“The Fool On The Hill” was a Lennon/McCartney original, used in the Magical Mystery Tour film and accompanying LP/EP set. It was actually conceived by Paul McCartney, who stated in an interview that he wrote the song with someone like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in mind. He claims that he looked at the Maharishi as someone that was considered a fool to his detractors. However, the earliest memories of the song occur around the time of the sessions for the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, a few months before The Beatles first met with the Maharishi. Paul had actually played the song for John Lennon on piano during a writing session for the “Pepper” track, “With A Little Help From My Friends.” The Beatles Anthology 2 CD set has the first recorded demo of the song, taped on September 6th, 1967, along with an account of take 4, made on September 25th, by which time the recording of the song in earnest had begun. The basic track for the master was completed by September 27th, and the flutes were added on October 20th as the finishing touch.

On October 30th, 1967, during filming of the Magical Mystery Tour television special, Paul, along with camerman Aubrey Dewar, traveled down to Nice, France, without the other Beatles. The idea was to shoot sequences of him prancing and skipping about in a rocky mountainous area, for use in the “Fool On The Hill” segment of the film. As seen in this video excerpt, the scene is portrayed as a daydream of Paul’s that occurs while he sits on the Magical Mystery Tour bus, waiting for the magic to begin.

The finished film premiered on December 26th (Boxing Day) in the U.K. on BBC1 and has been on several VHS releases throughout the late 1970s and up through the 1990s. The most recent official release of the film was on DVD in 1997, and it is currently out of print. Fortunately, it still can be found if you visit the right stores. (I have added a link below to a 3rd party Amazon vendor who still has copies, if you are interested.)

Click the image above to play the video.

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

1) Magical Mystery Tour (Remastered) – 2009 remaster of original 1967 LP, including “The Fool On The Hill”.

2) The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour – 1997 DVD of the complete 1967 film, including “The Fool On The Hill”.

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!

Related posts:

1. Beatles Rarity Of The Week (I Am The Walrus/Spot The Oddity, Pt. 1) Happy New Year! I decided to try something different this...
2. The Beatles – I Am The Walrus (1967 clip from Magical Mystery Tour film) I toyed with the idea of April-fooling everyone into thinking...
3. Strawberry Fields Forever (original 1967 promo video) This week’s video feature acknowledges this month as the 45th...

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!

Related posts:

1. Collector’s Corner – The “Love Me Do” single on Parlophone – The Beatles begin an incredible recording career Excluding the January 5, 1962, Polydor “My Bonnie” single release...
2. Collector’s Corner – The first U.S. single to bear “The Beatles” name…and the name wasn’t even spelled correctly Background Information When The Beatles follow-up single to Love Me...

Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. Paul McCartney’s summer On The Run tour has sadly drawn to a close, and those of you who were lucky enough to catch him this time around will likely recall a Beatles tune he added to his setlist that has never been performed at a Beatles or McCartney concert before this tour. I’m speaking of The Night Before, the subject of this week’s BROW.

The Night Before was one of the seven songs featured in the Beatles second film, Help!, in the summer of 1965. The song was written mainly by Paul, who can be seen singing and playing bass on it in the Help! film, along with the other Beatles on the Salisbury Plain in southern England.

On May 26, 1965, The Beatles recorded their last exclusive show for BBC Radio. They had already recorded a staggering 268 songs for BBC, broadcast on 51 shows. The new title for their final program was The Beatles Invite You To Take A Ticket To Ride, and instead of their old friend Brian Matthew serving as host, the chat was guided by Denny Piercy. The Beatles were already acquainted with Denny from their own appearance on his Parade Of The Pops radio show, way back on the 20th of February 1963, when they performed Love Me Do and Please Please Me. Denny talks with them about the upcoming film, Help!, scheduled to hit the box office two months later.

Of the seven new songs featured in the Help! film, the latest single, Ticket To Ride, was the only one that had already been heard by the public. So when this show was broadcast in the U.K on June 7, 1965, it was the first time another Help! song had been heard by the fans anywhere. With the exception of Ticket To Ride, no other songs from the film were featured on the show. They do perform I’m A Loser though, from their previous LP, where John parodies his own lyric to “beneath this wig, I am wearing a tie.”

