and everything hunky-dory. (Still, despite the pressure, no one considered including on the album either or both songs on the new single, "We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper".

Paul's song, "You Won't See Me", was recorded from start to finish in two takes, as was John's song, "Girl", then the Beatles added tone-pedal guitar, tambourine, maraca and more vocals onto take four of the five-month-old "Wait", overdubbed vocals onto the previous night's "I'm Looking Through You" rhythm track and, suddenly, to the accompaniment of the St. John's Wood dawn chorus, they knew that the new album was complete.

Source: The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

Room 65/Studo Two, EMI Studios, London

A 2:30-5:30 pm mix session in Room 65 yielded stereo masters of "Run For Your Life" and "We Can Work It Out" (not on Rubber Soul, this mix was destined for Australian and US albums). The Beatles did not attend - they arrived at Abbey Road for 9:00 pm-3:00 am studio two session (which overran to 4:00), the first product of which was the recording from start to finish, in three takes, of John's song "The Word", the lyric of which was a prototype "All You Need Is Love", two years ahead of that world anthem. Then the group set about the second re-make of Paul's "I'm Looking Through You", taping in one take (numbered four) a new "best" rhythm track by session's end.

Room 65, EMI Studios, London

More mixing, probably in the Beatles' absence, 2:30-5:30 pm, with mono masters being prepared for "Michelle", "What Goes On", "Run For Your Life", "Think For Yourself", and "The Beatles" Third Christmas Record (also edited), and stereo masters being made for "Think For Yourself", "Michelle" and "What Goes On".

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

The Beatles had recorded George Harrison's If I Needed Someone in October 1965. On this day they recorded another of his compositions, Think For Yourself, under the working title Won't Be There With You.

The session was a late one, beginning at 9pm and finishing at 3am the following morning. The Beatles began by rehearsing the song, a process which was recorded by George Martin in the hope of some of the material being usable for their Christmas fan club release.

The recording was labelled Beatle Speech, and the tape box was labelled with the words "This will eventually be issued". None of it was used on the Christmas flexi disc, but a snippet of the group practising their vocal harmonies was used in the Yellow Submarine film in 1968.

The basic track for Think For Yourself was recorded in a single take, with bass guitar, drums, Harrison's Fender Stratocaster, and John Lennon's Vox Continental organ.

The Beatles then recorded a number of overdubs, including a three-part vocal track led by Harrison. A second track was also filled with three-part harmonies, plus tambourine and maracas. Perhaps the most notable addition to the song, however, was a second bass guitar part played by Paul McCartney, fed through a distortion unit.

Late into the night, once work on the song had concluded, The Beatles recorded The Beatles' Third Christmas Record. Three takes, all largely ad-libbed, were recorded, and edited for release by George Martin the following day.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

The first of two re-makes of "I'm Looking Through You". Between 7:00 pm and 1:00 am, the Beatles taped two takes (numbered two and three to follow October 24th version), overdubbing all required sounds onto the second of these. By the end, they were considerably nearer to the desired end result - but not enough.

50 years ago today people in US were listening to Get Off Of My Cloud by The Rolling Stones. In UK Get Off Of My Cloud by The Rolling Stones which was in the top 5 hits.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

The Beatles were under pressure to complete the Rubber Soul album in time for the Christmas market. This necessitated two notable tactics: late-night recording sessions and the revival of old compositions.

The group had recorded Michelle, one of Paul McCartney's early songs, yesterday. The following day one of John Lennon's was revived. What Goes On had been written in the Quarry Men days, and The Beatles had wanted to record it during the From Me To You session on March 5, 1963.

The song was completed in a session beginning at 11pm and finishing at 3.30am the following morning. McCartney's bass guitar and Ringo Starr's drums were recorded in a single take onto track one of the four-track tape. Starr's lead vocals were added onto a second track.

Lennon's Rickenbacker 325 rhythm guitar, George Harrison's Gretsch Tennessean guitar, and backing vocals by Lennon and McCartney were then overdubbed, and the song was complete.

The session didn't end there, however. The Beatles decided to record 12-Bar Original, an instrumental blues tune seemingly inspired by Booker T and the MGs' Green Onions.

Take one broke down, but take two was complete and lasted 6'42". George Martin joined the group on harmonium, and the song was recorded without overdubs. McCartney played bass, Starr was on drums, Harrison played a Fender Stratocaster with a tone pedal, and Lennon played an Epiphone Casino.

Despite the trouble they had completing Rubber Soul, The Beatles wisely chose not to include 12-Bar Original. An edit of take two, lasting 2'55" and taken from four separate parts of the recording, was eventually released in 1996 on Anthology 2.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

Nine hours, 2:30-11:30 pm, spent recording and completing Paul's new ballad "Michelle". From 2:30-7:00 the Beatles perfected the rhythm track in one take. At 7:00 this was reduced into take two to vacate a track on the four-track tape, and from then until 11:30 they filled this with vocal and guitar overdubs.

Source: The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

Studio Six, Granada TV Centre, Manchester

Day 2 - The full line-up of songs (Artists) was: song medley (The George Martin Orchestra), "A World Without Love" (Peter and Gordon), "I Saw Him Standing There", (Lulu), "From Me To You" (Alan Haven and Tony Crombie), "She Loves You/song medley (Fritz Spiegl's Ensemble), "Day Tripper" (the Beatles), "Yesterday", (Paul McCartney, then Marianne Faithfull), "She Loves You" (Antonio Vargas), "Things We Said Today" (In French, Dick Rivers), "Bad To Me" (Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas), "It's For You" (Cilla Black), "Ringo's Theme (This Boy)' (The George Martin Orchestra), "If I Fell" (Henry Mancini), "And I Love Him" (Esther Phillips), "A Hard Day's Night" (Peter Sellers) and, finally "We Can Work It Out" (The Beatles)

The Music of Lennon and McCarthy was ITV's official entry for the Golden Rose of Montreux Award, decided at the 1966 Montreux Festival (April 22-30), but it did not win.