I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Gerard Pallares, President of art publisher Dark Hall Mansion concerning their recent project, in development over a year, of a beautiful 5 screen prints folio for The Beatles 1968 masterpiece film Yellow Submarine. For the first time ever, The Beatles own Apple Corps has authorized Dark Hall Mansion’s reinterpretation of Yellow Submarine‘s imagery by artist Tom Whalen who delivers stunning artwork that remains faithful to the originality of this legendary film’s legacy.

Tom has done work in the past on legendary Peanuts cartoon properties such as “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” as well as a very popular Mickey Mouse Steamboat Willie poster viewable here. In this exclusive interview, I ask Gerard how Tom and Dark Hall Mansion were able to get involved in the project and more about the artwork itself.

The screen prints go on sale this May 29 (2012) in conjunction with the re-release of the Yellow Submarine DVD/Blu-Ray. A couple of examples of screen prints are included here, but to see them all and get detailed information on the three packages offered (Standard, Variant and Elite ’68), I encourage you to view the samples of the other images, and read the full details and press release by visiting this Dark Hall Mansion web page dedicated to the project. This will be the only place to purchase this captivating artwork collection, which is destined to become quite a collector’s item, given its beauty and also because of the extremely limited quantities produced.

Blue Meanies DHM Yellow Submarine Folio Sample

Yellow Submarine DHM Folio Sample #2

Dark Hall Mansion Store

Yellow Submarine [Blu-ray] – DVD/Blu-Ray 2012 remaster of Yellow Submarine (available by June 5, 2012)

Yellow Submarine Songtrack – 1999 remastered Yellow Submarine Songtrack CD, stunning remixes by Peter Cobbin

Yellow Submarine – 2009 stereo remaster CD of original 1969 LP.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to this week’s Beatles Rarity of the Week. One of the artists that was introduced in 1968 when The Beatles formed Apple Records was Mary Hopkin. Paul McCartney took an enthusiastic interest in the Welsh folk singer and her first single “Those Were The Days” was one of four that were among the first releases on the Apple label. Produced by Paul McCartney, 18-year old Mary had a #1 hit in the U.K (#2 on the Billboard chart in the U.S) with the record for five straight weeks during October and November of 1968. Paul went on to produce her debut album Post Card and write her follow up single “Goodbye”. When it came time for her to record it the following year, Paul acted as producer and also plays on the record as detailed below.

“Goodbye” was written by Paul and credited to Lennon-McCartney. On March 1-2, 1969, Paul accompanied Mary at London’s Morgan Studios for the recording session. Mary sang and played acoustic guitar, changing a few words in Paul’s final verse (from “sound of lonely drums” to “song of lonely love”). She also raised the key from ‘C’ to ‘E’ to better fit her vocal range. Paul added an acoustic guitar intro, bass, and slapped his lap as a percussion technique learned from Buddy Holly). He also put some drums on the record. Additional strings, horns and backing vocals were also overdubbed in. Mary’s recording of “Goodbye” is most easily found on the compilation CD Come And Get It – The Best Of Apple Records (Amazon link provided below).

For this week’s BROW I am featuring Paul’s original demo of the song recorded in December 1968. It was this recording that Paul gave to Mary so that she could learn the song and prepare her own rendition of it. Paul is playing all instruments in the demo.

Paul McCartney - Goodbye

Paul McCartney and Mary Hopkin in the studio together, 1968

Extra info: “Goodbye”, like it’s predecessor, would have also been a #1 single in the U.K. but was held out of the top spot for two weeks by another of Paul McCartney’s songs – The Beatles recording of “Get Back,” which held firm to the #1 spot during the entire month of May 1969. In the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, “Goodbye” peaked at #13.

Special thanks go out to Andy Trundle for requesting this week’s BROW. Thanks also for waiting for me to get to it, Andy.

Some Amazon links to read up on or purchase related items to this post:

1) Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records – Compilation of many of the early Apple Records classics, including Mary Hopkin’s version of “Those Were The Days” and “Goodbye” produced by Paul McCartney, who also plays guitar, bass, drums and percussion.

