MissHimMissHimMissHim...

Label: DarthDisc, DD016-23

Volume One: The Start of the Rumor

Disc One
1. Introduction
2. from WABC-AM, NYC: Roby Yonge's Last Night -- October 21, 1969
3-7. material from WKNR, Detroit, with Russ Gibb, October, 1969 including:
Interview with Derek Taylor
Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
The Beatle Plot - Part 1: Clues
The Beatle Plot - Part 2: Voiceprint Analysis
The Beatle Plot - Part 3: Derek Taylor Tries Again
8. Footnote: CFNY rebroadcast of The Beatles Plot, from WKNR, with David Marston and John Small.

Disc Two
1. from WNEW-FM, NYC: News Close-Up, with Christopher Glenn, November 1969
2. from WPLJ-FM, NYC: Introduction to the mid-1970's rebroadcast of its Paul is Dead special.
3. WPLJ-FM's analysis of the clues, from 1969
4. WPLJ-FM takes another look at the clues, from the mid-1970's.

Volume Two: The Rumor Examined

Record One:
Side One . .
1-7. From WMCA-AM, NYC, late October or early November, 1969: Alex Bennett special, (Part 1): (Derek Taylor - Neil Aspinall - Trash - Fans outside Apple - Thomas Nutter, tailor - Iain Macmillan, photographer - Leslie Cavendish)

Record Two:
Side One . .
1-3. From WMCA-AM, NYC, late October or early November, 1969: Alex Bennett special, (Part 2): (Ringo Starr - From the BBC: Chris Drake interviews Paul and Linda McCartney on October 24, broadcast October 27, 1969 - Paul Krassner)

4-9. News clips (4. from the BBC: Paul and Linda in Scotland - 5. from ABC TV: October 22, 1969 - 6. from ABC TV: October 23, 1969 - 7. from ABC TV: October 24, 1969 - 8. from NBC TV: October 24, 1969 - 9. WABC-AM Radio: includes an interview with Richard DiLello, October, 1969)

10-20. RKO syndicated TV special: "Paul McCartney: The Complete Story, Told For the First and Last Time," a mock trial with F. Lee Bailey and the following "witnesses": (10. Russ Gibbs, DJ, WKNR-FM, Detroit - 11. F. Lee Bailey introduces the program - 12. Russ Gibbs discusses clues - 13. Doc Segal, a recording engineer - 14. Fred LaBour, student record reviewer - 15. Paul Cannon, program director, WKNR-FM, Detroit - 16. Stell, a former Apple secretary - 17. Peter Asher, Apple record producer (etc.) - 18. Sal Ianucci, President, Capitol Records - 19. Allen Klein - 20. F. Lee Bailey's conclusion)

21. A word from John Lennon, from Emperor Rosko Midday Spin, Feb. 15, 1970.

Volume Three: Ends and Odds

Disc Five
1-9. Paul Is Dead special from WKBW-AM, Buffalo, NY

Disc Six
1-3. The Mike Douglas show, late October or early November, 1969
Christopher Glenn
Mike McGear
Mike Douglas's closing comments
4. Clue Number 1, from the National Lampoon's Radio Dinner (Banana/Blue Thumb BTS-38, 1972)
5. Terry Knight - Saint Paul (Capitol 2056, 1969)
6. Werbley Finster - So Long Paul (RCA 74-0290, 1969)
7. Mystery Tour - Ballad of Paul (MGM 10097, 1969)
8. Mystery Tour - Ballad of Paul (Following the Bouncing Ball)
9. Billy Shears and the Pallbearers - Brother Paul (Silver Fox 121, 1969)
10. Clue Number 2, from the National Lampoon's Radio Dinner
11. Give Ireland Back to the Irish, from the National Lampoon's Radio Dinner
12-13. Lou Yeager radio special, source unidentified (1970s)

Volume Four: Perpetual Post-Mortem

Disc Seven
1-11. Radio special by Dave Fox, based on Joel Glazier's 1978 article for Strawberry Fields Forever
12. excerpt from The Long and Winding Road radio documentary, with a Derek Taylor quote.
13. excerpt from The Beatles Story, BBC, 1972, with comments from George Martin and John Lennon

