Top #5 songs in the USA
Simon & Garfunkel - The Sounds of Silence
The Righteous Brothers - Ebb Tide
The Byds - Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)
The Dave Clark Five - Over and Over
James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)
Top #5 songs in the UK
The Seekers - The Carnival Is Over
The Beatles - Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out
Cliff Richard - Wind Me Up (Let Me Go)
The Who - My Generation
Ken Dodd - The River
The Beatles are on a break after the continuous recording of Rubber Soul.
The Beatles enjoying their weekend.......
The Beatles taking a rest this weekend.
Several off-key, a cappella versions of "Yesterday" are dispersed throughout the record, alongside Lennon's "Happy Christmas to Ya List'nas", "Auld Lang Syne", a one-and-a-half-line version of the Four Tops "It's The Same Old Song" (which they quickly stop before they violate the copyright) and an original poem titled "Christmas Comes But Once a Year".
Members of the Beatles' US fan-club did not receive this (or any) Christmas flexi-disc in 1965. Rather, they received a black and white postcard, with a photo of the Fab Four and the message "Season's Greetings – Paul, Ringo, George, John." The Beatle Bulletin, the publication of the US fan-club, explained in its April 1966 edition that the tape arrived too late to prepare the record in time for Christmas.
The Christmas albums were conceived as a means to appease fan-club members whose letters, due to their sheer volume, were not always being answered in a timely manner, the records included the Beatles' messages of thanks to "loyal Beatle people", along with skits, Christmas carols, and original compositions.
None of the original recordings has ever been subject to general release though a version of "Christmas Time (Is Here Again), an original composition which appeared in edited form on the 1967 record, eventually gained an official release in 1995, as part of the Beatles Anthology project.
The UK regional broadcaster Granada screened a special programme, The Music Of Lennon & McCartney, on this evening. It was shown across the rest of the United Kingdom the following day.
The 50-minute show been conceived by Granada producer Johnny Hamp, and was directed by Philip Casson. Filmed on November 1st and 2nd, it was the biggest music spectacular produced to date by Granada Television, and was designed to showcase the songwriting talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Appearing on the show were The Beatles, Cilla Black, Peter and Gordon, Lulu, Henry Mancini, Esther Phillips, Fritz Spiegl, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, Alan Haven, Marianne Faithfull, the George Martin Orchestra, Dick Rivers, and Peter Sellers.
The show opened with an orchestral version of I Feel Fine performed by the George Martin Orchestra.
Peter and Gordon sang A World Without Love, Lulu performed I Saw Him Standing There and there was an instrumental version of A Hard Day's Night by jazz organist Alan Haven and drummer Tony Crombie.
Dick Rivers sang Things We Did Today in French, the George Martin Orchestra performed Ringo's Theme from the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack, and and Paul McCartney introduced American composer Henry Mancini, who performed If I Fell.
Esther Phillips had flown in from American especially to perform And I Love Him. Six members of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra appeared as Fritz Spiegl's Barock And Roll Ensemble to perform She Loves You in the style of Mozart, before Peter Sellers performing a much-celebrated Shakespearean version of A Hard Day's Night.
Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas performed Bad To Me and Do You Want To Know A Secret, Cilla Black sang It's For You, and Spanish dance star Antonio Vargas performed She Loves You.
The Beatles themselves performed Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out. Paul McCartney also sang the first verse of Yesterday, before the song was completed by Marianne Faithfull.
The Beatles enjoying a break today.
