Category Archives: Beatles Music

First Recordings – Beatles with Tony Sheridan

Posted on by
2

Released this week in the USA  –  “The Beatles With Tony Sheridan: First Recordings 50th Anniversary Edition”, a new double CD package released by Time-Life Entertainment to mark the Fab Four’s 50th anniversary. :

This features tracks the band performed with singer Tony Sheridan as Polydor artists after the German bandleader and music executive Bert Kaempfert discovered them performing in Hamburg in 1961.

The CD’s come with a booklet full of rarely seen photographs taken by one-time Beatles guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe’s fiancee Astrid Kirchherr. It also has band contracts, poster art from their early shows and handwritten biographies by each member of the group.

The package was released on November 8. Looks like it comes in a nice gate-fold digipack:

Time-Life has a small website with a little bit more detail. And there’s some good information about these recordings here.

Beatles in “Rolling Stone – 1000 Covers”

Posted on by
Reply

At work we have a pretty good library. I was in there the other day and on a shelf displaying their newly-purchased books I saw this nice little item:

Of course, it captured my attention, not only because this book celebrates one thousand covers of the famous “Rolling Stone” music magazine (one of my favourites over the years), but also because of the classic Annie Leibovitz cover photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken from the January 22, 1981 edition.

This book might have been new to our library, but it’s not a new publication. It actually came out back in 2006 and celebrates the publication of “Rolling Stone” over a span of almost four decades. From its humble beginnings in November 1967 to June 2006, making the cover of “Rolling Stone” meant something. And of course the Beatles (either as a group or as solo artists) feature more than a few times. This post features just a small selection of those covers.

I was surprised to learn in the book that John Lennon actually featured on the front cover of the very first “Rolling Stone” magazine ever – Volume 1, Number 1 – in a publicity shot from the 1967 film “How I Won The War“:

As you can see, back in the day “Rolling Stone” was more like a traditional newspaper.

Three years later the cover of the magazine had evolved somewhat and featured a solo Beatle in the form of Paul McCartney, who had just released his first, self-titled album “McCartney“:

In 1971 George Harrison had gathered together a fine coterie of musical friends to stage what would become the first big fund-raising concert of its kind, “The Concert for Bangladesh“, featuring Ringo Starr, members of Badfinger, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar, Klaus Voormann, and of course Bob Dylan – appearing live in concert for the first time in many years. Funds raised went to UNICEF to provide milk, blankets, clothes and food to millions of starving refugees:

The photograph of George above is another one by Annie Leibovitz. In the rear of the book there is an index of photographers and Leibovitz is by far the most credited single photographer with over 140 “Rolling Stone” cover shots to her name out of the one thousand featured.

In February 1984 “Rolling Stone” marked the twentieth anniversary of the Beatles with this special edition:

“He left this world as he lived in it: conscious of God, fearless of death and at peace….” [from a statement by Olivia and Dhani Harrison].

In January, 2002 “Rolling Stone” dedicated an issue to the life of George Harrison, who had passed away after a battle with throat, lung and brain cancer. Bob Dylan wrote of him, “He was a giant, a great, great soul, with all the humanity, all the wit and humor, all the wisdom, the spirituality, the common sense of a man and compassion for people.” :

2005 saw another Paul McCartney cover shot. This time the angle was “….a new album, new tour, new life – and nothing left to prove“. That new album was “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard“, produced by Nigel Godrich.

By my count the Beatles as a group or solo appeared some 27 times as the cover image/story of “Rolling Stone” magazine between 1967 and 2006.

“Rolling Stone – 1000 Covers” was published in 2006 by Abrams Books, New York.

For some other covers of “Rolling Stone” see also: The Lost Lennon Tapes;  Nine Copies of Rolling Stone;  Rolling Stone Names Its Top 100 Beatles Songs; and for the Australian cover variation of the “Top 100 Beatles Songs” click here.