Disc Eight
1. Chris Farley and Paul McCartney, Saturday Night Live (rehearsal), February, 1993
2-13. The Beatle Years, Westwood One: from show 93-46 (week of November 8, 1993) and 93-47 (week of November 15, 1993).
14. Interview with R. Gary Patterson, author of The Walrus Is Paul, from The Beatle Years, using segments from shows 96-43 (week of October 21, 1996) and 00-44 (week of October 28, 2000)
15. Paul McCartney on "Glass Onion," 1984, from The Beatle Years show 00-44
16. Chris Farley and Paul McCartney, Saturday Night Live, February 13, 1993


Liner Notes
The "Paul Is Dead!" mania of October and November 1969 is a decidedly peripheral area of Beatles collecting, and far be it from me to suggest that it is anything more than a footnote in Beatles history -- no matter how many books have been written about it. But what an interesting and peculiar footnote it was. For those of us who were still digesting the newly released Abbey Road, in that autumn of 1969, it didn't matter whether we actually believed that Paul McCartney had been killed in a car crash in 1966, and replaced by a look-alike, one William Campbell: there was simply no way not to get caught up in the business of finding and discussing the clues and symbolism said to be embedded in the group's recent work. The story took on a life of its own, as conspiracy theories tend to do.

And then, just about as suddenly as it started, the story vanished, only to be taken up again years -- even decades -- later by writers and collectors who had made the business of clue-finding into a specialty, documented in a handful of books and parodied by McCartney himself on his 1993 album, Paul Is Live.

On MissHimMissHimMissHim... we have assembled some vintage material that show this madness as it unfolded, as well as some explanatory material from 1970's rebroadcasts of the original shows -- and even new looks at the material from the 1990's.

It's all quite a circus. One DJ, manifestly unfamiliar with Shakespeare's King Lear, hysterically proclaims that someone can be heard saying "services for Billy" at the end of "I Am the Walrus." Another thinks that "Your Mother Should Know," played backwards, sounds like "Bach funeral music" for organ. (And which of Bach's non-existent funeral works would that be, exactly?) A third misidentifies the author of "The Passover Plot," which he also clearly hasn't read. But most stunning of all is how little everyone seems to know about the Beatles and their music. One DJ with a short memory tells us (in 1969!) that Sgt. Pepper was released after Epstein's death. A Capitol Records executive refers to "the Abbey album," and Allen Klein claims Abbey Road is not a real Beatles album at all!

But don't get me started. It's all here for you to parse on your own -- eight CDs worth, including, just about every clue unearthed at the time, backwards and forwards.

So there you have it -- !yojnE

- Neo

Read the Beatles: Classic and New Writings on the Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter

Edited by June Skinner Sawyers
Foreword by Astrid Kirchherr

A must-have book for all Beatles fans--a career-spanning selection of writings about the Fab Four

There are, of course, many books on the Beatles, but this is the only one available that is a comprehensive collection of journalism about the legendary band, together and apart. Consisting of fifty articles, essays, interviews, record and movie reviews, poetry, and book excerpts--many of them rare and hard to find--Read the Beatles is an unprecedented compilation that follows the arc of the Fab Four's iconic and idiosyncratic career, from their early days in Liverpool to their tragic and triumphant histories after the group's split. This is a must-have for all Beatles fans.

Meet the Beatles: A Cultural History of the Band That Shook Youth, Gender, and the World

by Steven D. Stark

Here they are--John, Paul, George, Ringo--the band that inspired and changed popular culture forever. In this revealing and provocative new account, Steven D. Stark puts their impact into unique perspective by revealing both the personal details and the larger events that made them into the twentieth century's greatest cultural force.

"They were magic," said their producer George Martin, and most of us would agree. But the band has become so shrouded in cultural mythology that it is difficult today to really understand how or why. This book explains that why--unpacking the legendary band's aura and examining the ways in which the Beatles own lives were inextricably tied to the cultural, youth, and gender revolutions they helped create and lead during the 1960s.

