1966, January

Wyndham's Theatre, London. Premiere of the play `How's The World Treating You?' Paul, Jane, George and Pattie attend.

In that special week of January people in US were listening to We Can Work It Out by The Beatles. In UK Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

1966--We Can Work It Out is No. 1 for the third week in the US, recovering this position for one week only (Billboard).

January 28, 1966 - Maggie McGivern beside Paul McCartney getting a light from Barry Miles at the opening party for the Indica book shop at 6 Masons Yard in London. Peter Asher, Barry Miles and John Dunbar were partners in Indica, and Paul designed the wrapping paper for the new shop. Not sure if Jane Asher was there?

1966--We Can Work It Out regains the #1 single position in the US, for its third week at #1.

The #1 song in the US on January 26, 1966

We Can Work It Out - The Beatles

People in US were listening to We Can Work It Out by The Beatles. In UK Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

In UK Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

The day after they married in Esher, Surrey, George and Pattie Harrison gave a press conference in London.

After our wedding we had to endure a press conference that Brian had set up. It was so terrifying that I have almost blanked it from my memory. Lots of reporters asked questions about when George had asked me to marry him and our plans for the future. George said he had proposed on the day we met, on the train filming A Hard Day's Night, and I said I hadn't thought he was serious. He then said he'd asked me out and I'd turned him down. And I blurted that we'd like three children but not immediately.

 

The press conference was chaired by The Beatles' press officer Tony Barrow. Also in attendance were Brian Epstein and George's parents Harry and Louise.

 

After a romance lasting just shy of two years, George Harrison married Patricia Anne Boyd at Epsom register office, Surrey.

Pattie Boyd said "The ceremony took place early in the morning at Epsom register office, in Surrey, not the most glamorous place, and the room was very hot and stuffy. Brian Epstein was there and Paul McCartney, who was George's best man. Otherwise it was family - my mother, with her cousin Penny Evans, who had been around a lot while I was growing up. Colin, Jenny, Paula, David and Boo, George's parents and brothers. Uncle John, my mother's twin brother, gave me away.

"I bought a Mary Quant pinky-red shot-silk dress, which came to just above the knee, and I wore it with creamy stockings and pointy red shoes. On top, because it was January and cold, I wore a red fox-fur coat, also by Mary Quant, that George gave me. She made George a beautiful black Mongolian lamb coat. It was not the wedding I had dreamt of - I would have loved to be married in church, but Brian didn't want a big fuss. They all trusted him so implicitly that when he said it should be a quiet register office wedding George agreed. He also said it had to be secret - if the press found out, it would be chaotic...There was no shortage of pictures of us leaving the register office. We came out into the street to find dozens of press photographers lined up outside. So much for keeping the whole thing secret."

The happy couple left the register office in a Rolls-Royce Princess, for a reception at Kinfauns, their bungalow in Esher. The following they held a press conference, and flew to Barbados for their honeymoon on February 8, 1966.

John Lennon and Ringo Starr were on holiday and couldn't attend the wedding.

Robert and Jean-Claude Lambot say they would wish to change the Beatles haircut style.

`We Can Work It Out', 7th week in the Top 10 (UK New Musical Express chart). `Rubber Soul' number 1, 7th week (UK New Musical Express chart).

Brian Epstein returns to England from the Virgin Islands.

  We Can Work It Out by The Beatles. In UK Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

We Can Work It Out' number 1, 2nd and last continued week (Billboard).

The #1 song in the US on January 14, 1966

We Can Work It Out - The Beatles

Ringo Starr and John Lennon leave England for a vacation in Trinidad.

