Wow! – Thrilled about how a Great Film Director (Peter Jackson) just might turn the LET IT BE film into something much greater.

You have got to read this--à HOW PETER JACKSON’S new version of LET IT BE will shatter your view of the BEATLES, By Mark Beaumont: (But only if your younger than thirty.)

The Lord Of The Rings director is set to release his own version of the classic Beatles film, documenting studio days Paul McCartney has described as “hell… the most miserable sessions on earth”

If we’ve learnt anything from reality TV, it’s that if you put cameras anywhere – a restaurant, an Ibiza rep pub crawl, a village bake off, even the most arse-scratching sofa telly sesh – the egos involved will explode. So put a film crew into the most hot-house environment outside of Theresa May’s emergency supplication lessons – The Beatles on the brink of collapse in Twickenham Film Studios, January 1969 – and it’s no surprise that tensions were amplified.

That’s what makes Let It Be project the one that the Beatles machine is most reluctant to revisit. After all, when you’re flicking through old pictures of a relationship, you tend to skip over the ones of the tense final meal that ended with the bill being rammed down your throat.

So fans are getting understandably excited by the news that Peter Jackson is set to direct a new version of the film from the 55 hours of original footage and 140 hours of audio recordings, including the 42 minute film of the band playing on the roof of Apple Corps, the original guerrilla gig. Unless he somehow contrives the notion that the Beatles split was down to in-fighting over some manner of magical ring, it promises to be the most revealing new Beatles project in decades. Here’s why…Let It Be is a semi-lost film –

For such a high-profile slice of rock’n’roll history, Let It Be is surprisingly obscure. It’s been unavailable on any non-defunct technology since the last VHS copy got chewed up in the 1980s. There’s never been a DVD or Blu Ray release of the film, and you won’t find this baby on Netflix. It’s almost as though the remaining Beatles were happy to let it fade into antiquity – after all, it didn’t paint McCartney in a particularly favorable light… It might include more hints about the split.

The original film contained the barest of traces of dissent in The Beatles ranks – when McCartney criticized Harrison’s guitar part on ‘Two Of Us’ and George curtly replied “I’ll play whatever you want me to play, or I won’t play at all if you don’t want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I’ll do it.” McCartney has called the sessions “hell… the most miserable sessions on earth” and George actually walked out of the sessions – and the band – a few days into filming, but that event didn’t make it into director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original version.

Considering various members convinced Lindsay-Hogg to remove other contentious scenes, it’s not unfair to consider the original film as The Whitewash Album. So there’s great potential for a more warts-and-all version that spotlights the divisions, like footage of open-band surgery. Or will Macca want Jackson to erase all of his narkiness and concentrate on delivering a forensic study of the musical construction process? Actually, we’re not sure which we’d find more fascinating.

We haven’t seen half the rooftop concert yet.

The last ever Beatles gig is amongst the most legendary live performances ever, yet of its 42 minutes the original film included just 21. OK, so most of the remaining footage consists of another three or four runs through ‘Get Back’, but at this point, we’ll take anything we can get. Jackson’s film had better include every second of footage from when they step onto the roof to when the filth drags them off, or we’re calling the police again.

We might get to hear the lost post-Beatles album (sort of).

There’s always been a haze of mystery around the solo records that the various Beatles made during the life of the group, as John, Paul and George slunk away to let off their own individual creative pressure valves. In fact, many songs that ended up on solo albums were played during the Let It be sessions, so with astute editing we might get to hear what ‘Every Night’, ‘The Back Seat Of My Car’, ‘Gimme Some Truth’, ‘Jealous Guy’ and ‘All Things Must Pass’ might’ve sounded like on a record together, played by the Fabs. Sigh.

Besides the solo songs, several ‘Abbey Road’ tracks were worked on during the sessions, but didn’t make the cut for the movie. So here, hopefully, will be our chance to imagine what ‘Let It Be’ could’ve been like with ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ and ‘She Came In Through The Bathroom Window’ in place of ‘Dig It’ or ‘Maggie Mae’. Plus, there’s a chance we might get to hear Lennon singing ‘I Lost My Little Girl’, the first song McCartney ever wrote aged 14, another lost cut.

The original film is set for reissue too: For the purists, a reissue of the original Let It Be is due to follow Jackson’s film in 2020, to mark its 50^th anniversary. Let It Be marathon it is, then.

Jackson himself relishes in the stroke of luck opportunity--Peter Jackson said, "The 55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio made available to us, ensures this movie will be the ultimate 'fly on the wall' experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about - it's like a time machine transports us back to 1969, and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together."

"I was relieved to discover the reality is very different to the myth," continues Jackson, "After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot 18 months before they broke up, it's simply an amazing historical treasure-trove. Sure, there's moments of drama - but none of the discord this project has long been associated with. Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating - it's funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate."  

"I'm thrilled and honored to have been entrusted with this remarkable footage - making the movie will be a sheer joy."

Well, I hope this article has struck a nerve toward excited premise? Now, let’s dig into our memory and revisit the making of LET IT BE…

The Beatles' last album to be released, Let It Be was mostly recorded in early 1969, prior to Abbey Road. The music was produced by George Martin, and was then prepared for release in 1970 by Phil Spector.

Following the often-fractious sessions for the White Album in the summer of 1968, Paul McCartney realized The Beatles were in danger of fragmenting further if they continued to work independently of each other. Since the death of Brian Epstein on 27 August 1967 he had worked hard to keep the group motivated, and towards the end of 1968 he hit upon the idea of filming a television special in front of an audience.

“We started Let It Be in January 1969 at Twickenham Studios, under the working title Get Back. Michael Lindsay-Hogg was the director. The idea was that you'd see The Beatles rehearsing, jamming, getting their act together and then finally performing somewhere in a big end-of-show concert. We would show how the whole process worked. I remember I had an idea for the final scene which would be a massive tracking shot, forever and ever, and then we'd be in the concert. The original idea was to go on an ocean liner and get away from the world; you would see us rehearsing and then you'd finally see the pay-off. But we ended up in Twickenham. I think it was a safer situation for the director and everybody. Nobody was that keen on going on an ocean liner anyway. It was getting a bit fraught between us at that point, because we'd been together a long time and cracks were beginning to appear.” Paul McCartney, Anthology.

The effort was to be a continuation of the back-to-basics ethos the group had adopted since Lady Madonna in February 1968. That single had marked a move away from The Beatles' elaborate studio experimentation of 1966 and 1967, with a return to more straightforward rock and roll, and much of the White Album and the Yellow Submarine soundtrack had followed in a similar vein. Reconvening in January 1969 at Twickenham Film Studios, The Beatles began work on what was initially known as the Get Back project: the concept was a chance for the group to get back to their roots, with perhaps a return to live performance for the first time since 29 August 1966.

“In a nutshell, Paul wanted to make – it was time for another Beatle movie or something, and Paul wanted us to go on the road or do something. As usual, George and I were going, 'Oh, we don't want to do it, fuck,' and all that. He set it up and there was all discussions about where to go and all that. I would just tag along and I had Yoko by then, I didn't even give a shit about anything. I was stoned all the time, too, on H etc. And I just didn't give a shit. And nobody did, you know. Anyway, it's like in the movie where I go to do Across The Universe, Paul yawns and plays boogie, and I merely say, 'Oh, anybody want to do a fast one?” John Lennon, 1970 - Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner.