Based on extensive research and more than a hundred new interviews, Meet the Beatles offers a compelling fresh interpretation of their story, beginning with their childhoods in England and the profound effect on their outlook and music caused by the deaths of Paul's and John's mothers when they were young. It documents their subsequent special bond with women--from their teenage fans to the mothers of their friends to close partners Linda and Yoko. It illustrates the central importance of drugs, both for them and the youthful counterculture they led; why their unusual hairstyles set off a cultural revolution; how the band came to create a new vision of the role of women; and the unique conditions that allowed these four to conquer America faster than any other cultural phenomenon in history. It explains why the group's popularity has never faded--even now, more than four decades after they first hit the charts.

From Liverpool and Hamburg to Ed Sullivan and Shea Stadium, it's all here--from the improbable decision to fire their original drummer and bring Ringo into the band to why they broke up and who was responsible. After reading Meet the Beatles, you'll never think about the Beatles or listen to their songs the same way again. Live the magic once more.

Steven D. Stark is a writer and cultural commentator. He has been the popular culture analyst for National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday; a contributor to The World, a daily public radio show coproduced by WGBH and the BBC; and a commentator for CNN's Showbiz Today. The author of Glued to the Set and Writing to Win, he has written extensively for the Boston Globe, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Atlantic Monthly. He has been a Beatles fan since he was a boy and the Beatles first hit America on February 7, 1964.

Lifting Latches: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy Volume Three - Inside the Beatles Vaults

by John C. Winn

Imagine being given the keys to The Beatles' tape vaults. What would you listen to first, and which mysteries could you solve?

"Lifting Latches" gives you access to the contents of every reel of tape The Beatles recorded for EMI from 1962-1970.

Discover how the songs and albums were assembled, which tapes are now lost forever, and find out about unused sessions and releases not widely reported elsewhere.

Supplementary chapters break new ground on topics such as:

- How several hours of Beatles studio outtakes were liberated from EMI's vault and sold to bootleggers
- How Glyn Johns compiled four different rejected "Get Back" compilations, and how two of them ended up with American DJs
- Why BBC Radio's Beatles archive was nearly empty, and how it was rebuilt over the decades
- Which Beatles demos, rehearsals, and bootlegs John Lennon retained in his private tape collection

All this, plus updates to "Way Beyond Compare" and "That Magic Feeling"!
If you're a Beatles scholar, collector, or fan, you'll be amazed by "Lifting Latches".

DarthDisc Discography

Audio
DD001/002 - The Beatles - Northwest Nights
DD003-006 - John Lennon - Lennon Remembers
DD007/008 - The Beatles - City of Light
DD009 - Paul McCartney & Wings - Live in Groningen August 19, 1972
DD010/011 - Led Zeppelin - One More for the Road
DD012 - The Byrds - High Above Cayuga's Waters
DD013 - The Beatles - The Birth of Apple
DD014/015 - John Lennon - The Unedited RKO Interview
DD016-023 - The Beatles - MissHimMissHimMissHim
DD024 - Ringo Starr & The Roundheads - It's All About the Bottom Line
DD029-031 - The Rolling Stones - Five English Gentlemen Spend a Day in a New York Garden
DD032 - Ringo Starr - Choose Ringo
DD033-036 - The Beatles - Turn Left at Greenland!
DD037 - The Beatles - Abbey Road N.W.8 - The Source Tape
DD038/039 - Paul McCartney - 2007-06-13 Highline Ballroom, NYC

DD/MCP - George Harrison & Paul McCartney - The Little Girl Tape Vol. 2
DD/MR 01/02 - Paul McCartney & Wings - Over @tlanta
RAR0001 - The Beatles - As It Happened Baby!