2) Postcard 2010 expanded remaster of original 1969 Apple Records release that was the debut hit album by Mary Hopkin. Includes her first hit “Those Were The Days” and, as a bonus track, “Goodbye”. All songs are produced by Paul McCartney, who also plays on the album.

3) Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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If you have been looking for a new video release of The Beatles animated classic Yellow Submarine, then here is some good news. An announcement by Apple for a re-release of the original movie on both Blu-Ray and DVD is rumored to be in the works for sometime today (Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2012). Earlier DVD copies of film had been taken out of circulation a few years ago ahead of the, now aborted, Disney 3-D re-make version that was initially announced on this site here. The U.S. release date is currently planned for May 29, 2012. The film was originally premeired at the box office in July 1968 and is an animated account of The Beatles and their mission to save the music-loving paradise under the sea known as Pepperland from the Blue Meanies.

Yellow Submarine (Blu-Ray edition, 2012)

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Welcome back to TheBeatlesRarity.com. My name is Happy Nat and it’s time for another Beatles Rarity Of The Week.

One of the factors that tends to complicate the Beatles recording catalog for the completist is the mono vs. stereo issue. When The Beatles showed up on commercial vinyl in the early sixties, mono was certainly king. Beatles albums were released in both mono and stereo versions, but the stereo albums cost more (usually about a dollar more in the U.S.) and let’s face it – most of the people that were in the Beatle-audience didn’t have the right equipment to play stereo records anyway. That was for “old people” who were into symphonic music and had the money for expensive “hi-fi” equipment. Yet, one need only listen and compare to hear hundreds of differences between the mono and stereo versions of many Beatles songs. They can occur in the pitch, overdubs, vocal tracks, fade-out times, etc. To cite just one example, “From Me To You” has harmonica in the intro in mono and this is completely missing in stereo.

Another complicating factor for the completist is the differences in the way the songs were compiled (or sequenced) on LPs in various countries (primarily the U.S. and U.K). In the U.K., they generally aimed for about 14 songs per album with singles tracks not included on albums. In the U.S., albums did contain the singles tracks and usually totaled around 11 songs. So after two albums came out in the U.K., there were enough “leftovers” in the U.S. to create a third album. Another complication is that often, U.S. versions had different mixes and edits than the U.K. versions. A good example of this is “I’ll Cry Instead”. The U.S. Capitol single version has an extra verse that is not included on either the mono or stereo U.K. version.

A third complicating factor is sort of a hybrid of the above two. Since single were only issued in mono until 1969, stereo mixes of them would often not be bothered with. This presented a problem in the U.S. Capitol Records would need a stereo mix of a track for their stereo edition of an album that was only issued on a single in the U.K. A good example of this might be the single “I Feel Fine” and it’s b-side “She’s A Woman”. These songs were recorded during the sessions for the U.K. album Beatles For Sale, but no stereo mix was made because they knew those two songs were going to be issued on the mono single. However, in the U.S., Capitol Records made their shortened version of Beatles For Sale called Beatles ’65 and wanted to include both “I Feel Fine” and “She’s A Woman” on the stereo album. So what was their solution?

The answer is “fake stereo!” Fake stereo, also referred to as “rechanneled stereo” or “mock stereo” is nothing more than duplicating the single channel mono recording to produce two identical channels and then enhancing the high frequency sounds in one of them (the treble) and the low frequency sounds in the other (the bass). Of course, this isn’t really stereo because the same sounds are still heard in both speakers, but it enhances the sound a bit. Fake stereo was used often in cases like this in the sixties, and even on compilation albums in the seventies, where a mono mix needs to “pass” for a stereo mix. After this period though, fake stereo was frowned upon and avoided.

This week’s BROW feature is a recording that became a victim of fake stereo not only once, but twice. In the case of “Yes It Is”, the mono mix was prepared on February 18, 1965 for use as the b-side to the upcoming “Ticket To Ride” single. It had been recorded two days earlier with take 14 being selected as the master.