The plan, vague as it was in the early stages, was to perform one or more live shows, but with an added dimension of a television show and record release. The January 1969 sessions began as rehearsals for a concert which was to be filmed, which they hoped would yield enough suitable material for an album.

The rehearsals were filmed at Twickenham by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who had previously directed promotional films for Paperback Writer/Rain and Hey Jude/Revolution. Although none of it was intended to be released on record, on snippet of dialogue was included on Let It Be: John Lennon's announcement that "Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members" prior to For You Blue.

Nonetheless, many hours of rehearsal and performance were filmed at Twickenham from 2-14 January 1969. The audio was captured by the camera crew on mono Nagra reel-to-reel machines, as it was expected to be used on the film soundtrack. It is due to these Nagra reels, which were also rolling at the Apple Studios sessions from 21-31 January, that so much of The Beatles' works in progress from the Let It Be sessions survives.

“Paul had this idea that we were going to rehearse or... see it all was more like Simon and Garfunkel, like looking for perfection all the time. And so he has these ideas that we'll rehearse and then make the album. And of course, we're lazy fuckers and we've been playing for twenty years, for fuck's sake, we're grown men, we're not going to sit around rehearsing. I'm not, anyway. And we couldn't get into it. And we put down a few tracks and nobody was in it at all. It was a dreadful, dreadful feeling in Twickenham Studio, and being filmed all the time. I just wanted them to go away, and we'd be there, eight in the morning. You couldn't make music at eight in the morning or ten or whenever it was, in a strange place with people filming you and colored lights.” John Lennon, 1970 - Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner.

Once they started work on the Get Back project, it became clear to The Beatles that their collective enthusiasm was low. John Lennon was addicted to heroin and rarely enthused by the sessions, and arguments among the group eventually led to George Harrison temporarily leaving the band.

At the time The Beatles were exhausted after spending five months recording the White Album, and had also worked on Apple projects by James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, Jackie Lomax and solo works. At Twickenham they were forced to keep to film industry schedules, which involved starting work at 8.30am each day.

The cameras were kept rolling at all times, and captured the strains and tensions of this fragile period. However, there were many moments of true inspiration, and The Beatles' humor and warmth for one another was often evident.

“There was some amazing stuff – their humor got to me as much as the music, and I didn't stop laughing for six weeks. John Lennon only had to walk in a room, and I'd just crack up. Their whole mood was wonderful, and that was the thing, and there was all this nonsense going on at the time about the problems surrounding the group, and the press being at them, and in fact, there they were, just doing it, having a wonderful time and being incredibly funny, and none of that's in the film.” Glyn Johns, Record Producer.

The Beatles performed partial or complete versions of literally hundreds of cover versions and original songs in January 1969. These ranged from traditional songs and rock and roll classics to unreleased works-in-progress and those that eventually appeared on Let It Be, Abbey Road, and The Beatles' early solo albums. Among them were versions of Love Me Do, Child Of Nature, Something, Don't Let Me Down, All Things Must Pass, songs by Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, George Formby, The Beach Boys and others, as well as blues-based improvisations, aimless jams, off-the-cuff song sketches and many hours of dialogue. The Beatles worked at Twickenham from 2-14 January 1969. On 10 January George Harrison quit the band, after separate disagreements with John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

“For me, to come back into the winter of discontent with The Beatles in Twickenham was very unhealthy and unhappy. But I can remember feeling quite optimistic about it. I thought, 'OK, it's the New Year and we have a new approach to recording.' I think the first couple of days were OK, but it was soon quite apparent that it was just the same as it had been when we were last in the studio, and it was going to be painful again. There was a lot of trivia and games being played.

As everybody knows, we never had much privacy – and now they were filming us rehearsing. One day there was a row going on between Paul and me. It's actually in the film: you can see where he's saying, 'Well, don't play this,' and I'm saying, 'I'll play whatever you want me to play, or I won't play at all if you don't want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I'll do it...'

They were filming us having a row. It never came to blows, but I thought, 'What's the point of this? I'm quite capable of being relatively happy on my own and I'm not able to be happy in this situation. I'm getting out of here.'

Everybody had gone through that. Ringo had left at one point. I know John wanted out. It was a very, very difficult, stressful time, and being filmed having a row as well was terrible. I got up and I thought, 'I'm not doing this anymore. I'm out of here.” George Harrison, Anthology.

After Harrison walked out of the Twickenham rehearsals, the other three Beatles carried on performing without him. At one point, Yoko Ono wailed some vocals over their jamming. John Lennon can be heard on the tapes suggesting that if Harrison didn't return within a few days they should replace him with Eric Clapton.

“George left because Paul and he were having a heated discussion. They weren't getting on that day and George decided to leave, but he didn't tell John or me or Paul. There'd been some tension going down in the morning, and arguments would go on anyway, so none of us realised until we went to lunch that George had gone home. When we came back, he still wasn't there, so we started jamming violently. Paul was playing his bass into the amp and John was off, and I was playing some weird drumming that I hadn't done before. I don't play like that as a rule. Our reaction was really, really interesting at the time. And Yoko jumped in, of course; she was there.” Ringo Starr, Anthology.

Harrison was persuaded to rejoin on 15 January, during a five-hour meeting in which he insisted he would only rejoin if the idea of a live show was dropped. He also demanded that sessions be moved from Twickenham to a new studio in the basement of Apple's headquarters in Savile Row, London. He didn't object to The Beatles being filmed making their album, and his conditions didn't rule out a live performance for the cameras.

“I was called to a meeting out in Elstead in Surrey, at Ringo’s house that he bought from Peter Sellers. It was decided that it would be better if we got back together and finished the record. Twickenham Studios were very cold and not a very nice atmosphere, so we decided to abandon that and go to Savile Row into the recording studio.” George Harrison, Anthology.

The Apple Studios sessions began on 21 January 1969. From the following day, until the end of the Let It Be recordings on 31 January, they were joined by keyboard player Billy Preston, who was in London performing with Ray Charles.

The Beatles knew Preston from their Hamburg days, and George Harrison invited him to participate in the sessions to help alleviate the tensions. Five of the songs on Let It Be featured Billy Preston on organ or electric piano, as did Don't Let Me Down, the B-side to the Get Back single, also recorded during the sessions.

“Billy came down and I said, 'Remember Billy? Here he is – he can play the piano.' He got on the electric piano, and straight away there was 100% improvement in the vibe in the room. Having this fifth person was just enough to cut the ice that we'd created among ourselves. Billy didn't know all the politics and the games that had been going on, so in his innocence he got stuck in and gave an extra little kick to the band. Everybody was happier to have somebody else playing and it made what we were doing more enjoyable. We all played better and that was a great session. It was more or less just as it is on the record.” George Harrison, Anthology.

As at Twickenham, The Beatles performed a large variety of songs at Apple, although the original material became more focused. The sessions culminated with the famous rooftop performance on 30 January, and with a live studio set the following day for those songs which were less well suited for an outside performance. The Let It Be songs – Dig A Pony, I've Got A Feeling and One After 909 – were taken from the 30 January 1969 rooftop performance on the top of the Apple building. Dialogue from the event was also added to the end of a studio take of Get Back, with John Lennon closing The Beatles' book with the line: "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we've passed the audition."