Video
RAR007 - The Beatles - Video 1
DD-DVD 8-10 - The Beatles - Turn Left at Greenland
DD-DVD 11 - The Beatles - Live at Shea Stadium

The Beatles - City of Light

Label: DarthDisc, DD 007/8

DISC ONE

1. Beatles Interview at Le Bourget Airport
OLYMPIA MUSIC HALL - January 19, 1964
2. If I Had A Hammer (Trini Lopez)
3. Robert Marcy's Comment
4. From Me To You
5. She Loves You
6. This Boy
7. I Want To Hold Your Hand
8. Twist And Shout
9. Robert Marcy and Outro
10. I Saw Her Standing There
11. This Boy (Intro Only)
12. Twist And Shout
13. From Me To You (Instrumental)
14. Long Tall Sally
15. From Me To You (Instrumental)
16. From Me To You
17. Michel Lemaire Interviews the Beatles at The Olympia
18. Michel Lemaire Interviews Sylvie Vartan at The Olympia
19. Interview for Armed Forces Network's "Weekend World" - Jan. 24, 1964
PATHE-MARCONI STUDIO - January 29, 1964
20. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand (Announcements)
21. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand (Stereo, "Something New" version)
22. Sie Liebt Dich (Breakdown)
23. Sie Liebt Dich (Stereo, U.S. "Rarities" version)
24. Can't Buy Me Love (Take Two)
25. Can't Buy Me Love (Take Three)
26. One And One Is Two (Demo, probably recorded in Hotel George Cinq)
27. Interview with Bernard Redmont, for WINS Radio, NYC
28. Interview at London Airport - February 5, 1964
THE 1965 OPENING ACTS
29. I'm All Right (Les Pollux)
30. Memphis Tennessee (Evy)
31. Joy, Joy, Joy (Moustique)
32. Les Copains D'Abord (Les Haricots Rouges)
33. I Wish You Would (The Yardbirds)

DISC TWO

PALAIS DES SPORTS - June 20, 1965 (Afternoon Show)
1. Twist And Shout
2. She's A Woman
3. I'm A Loser
4. Can't Buy Me Love
5. Baby's In Black
6. I Wanna Be Your Man
7. A Hard Day's Night
8. Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby
9. Rock And Roll Music
10. I Feel Fine
11. Ticket To Ride
12. Long Tall Sally
PALAIS DES SPORTS - June 20, 1965 (Evening Show)
13. Twist And Shout
14. She's A Woman
15. I'm A Loser
16. Can't Buy Me Love
17. Baby's In Black
18. I Wanna Be Your Man
19. A Hard Day's Night
20. Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby
21. Rock And Roll Music
22. I Feel Fine
23. Ticket To Ride
24. Long Tall Sally
25. Interview By Jacques Ourevitch in Rolls Royce and at Hotel George Cinq
26. George and Ringo interviewed by Chris Denning
27. A French fan interviewed by Chris Denning
28. A French interview about the M.B.E., in London (Probably October 1965)

Audio: Neo
Research: Mr. Ron Obvious
Design: Corbeau
Special thanks to all who lent a hand. You know who you are...

Liner Notes

"There were more boys than girls in the audience," appears to have been the main impression Paris made on the Beatles: they said it at the time, and in retrospective interviews as recently as the "Anthology." Yet some of their best live recordings come from their two visits to the City of Light, the first in January and early February 1964 just before their first visit to America, and the second on June 20, 1965, their first live shows after finishing work on "Help!"

Paris also has the distinction of being the only city outside London where the Beatles held a formal recording session, that being the January 29, 1964 session at Pathé Marconi studios that produced "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand," "Sie Liebt Dich" and "Can't Buy Me Love." And it was in Paris that they wrote and probably recorded the demo for "One And One Is Two," a song that they did not revisit in the studio, leaving the demo as the only available performance. And of course, during both visits they gave interviews. All of their recordings that have survived and have come to light -- including snippets made available in the "Anthology" and on Beatles.com -- are included here.

TECHNICAL NOTES / EDITING DISCLOSURES: Most of this material has been available before, although the 1965 evening show here is derived mostly (all but "I Feel Fine") from a first generation copy of the original video master. Considerable work has been done on all of the recordings, however. The 1964 performances, derived from "The Lost Paris Tapes," have had any clicks or other anomalies removed, but more importantly, we have tried to restore the broadcast section to the original running order. On the original, there audible edits, one of which we had to retain: the split introduction of "She Loves You" -- half by Paul, half by John -- probably didn't happen that way, but the existing material did not allow for it to be corrected.