Beatles VI, released in US on June 14, 1965

Even though it was intended for a single, a stereo mix was made five days later, but apparently tucked away and forgotten about afterwards. This might have been because of an audio dropout tape defect in verse 1 on the word “I” in “remember what I said tonight”. Or it might have been due to the extraneous tone-pedal under the word “if” in the first line of the song. For whatever reason, this stereo mix was not given to Capitol in the U.S., who could’ve used one for the U.S. only Beatles VI album they were piecing together. This is why stereo pressings of Beatles VI contain a “fake stereo” mix of “Yes It Is”. Some 12 years later Capitol prepared a theme compilation album called Love Songs and decided to prepare a new “fake stereo” mix of “Yes It Is” for inclusion on the double-LP, likely still unaware that a real stereo version even existed.

So, you may ask – when did the stereo mix of “Yes It Is” get re-discovered? Well, it must have been in the mid-eighties because – would you believe? – it first surfaced on a promotional cassette tape offered by Heineken Beer in 1986! In June 1986, Heineken launched a promotion in which you could order an exclusive Beatles compilation (on cassette only) in exchange for beer can ring pulls. The tape was titled Only The Beatles and included the previously unreleased true stereo version of “Yes It Is.” Within weeks of the offer first being made, EMI/Apple sued and the tapes were quickly withdrawn. This resulted in Only The Beatles becoming perhaps the most collectable Beatles cassette of all.

Fortunately two years later in 1988, when the Past Masters Volume 1 CD made it’s appearance, the stereo “Yes It Is” made it’s debut on CD and thus, finally became part of the mainstream Beatles catalog. It was also included on the 2009 remastered version of the Past Masters CD set.

You can also hear the first “fake stereo” mix of “Yes It Is” on the Beatles VI disc included with The Capitol Albums Volume 2 box set. The second “fake stereo” mix never appeared anywhere after the Love Songs double album, which is now an obsolete part of the Beatles catalog that is long out of print, and with no plans for re-issue. This is why I’ve included this rare Love Songs mix for this week’s BROW. Naturally, it sounds very similar to the straight mono version, but enhanced as I’ve described. Enjoy…

The Beatles "Love Songs" (US 2-LP compilation set), released Oct. 21, 1977

Extra info: A complete account of take 1 of “Yes It Is” was featured on an earlier BROW that you may check out here. A hybrid of takes 2 and the completed take 14 in stereo can be heard on the CD set Beatles Anthology 2.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Past Masters (Remastered) – 2009 remastered 2-CD set of Past Masters (Vol. 1 & 2), including re-discovered 1965 stereo mix of “Yes It Is”.

2) The Capitol Albums Vol. 2 (Brick) 4 CD box set of 2006 remastered U.S. Capitol Beatles mono and stereo LP releases of 1965. Includes mono and first fake stereo mix of “Yes It Is”.

3) Anthology 2 – 1996 collection of Beatles out-takes and extras from 1965-1968. Includes a hybrid of “Yes It Is” take 2 and the completed take 14 in stereo.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome back for another edition of The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. After the filming of their surprise concert on the roof of Apple during the cold afternoon of January 30, 1969, The Beatles thought they had enough footage for their Let It Be documentary film. Well, almost anyway. There were still a few songs not appropriate for the rooftop show that they knew should be covered in the film with finalized versions. Those three numbers were “Two Of Us”, “The Long And Winding Road” and “Let It Be”.

So on the following day, The Beatles and Billy Preston returned to the Apple basement to perform these songs for the camera until they had releasable takes. “Two Of Us” was worked on first and knocked off fairly quickly. The other two required a bit more time. The final results of these recordings are seen in the Let It Be documentary just before the rooftop show which is used to wrap up the film.