People in US were listening to We Can Work It Out by The Beatles. In UK Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

Top Hits - 50 years ago today

                                                           
  1. The Sounds of Silence -   Simon & Garfunkel (Columbia)                                  
                  
  2. We Can Work It Out - The Beatles (Capitol)                  
  3. As Tears Go By - The Rolling Stones (London)               
  4. You Didn't Have to Be So Nice -   The Lovin' The Lovin' Spoonful                      
                              
  5. The Duck - Jackie Lee (Mirwood)                            
  6. Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds (Columbia)                    
  7. She's Just My Style - Gary Lewis & the Playboys (Liberty)  
  8. The Men In My Little Girl's Life - Mike Douglas (Epic)     
  9. Flowers On the Wall - The Statler Brothers (Columbia)      
 10. A Must to Avoid - Herman's Hermits (MGM)                   

Brian Epstein is appointed a director of Lennon Books Limited, John Lennon’s book royalty collection company.

People in US were listening to We Can Work It Out by The Beatles. In UK Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out by The Beatles was in the top 5 hits.

We Can Work It Out becomes the #1 single in the US.

The Beatles' album Rubber Soul is #1 in the US. It remains at #1 for six weeks and stays on the charts for 56 weeks. Rubber Soul is the seventh Beatles LP to reach #1 in the US (the other six are Meet the Beatles, The Beatles Second Album, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles '65, Beatles VI, and Help!).

Also 50 years Ago - John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr attend a party thrown by Mick Jagger at his London townhouse.

We Can Work It Out - Number One!

We Can Work It Out (Number One 50 years ago) Behind the song.......

McCartney wrote the words and music to the verses and the chorus, with lyrics that "might have been personal", probably a reference to his relationship with Jane Asher. McCartney then took the song to Lennon:

I took it to John to finish it off, and we wrote the middle together. Which is nice: 'Life is very short. There's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.' Then it was George Harrison's idea to put the middle into 3/4 time, like a German waltz. That came on the session, it was one of the cases of the arrangement being done on the session.

With its intimations of mortality, Lennon's contribution to the twelve-bar bridge contrasts typically with what Lennon saw as McCartney's cajoling optimism,a contrast also seen in other collaborations by the pair, such as "Getting Better" and "I've Got a Feeling". As Lennon told "Playboy" in 1980:

In We Can Work It Out, Paul did the first half, I did the middle eight. But you've got Paul writing, 'We can work it out / We can work it out'—real optimistic, y'know, and me, impatient: 'Life is very short, and there's no time / For fussing and fighting, my friend.'

Based on those comments, some critics overemphasised McCartney's optimism, neglecting the toughness in passages written by McCartney,such as "Do I have to keep on talking until I can't go on?". Lennon's middle shifts focus from McCartney's concrete reality to a philosophical perspective in B minor, illustrating this with the waltz-time section suggested by George Harrison that leads back to the verse,possibly meant to suggest tiresome struggle.

Following their record breaking concert at New York's Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965, it was decided that extra recordings would be needed if the footage was to be released to the public.

The concert performance suffered for The Beatles' problems hearing themselves against the screams of 55,600 fans, and the mobile recording facilities had left the sound quality of the recordings below standard.

A secret booking was made for The Beatles to re-record some of the instrument parts on this day. The session took place at CTS (Cine Tele Sound) Studios at 49-53 Kensington Gardens Square in London.

Initially Paul McCartney overdubbed new bass parts onto Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Can't Buy Me Love, Baby's In Black and I'm Down. The latter song - the finale to the concert - also featured a new organ track from John Lennon.

The Beatles then made entirely new recordings for I Feel Fine and Help!, as the quality of the concert recordings couldn't be salvaged. The songs were taped quickly, as they required the necessary live feel, although care was taken to match the on-screen images to the music.

The group also recorded overdubs for Ticket To Ride. For Act Naturally, however, the EMI studio recording was used.

Although George Martin wished to have a new version of Twist And Shout, there was no time to record one. Instead, the recording of The Beatles' August 30th 1965 version from their third and final Hollywood Bowl concert was used to enhance the sound.

No work was done on She's A Woman, and Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, which were omitted from the final production.

The concert film was first broadcast in black and white on BBC 1 on March 1, 1966, as The Beatles At Shea Stadium.

As the Beatles were laying low, We Can Work It Out by The Beatles was a hit.

Listening to We Can Work It Out by The Beatles

The Beatles starting to make plans for the year ahead.