Here Comes the Sun – New Guitar Solo

Posted on by
Reply

There is a great little video from the deluxe materials included with the “Living in the Material World” DVD and BluRay sets. It features George Martin, Giles Martin and Dhani Harrison (George and Olivia’s son) filmed at the mixing desk listening back to the Beatles “Here Comes The Sun” – complete with a previously unheard guitar solo from the song which never made the final mix. Nice.

Beatles Target Ltd Release Singles – Part 2

Posted on by
3

Here’s some more on the limited edition Beatles 45 and tee-shirt packs only available at Target stores in the US.

Some folks have been posting more information and pictures at the Steve Hoffman Music Forums – worth checking out for Beatles information and updates from time-to-time.

Someone put up a photo of the way the boxed sets are displayed in the store – usually at the end of an aisle like this:

As my copies are sealed and will probably stay that way I was interested to see some label images of the records inside:

Just a quick reminder about what we are talking about here:

And here are the copyright and other details on the bottom of one of the boxes – which I forgot to include on my earlier post. This one is for “Hello Goodbye”:

(If you’d like to see this slightly larger just click on the image above).

The Beatles Greatest Hits Volume 1

Posted on by
4

A visit to a garage sale this past weekend (you might use the term “yard sale” where you come from) has added another nice LP record to the collection.

It’s the “Beatles VI”, which first came out in 1965 in the US on Capitol. However, the copy I got on Saturday is a New Zealand pressing on the Parlophone label:

 

As you can see, this New Zealand pressing has the same picture cover (front and rear), and the same running order as the US release seen here below:

In Australia the artwork of this album is a bit confusing because the cover photo for the “Beatles VI” LP is the exact same cover photo that EMI Australia chose for a completely different Beatles LP they released back in 1968 called “The Beatles Greatest Hits Volume 1”:

I’ve got this on the orange Parlophone label, which would make my pressing from the 1970’s:

But to make things even more confusing, I also have the same LP (with the same cover) on a black and silver Parlophone label – from New Zealand:

So, two different records with different songs on them, but very similar cover artwork.

In case you are wondering about the origins of the photograph, it is actually the Beatles cutting a cake:

Ltd Ed Beatles Target Singles Box Sets

Posted on by
5

I’ve got a feeling that these are set to become quite valuable Beatles collectors items.

Target stores in the USA recently sold an exclusive and official limited edition of four Beatles 45 rpm singles. Each record was packaged along with a Beatles t-shirt in a box. The four vinyl singles are newly-pressed and digitally remastered using the same mastertapes as the 2009 re-issues. This makes these four singles (along with the Record Store Day “Paperback Writer” single released last year) the only vinyl available so far from the recent Abbey Road Studios remasters of the Beatles back-catalogue.

They are “Can’t Buy Me Love/You Can’t Do That“:

“Help!/I’m Down“:

“Hello Goodbye/I Am The Walrus“:

And “Let It Be/You Know My Name Look Up The Number“:

According to sources only 10,000 copies of each single were pressed by Capitol Records – very small numbers by Beatles standards. And only ever sold in Target stores in the United States:

All the vinyl singles have Capitol Records labels, except for “Let It Be” which is on the Apple Records label – just as it would have been back in 1970 when it first came out. The singles look like the original issues except that Sony/ATV is listed as the music publisher. The picture sleeves are in a thicker cardboard than the paper ones that were originally were issued. The contents of each box, deatiling the cover, the labels, and the enclosed t-shirt design are pictured on the rear of each package:

You can see from the packaging that these releases are linked closely to the recent re-issue  of the Beatles “1” CD, which has been released in digitally remastered form. Hence the familiar red and yellow theme and the prominent “1” logos on each box.

What do you think? Valuable collectors item of the future?

See also Steve Marinucci’s Beatles Examiner and the Beatles Target Ltd Release Singles Part 2.

Harrison Film Biography – The Verdict

Posted on by
1

“There are two ways to look at George Harrison. The nicer one is that he was a top-line and under-appreciated guitarist…, that he wrote at least two classic songs (“Something,” and “Here Comes the Sun,” two more than most songwriters write) and another half-dozen quite good ones….The other and arguably more realistic appraisal might be that George Harrison’s contributions as a guitarist were pretty much limited to a few Beatles riffs.”  – Bill Wyman from Slate gets stuck into the Scorsese film.