From the final studio session on 31 January, versions of Two Of Us and Let It Be were used on the album, and various other performances from the day were used in the film.

Glyn Johns' Get Back: Eventually, once the recording and filming was complete, The Beatles realized they had little aptitude to sift through the hours of recordings for suitable songs. That task was given to Glyn Johns, who prepared two different versions of an album, titled Get Back, both of which were rejected by The Beatles.

“We let Glyn John remix it and we didn't want to know, we just left it to him and said, 'Here, do it.' It's the first time since the first album we didn't have anything to... we just said, 'Do it.' Glyn Johns did it, none of us could be bothered going in and Paul... nobody called each other about it. The tapes were left there, and we got an acetate each, and we'd call each other and say, 'Well, what do you think? Oh, let it out.' We were going to let it out with a really shitty condition, disgusted. And I wanted... I didn't care, I thought it was good to go out to show people what had happened to us. Like this is where we're at now, we couldn't get – we can't get it together and don't play together anymore. Leave us alone. Glyn Johns did a terrible job on it, 'cause he's got no idea, etc. Never mind. But he hasn't, really. And so the bootleg version is what it was like. Paul was probably thinking, 'Well, I'm not going to fucking work on it.' It was twenty-nine hours of tape, it was like a movie. I mean just so much tape. Ten, twenty takes of everything, because we're rehearsing and taking everything. Nobody could face looking at it.” John Lennon, 1970, Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner.

Glyn Johns had been approached by Paul McCartney in December 1968 to work on the Get Back sessions. He was present throughout the sessions, and afterwards began the mammoth task of compiling an album from the tapes.

“I originally put together an album of rehearsals, with chat and jokes and bits of general conversation in between the tracks, which was the way I wanted Let It Be to be – breakdowns, false starts. Really the idea was that at the time, they were viewed as being the be-all-and-end-all, sort of up on a pedestal, beyond touch, just Gods, completely Gods, and what I witnessed going on at these rehearsals was that, in fact, they were hysterically funny, but very ordinary people in many ways, and they were capable of playing as a band, which everybody was beginning to wonder about at that point, because they hadn't done so for some time – everything had been prepared in advance, everything had been overdubbed and everything, and they proved in that rehearsal that they could still sing and play at the same time, and they could make records without all those weird and wonderful sounds on them.

That became an obsession with me, and I got the bit between my teeth about it, and one night, I mixed a bunch of stuff that they didn't even know I'd recorded half the time – I just whacked the recorder on for a lot of stuff that they did, and gave them an acetate the following morning of what I'd done, as a rough idea of what an album could be like, released as it was… They came back and said they didn't like it, or each individual bloke came in and said he didn't like it, and that was the end of that. A period of time went by and I went to America to work with Steve Miller, and when I came back, I got a call from John and Paul asking me to meet them at EMI, which I duly did. They pointed to a big pile of tapes in the corner, and said, 'Remember that idea you had about putting together an album?' and I said, 'Yes'. They said, 'Well, there are the tapes – go and do it'. So I was absolutely petrified – you can imagine. I was actually being asked to put together a Beatle album on my own. So I did – I went off and locked myself away for a week or so and pieced an album together out of these rehearsed tapes, which they then all liked, really liked. This was some months after the thing had actually been recorded, and we'd actually started work on Abbey Road about the same time.” Glyn johns, Record Producer.

Glyn Johns began sifting through the session tapes on 10 March 1969 at Olympic Sound Studios in London. The Beatles themselves had little involvement, having begun work on Abbey Road around the same time. Johns mixed the session tapes at Olympic from 10-13 March, and on 7, 9 and 28 May. At this stage, side one of the Get Back album was to have contained One After 909, Rocker, Save The Last Dance For Me, Don't Let Me Down, Dig A Pony, I've Got A Feeling and Get Back; side two featured For You Blue, Teddy Boy, Two Of Us, Maggie Mae, Dig It, Let It Be, The Long And Winding Road and Get Back (Reprise).

For the Get Back project, it was The Beatles' intention to recreate the cover of Please Please Me, showing how thy had changed visually since 1963. In May 1969 the group returned to EMI's headquarters in London's Manchester Square, and the same photographer, Angus McBean, photographed them as they resumed their poses.

The artwork was prepared for Glyn Johns' Get Back album, which was to bear the strapline "with Let It Be and 11 other songs". For reasons unknown, however, the session photographs remained unused until the 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 (the so-called Red and Blue albums) were released in 1973.

The Beatles rejected Johns' first Get Back album, and new recording sessions for two Let It Be songs took place on 3 and 4 January 1970 – a year after the initial recordings were made.

The first of these was for George Harrison's I Me Mine, which had briefly performed attempts before the cameras during the 1969 sessions. In the film, Harrison first plays the song to Ringo Starr, followed by a version performed by Harrison, Paul McCartney and Starr, during which John Lennon dances with Yoko Ono.

“I Me Mine, it's called. I don't care if you don't want it... It's a heavy waltz.

George Harrison, Let It Be.

No proper studio recording of I Me Mine existed until 3 January 1970. It featured just Harrison, McCartney and Starr, as Lennon was on holiday in Denmark. The following day, 4 January, overdubs were recorded for Let It Be, in the band's final proper recording session together.

While Johns still worked on the tapes, the band decided that the album should include just songs featured in the forthcoming film. One of these, Across The Universe, had been recorded in February 1968 prior to The Beatles' trip to India.

On 5 January 1970 Glyn Johns began assembling a second Get Back album, with the instruction that it should tie in with the songs which appeared in the film. The track listing had One After 909, Rocker, Save The Last Dance For Me, Don't Let Me Down, Dig A Pony, I've Got A Feeling, Get Back and Let It Be on side one, and For You Blue, Two Of Us, Maggie Mae, Dig It, The Long And Winding Road, I Me Mine, Across The Universe and Get Back (Reprise) on side two.

Enter Phil Spector: Like Johns' earlier attempt at compiling a Get Back LP from the tapes, this second version was rejected by The Beatles. The project languished some more until 23 March 1970, when Phil Spector began work on what would become Let It Be. Spector listened only to the songs already selected by Johns, to avoid having to work through the many hours of session tapes from Apple and EMI studios.

“When Spector came around, it was like, 'Well, all right, if you want to work with us, go and do your audition, man.' And he worked like a pig on it. He'd always wanted to work with The Beatles and he was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit – and with a lousy feeling to it – ever. And he made something out of it. It wasn't fantastic, but I heard it, I didn't puke. I was so relieved after six months of this black cloud hanging over, this was going to go out. I thought it would be good to go out, the shitty version, because it would break The Beatles, it would break the myth. That's us with no trousers on and no glossy paint over the cover and no sort of hype. 'This is what we're like with our trousers off. So would you please end the game now?' But that didn't happen, and we ended up doing Abbey Road quickly and putting out something to preserve the myth.” John Lennon, 1970 - Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner.

Spector's involvement in Let It Be became one of the most contentious episodes of The Beatles' story. He was invited to work on the project by John Lennon and George Harrison, without the knowledge of Paul McCartney or George Martin.

“I cannot bring myself to listen to the Phil Spector version of the album – I heard a few bars of it once, and was totally disgusted, and I think it's an absolute load of garbage. Obviously I'm biased, because they didn't use my version, which upset me, but I wouldn't have minded so much if things hadn't happened in the way they did. First of all, after The Beatles had broken up, John Lennon, as an individual, took the tapes and gave them to Phil Spector, without the others even being aware of it, which was extraordinary. I think Spector did the most atrocious job, just utter puke.” Glyn Johns, Record Producer.