On the other hand, we found that restoring the songs to their normal performance order only fully worked when we also moved the applause and comments preceding or following the songs in question. So, the applause and the "Merci" formerly heard after "From Me To You" is now after "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and the applause (and another "Merci") formerly after "I Want To Hold Your Hand" now separates "From Me To You" and "She Loves You." If it sounds confusing or nefarious, compare the running orders of the two versions and you'll see what we did; compare the discs and you'll hear why.

The newly discovered material from "The Lost Paris Tapes" has been left as it was: since these extra songs were likely from different shows, inserting them into the broadcast order seemed unwise. The other 1964 recordings are self-explanatory except for the two brief interview snippets preceding the Armed Forces Network interview, one with the Beatles, the other with Sylvie Vartan (with the Beatles playing "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in the background). These were conducted at the Olympia by Michel Lemaire for his "Les Moins de 20 ans" program on RTBF, Belgian radio.

The 1965 shows posed special problems too. The best sources for the afternoon show were missing some of the introductory comments -- often not much more than the odd "Merci," although among the missing were the guitar intro to "Baby's In Black." The missing bits, long available on the poor quality "Paris Sports Palais" LP, had been moven into a better quality source on "Et Maintenant Une Chanson," but the edits were crude and the "Paris Sports Palais" sections had a high-pitched whine. In truth, there is no way to make the sound of the "Paris Sports Palais" material match that of the better source, but we have eliminated the whine (and crackle) and remade the edits. The result is a complete but somewhat less jarring version of the afternoon show.

The running order of the evening show, also skewed on the original videotape -- what is it with French broadcasters? -- is here restored to the running order of the Beatles' spring 1965 set, and "I Feel Fine," from a different video source (and with a moment of tape-drag near the start restored to normal sound by way of an edit) has been reconnected with its ending, left on the videotape where the song was excised. This collection is rounded out with interviews, the last of which doesn't actually belong here: it was recorded in London several months after their Paris visit. But it was done for French radio, and leaving it off would have made it the only track from "Les Beatles A Paris" not included here.

And hey, completeness are us...

Neo, 2001

The Beatles - Turn Left at Greenland!

Label: DarthDisc, DD33-36

CD ONE - ARRIVAL + DAY TWO
(TOTAL TIME 76:24):

7 February
01) MBS "The World Today": 1:18
02) Fans at Kennedy Airport: 2:41
03) WINS Paul Parker at Kennedy Airport: 1:35
04) Kennedy Airport press conference: 6:27
05) WINS Jim Gordon at Plaza Hotel: 1:58
06) Fans at Plaza Hotel: 3:23
07) "Meet The Beatles": 4:09
08) "Saturday Club" with Brian Matthew: 6:04
09) In The Beatles' Suite at Plaza Hotel: 6:36
10) Malcolm Davies "Saturday Club" report: 8:42

8 February
11) WOLF interview w/Bud Ballou: 0:45
12) Driving to "Ed Sullivan Show" rehearsal: 4:07
13) "The Ed Sullivan Show" promo: 0:04
14) Ed Rudy phone interview w/George: 13:35
15) "Swingin' Soiree": 7:23
16) WMCA promos: 4:37

CD TWO - ED SULLIVAN + MEETING THE PRESS
(TOTAL TIME: 74:41):

9 February
"Ed Sullivan Show" first taping: 9:04
01) Ed Sullivan intro
02) Intro
03) Twist and Shout
04) Intro
05) Please Please Me
06) Outro
07) Intro
08) I Want To Hold Your Hand
09) Outro
10) Plaza Hotel w/Murray The "K": 8:02
11) CBS "White Christmas" interview: 0:40

"Ed Sullivan Show" first live broadcast: 16:23
12) Ed Sullivan Intro
13) Intro
14) All My Loving
15) Intro
16) Till There Was You
17) She Loves You
18) Outro
19) Intro
20) I Saw Her Standing There
21) I Want to Hold Your Hand
22) Outro
23) Ed Sullivan Outro
24) Carroll James backstage at "The Ed Sullivan Show": 0:54