“One aspect that doesn’t shine through fully enough is his sense of humour.” – Martin Chilton in the UK Telegraph.

“Paul McCartney described George as a “cocky little guy” and producer George Martin labeled him as “so cheeky.” –  Rachel Ray, The Telegraph’s US TV reviewer.

“….if you’re a big Beatles fan (I am), then it’s never going to lack interest…He looked inwards, chanted mantras, spent his life trying to forgive and give. A good egg, but no Lennon…” – Ben Walsh, The Independent.

“With Martin Scorsese’s documentary about the quiet Beatle….it is time to appreciate Harrison as a teacher and a transmitter.” – Philip Goldberg focuses on George’s spirituality in The Huffington Post.

“One facet of George Harrison’s personality that came into sharper relief for me during a preview screening of Martin Scorsese’s documentary was his role…as a provocateur.” – The LA Times Randy Lewis.

“In Martin Scorsese’s documentary “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” Harrison’s journey is traced as a search for himself in the tumult of incoming distractions.” – Roger Ebert in The Chicago Sun-Times.

And from today’s paper in my home town:

“In the footage and text, George Harrison comes across as someone who had mixed views about a life indelibly marked by his tumultuous decade in the most famous pop band of all time…If nothing else, the book and film reveal a man for whom friendships mattered more deeply than almost anything.” – Bernard Zuel, music critic with the Sydney Morning Herald

And finally, not so much a review but another interesting article about George’s spirituality in the film from The Washington Post.

Unboxing “Living in the Material World” DVD/BluRay Box Set

Posted on by
3

Haven’t got this yet because it is only available in the UK so far….but one fan has posted a video of his unboxing of the Deluxe Edition of the DVD/BluRay/CD set:

The Beatles With Records – Part Five

Posted on by
6

The Beatles have sold millions and millions of them – but there are relatively few photographs where they’re seen actually holding LP’s, singles and CD’s.

We’ve uncovered a few though in this series (you can see all the original blog posts here:  Part One; Part Two; Part Three; and Part Four). People are still sending in photos from their own collections, and so here is Part Five. Most of the photos below come from French Beatles collector and author Claude Defer. The first is John Lennon holding up the French “Ticket to Ride” EP.  Claude tells me that this photograph is from the cover of a French record collectors magazine called “Jukebox”. The picture was taken in June, 1965 when the Beatles gave two shows in Paris at the Palais des Sports:

Immediately behind “Ticket to Ride” I think you can just see another French Beatles EP called “Eight Days A Week”. Here’s the cover of that one:

Here’s another Beatles EP (or Extended Play), this time it’s George and John with a copy of the UK version of “Twist and Shout”.  In the UK, “Twist and Shout” was released in 1963 by Parlophone with three other tracks, “Do You Want to Know a Secret”, “A Taste of Honey”, and “There’s a Place”, from the Please Please Me album. Both the EP and album reached No. 1 :

From what must have been around the same time as the photograph above (mid-1963) comes this next photo:

It’s the Beatles with the group called Gerry and the Pacemakers at what appears to be celebratory drinks. Perhaps it was taken in April/May, 1963 when Gerry and the Pacemakers had a number one hit in the UK with “How Do You Do It?”, which came out on the Columbia label and was produced by Beatles producer, George Martin. That song was knocked from its top chart spot in May by the Beatles with “From Me to You”. It came out on Parlophone and was of course also produced by George Martin. It’s a bit difficult to tell from the photograph, but maybe band leader Gerry Marsden is holding up a copy of “How Do You Do It?”, and John is holding a copy of the new number one, “From Me to You”:

Beatles manager Brian Epstein features in previous posts pictured with Beatles records. Claude Defer sent through these next two. The first is Brian looking through a pile of what look like acetates or “test” pressings:

Wow. If some of those are Beatles test pressings (and no doubt they are) then they’d be real collectors items now! The other shot of Brian has him with a copy of “Help!” from 1965:

In 1966 the Rolling Stones released their LP “Aftermath”. Clearly the Beatles were keen to get a hold of it as soon as they could:

The caption says: “The Beatles always took a close interest in the new releases by the other top groups. Neil Aspinall (their road manager) had made a special trip to get hold of “Aftermath”, the new album by the Rolling Stones, and “Bo Dudley”, the single by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore”.