Spector's editing, mixing and recording for the album lasted until 2 April 1970. The most controversial of these sessions took place on 1 April, when orchestral and choral parts were added to Across The Universe and The Long And Winding Road, and an orchestra to I Me Mine. The parts were arranged by Richard Hewson, who had worked on Mary Hopkin's Those Were The Days, and later orchestrated Paul McCartney's Thrillington album.

Other changes made by Spector included editing out the "All I want is..." vocals which opened and closed Dig A Pony, and extended I Me Mine from 1'34" to 2'25" by repeating a section. He also left out Don't Let Me Down, despite its inclusion in the Let It Be film. An edit of the two rooftop performances of the song was eventually released on 2003's Let It Be... Naked, in place of Dig It and Maggie Mae.

“I like what Phil did, actually. He put the music somewhere else and he was king of the 'wall of sound'. There's no point bringing him in if you're not going to like the way he does it – because that's what he does. His credentials are solid.”

Ringo Starr, Anthology.

Paul McCartney's reaction

In April 1970, when Paul McCartney effectively announced The Beatles' split by issuing a self-interview in a press release, he was still referring to the Let It Be album as Get Back.

Q: The album was not known about until it was nearly completed. Was this deliberate?

A: Yes, because normally an album is old before it even comes out. (aside) Witness GET BACK.

Q: Were any of the songs on the album originally written with the Beatles in mind?

A: The older ones were. JUNK was intended for ABBEY ROAD, but something happened. TEDDY BOY was for GET BACK, but something happened.

In particular, McCartney took exception to Phil Spector's additions to The Long And Winding Road, which turned a simple piano ballad into a soaring orchestral epic.

“The album was finished a year ago, but a few months ago American record producer Phil Spector was called in by John Lennon to tidy up some of the tracks. But a few weeks ago, I was sent a re-mixed version of my song 'The Long And Winding Road', with harps, horns, an orchestra and women's choir added. No one had asked me what I thought. I couldn't believe it. I would never have female voices on a Beatles record. The record came with a note from Allen Klein saying he thought the changes were necessary. I don't blame Phil Spector for doing it but it just goes to show that it's no good me sitting here thinking I'm in control because obviously I'm not. Anyway, I've sent Klein a letter asking for some of the things to be altered, but I haven't received an answer yet.” Paul McCartney, April 1970, The Evening Standard.

McCartney's requests were ignored by Klein, and Spector's version of Let It Be was released in May 1970. George Martin shared McCartney's dismay at the results.

“It was always understood that the album would be like nothing the Beatles had done before. It would be honest, no overdubbing, no editing, truly live... almost amateurish. When John brought in Phil Spector, he contradicted everything he had said before. When I heard the final sounds, I was shaken. They were so uncharacteristic of the clean sounds the Beatles had always used. At the time Spector was John's buddy, mate and pal... I was astonished because I knew Paul would never have agreed to it. In fact, I contacted him and he said nobody was more surprised than he was.” George Martin, Rolling Stone.

The back cover of Let It Be gave a note of thanks to George Martin, although it didn't list him as a producer. Martin later drily noted that the credits should have read: "Produced by George Martin, overproduced by Phil Spector."

For his part, Spector remained unrepentant in the face of the criticism:

“Paul had no problem picking up the Academy Award for the Let It Be movie soundtrack, nor did he have any problem in using my arrangement of the string and horn and choir parts when he performed it during 25 years of touring on his own. If Paul wants to get into a pissing contest about it, he's got me mixed up with someone who gives a shit.” Phil Spector.

In November 2003 a new version of the recordings was issued as Let It Be... Naked. Remixed and remastered under McCartney's direction, it was intended to sound closer to the original vision for the project.

The release: In the US, Let It Be was preceded by a single, The Long And Winding Road/For You Blue. By the time it was issued on 11 May 1970, news of The Beatles' split had broken. The single was one result of Allen Klein's plan to rapidly increase The Beatles' income: 1.2m copies were sold in its first two days on sale, and it became The Beatles' 20th and final number one single in the US.

Let It Be had its US release on 18 May 1970. More than 3,700,000 advance orders had been placed, which at the time was the highest for any album in the history of the US recording industry.

In the UK, Let It Be was initially released on 8 May 1970 as a box set, with a 168-page book, titled Get Back, containing stills and dialogue from the Let It Be film. The package retailed at £2 19s 11d, one pound more than the normal selling price of an album, and on 6 November 1970 it was withdrawn and replaced by a conventional album release.

The Let It Be film had its world première in New York City on 13 May 1970. On 20 May UK premieres were held at Liverpool's Gaumont Cinema and the London Pavilion. Tellingly, none of The Beatles attended any of the events.

“The film was taken over by Allen Klein, who actually got The Beatles much later, after Let It Be was all recorded, and that was when the rot set in. Klein saw a rough-cut of it and said he didn't want anyone else in the film but The Beatles, so everyone else who was in any shot at any time was taken out, the net result being that it got a bit difficult to watch after a while. Also, some of the stuff that I know was in there originally, and was extremely interesting, was conversations with other people, members of the film crew, people who were just around, people visiting, like Billy Preston – but Klein said that only The Beatles could be in the film and that was it.” Glyn Johns, Record Producer.

Cover Art: The Beatles' albums had been treated to a wealth of iconic images during the 1960s, from Robert Freeman's photography on With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles For Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul, to the artworks by Klaus Voormann, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton on their 1966-68 releases.

Let It Be, when it eventually emerged, featured portraits of each of The Beatles, taken during the recording sessions, separated by thick black bars. The meaning was clear: the group was no longer together. They were not even named on the cover, and the words Let It Be starkly underlined that it was the group's epitaph.

On the back cover there were four more black and white portraits, along with a few words attempting to preserve the myth that Let It Be showed The Beatles warts and all:

This is a new phase BEATLES album...Essential to the content of the film, LET IT BE was that they performed live for many of the tracks; in comes the warmth and the freshness of a live performance; as reproduced for disc by Phil Spector.”

In a November 1971 interview with Melody Maker, Paul McCartney spoke of his disapproval of the words, which he felt masked a greater truth.

“There was a bit of hype on the back of the sleeve for the first time ever on a Beatles album. At the time, the Beatles were very strained with each other and it wasn't a happy time. It said it was a 'new-phase Beatles album' and there was nothing further from the truth. That was the last Beatles album and everybody knew it.” Paul McCartney, Melody Maker, November 1971.

His comments prompted a letter of reply from John Lennon, who requested that his version of events be given equal prominence to McCartney's. The result was an unseemly public row between the two, which, although mostly focused on wider issues, effectively trampled the reputation of Let It Be further into the ground.

“One other little lie in your "It's only Paulie" MM bit: Let It Be was not the first bit of hype on a Beatle album. Remember Tony Barrow? And his wonderful writing on "Please Please Me" etc. etc. The early Beatle Xmas records! And you gotta admit it was a 'new-phase' Beatle album, incidentally written in the style of the great Barrow himself! By the way, what happened to my idea of putting the parody of our first album cover on the Let It Be cover?