The Beatles

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

1) Help! (Remastered) (See all British Invasion Rock Music CDs) – 2009 stereo remaster of original 1965 album, featuring The Night Before and other tracks from the film.

2) Live at the BBC
1994 2-CD compilation of Beatles recordings on the BBC (does not include The Night Before)

3) 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!

Related posts:

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3. The Beatles On Juke Box Jury I had a recent request from my friend Cara, to...

Welcome to The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. Despite tensions building up within The Beatles camp in 1968, it was also a year of many new beginnings for the Fabs. They had experimented with Transcendental Meditation in Rishikesh, India, and were even starting their own new music/electronics company, Apple Corps., which led them into a lot of new work with other artists such as Jackie Lomax, Doris Troy, Badfinger and Mary Hopkin. They were also concentrating on their own solo projects for the very first time. Another new beginning came about that year for Ringo Starr. He composed his very first song as a Beatle and recorded it with the band for inclusion on the White Album. Ringo had apparently started writing Don’t Pass Me By much earlier, as it is mentioned in a BBC chat with Brian Matthew on the radio program Top Gear on July 14, 1964. When Brian asked Ringo if he had written a song, Paul McCartney mocked him soon afterward, singing “Don’t pass me by, don’t make me cry, don’t make me blue.”

The song’s three chord blues structure fit in well with the country overtones Ringo had in mind for it. The sessions for the song began on June 5, 1968 and continued on the following day. It was wrapped up in a third session on July 12th, which included the fiddle overdubs by violinist Jack Fallon. Jack had actually met the band much earlier when he worked with them as a booking agent in 1962-63. Not only did Ringo play drums and sing on the track, but he also played a little bit of piano. That is also Ringo ringing the sleigh bell. Paul added additional piano and played bass. The mono pressing of the White Album contains a mix of the song that plays faster (the song’s pitch is raised from C in the stereo mix to C-sharp major which accounts for speeding things up). Additionally, the violin arrangement during the fade out differs from the more common stereo mix.

The mix presented for this week’s BROW is an earlier mono mix of take 4. Not only does it have some extra bass in the intro, but also includes an entire repeat of the first verse, that was removed from the officially released mixes. For your further enjoyment, I’ve left a little bit of ‘applause’ that showed up on the tape at the end of the performance.

Ringo Starr, circa 1968

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

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

1) The White Album (Remastered) – 2009 stereo remaster of the original 1968 Beatles 2 disc release. Includes Don’t Pass Me By.

2) Live at Soundstage – Ringo Starr live set with CD and bonus DVD. 2005 performance with The Roundheads including Don’t Pass Me By.

3) Soundstage: Ringo Starr and the Roundheads – September 2009 live performance at Waukegan IL’s Gennessee Theatre that later aired on PBS and includes a fresh performance of Don’t Pass Me By.

4) McCartney – new expanded 2011 remaster set of Paul McCartney’s original McCartney album (click for details)

5) McCartney II – new expanded 2011 remaster set of Paul McCartney’s original McCartney II album (click for details)

6) 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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I toyed with the idea of April-fooling everyone into thinking I was taking the day off, and then tell everyone to come back for VOW next Friday, but then I decided that wouldn’t go over too well. Besides I have to admit, I’d feel a little guilty. So here I am with the expected Friday VOW. After all, when I started these up nearly 15 months ago, I did “vow” to keep them going. So here we go again…and Happy Friday!

