Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. A short while back I had a BROW request for a live Beatles performance of “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You.” I love to get requests for a number of reasons. It lets me know that people are actually out there that are tuning in with an interest and it also helps me come up with what to put out there next. I was a little disappointed in this case though because The Beatles never performed “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You” before a live audience. Aiming to please, I gave it some thought and came up with what I feel like is the next best thing.

“I’m Happy Just To Dance With You” was one of the seven songs The Beatles performed in their first movie A Hard Day’s Night, and in mid-1964, the band was keeping very busy plugging the film. That is why on July 17, 1964 when the Beatles were recording songs to be aired on their fourth and final From Us To You program on BBC radio, they recorded four songs from the film. “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You” was one of those songs and while it was not recorded “live”, the BBC studio where they recorded did not have the capability for multi-tracking, so any overdubs were performed live during tape-to-tape copies. Therefore I considered this the closest suitable alternative for the request. George Harrison sings the lead vocal on this Lennon-McCartney composition and makes a couple mistakes with the lyrics in this version, in case you want to try and spot them. The other film songs recorded in this session were “A Hard Day’s Night”, “If I Fell” and “I Should Have Known Better.” The show aired on BBC’s Light Program on August 3, 1964.

Thanks go out to Edward Mehl for making this request. Thanks for waiting, Ed! Enjoy!

The Beatles - I'm Happy Just To Dance With You

The Beatles on the BBC

Extra info: The official 2-CD set Live At The BBC released by Apple in 1994 does not include this performance or any others The Beatles recorded at this session.

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

1) A Hard Day’s Night (Remastered) – 2009 remaster of original 1964 U.K. LP, including the stereo master of “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You.”

2) Live at the BBC 1994 2-CD collection of great BBC recordings by The Beatles (does not include the performance featured here).

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!

Related posts:

1. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – I Saw Her Standing There (Live for Saturday Club) Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. Plans for...
2. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Dream Baby (on Teenager’s Turn) Also available as a podcast. This week’s BROW comes from...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Saturday Club (Christmas Show) Well, this would be the week to come up with...

This week’s Beatles Rarity Of The Week is special because this is the week that BROW is one year old. The Beatles were always big on birthday celebrations as can be felt through this medley of happy and rare birthday recordings that I have assembled for this week. The medley includes:

1) Whit Monday – from the BBC program From Us To You. It was recorded on May 1, 1964 and aired on May 18, 1964 (just a few days after my first birthday).

2) Birthday – The Beatles’ classic performed by Paul McCartney in Stockholm, Sweden on May 5, 2003.

3) Happy Birthday Michael Love – Recorded with Michael Love (of the Beach Boys) while The Beatles were in India during March 1968.

4) Happy Birthday – This recording comes from October 1971 at John’s 31st birthday party in a Syracuse NY hotel room. Eric Clapton, Ringo & Maureen Starkey, Klaus Voormann, Allen Ginsberg, Jim Keltner, Mal Evans and Neil Aspinal were all present and “o-blue-terated” (to borrow a word used by the Blue Meanies in the Yellow Submarine film).

5) Happy Birthday Saturday Club – The Beatles performed this one on the BBC program Saturday Club in honor of it’s 5th birthday. The recording was made on September 7th, 1963 and aired on October 5th, 1963.

6) Happy Birthday John – From John’s 30th birthday celebration on October 9, 1970. Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Stephen Stills and Klaus Voorman were all present (and once again: O-blue-terated).

The Beatles cutting the cake, late 1964

It’s been “fab” bringing you rare Beatles-related recordings over the past year and a sincere thank you goes out to all the “gear” people out there who have taken an interest.

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.

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

Related posts:

1. Ringo Starr’s Birthday Cake Presentation July 7, 2010 An addendum to last week’s post Paul Gives Birthday Surprise...
2. Happy Birthday Paul! Yes….Happy Birthday Paul who was born on this date in...
3. Paul Gives Birthday Surprise to Ringo Ringo and his All Starr Band played at Radio City...