50 Years ago according to the charts.....
1. Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds (Columbia) 2. Taste of Honey - Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (A&M) 3. I Hear a Symphony - The Supremes (Motown) *4. Let's Hang On! - The 4 Seasons (Philips) 5. We Can Work It Out - The Beatles (Capitol) *6. Over and Over - The Dave Clark Five (Epic) 7. I Got You (I Feel Good) - James Brown & his Famous Flames (King) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - The Wonder Who? (Philips) 9. England Swings - Roger Miller (Smash) 10. 1-2-3 - Len Barry (Decca) 11. The Sounds of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel (Columbia) *12. Fever - The McCoys (Bang) 13. Rescue Me - Fontella Bass (Checker) 14. Day Tripper - The Beatles (Capitol) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 15. I Can Never Go Home Any More - The Shangri-Las (Red Bird) 16. Ebb Tide - The Righteous Brothers (Philles) *17. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away - The Silkie (Fontana) *18. Hang On Sloopy - The Ramsey Lewis Trio (Cadet) 19. You Didn't Have to Be So Nice - The Lovin' Spoonful (Kama Sutra) 20. It's My Life - The Animals (MGM) *26. I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore - The Young Rascals (Atlantic) *30. She's Just My Style - Gary Lewis & the Playboys (Liberty) 32. You've Been Cheatin' - The Impressions (ABC-Paramount) 33. One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart) - Barry Young (Dot) *37. As Tears Go By - The Rolling Stones (London) 38. A Sweet Woman Like You - Joe Tex (Dial) 66. Flowers On the Wall - The Statler Brothers (Columbia) Hot Prospect: Hurt - Little Anthony & the Imperials (DCP) Album cuts: Michelle - The Beatles (Capitol) I've Just Seen a Face - The Beatles (Capitol) Christmas Music: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - The Crystals (Philles) Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms (Decca) Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker (Cameo) Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee (Decca) The Little Drummer Boy - The Harry Simeone Chorale (20th Fox) Santa Claus is Coming to Town - The Supremes (Motown) I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - The 4 Seasons (Vee Jay) Radio 77 Pick Hit: A Must to Avoid - Herman's Hermits (MGM) *Former Pick Hit All American of the Week: Dan Ingram - 2:00 PM-6:00 PM Monday - Friday 2:00 PM-6:30 PM Saturday SPECIAL NOTE: The album cuts this week are from the Beatles LP, "Rubber Soul."
The day after The Beatles' final UK concert took place in Cardiff, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison had a meeting to discuss the group's third film project.
The meeting took place at NEMS Enterprises' offices in Argyll Street, London. Also in attendance was The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein, who had recently bought the film rights for Richard Condon's A Talent For Loving. However, the group failed to reach an agreement on the script and the project was rejected.
A Talent for Loving was eventually made into a film in 1969. It was directed by Richard Quine and starred Richard Widmark and Cesar Romero.
Capitol Cinema, Cardiff
The final night of what turned out to be......the Beatle's last British concert tour.
They had previously performed at the venue on May 27, 1963 and November 7, 1964.
The support acts were, in order of appearance, The Paramounts, Beryl Marsden with Steve Aldo, The Moody Blues, The Koobas and The Marionettes, and the compere was Jerry Stevens.
Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London
The Beatles' final two London concerts took place before hugely enthusiastic audiences.
George Harrison commented: This is one of the most incredible shows we've done. Not just because of the audience, but because they're Londoners. This is the funny thing. It's always been the other way round - fantastic in the North but just that little bit cool in London. It's incredible. It seems like the Beatlemania thing is happening all over again.
Eleven songs were played, the same as on the other dates of the concert: I Feel Fine, She's A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Act Naturally, Nowhere Man, Baby's In Black, Help!, We Can Work It Out, Yesterday, Day Tripper and I'm Down.
Odeon Cinema, Harmmersmith, London
The Beatles played four concerts in London over two days during their final UK tour. The first two took place at the Hammersmith Odeon on this day.
They performed 11 songs: I Feel Fine, She's A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Act Naturally, Nowhere Man, Baby's In Black, Help!, We Can Work It Out, Yesterday, Day Tripper and I'm Down.
Also on this day, the New Musical Express announced the results of its annual Readers Poll. The Beatles were voted Best British Group and Best World Group, while John Lennon was voted British Vocal Personality.
Odeon Cinema, Birmingham
The Beatles' drove through torrential rain for their final concerts in Birmingham, England.
They played two shows at the Odeon Cinema on New Street. Their set was, like the other dates on their final UK tour, 11 songs: I Feel Fine, She's A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Act Naturally, Nowhere Man, Baby's In Black, Help!, We Can Work It Out, Yesterday, Day Tripper and I'm Down.
This was The Beatles' second appearance at Birmingham's Odeon Cinema. They had previously performed at the venue on October 11, 1964.