Also, we were intending to parody Barrow originally, so it was hype. But what is your LIFE article? Tony Barrow couldn't have done it better. (And your writing inside of the Wings album [Wild Life] isn't exactly the realist is it?) Anyway, enough of this petty bourgeois fun.” John Lennon, Melody Maker, November 1971.

Critical reception: Let It Be won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score at the 43rd Annual Academy Awards in 1971. The statuette was accepted on their behalf by Quincy Jones. The soundtrack was also awarded a Grammy for Best Original Score.

Music critics were generally positive in their appraisals of Let It Be, though responses were mixed. In the Times newspaper, William Mann wrote: "Let us attend the funeral when life is pronounced extinct; at the moment the corporate vitality of The Beatles, to judge from Let It Be, is pulsating as strongly as ever." Similarly, Robert Christgau in the Village Voice said: "Though this is a little lightweight, it makes up in charm what it lacks in dramatic brilliance."

Conversely, New Musical Express critic Alan Smith wrote: "If the new Beatles soundtrack is to be their last then it will stand as a cheapskate epitaph, a cardboard tombstone, a sad and tatty end to a musical fusion which wiped clean and drew again the face of pop." Rolling Stone magazine identified Phil Spector's production as the album's weakness: "Musically, boys, you passed the audition. In terms of having the judgment to avoid either over-producing yourselves or casting the fate of your get-back statement to the most notorious of all over-producers, you didn't."

Although most Beatles fans were aware that the group was no more by the time of Let It Be's release, it was still hoped that their final musical word would be a suitable epitaph, one as creative as Abbey Road had been, and with the drama and gravitas that might be expected of a final word. Instead, many listeners considered the songs lightweight, half-hearted, and several steps down from The Beatles' earlier heady heights.

In the years since then, the album has been embraced by newer generations of fans, many of whom remain unaware of the difficulties surrounding its gestation. Although few would argue that For You Blue, Dig It or Maggie Mae are among The Beatles' best, the likes of Across The Universe, Let It Be and One After 909 show the range of styles to which they could turn their hands to. And, let us not forget, even if the collection wasn't The Beatles' best, for many lesser bands these songs would have constituted a career peak.

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Hey Paul, a Great 60s Composer you are, but a Great 60s Film Director you are not. Please Stick To The Music!

“MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR”

(SMAL 2835)

Released November 27th, 1967

The Beatles had well raised the bar to new heights with the release of their June 1967 masterpiece album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”  The music, artwork, album packaging, and even the look of the group themselves had changed so dramatically that no one would stand surprised by anything else the group might have up their sleeves for the future.

“Sgt. Pepper,” as well as their July single “All You Need Is Love,” dominated the radio airwaves and home turntables throughout the world, most noteworthy in America and Britain. The infatuation with that album continued throughout the year, keeping it in the number one position on the Billboard album charts until November and in the top five for the remainder of the year.

Meanwhile, The Beatles were hard at work on a brand-new project earmarked to further ‘turn on’ their world audience, although a major portion of this audience would never experience it until many years later.  The project was a new film entitled “Magical Mystery Tour,” which debuted across British Television on December 26th, 1967.  Plans, of course, were to release it for American audiences to see but, because of the overall critical slamming it received in the U.K., American television didn't acquire the rights for broadcast.  As far as the U.S. market was concerned, there was no such thing as a “Magical Mystery Tour” movie.  Most American fans didn’t know it existed until about a decade later.

What they did know, however, was the music.  Radio listeners knew that portion very well!  With the echoes of “Sgt. Pepper” still ringing through the EMI studios, The Beatles took great pains to record six amazingly psychedelic songs as the soundtrack to the film.  The production values were still very high as they took their time to perfect these new audio creations.

Of course, six songs were not enough to release as a follow-up album to “Sgt. Pepper,” and they were too busy creating the film to throw together more music.  Therefore, management decided that the six songs would be released as a double EP to accompany the film, EPs remaining a popular format in Britain at the time.  This, however, was not the case in America, the small handful of Beatles EPs released here never made it to the top 40.  U.S. audiences just didn’t buy EPs.

According to the November 25th, 1967 issue of Billboard magazine, Capitol Records made a “decision to issue the six soundtrack recordings from The Beatles’ forthcoming TV fantasy spectacular, ‘Magical Mystery Tour,’ on an album in the U.S.”  These six songs would comprise side one, and the five tracks the group released as singles that year would make up side two.  This decision was deemed a wise one since, on the coat-tails of the incredible success of “Sgt. Pepper,” American audiences were sure to jump on with both feet.

And jump they did.  With an elaborately packaged fold-out album cover, complete with a 24-page booklet featuring costumed Beatles in a variety of ‘far-out’ poses as well as storyboard cartoon comics that tell the story of their ‘mystery’ journey, the album was viewed as an incredibly imaginative follow-up to “Sgt. Pepper” that seemed to take the “summer of love” to yet another level.  While the liner notes explained that the music was “from a color television film,” this apparently went in one ear and out the other for most American fans.  The music, along with the vivid imagery of the elaborate packaging, was more than enough for what the senses could handle.  What better follow-up to “Pepper” could there possibly be?

Origin Of The Album

To explain the origin of the album is to actually explain the origin of the film, which was the primary objective of what was to be their next project.  “Privately, I’d got a camera, and I would go out in the park and make films,” explains Paul McCartney.  “We’d show our little home movies to each other, and we’d put crazy soundtracks on them.  I used to do a bit of editing at home – I had a little machine, and I was getting very into it.  So for the next Beatles project, I thought:  ‘Let’s go and make a film – what a great thing to do.’  It was all done on whims.”

The idea for the film solidified during Paul’s trip to America (April 3rd to 12th, 1967) just after recording for the “Sgt. Pepper” album completed the task.  On the return trip home on April 11th, with roadie Mal Evans at his side, Paul pieced the idea together.

According to Beatles friend Pete Shotton, "’Magical Mystery Tour’ was inspired by the freewheeling adventures of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, as chronicled in Tom Wolfe’s book ‘The Electric Kool-Aid-Acid Test.’”  Author Barry Miles, in the book “Many Years From Now,” elaborates:  “In 1964 Kesey and his cohorts had painted a 1939 International Harvester school bus in psychedelic colors and taken it on a transcontinental tour of the USA, dispensing LSD along the way and filming and recording every dramatic encounter, intending to make a movie called ‘The Merry Pranksters Search For A Cool Place.’  The film never materialized, but the bus trip became the stuff of legend and eventually written up by Tom Wolfe in ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.’”  Pete Shotton continues:  “Paul had proposed that The Beatles simply travel around the English countryside with a busload of fat ladies, dwarfs, and other groovy people, and film whatever happened to happen.”

It was also on this return trip home that Paul began writing the title song for “Magical Mystery Tour,” which predated the release of the “Sgt. Pepper” album by nearly two months.  However, since Capitol decided to include The Beatles singles released that year on the second side of the album, the first song written for the “Magical Mystery Tour” album dated back to September of 1966 when John Lennon composed “Strawberry Fields Forever” during the filming of the movie “How I Won The War.”  The first recording session that was included in the results of the “Magical Mystery Tour” album, therefore, was a session for “Strawberry Fields” on November 28th, 1966, the last session being November 2nd, 1967, this being a final bass guitar overdub for “Hello Goodbye.”  So, in retrospect, you could say that it took over eleven months to record the album although, of course, the entire “Sgt. Pepper” album, as well as many other tracks, were recorded in between.