This week’s BROW comes from a warm-up rehearsal from this January 31st session, recorded just before getting serious with the initial takes of “Two Of Us” were made. While in a skiffle mood, with acoustic guitars in hand, Paul McCartney leads the group into a singalong medley of Lonnie Donegan’s “Take This Hammer” which continues with Donegan’s “Lost John” with both John Lennon and Paul singing. George Harrison then joins in to steer the band into Johnny Cash’s “Five Feet High And Rising”. After they’ve played about as much of the song as they remember, Paul moves them into the musically similar tune “Bear Cat Mama” (a Jimmie Davis number from the 1930′s). Keeping the same backing, John leads them into the chorus from Koerner, Ray and Glover’s “Black Dog”. This is a traditional song that’s melody was later appropriated for the chorus of his own song, “Crippled Inside” that made it’s way onto his Imagine album in 1971. George and John then go into a few bars of Carl Perkins’ “Right String, Wrong Yo-Yo”. To wrap up the medley John duets with Paul for a verse of their own “Run For Your Life”, the closer for their 1965 Rubber Soul album. The medley ends with a brief reprise of “Black Dog”. The audio dropouts heard here are a result of the source tape coming from an extraction from an old stack of camera reels. A proper studio recording of the warm up sessions was not considered a necessary expense at the time.

By the end of the day, The Beatles had completed acceptable takes of “Two Of Us”, “The Long And Winding Road” and “Let It Be”, all three of which were used in both the film and Let It Be album in 1970, thus bringing to a close the so-called “Get Back” sessions of January 1969.

John Lennon, January 1969

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Let It Be 2009 remaster of original 1970 Let It Be album.

2) Let It Be…Naked – 2003 remastered stripped down version of original 1970 Let It Be album, w/bonus Fly On The Wall EP containing studio chat and session fragments.

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to the last offering from The Beatles Rarity in 2011.

Two years ago on Dec. 28, 2009, I featured George Harrison’s “Ding Dong, Ding Dong” in demo form as a BROW (Beatles Rarity of the Week), which you can catch here. I also mentioned it on last week’s VOW (Video of the Week), and that got me thinking about it. Since it is George Harrison’s only anthem for the new year, I thought I’d feature the finalized version and promo video for today’s VOW.

This festive track was released on an Apple single in time for the New Years’ festivities on Dec. 6, 1974, and also hails from George’s Dark Horse album released three days later. The lyrics have George telling us to “ring out the old, ring in the new” and we see him doing this in the video as he appears in various Beatle-garb, such as his gray collarless suit and Sgt. Pepper uniform. Since his former bandmate, Ringo Starr, plays drums on the track, we can see him in the video too. There are lots of other musicians, including keyboardist Gary Wright on piano, Ron Wood on guitar (credited as “Ron Would If You Let Him” on the Dark Horse liner notes), Mick Jones on guitar, Alvin Lee on guitar, and old friend Klaus Voormann on bass. Additional drums were on the record from long time friend and session man Jim Keltner. The horns you hear are played by Tom Scott. The spirit of Sir Frank Crisp is also credited.

Most of you likely recall that George had written a song called “The Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp” that appears on his All Things Must Pass album. Frankie was a lawyer, microscopist and horticulturist who was the former owner of the Henley-On-Thames mansion George was living in at Friar Park. He had purchased it in 1895 and died in 1919. When George purchased it in 1970, it had been in a state of neglect for 60 years.

Click the image above to play the video.

As I said before, this will be the last post for 2011, and I want to thank all reading (no matter when you’re reading it!) for being here. Just being here to read the posts, make comments and all of the input, feedback and encouragement I have received is what keeps things going on TheBeatlesRarity. I know I said that last year but it deserves a repeat. 2011 has been a very busy year on the site and I have great expectations for 2012 as well. Last year I mentioned new ideas for 2011 and they turned out better than I expected (with new successful additions such as Collectors Corner and the two Fab 4 Radio shows BROWCAST and Side Track Sunday). You can also continue to count on the old stand-bys (BROWs, Cartoons and VOWs). There will be plenty of more cool stuff like this in the new year too, if I have anything to do with it, so I hope you’ll stick around!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
See you here in 2012…

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Dark Horse 1992 CD remaster of original 1974 album, featuring “Ding Dong, Ding Dong”.

2) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. Back in September, The Beatles 1 CD, originally released in 2000, was reissued using the recently completed 2009 remastered versions of each track. With 27 number one singles all on the same disc, it is quite an impressive collection. There are articles on various websites (including Wikipedia) that explain that all of the Beatles singles that reached the coveted top spot on the charts, in the U.S. or the U.K., are on the disc. But now, looking over the track listing, I notice that “Please Please Me” is not there.

There are countless Beatles books and video documentaries that explain the story of how “Love Me Do” was the first single and it made it into the top 20, but then, as predicted by producer George Martin, the follow-up break-through song, “Please Please Me,” was a number one hit in the U.K., and just like that, “Beatlemania” was born. John Lennon even references “Please Please Me” reaching number one in the first Beatles Christmas record that came out at the end of 1963. Other references, such as The Beatles Anthology film and book (pg. 92 in the hardback version), all refer to “Please Please Me” as a number one record.

I want to set the record straight. Here are the facts: In the U.K., “Please Please Me” reached number one on the Melody Maker singles chart on March 2, 1963, after spending the previous two weeks at number two. It remained at number one for two weeks, before dropping back to number two on March 16. The song also topped the charts on the Disc singles chart, as well as on the NME (New Musical Express) singles chart, where it was number one for two weeks beginning February 22, 1963. The Record Mirror also reported “Please Please Me” at number one. All four of these publications were reputable sources reflecting singles sales and radio airplay in the U.K., and all four of them reported “Please Please Me” as topping the charts.

A trade newspaper known as Record Retailer maintained a singles chart in the U.K. as well, and reported “Please Please Me” as peaking at number two on March 2, 1963, unable to get past Frank Ifield’s “Wayward Wind.” So in four out of five publications of equal notoriety in the U.K., “Please Please Me” was a number one single. Of these, Melody Maker may have been considered more of a standard by comparison, due to the fact that it had been around the longest (since 1926).

Things changed over the years, however, and by the 1990′s the Official Chart Company and British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) established the guideline that named the chart from Record Retailer as the official standard for dates prior to February 15, 1969. From that point forward, the BMRB would compile the chart. This decision was questioned by many in the U.K. but is still in use today.

I should also mention that “Please Please Me” failed to reach number one in the U.S. at all, but only because it was blocked out of the top spot by two other Beatles singles: “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.” The source for the U.S. is Billboard magazine.

So regardless of what is considered the standard “these days,” “Please Please Me” was number one in 4 out of 5 of the U.K.’s singles charts back in “those days,” and it is also a number one in my book. I think the two minute song would’ve fit just fine on Beatles 1, right in between “Love Me Do” and “From Me To You” making the disc 81 minutes long instead of 79 (Sony DADC now accepts masters of CD’s for up to 82 minutes).

And now, to drive the point home even further… Here are The Beatles being congratulated by radio host Ray Peters for topping the charts with their NUMBER ONE HIT “Please Please Me.” This live performance was recorded at the Playhouse Theatre in Manchester, U.K. on March 6, 1963, and broadcast on the BBC program Here We Go six days later. This broadcast version has never seen an official release, but you can still listen to it right here.

"Please Please Me" is # 1!

Extra info: I thought “Please Please Me” a fitting choice for BROW for a couple additional reasons:

1) The Beatles 1 CD was not the only Apple release to omit the song from its tracklisting. The 1994 Apple 2-CD compilation Live At The BBC features no recordings of this first number one either, even though there are seven BBC recordings of it in existence to choose from.

2) After over 4 years of BROWs, I have never featured a version of “Please Please Me.” I am pleased to do that now.

I hope you’re pleased too.

Beatles music makes great gifts over the holidays. Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post, for your favorite Beatlemaniac:

1) 1 – compilation of 27 number one Beatles hits, but MISSING “Please Please Me”.

