Welcome to this week’s BROW. You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) is a comical 5-part experiment John Lennon and Paul McCartney put together that resembles the craziness heard on their Christmas flexi-disc messages to their fan club. It had actually been recorded over a few years, mainly in May and June of 1967 and April of 1969, but not revealed to the public until it appeared as the B-side of The Beatles Let It Be single in March of 1970. As The Beatles were finished recording together by this time, it was almost released as a single by John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, but that idea was aborted after John instead came up with a replacement called Instant Karma! (We All Shine On). It never appeared on an album/CD until the Past Masters CD collection surfaced in 1988.
When initially released, there was a few edits applied to shorten it. The first and fourth sections were shortened and the second part containing the ‘ska beat’ was completely omitted. The third section (which I call “Slaggers” after John’s line welcome to Slaggers!) was left complete, and the fifth section, which happens to include Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones on sax, also remained intact.
The Beatles Anthology 2 (disc 2) CD set gives us another mix of the song, revealing what was left off of the first 2 parts, however a full half-minute of the fourth part, that appeared on the original single, was edited out and the ending was also cut short.
What you are listening to here is a forgery. I have combined these two mixes for the sake of getting a complete account of this song. Since the original mix is only available in mono and the Anthology mix is only available as a stereo remix, it was first necessary to create a mono mix by averaging the channels in the Anthology stereo mix and then editing in the omitted pieces from the original mix. Through this reconstruction, we hear how it sounded before it was edited a full two minutes shorter for the Let It Be single. A trained ear may be able to spot where I made my edits but I think I got it fairly close. Sometimes for history to have an accurate completeness, it needs to be pieced back together. Ask any archeologist. Enjoy…
The Beatles - You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
My personal copy of the Let It Be/You Know My Name picture sleeve
An aside: The sleeve pictured above accurately displays the song title as You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) however, on the actual record label it is printed as You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)
Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? Then let me hear from you. Read about more Beatles rarities and suggest one for me to post. You can begin by searching for different versions of specific tracks right here.
I'm Happy Nat and I'm glad you dropped in! Feel free to listen to the latest BROW (Beatles Rarity Of The Week), read the latest #askNat (answers to reader-submitted Beatles-related questions) or catch one of the other numerous items of interest. Join the discussion by leaving comments or 
Thank you for the effort. I never knew what I was missing. Ever since Anthology I have felt they deserved a little more credit for embracing the ska element so early. I have also always wondered that if Brian Jones played saxophone as reasonably well as he seems to then why not with the Stones?
It wasnt Brian Jones of the Rolling stones who played on this track. It was Brian Jones, the sax player from the liverpool group the Undertakers. A well known face in Merseybeat & a friend of the Beatles. Thats why he playing the sax so well.
Hi beatleowl! Welcome! I need to tell you though that on June 8, 1967 Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones showed up with his alto sax (at Paul’s invitation) to lay down his sax bit. He was known to dabble in numerous instruments at the time. This is detailed in full in The Beatles Anthology book (by The Beatles) as well as That Magic Feeling – The Beatles Recorded Legacy (John C. Winn), The Beatles – The Ultimate Recording Guide (Allen J. Weiner), The Beatles On Apple Records (Bruce Spizer), The Beatles Recording Sessions (Mark Lewisohn), All Together Now (Harry Casleman/Walter J. Podrazik) and even Wikipedia.
Paul McCartney was asked directly about this by Mark Lewisohn in the introductory interview for The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. He confirmed it was “unequivocally” Brian Jones of the Stones.
Thanks Joe. To check another resource, I looked at The Beatles Encyclopedia by Bill Harry to see if there was “another Brian Jones” that was a friend of The Beatles, but the only Brian Jones listed was the RS Brian. I guess that clinches it.
Hi Nat, fair enough!!! ive read all those books.
Do you nor know who Brian Jones (of the undertakers) is, by the way??? it seems you are not familar with him or the story.
no just checked hes not listed in Bill harrys encloypedia but surprisinglt neither are the undertakers or even Jackie Lomax but he is listed in Bill harrys Book of Beatle people listed under the Undertakers. Its also mentioned as a rumour on wikipedia under the undertakers.
but fair deal Nat ive read all the books you quote from.
Nat… check out this list.
I belive you by the way but just to help you identify the Brian Jones im talking about, check it out. (the whole site is interesting by the way)
http://www.merseybeatnostalgia.co.uk/html/the_undertakers.html
Beatleowl…I am “somewhat” familiar with the Undertakers (I’ve heard a couple tunes and the main one sticking in my head is What About Us). Also I have mention them on this site once right here. I am more familiar with Jackie’s solo stuff. Is This What You Want is a great album, that should have sold much better than it did. There is so much myth surrounding The Beatles though, and the (alternate) Brian Jones thing is just one of the more plausible ones, I think. I’m glad (and flattered) that you like the site, and I hope you stick around. I’m certainly not above making mistakes, so if you see anything screwy, be sure to do what you did here and let me know.
Nat… the site is fantastic. ive been a beatle fan for many years and as long as ive been on the internet ive been searching for a site like yours. Thers is a lot of rubbish & boring sites out there and i was hooked for nearly a full day yesterday looking through yours. I went to bed & couldnt gey to sleep thinking what i could ask for rarity of the week, Ive not come up with anything yet but i will stick around.
We have a very similar collection by the way and im thinking what i havent got or heard that i would like to.
RE… Brian jones. yeah i like beatle myths, it keeps it interesting. Ive met Brian jones of the undertakers at the conventions in Liverpool a few times, he maintains he played on the track. (i suppose he would do, so would i) so havening not met the other one i have no reason to dis-believe him. Hes a nice guy.
thanks Nat, i will stick around.
lol….hope you were able to get some sleep.
Yeah….hats off to Brian. May he be resting in peace whatever the circumstances of his tragedy may have been.
Thank you sir for another fine effort!
Great job! Thanks for recreating the definitive version.
Ha! The “all-in-one-place” version anyway, which is how it must have been before pieces started getting cut out of it.
I saw this on FB today. I don’t know how I missed it originally. Thanks for the splice.
Hi Chip….yeah…I’m putting some of the older ones up on FB since the page is still fairly new so they can eventually be in both places.
Nat…what is the FB group called. cant seem to find it, clicking on the link in the top corner of this page doesnt do anything for me.
It is called The Beatles Rarity but this link should take you there.
Can you believe Torres left Anfield???