Album Packaging

With the income generated from “Sgt. Pepper” still pouring in, Capitol didn’t think twice about elaborately packaging the jacket for “Magical Mystery Tour” for the American Beatles fans.  The British EP front cover, which showed the group posed in their “I Am The Walrus” costumes below yellow stars spelling out the name “BEATLES,” was cropped and contained with the titles of all the songs above and below.  Capitol also reproduced the 24-page booklet that came with the British release, enlarging it to the size of the album cover.  As with the British release, the back cover contained a multiple image of the group during the staircase “Your Mother Should Know” sequence of the film.  This elaborate packaging stayed in production throughout the years with the exception of the booklet, which was dropped in the late ’70s to cut costs.

All-in-all, the artwork proved colorful, and the packaging showed much more elaborate than that of the usual 60’s pop album.  As with their music, The Beatles raised the bar even higher when it came to album covers which made the competition think of ways to top what they were offering their fans.  As for The Beatles, after the “Pepper” and “Magical Mystery Tour” sleeves, how could they possibly top it?  Maybe just a plain white jacket with nothing on it at all!

The idea of converting the film’s soundtrack into a full album gained fan approval throughout the world, even Britain succumbing to the concept in December of 1976.  Nine years later, the era of EP’s had died out in the U.K., so Parlophone had to recognize that the album format for “Magical Mystery Tour” was a good one after all.

Success Of The Album

While the film never saw the light of day in the states, the album was an immense success.  Being released in late November of 1967, it made the perfect Christmas gift for “Sgt. Pepper” fans, selling more than one-and-a-half million copies in the U.S. before the holiday came.  This was reflected in the Billboard album charts where it jumped from #157 in its first week to #4 the week of December 30th, not quite overreaching the “Sgt. Pepper” album, which was still at #3.  By the following week (the January 6th, 1968 issue of Billboard) it took over the #1 spot, the first of eight weeks in a row.  In a familiar turn of events, it replaced The Monkees album “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones” at the top spot, just as “Sgt. Pepper” had replaced their “Headquarters” album at #1 back in July.

Also of note is the “Magical Mystery Tour” album secured a nomination for “Album Of The Year” at the 1969 American Grammy Awards.  The award went to Glen Campbell’s “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” but it shows the impact the album had in the U.S.

“Magical Mystery Tour” eventually went on to sell over six million copies in America alone, which showed Capitol rightly made a very smart move in packaging the film’s music as an album instead of an EP.  While their recently renegotiated contract extension with The Beatles stipulated that future released albums were to contain the same amount of material in the U.S. as in Britain, American fans didn’t feel ‘ripped off’ by the album only containing eleven songs.  Most of the Capitol Beatles albums up to this point only featured eleven anyways, and most fans in the states were not aware that this was a makeshift album.  Therefore, having fewer tracks than “Sgt. Pepper” surely didn’t affect in the least terrific album sales.

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BEST SHORT-CHANGED 1965 Rip-off LP in America...HELP! But who knew at the time, because it still was a must have.

HELP! The Original Soundtrack Album - Released August 13th, 1965

United Artists funneled itself into a very smart company.  Seeing the mania concerning The Beatles in Britain, they had the foresight to know that these lads were going to be huge in America as well.  Therefore, in late 1963, they struck a deal with Beatles manager Brian Epstein to film a motion picture starring the group with the sole intention of gaining the rights to release the soundtrack album in the US.  The resulting album, "A Hard Day's Night," was released on June 26th, 1964 and was reported as one of the fastest selling albums in the history of the record business.  It sold a million copies in four days!  It spent 14 straight weeks at number one on the Billboard album chart!  And it wound up selling over four million copies overall!

That was 1964.  As things were developing, 1965 looked to be a carbon copy of the previous year.  A second United Artists motion picture surfaced in the works and was scheduled to start shooting on February 23rd of that year.  Could United Artists repeat the amazing success of releasing a record-breaking soundtrack album in 1965 as it had done the previous year?  No.

Shortly after the original 1963 contract with United Artists took place, Capitol Records finally agreed to be the US distributors of The Beatles music.  Being an EMI affiliate, they received exclusive rights, which included all future recordings; even future soundtrack albums.  Therefore this second movie, which eventually was titled “Help!,” had its soundtrack album released on Capitol Records.

Capitol couldn’t help noticing the amazing response United Artists had received from their Beatles soundtrack album the previous year, so, they were gearing up for a repeat performance, since the group's popularity was not even close to waning.

Origin Of The Album

As a proven method, Capitol planned on mimicking the format United Artists used for their 1964 soundtrack album, interspersing Beatles songs heard in the picture with instrumental music from the movie.  Like its predecessor, Capitol also chose not to include The Beatles songs that appeared on side two of the British “Help!” album, deciding to include these on later albums to incur more American sales.

One noticeable difference concerning the instrumental tracks contained on the new soundtrack album was that Beatles producer George Martin did not create them with his orchestra as “A Hard Day’s Night” had lavishly aided the cause.  Movie director Richard Lester made sure the movie scoring went to Ken Thorne this time around.  George Martin explains:

“I produced all the tracks for the film, but I wasn't asked to do the scoring - another guy was offered the job.  Dick Lester and I didn't hit it off too well on 'A Hard Day's Night,' and the fact that I got an Academy Award nomination for musical direction probably didn't help either.”

Since George Martin produced the seven Beatles tracks that appeared in the film, the production credits on the back of the album read, “Produced in England by George Martin and in the U.S.A. by Dave Dexter Jr.”  Dexter was responsible for taking instrumental snippets from the movie and including them on the album in between The Beatles songs.  He even took it upon himself to name these snippets.

Another idea Capitol used was to treat this album as the standard “Original Broadway Cast” albums of the era, packaging the disc in an open-gatefold cover as a “very special movie soundtrack souvenir album!”, as printed onto the inside cover read.  This being the case, they felt obliged to raise the list price of the album by a dollar, which brought the mono version of the album to $4.98 and the stereo to $5.98.  With such hype surrounding the release of the movie, as well as the continued popularity of the group, Capitol felt that the extra dollar would not deter anyone.

And they were correct.  While not outselling the 1964 soundtrack album, it still soared to the number one position on the Billboard album chart and stayed there for nine weeks.  The LP generated over a million dollars worth of sales in the first week and ended up selling more than three million copies, which was three times the amount of the previous American Beatles album “Beatles VI.”   Weakened by content, having only seven Beatles songs on the album (one of which was "Ticket To Ride," which had been available nearly four months prior) its lack did not keep three million Beatles fans from buying the album.

United Artists Records may not have been able to cash in on the music sales, but they tried.  Since they enjoyed a respectable amount of success the previous year with George Martin’s orchestrated versions of the “A Hard Day’s Night” songs, they thought to release a similar album in conjunction with “Help!”  “George Martin and his orchestra play Help!” was the name of a 1965 United Artists album that featured instrumental versions of all seven songs from the movie plus four songs from the second side of the British “Help!” album, namely "Tell Me What You See," “Auntie Gin’s Theme” (I've Just Seen A Face), “That’s A Nice Hat (Cap)” (It's Only Love) and “Scrambled Egg” (Yesterday).