Gaumont Cinema, Barker's Pool, Sheffield, Yorkshire
The Beatles performed two shows at this venue, which they visited for the first time on this occasion.
Located on Barker's Pool opposite City Hall, the venue was built by William Edward Trent and opened as the Regent Theatre in December 1927. It became the Gaumont Theatre in July 1946, and was later used for live music events.
It closed in 1985 and was demolished, to be replaced by an Odeon Cinema on the same site. It later reopened as a nightclub.
The Beatles played the usual 11 songs of their final UK tour: I Feel Fine, She's A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Act Naturally, Nowhere Man, Baby's In Black, Help!, We Can Work It Out, Yesterday, Day Tripper and I'm Down.
After the show the were joined for dinner at their hotel by The Moody Blues.
ABC Cinema, Ardwick, Manchester
These were The Beatles' final two shows at this venue, which was later renamed the Apollo. They had previously performed twice at the venue, on November 20, 1963 and Octover 14, 1964.
Manchester was covered in thick fog when The Beatles arrived, and they were late arriving at the venue. Backstage they were joined by Walter Shenson, who discussed ideas for their third film with the group.
The Beatles performed the same 11 songs which comprised their standard set throughout the final UK tour: I Feel Fine, She's A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Act Naturally, Nowhere Man, Baby's In Black, Help!, We Can Work It Out, Yesterday, Day Tripper and I'm Down.
Three days after its UK release, Capitol Records issued The Beatles' Rubber Soul album in the US.
It was considerably different from how The Beatles had intended it to sound, however, as Capitol reconfigured its tracklisting to create a 'folk rock' album to please the US market. They added I've Just Seen A Face, It's Only Love from Help!, and omitted Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, What Goes On and If I Needed Someone.
Additionally, the stereo mix sent from England to the US had a false start at the beginning of I'm Looking Through You - this version can be heard on the box set The Capitol Albums Vol. 2, which also contains minor variations in The Word.
Rubber Soul was a huge hit with the American public, spending 59 weeks in the charts from December 25, 1965. It topped the chart on January 8, 1966, and sold 1.2 million copies in its first nine days on sale.
Empire Theatre, Liverpool
The Beatle's last Liverpool concert. Forty thousand ticket applications were received for the two "houses", although the Empire could accommadate only 2550 for each leaving many fans disappointed. It was the sixth occasion that the group had visited the venue.
The group invited many friends and relatives to see their performance. During the second show, Paul briefly joined one of the support acts, the Koobas, playing drums during their version of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy".
City Hall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
The Beatles had a tough drive through snow to get to their two concerts at the City Hall in Newcastle. It was the fourth and final occasion they visited the venue.
Their setlist consisted of 11 songs: I Feel Find, She's A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Act Naturally, Nowhere Man, Baby's In Black, Help!, We Can Work It Out, Yesterday, Day Tripper and I'm Down.
The Beatles' other performances at the City Hall were on March 23, 1963, June 8, 1963 and November 23, 1963.
Odeon Cinema, Glasgow
The Beatles' only UK tour of 1965 was also their final one as a group. It began with two shows at the Odeon Cinema in Glasgow.
The tour lasted 10 days, and saw The Beatles perform in nine venues across eight cities. Throughout they played a set comprising 11 songs:I Feel Fine, She's a Woman, If I Needed Someone, Act Naturally, Nowhere Man, Baby's In Black, Help!, We Can Work It Out, Yesterday, Day Tripper and I'm Down. Paul McCartney performed Yesterday solo on an electric organ.
In their dressing room at Odeon The Beatles also took the time to record a message for Radio Scotland, a new pirate station.
This was the fourth time The Beatles played at the Odeon; the first had been during the Roy Orbison tour on 7 June 1963. They also performed at the city's Concert Hall later in the year.
Due to bad weather Brian Epstein decided that The Beatles should stay in a hotel in the city centre, rather than the smaller one further out they had been booked to stay in. The was some concern that the location of the new hotel could have proved a security risk, but the group came to no harm.
The Beatles getting ready for the release of "Rubber Soul"
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.