2) Please Please Me (Remastered) 2009 remaster of original 1963 album including “Please Please Me” (stereo mix).

3) 1962-1966 (The Red Album) – 2-CD collection of 2009 remastered version of Beatles hits from 1962-1966, including “Please Please Me” (mono mix).

4) The Love We Make 2011 Blu-ray or DVD that chronicles Paul McCartney’s cathartic journey through New York City in the aftermath of 9/11.

5) Additional Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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It was promoter John Brower’s lucky day on September 12th, 1969. He called Apple to see if John & Yoko could possibly lend some credibility to his Rock & Roll Revival Festival the following night by flying in and introducing one of the acts. Surprise! John said he’d come, but only if he could play. Brower would’ve never even considered asking for a performance. After all, none of The Beatles had performed onstage since the summer of 1966, unless you count a few songs on a rooftop at Apple. John could not consider the other Beatles to join him as Ringo had just returned from the hospital and Paul was home with his new baby, Mary, and George simply just hated touring altogether. Instead, John got in touch with his old friend Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White, who both agreed to play. He asked Eric Clapton to come along too and didn’t get an answer till the following morning, when Eric was finally reached by telegram. This five piece line up became the first incarnation of The Plastic Ono Band. Only one day after receiving Brower’s phone call, John was onstage opening with a favorite – Carl Perkin’s classic “Blue Suede Shoes,” which was also covered by Elvis Presley. John acknowledges this in the performance by doing his ‘Elvis legs’ before the crowd. The show came off quite well, and John was pleased that he was able to put a band together in a matter of hours, with the complete freedom of playing and improvising at will. In fact, he was so thrilled about it, he informed acting manager Alan Klein that he had decided to quit The Beatles.

Click the image above to play the video.

Extra info: On Dec. 12, 1969, the entire performance was released on the Apple LP Plastic Ono Band – Live Peace In Toronto 1969.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Live Peace in Toronto 1969 – 1995 stereo CD remaster of original 1969 LP of the entire performance by John Lennon/The Plastic Ono Band, including “Blue Suede Shoes”.

2) John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band – Sweet Toronto – DVD release of the entire performance by John Lennon/The Plastic Ono Band, including “Blue Suede Shoes”.

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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This week’s video feature acknowledges this month as the 45th anniversary of John Lennon’s writing of “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Two documentaries – The Beatles Anthology and Imagine: John Lennon – show footage of the clip, but both are incomplete. To this day, I am not aware of any EPK or DVD release by Apple that gives the entire clip to us, as it appears here.

John Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” was coupled with Paul McCartney’s “Penny Lane” and released as the first Beatles single of 1967, on February 13th. It was promoted as a double a-side. Since The Beatles were no longer touring, the idea for promoting the new single was to do it with an artsy film instead. An old friend of The Beatles from their pre-fame Hamburg Germany days, Klaus Voormann, suggested Swedish television director Peter Goldmann to shoot the clips, and the Beatles agreed to give him a try.

For the “Strawberry Fields Forever” clip, Peter filmed the band at Knole Park in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, near London, on January 30th and 31st, 1967. Instead of doing a run-of-the-mill promotional clip of pretending to perform the song, The Beatles opted for a more surreal approach, where we see Paul jumping in backwards motion up to the branch of a tree and “turning off” the daylight. A piano is connected to the tree by a web of strings and gets a nice psychedelic look as The Beatles dab globs of paint on it. At the end of the clip, the piano capsizes as The Beatles (and Paul’s sheepdog Martha) walk off into the darkness. And all of this way before anyone ever heard of MTV.

The clip was aired on various television broadcasts around the world, including the popular program American Bandstand in the U.S., where some confused and seemingly bewildered teenagers reacted to it with mixed emotions. Seemingly, teenage America was not quite adapted to the new look and psychedelic appearance of the Fab Four.

Click the image above to play the video.