Cook and Moore were a popular British comedy act and “Bo Dudley” was the B-side to their 1966 single “Aint She a Sweetie” on the Decca label:

A year later (1967) the Beatles released “Magical Mystery Tour”. In the UK it came out as a film for TV, and also as a double EP. Here’s John signing a copy for a fan:

Not strictly the Beatles with records, but the lovely Patti Boyd who became a Beatle wife. She had a a very successful career as a model and here she is in a photo shoot featuring some of the work of her future husband, George Harrison:

Three Beatles albums are seen in the shot: “Please Please Me”, “With the Beatles”, and in her hand, “A Hard Days Night”:

John and Yoko posed for some photographs to publicise their new records in 1970. We had a couple of these in The Beatles with Records Part 2. Here’s one more, this time a picture of John and Yoko with their Plastic Ono Band LP’s. According to Claude Defer the man between them is Pete Bennett, Apple Records US promotions manager.  John had just released “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band”, and Yoko had “Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band”.  Both titles were released simultaneously. The front covers were almost identical, but the rear artwork of Yoko’s album showed her as a young girl, while John’s showed him as a young boy:

The Lennon’s have also been photographed with an earlier release, “The Wedding Album”. It was a lavish box set celebrating their union in 1969 and contained amongst other things an LP, a wedding photo album, a picture of a slice of the wedding cake and, as you can see here, a copy of the marriage certificate pasted inside the lid of the box containing all the other goodies:

Finally, a more recent photograph – this time another of Paul McCartney out publicising his alter-ego The Fireman and a recording from 2008 called “Electric Arguments”. You can see a full report on this release here. Paul is photographed holding (upside down) the CD version, while one fan behind him holds the vinyl version, and another (on the left) is reaching for a vinyl copy of “Sgt Pepper”:

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos.

You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:  Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records

Posted on by
2

For a leading tax attorney Bruce Spizer sure knows a lot about the Beatles.

He is something of a legend amongst Beatles collectors. His books about the record labels the band’s output has been released on are much sought-after and comprehensive. Now, there’s a new one. The New Orleans-based Spizer has just released “Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records”:

In a cheeky collector-driven move the book is available in two different versions. You can order it with the Stereo version of “The Beatles For Sale” album on the cover, or you can get the Mono image. The contents of both books are the same inside though:

Here’s the rear cover:

When asked to compare this book to his previous titles, Spizer said, “This is by far the most comprehensive book I have ever done because it covers all of the songs released by the Beatles in the sixties. The U.K. singles, albums and EPs, all in one 444-page book. Like my other books, it is full of hundreds of images in either color or original black & white. It contains rarely seen British ads and promotional posters. Frank Daniels and I were able to track down tons of label variations that will please and frustrate the hard-core collectors.”

Surprisingly (according to Wikipedia), Bruce Spizer didn’t start collecting seriously until 1997 when he earned a large fee from the settlement of a lawsuit and decided to use some of the money to replace his childhood collection of Beatles LPs with a set of first edition albums. From that moment he was drawn into the world of collecting and has since written and self-published eight great books on the subject of the Beatles, their records and record labels.

In case you think you’ve never heard of him, you may already have some of his work in your collection if you own this CD box set:

Bruce wrote the essay contained in the booklet which came with “The Beatles Capitol Albums Volume 2”. The four-CD box set contains stereo and mono versions of the Beatles albums released by Capitol in 1965.  Spizer also served as a consultant to Capitol Records for both Volumes 1 and 2 in the series.

Bruce Spizer’s website is beatle.net and there is a lot more about all his books there.