I am sure many Beatles fans in the summer of 1967, after the unfathomable direction taken by their latest Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band release, wondered where the band could go from there. Was it possible to get even more “way out”? One of the answers to that question was I Am The Walrus. Walrus was a bizarre, yet fascinating composition by John Lennon, which he says was inspired by hearing police sirens in the distance while sitting at his home in Weybridge, U.K. The recording of the song began on September 5, 1967, just after the death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein. It was necessary to bring in 16 outside musicians for the track, to play the cellos, clarinet, horns and background vocal chanting. An interesting overdub was added to the fadeout that was a radio broadcast of a production of Shakespeare’s King Lear from the BBC’s Third Programme. The song went on to be featured in the Magical Mystery Tour film, as seen here, as well as on the associated U.S. album (originally released as a double EP in the U.K.). It was also the B-side of the Hello Goodbye single in both the U.S. and U.K (and there are some slight mix differences between the U.S.and U.K. and mono vs. stereo mixes). An alternate stripped down version of take 16 is included on the Beatles Anthology 2 CD set. In Britain, the BBC banned the song due to John’s use of the word ‘knickers’. John commented on this ban by saying “It always seems to happen now, that people misinterpret what we write or say. We’re happy with the words and I don’t see how they can offend anyone.”

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are a few links from Amazon to read about or purchase releases related to this post:

1) Magical Mystery Tour (Remastered) – 2009 remaster of original album featuring I Am The Walrus

2) Beatles Anthology 2 – featuring alternate version of I Am The Walrus

3) The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour – DVD of original 1967 film (currently out of print but available in like new or used condition through independent sellers on Amazon)

4) More 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!

Related posts:

1. Beatles Rarity Of The Week (I Am The Walrus/Spot The Oddity, Pt. 1) Happy New Year! I decided to try something different this...
2. The Fool On The Hill (1967 Magical Mystery Tour film sequence) “The Fool On The Hill” was a Lennon/McCartney original, used...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Your Mother Should Know (early acetate) In celebration of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band...

George Harrison appeared on BBC TV for Eric Idle’s Rutland Weekend Television Christmas Show, which aired on December 26, 1975. He performed The Pirate Song which is meant to poke fun at the legal problems over the plagiarism charge of his hit single My Sweet Lord. Much of the song is played over the show’s closing credits and here we are presented beforehand with a compilation of some of George’s other scenes during the show. Given the sophistication of all of it’s thought provoking lyrical content, The Pirate Song is a great number to sing along with and with that in mind, I have transcribed the words below, in case any of you want to get started on some new year cheer, take a swig of something near, and sing along:

I’d like to be a pirate, a pirate’s life for me
All my friends are pirates, and sail the b.b. sea
I’ve got a jolly roger, it’s black and white and vast
So get out of your skull and crossbones, and run it up your mast!

With a yo-ho-ho and a ya-ha-ha
And a yee-hee-hee-ho-hum
and a ya-ha-ha and a yum-hum hum, etc.

You get the idea…..

Click the image above to play the video.

This was requested by factory_worker/aka Stacia (but the funny thing is, it was already in the queue at that point anyway…which just means it was definitely a good idea, right?).

This will be the last post for 2010, and I want to thank all reading (even if your reading this much later) 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. 2010 has been a great year here and I have high hopes for 2011 too. Over the last couple of months, I’ve developed a few new ideas for the site that I hope to be implementing very soon. I will say no more about them just yet, but I’m hoping they will turn out as good as I see them turning out in my head right now. More on that later….

The Happy-Natiest of New Year’s EVER to all reading! See you here in 2011…

Click to read about or purchase these items from Amazon.com that that feature Something by The Beatles:

1) All Things Must Pass [BOXED EDITION] – featuring My Sweet Lord.

2) Concert for George – a tribute to George by various artists.

…and here’s more 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!

No related posts.

Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. Many of you may remember a radio show in the mid-90s that was created by Paul McCartney called Oobu Joobu. The program aired on the American radio network Westwood One and the name was inspired by the BBC’s production of a play by the late French writer Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) called Ubu Cocu (if someone knows what that means, feel free to leave a comment). The show was officially plugged as a weekly radio program created, directed and presented by DeeJay Paul McCartney. Paul’s shorter tag-descriptor for the show was Wide Screen Radio which is heard in a few of the jingles used on the show. Each broadcast was about an hour (except for a couple two-hour specials) and it ran every week from Memorial Day weekend (last weekend in May) through the weekend following the U.S. Labor Day holiday (September) 1995. Besides being able to hear Paul in action as a DJ, the show’s material included demos, rehearsals, live performances and many unreleased recordings by both Paul McCartney and The Beatles. Needless to say, much of the material from the shows have been widely bootlegged. Paul also included guests on the show like Stevie Wonder, Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) and Little Richard and he featured a lot of music by other acts such as Buddy Holly, Steve Miller, and Elvis Costello, to cite only a few. There was even a segment by Linda McCartney called Cook Of The House (of course, named after her track on the Wings At the Speed Of Sound LP), where she would share vegetarian recipes while Paul would often get to ‘stir’ or ‘taste-test’.

On the June 25, 1995 broadcast of Oobu Joobu, Paul presented a show with the theme of ‘Ecology’ and the music followed suit with some tracks like Looking For Changes, Wild Life and Linda McCartney’s touching song Cow (later released on her posthumous CD Wide Prairie), all addressing animal rights. This week’s BROW is another one featured on that show. It is The Beatles ‘White Album’ classic Mother Nature’s Son. In the soundclip, I’ve included Paul’s explanation that the words were inspired by a song he liked as a kid called Nature Boy (he is likely referring to the 1948 recording by Nat King Cole). This version of Mother Nature’s Son was recorded sometime in 1994 with Paul’s “90′s” band: Hamish Stuart, Robbie McIntosh, Wix Wickens, and Blair Cunningham. Unlike the original Beatles account of the song, this one features some outstanding accordion work by Wix. A couple years after the Oobu Joobu broadcasts in 1997, Paul included an abbreviated account of this particular Oobu Joobu program on a bonus disc, packaged with his Flaming Pie CD, and this was only available on the initial few copies sold from Best Buy stores. This bonus disc is now somewhat hard to find. There was also some edits of selected material from the Oobu Joobu broadcasts released officially as ‘b-sides’ on a few of the singles associated with the Flaming Pie CD.

Paul and Linda McCartney

For more info on the Ecology Oobu Joobu CD (track listings, cover art, etc.) click here.

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

Music makes FAB Christmas gifts…

1) The White Album (Remastered) – the original Beatles double album on 2 CDs with the original version of Mother Nature’s Son.

2) Flaming Pie – note this edition of the CD will not contain the Oobu Joobu Ecology CD discussed above.

3) The World Tonight – CD single with a 9-minute + track from Oobu Joobo broadcast

4) Wide Prairie – Linda McCartney’s CD featuring Cow.

5) Amazon links for more 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!

Related posts:

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On August 1, 1965, after not performing on British television in over a year, The Beatles showed up on the BBC program Blackpool Night Out to perform both sides of their new single, Yesterday/Act Naturally, along with a few other songs. After a brief discussion with The Beatles about receiving their MBE’s, this clip features Ringo Starr all out of key and nervous, singing Act Naturally, a cover originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos in 1963, who took it to number one on the Billboard Country Singles Chart. Ringo has always had a strong appreciation for the country and western flavored tunes and puts in a good performance here.

Click the image above to play the video.

And new from Apple…The Red and The Blue albums remastered!

1) The Beatles 1962-1966 (Red) Remastered

2) The Beatles 1967-1970 (Blue) Remastered

3) And Amazon links for everything else: 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. Plans for The Beatles to do a recording session for the BBC radio program Saturday Club fell through on March 11, 1963 because John Lennon came down with a sore throat. Plan B was put into effect, which was to just do a live performance during the actual broadcast on March 16. The Beatles were given time to do six songs and opened up with I Saw Her Standing There, which was also the opener for their upcoming first LP release Please Please Me, due out the following week. Due to time constraints, this was the first occurrence of a slightly shortened arrangement of the song (omitting the second middle eight). This was also the first of ten recordings of I Saw Her Standing There for BBC radio, although there is a couple earlier recordings of the song from the Cavern Club in Liverpool, UK and The Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. The other songs performed at the show were Misery, Too Much Monkey Business (a Chuck Berry favorite of John’s), I’m Talking About You (another Chuck Berry tune), Please Please Me (their first #1 single which had only just topped the UK Melody Maker singles chart) and The Hippy Hippy Shake (another cover originally by Chan Romero, but The Beatles were probably most familiar with the 1959 Little Tony version). As usual there was also chat with The Beatles from well-known host Brian Matthew. This was at a time when nobody in America had ever heard of The Beatles. The 1994 Apple collection of BBC recordings Live At The BBC did not include this particular performance, nor has it been on any other official release to date.