An interesting side note about this George Martin album concerns the track “Ticket To Ride.”  When the 1973 album “Dark Side Of The Moon” by Pink Floyd was recorded, the tape used to record the heartbeat heard at the end of the album apparently provided the same tape that originally contained George Martin’s orchestrated rendition of “Ticket To Ride.”  While the remnants of the original recording cannot be heard on the vinyl copies of the Pink Floyd album, the later re-mastered compact disc release reveals the faint remains of the song.

Recording The Album

After a non-stop hectic 1964, The Beatles started 1965 by taking nearly a month off (mid-January to mid-February) to recuperate and take vacations if they chose.  They reconvened at EMI Studio Two on February 15th to get down to the business of recording newly written songs for their second motion picture.  For the next six days, which was a Monday through Saturday, they completed eleven new songs for consideration of being included in the film.

Nine of these songs were brand new Lennon/McCartney compositions, while George Harrison came through with a burst of creative output, offering up two new songs of his own.  While his first ever song "Don't Bother Me" did get featured in their first movie (but not on the soundtrack album), he became bound and determined to get a piece of the songwriting pie this time around.

As was the case in the previous year, only six of these songs made the grade.  Director Richard Lester had the final say, and he chose one of George’s songs, namely “I Need You,” while his other track "You Like Me Too Much" got rejected.  Undaunted, George was very proud of having one of his compositions included in the film and soundtrack album, evidenced by hearing Harrison verbally point it out when the song’s credit rolls across the screen viewed at the conclusion of the film.

Most of the rejected songs did get released in different forms.  “Yes It Is” may not have fit the mood of the movie, but it was earmarked early on for the b-side of their April single “Ticket To Ride.”  George’s “You Like Me Too Much,” as well as “Tell Me What You See,” first appeared on the American album “Beatles VI” and eventually wound up on side two of the British “Help!” album.

Two other songs, however, were also apparently rejected by EMI as well, since they didn’t get released at all (until the ’90s, that is).  The Lennon and McCartney’s compositions "If You've Got Trouble" and the only song recorded on Saturday, "That Means A Lot," were relegated to the shelf indefinitely.  Even though they returned to the recording studio mid-movie to have another go at the latter song, this too was deemed unworthy of release and was given to singer P.J. Proby to release as a single.  Being that this single was unsuccessful as well, I guess the world just wasn’t ready for a love song that mentioned “suicide” in the lyrics.

One further song, though, was required for the movie, which needed to open the onset, named after the title of the film.  The problem was that they hadn’t yet decided what the movie title would signify.  Finally, on April 11th, they got the OK to name the movie “Help!” (with an exclamation mark), John and Paul got to work on writing the title song.  By April 12th, the song rallied complete, and by April 13th, the song was fully recorded at EMI Studio Two.

As for the instrumental tracks on the Capitol album, The Beatles won out there as well.  Since much of the musical score by Ken Thorne swirled on previous Beatles material, three of the instrumental selections contained the “Lennon/McCartney” composer credit, which resulted in additional songwriting royalties paid handsomely to John and Paul.  The instrumental songs in question were "From Me To You Fantasy," "Another Hard Day's Night" and the second half of a medley on side two that combined "The Bitter End" with touches of a barely recognizable "You Can't Do That."

It is quite obvious that the emphasis of these instrumental tracks value held little importance in the preparing of this album.  The prepared back cover of the album had approval before they even knew what these songs were named (listing them simply as “instrumental”) and they never went back to include them on later pressings.  Even the first pressing of the record labels failed to indicate Ken Thorne as the composer of three of the songs.  They obviously were anxious to get the album out as soon as possible.

A gatefold album cover for a pop record in the US was quite unheard of, but not for a soundtrack album.  Capitol used the established format common to 60’s motion picture and Broadway soundtrack albums to create a cover that celebrated the release of the movie, which came out on July 29th, 1965.  This highly anticipated album was released just over two weeks later on August 13th.  One factor that led to this album’s highly anticipated strength was that four months prior to its debut, the American single “Ticket To Ride” featured the legend “From the United Artists Release ‘Eight Arms To Hold You'.”  If by this point the news hadn't yet reached their fans that The Beatles were making a new movie, they knew if now!

The simple British album cover for this collection of songs couldn’t have been any different.  The only similarity between the British and American album jackets was the cover photo, which was taken by Robert Freeman at Twickenham Film Studios.  He intended to have the group hold out their arms to spell out the word “help” in semaphore letters.  He gave up on this idea when it looked too awkward and told them to hold their arms in more natural poses.  The result on the British album ended up spelling out the word “nujv” but, since Capitol decided to reposition Ringo to second from the left, it spelled out the word “nvuj” on the American album.  Capitol also decided to turn this color photo into black and white for some reason.

The back cover, as with most soundtrack albums of the time, focuses on the film's major credentials, such as the main actors (other than The Beatles), the producer and director, who wrote the screenplay and who did the musical score.  United Artists may not have been able to release the album, but they graciously got a major plug on the back of the album jacket.

The inside fold-out cover simply contains eight photos from the movie (only three in color) with a brief but glorified synopsis of the movie.  Producer Walter Shenson is quoted therein, saying “The boys sincerely hope that what they’ve done will be fun for everyone.”

Capitol also extended their promotion of the album in a unique way.  They struck a deal with Curad to produce one million “Help” band-aids to generate demand for the album.  The band-aids actually had the words “BEATLES” and “HELP” printed on them, although nobody specified to them to use the exclamation mark.  In conjunction with this promotion, Capitol prepared bumper stickers that resembled band-aids to promote the album, making sure to include the Capitol logo.  Try to find these collectors’ items today!

Please feel free to leave any comments or corrections and share these articles plus the blog's website with your friends, especially Beatles’ fans. You and they might also enjoy knowing more about my Love Songs CD and my novel, BEATLEMANIAC. Just click on the “My Shop” tab near the top of this page for full details.

BEST LP of 1964 in America -- United Artists A Hard Day’s Night. Oh, the joy of the exciting times it was back then!

"A HARD DAY'S NIGHT"

ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

(UAS 6366)

Released June 26th, 1964

A new and exciting way for Beatlemaniacs the world over to better know their favorite new recording artists arrived in the form of a big screen theatrical release entitled, wait for it, "A Hard Day's Night."  This medium cemented the popularity of The Beatles in so many ways that even they may not have realized how powerful their film impressed the masses. 

From beginning to end, seeing them interact and react to the circumstances that presented themselves in the movie, die-hard fans of their music got to know their (perceived) personalities, idiosyncrasies and sense of humor.  The youth of that time felt more like they knew their favorite musicians and, therefore, grew ever more attached.  Henceforth, the Liverpudlian accent become synonymous with the group as everyone under the sun became amateur impressionists; a practice which continues to this day.

The financial and critical success of the movie proved astounding top of the pop heights, as is the legacy it endures.  This highly respected "mock documentary," nominated for two Academy Awards, made the Time Magazine list of all-time great 100 films and rightly described as "the Citizen Cane of jukebox musicals" by The Village Voice.  Roger Ebert, the world-renowned film critic, describes "A Hard Day's Night" as "one of the great life-affirming landmarks of the movies."  The film has been credited as influencing and/or inspiring other British Invasion’s movie craze,  Dave Clark Five, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Herman's Hermits, plus he the popular television show "The Monkees," and even MTV.

