Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. I’ve decided to let this post be in celebration of my trip to Nashville, TN to see Sir Paul tonight. Since he hasn’t been to Nashville since 1974, when he recorded Junior’s Farm and Sally G there with Wings, I was even hoping he might modify his set list, and at least throw Junior’s Farm in for the occasion (it’s such a good rocker). We’ll see…but hey! I’m getting off track here.

On June 1, 2008, Liverpool, UK had one of it’s greatest concerts in history when Paul showed up in celebration for his birth-city’s year as the European Capital of Culture. The pre-show music was from his obscure UK Twin Freaks album and also some remixes of the Memory Almost Full track, Nod Your Head. Then Paul and band hit the stage and surprised everyone by opening with something he hasn’t performed live in nearly 50 years – The Hippy Hippy Shake. The Beatles used to cover this little rocker when they played in Hamburg Germany from 1960-1962.

The Hippy Hippy Shake was written by Chan Romero but The Beatles were probably more familiar with the version by Italian rocker Little Tony, because that is the version that made it big in the UK around 1959. The Beatles can be heard on some of the releases of the Hamburg, Star Club recordings, covering the song. The Beatles also performed it 5 times for the BBC radio programs in the early 60′s and one of these recordings (from July 10, 1963) is on the Live At The BBC Beatles release on Apple. Paul sang lead on all accounts, as he does with equal energy here.

So if the set list was modified for Liverpool, might it be for Nashville too? Again, we’ll see…

Paul McCartney & Brian Ray on stage, Liverpool, 2008

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It’s a stormy night in the southern Appalachians and a good night for a stormy sounding tune. Welcome to this week’s Beatles Rarity Of The Week. Back in November 2007, Paul McCartney released his UK single Ever Present Past in three formats: digital download bundle, CD single and vinyl single. The B-sides were all live performances of songs from the Memory Almost Full CD. All were recorded at Paul’s June 27, 2007 concert at Amoeba Records in sunny Los Angeles, CA, but were different tracks with each format. The digital download bundle contained Only Mama Knows and That Was Me, while the CD single contained Only Mama Knows and Dance Tonight. The vinyl B-Side is this week’s BROW: a melody given a somewhat poetic treatment by Paul called House Of Wax. It’s funny how something so recent can already be considered rare. I don’t see the digital download bundle on Itunes anymore, and the CD singles have all been bought up and at the time of this writing, only two used ones are available on Amazon Marketplace and the cheapest of them is $161.64. The vinyl single containing House Of Wax is nowhere to be found. A couple of weeks ago (on Jan. 27) Amoeba Records issued a CD EP called Amoeba’s Secret containing four songs from Paul’s concert at the LA store. Two of them had already been issued as the B-sides from the digital download bundle (That Was Me, Only Mama Knows) and two of them were previously unissued (I Saw Her Standing There – which was nominated for a Grammy this year, and the Wings hit C Moon). But the other B-Sides including the live account of House Of Wax are now lost to obscurity save for those that already have a vinyl copy and the lucky Moggers that happen to find this post.

Amoeba Records Promo poster for Paul's concert there in 2007.

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!

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