Extra info: “Strawberry Fields Forever,” along with “Penny Lane,” was originally intended to be part of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band LP, but since it was already early 1967 and the band had not put a single out since the previous August’s “Yellow Submarine” c/w “Eleanor Rigby,” it was decided to release it as a single ahead of time. Since singles tracks did not typically end up on albums in the U.K., neither song was included on Pepper. Both songs were later included on the U.S. Magical Mystery Tour LP; however the British double EP package of the same name included only the songs that were in the Magical Mystery Tour film.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Magical Mystery Tour (Remastered) – 2009 stereo remaster of original 1967 album, including “Strawberry Fields Forever”.

2) 1967-1970 (Blue) Remastered – 2-CD 2010 stereo remaster of original 1973 Beatles hits compilation, including “Strawberry Fields Forever”.

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. The very first LP released on the Beatles’ own Apple label was also the first solo album by a Beatle. It was George Harrison’s Wonderwall Music, released in the U.K. on November 1, 1968, three weeks before The Beatles’ White Album.

Wonderwall Music served as the soundtrack to the 1960′s swinging’ London-style film Wonderwall, and not having ever put together a soundtrack before, George actually timed segments of the unfinished film in order to write the music to fit in appropriately. As he was becoming more enamored with Indian music at the time, he used the opportunity of the soundtrack to introduce more of this style into the mainstream. He wrote eleven Indian ragas and commissioned a host of 12 Indian musicians to play them in sessions he produced and recorded in Bombay during January 1968. At the same sessions, the backing track for his Indian flavored Beatles song “The Inner Light” was also recorded, which became the b-side to the next Beatles single, “Lady Madonna.”

During the previous month (December 1967), George put a band together to hash out eight rock flavored numbers for the LP. Participants included Eric Clapton (listed with an alias on the album credits as ‘Eddie Clayton’), Ringo Starr (listed with an alias on the album credits as ‘Richie Snare’) and Peter Tork (of The Monkees fame), playing a banjo he borrowed from Paul McCartney (Peter is not credited in the liner notes at all). Oddly enough, although George plays on the album, he is not listed in the musician credits, but only as producer and composer of all tracks. Both the Indian and rock tracks are instrumental, other than some spoken word parts.

At the time the album was released, mono was being phased out in favor of stereo. In the U.K., a mono pressing of the album was released, but only in very limited quantities. In the U.S., the mono mix of the album was not released at all. The same was true with the White Album – very few monos in the U.K., and none in the U.S. Over the next few months, mono albums became a thing of the past on both sides of the pond.

For this week’s BROW, I have pulled out my rare copy of the mono version of this album, to share with you a selection from the album titled “Party Seacombe.” This jangly guitar instrumental comes from the English sessions for the album. The mono mix differs somewhat from the stereo in that it has a shorter fade out and, to my ears, a greater prominence to the organ sounds (played by Tony Ashton) that blend with the wah-wah guitars of Eric Clapton and George Harrison. I’ll have to ask you to excuse the little bit of vinyl crackle apparent in the recording, as vinyl is the only source for this mix of the song.

Since I have addressed a few things in common between Wonderwall Music and the White Album, I should close with one more – Ringo, Eric Clapton and George also played together on the White Album track “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in sessions that took place at EMI (Abbey Road) Studios some 9 months later.

Taken with or without the film, Wonderwall Music is a great collection of varied Indian-rock fusion music that shows a unique side to George Harrison that many casual fans have not taken the time to explore. The album was the first solo Beatle album to be deleted from the EMI/Apple catalog, but was re-issued to CD in some countries in 1992.

George Harrison (photo from original Wonderwall LP insert, 1968)

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Wonderwall Music – Japanese import of stereo mix of album on CD, including “Party Seacombe”.

2) Wonderwall Music – used vinyl copy of original out-of-print album (some in collectible or like new condition), including “Party Seacombe”.

3) Wonderwall: The Movie – DVD edition of original 1967 film, with alternate mono mixes of music featured on stereo or mono album.

4) Additional Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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