Origin Of The Album

In actuality, this may have been the only movie ever produced without the intention of ever being successful.  Bud Ornstein, the European head of production for United Artists, helped conceive a plan to 'cash in' on the unparalleled success of The Beatles' British fame. 

Although The Beatles were virtually unknown in America as of October of 1963, UA knew they would be huge there too.  They were aware that Capitol Records (the American EMI affiliate who had first shot at releasing Beatles music in the states) kept refusing to release their material in the US.  They also knew that two small labels, Vee-Jay Records and Swan Records, were struggling to promote The Beatles records in America but with extremely limited success.

This is where United Artists' plan went into action.  "Our record division wants to get the soundtrack album to distribute in the States," Bud Ornstein explained, "and what we lose on the film we'll get back on this disc."  The plan was to produce a low-budget "exploitation" movie, which was very commonly done to promote recent hits by popular artists and obtain the rights to release the "soundtrack album" in the US.

After a tentative agreement with The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein, United Artists hired American producer Walter Shenson to work on the film and arranged a meeting in October of 1963 between Bud Ornstein, Shenson and Epstein.  After Brian accepted the soundtrack deal, Ornstein asked what would be a fair percentage The Beatles should get for the movie.  "I couldn't accept anything less than a seven-and-a-half percent" replied Brian.  Since Onstein and Shenson resolved before the meeting that they would offer up to twenty-five percent, they had a pact.

Little by little, the movie deal increased leverage for further deals, such as the Ed Sullivan Show, and promotion of their albums.  When Capitol finally exercised their "right of first refusal" to release the album "Meet The Beatles!" in January of 1964, it included verbiage in the liner notes about their upcoming United Artists motion picture.

Recording The Album

With a mere $500,000 in the budget, and the tentative title "Beatlemania," shooting for the movie was scheduled to begin on March 2, 1964.  First order of business, though, was to record the music specifically used in the film.  This began immediately after their first historic visit to America in February of 1964.  So, between February 25th to March 1st, alongside George Martin, eight new songs ran through the tape machines marked completed, which were thought to be plenty to fill the seven-song requirement.

Two more recorded songs surfaced soon after with the intention of finding a spot in the movie.  When the name of the movie changed to "A Hard Day's Night," a title song was quickly written and subsequently recorded on April 16th.  Well after the Beatles had finished with filming duties on April 24th, another song was written and recorded with the intention of being included in the film.  "I'll Cry Instead" was recorded on June 1st and quickly dispatched to United Artists for possible use in the film and soundtrack album.

This is not to say that "I'll Cry Instead" made it into the movie.  Director Richard Lester required a song used during the "escape/fire escape" sequence of the film, which was inspired by his earlier "Running Jumping & Standing Still Film" and was said to be the precursor to the music videos of today.  When "I'll Cry Instead" was suggested for this sequence, Richard Lester vetoed it no doubt because of its downbeat lyrics.  He intended to inject the current successful hit "Can't Buy Me Love," so this was played as a backdrop to the previously filmed footage instead.  This song was mostly recorded in Paris on January 29th and finished off at the February 25th recording session at EMI. 

Since the decision to replace "I'll Cry Instead" with "Can't Buy Me Love" wasn't finalized by the time the American soundtrack album activated production, both songs appeared on this release.  Therefore, the timeframe for recording the album spans from January 29th to June 1st, 1964.

The Make-Up Of The Album

Technically, based on three other Beatles songs having made an appearance in the actual movie ("She Loves You," "Don't Bother Me" and "I Wanna Be Your Man"), including them on this soundtrack album would have made a suitable and conventional eleven-song release.  And since "I Call Your Name" was submitted to United Artists as well, a full twelve song soundtrack album might have been possible.

But this was not to be.  Since Capitol decided to release The Beatles records in the US, and all four of the songs mentioned above had debuted earlier in America by this time, United Artists merely comprised the seven main songs featured in the film as well as the tentative "I'll Cry Instead."  Since "Can't Buy Me Love," which Capitol also released earlier in the states, showed prominent footage in the movie, an exception made way and permission for its inclusion on the soundtrack album gained approval.

The standard practice for soundtrack albums included instrumental or orchestrated recordings, so this utilized formula helped pan out the eight available Beatles tracks with George Martin produced versions of Beatles songs.  The four instrumental songs chosen from the film were renditions of "I Should Have Known Better," "And I Love Her," "Ringo's Theme (This Boy)" and "A Hard Day's Night," all performed by "George Martin And His Orchestra."

By written agreement, United Artists Records were only allowed to release The Beatles material as a soundtrack album; Capitol Records, however, controlled free reign to use the same recordings in any form they pleased as long as it wasn't touted as a "soundtrack album."  Capitol's planned release of the single "A Hard Day's Night" as well as an August 1st release of an album called "Something New" featuring all seven movie songs inspired United Artists to rush-release their album even before the films American debut on August 11th, 1964.  Therefore, UA released the official soundtrack album of "A Hard Day's Night" on June 26th, 1964.

This highly anticipated album, which even beat Capitol's July 13th release date for the "A Hard Day's Night" single, rushed to the #1 spot on the Billboard charts, where it remained for an amazing fourteen weeks, the longest run at number one that year.  This early success made Capitol rethink its strategy, and they reformatted their "Something New" album to feature only five of the songs on the UA album and include more new Beatles material just made available.  Capitol's July 20th released album missed out of the number one spot by United Artists' soundtrack album, although it did sell very well and peaked at #2 for nine weeks straight.

United Artists did whatever else it could to generate more sales from the project as possible.  Even though restricted from releasing The Beatles material as singles, they could release the George Martin instrumentals any way they pleased.  Two singles were released, the first being "And I Love Her" with "Ringo's Theme (This Boy)" as the B-side.  While "And I Love Her" only reached #105 on the Billboard charts, "Ringo's Theme (This Boy)," probably because heard as a backdrop to the popular "lonely Ringo" segment in the movie, nearly made the top 40, peaking at #53.  The deceptive use of Beatles images on the picture sleeve of the single may also have generated sales.

The second George Martin Orchestra single that was released contained the other two instrumental songs on the soundtrack album:  "A Hard Day's Night" and "I Should Have Known Better."  It may have been thought to confuse record buyers that this was The Beatles version, not only because it featured The Beatles on the picture sleeve, but because it contained the same songs as on the #1 Capitol single.  This single generated somewhat fewer sales, "I Should Have Known Better" peaking at #111 and "A Hard Day's Night" peaking at #122. 

Also released was a full album of George Martin instrumentals entitled "By Popular Demand, A Hard Day's Night, Instrumental Versions Of The Motion Picture Score."  This album, which contained the four instrumentals on the soundtrack album as well as nine others, generated little success, which disputes the "popular demand" claim of the title.

The album remained in print throughout the '60s and '70s but, when United Artists was acquired by EMI, Capitol released the album on August 17th, 1980 and kept it in print throughout the life of the vinyl record industry.

Another interesting note regarding the United Artists album is their label mistakes.  "I'll Cry Instead" was mistakenly printed as "I Cry Instead" on both the sleeve and the label, which was never corrected until the final printing in the late '70s.  But when they finally did correct this, the same label titled the song "Tell Me Why" as "Tell Me Who."  Either way, with that album being reported in Billboard magazine as one of the fastest selling albums in the history of the record business, getting the label right didn't really matter.

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