The Beatles, 1963

Click to read about or purchase these related items from Amazon.com:

1) Live at the BBC
2) Live at the BBC [Vinyl]
3) Live at the BBC EP 45 w/Picture sleeve

A Happy Note from Happy Nat: As of this month, the BROW is 3 years old! Can you believe it! I know most of you haven’t been around that long to read and hear them but they are still here in case you still need to (and want to) catch up. It’s been beyond fun so far, and I’ve got to know a lot more fans too – and that alone makes it worth it. So thanks everyone for sticking around and there is a lot more good stuff to come. Stay tuned…

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

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

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I had a recent request from my friend Cara, to share some of The Beatles on the UK BBC Television program Juke Box Jury. So here is an audio recording preceded by some background info about the show:

On December 7th 1963, the Beatles gave an afternoon concert at the Empire Theatre in their hometown of Liverpool which was filmed for BBC-TV. Following the concert, the Beatles rushed to the Odeon Cinema in Liverpool for a special taping of Juke Box Jury.

Juke Box Jury was a weekly program featuring a panel of four celebrities who were given the task of rating newly released records as ‘HIT’ or ‘MISS,’ based on their personal opinions of the recording’s potential to become a popular chart hit.

When the Beatles appeared as the four panelists for this edition of the show, they rated the latest releases by artists like Elvis Presley, Steve and Eydie, Bobby Vinton, Billy Fury, and the Swinging Blue Jeans. Most of the predictions the Beatles made on this episode of Juke Box Jury proved later to be correct, and only three of their predictions turned out to be incorrect.

The video of the Beatles’ appearance on Juke Box Jury seemingly no longer exists. Luckily, the audio from this television appearance has survived.

Their December 7th Juke Box Jury appearance and a 30 minute film of their concert earlier that afternoon at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre would both be telecast by BBC-TV later that same evening.

Juke Box Jury began as a program in America during the earliest days of television. The BBC version of the show debuted in 1959 and ran until 1967. The host of Juke Box Jury in Britain was David Jacobs.

This is the audio from the final 9 minutes of this Dec. 7th 1963 appearance when the Beatles rated:

1) Do You Really Love Me Too – Billy Fury: the record was compared unfavorably to a Cliff Richard record though John & Paul liked the song and said it would be a hit..they were right as it ended up going to number 15 in the UK. Note: The audio here begins after the song has played.

2) There I’ve Said It Again – Bobby Vinton: All 4 correctly voted this a miss for the UK. But in the U.S. it was a #1 a month later and ironically I Want To Hold Your Hand was the song that dethroned it on the Billboard singles chart. Note: All but a few seconds of the track has been clipped from the recording.

3) Love Hit Me – The Orchids: The Orchids are a trio of schoolgirls from Coventry and John criticizes the group as a clone of The Ronettes or The Crystals. Paul & George are a little more enthusiastic but they ultimately vote it as a miss. Then they get suddenly and humorously apologetic when they are told afterward that the Orchids are in the audience and are told by announcer David Jacobs to stand up. John then says he’ll change it to a hit and buy two!

4) I Think Of You – The Merseybeats: As they are running out of time, they cut the discussion and go straight for the vote. All vote this one a hit for these fellow Liverpudlians.

The theme song Hit And Miss closes the show.

The Beatles on Juke Box Jury on Dec. 7, 1963

An abbreviated transcription of this show is online here which is where much of the info on the program in this post came from.

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

No related posts.