10 February
25) AP Plaza Hotel interview: 1:33
26) CBS Plaza Hotel interview: 2:35
27) Ed Rudy Plaza Hotel interviews: 6:37
28) "Assignment: Hollywood," Fred Robbins for Radio Luxembourg: 20:12
29) CBS fan interviews: 5:32
30) Year In Review 1964: 1:00
31) Ed Rudy w/Mal Evans: 0:27
32) Ed Rudy promos: 1:02

CD THREE - WASHINGTON D.C.
(TOTAL TIME 79:50):

11 FEBRUARY 1964
01) Train to Washington DC: 11:31
02) Ed Rudy at Union Station: 0:40
03) Washington DC press conference: 5:59
04) Washington DC TV interviews: 4:52
05) WCAO interviews: 3:46
06) WMUC promos: 0:25
07) WWDC interview: 9:05
08) WWDC fan interview: 0:44
09) Murray The "K" w/Ringo: 3:09

Washington Coliseum concert: 34:33
10) Intro
11) Roll Over Beethoven
12) Intro
13) From Me To You
14) Intro
15) I Saw Her Standing There
16) Intro
17) This Boy
18) Intro
19) All My Loving
20) Intro
21) I Wanna Be Your Man
22) Intro
23) Please Please Me
24) Intro
25) Till There Was You
26) Intro
27) She Loves You
28) Intro
29) I Want To Hold Your Hand
30) Intro
31) Twist & Shout
32) Intro
33) Long Tall Sally
34) Outro

35) British Embassy TV Interview: 1:04
36) Ed Rudy at British Embassy: 3:33

CD FOUR - CARNEGIE HALL & MIAMI
(TOTAL TIME 79:22 or so):

12 February
01) Train ride to New York: 6:36
02) Ed Rudy at Carnegie Hall: 2:25

16 February
03) WQAM Miami reports: 4:55
04) Ed Rudy with Ed Sullivan: 0:42

"Ed Sullivan Show" rehearsal: 16:02
05) She Loves You
06) Intro
07) This Boy
08) Intro
09) All My Loving
10) Outro
11) Intro
12) I Saw Her Standing There
13) From Me To You
14) Intro
15) I Want To Hold Your Hand
16) Outro

17) Ed Rudy in Miami: 1:04

"Ed Sullivan" live broadcast: 18:04
18) Ed Sullivan Intro
19) Intro
20) She Loves You
21) Intro
22) This Boy
23) Intro
24) All My Loving
25) Outro
26) Intro
27) I Saw Her Standing There
28) Intro
29) From Me To You
30) Intro
31) I Want To Hold Your Hand
32) Outro
33) Ed Sullivan Outro

13-17 February
34) "Swingin' Soiree": 8:12

19 February
35) Lee Alan interview: 6:09

21 February
36) A Farewell To Miami: 3:09
37) Deauville Hotel, Miami: 8:04
38) Ed Rudy w/Neil Aspinall: 3:15
39) Ringo at Kennedy Airport: 0:07

Liner Notes

"HOW WOULD YOU LIKE A BEATLES SWEATSHIRT WORTH FIVE DOLLARS!!!!!?"

Some time ago, probably around the time "City of Light" was compiled, one of the Dartharchivists came up with the idea of compiling every circulating bit of audio (later the notion of including video was added) from the Beatles' first visit to America in February 1964. The idea was clearly a Winner; but facing the task of compiling it another thing. So okay, it took us about as long as Apple takes to do anything that doesn't involve a lawsuit -- but here it is, "Turn Left at Greenland," the story of...how the Beatles found America, basically.

There's some spectacular material here. Great bits of on-the-scene reporting by newsmen working without the wisdom of hindsight, and generally either immune, puzzled or simply amused by all the madness. The man-(or more often than not, girl)-on-the-street interviews prove to less tiresome than you might imagine: they capture a fascinating, and sometimes surprising variety of reactions to the Beatles, both from fans and their elders.

The interviews with the Beatles are fantastic as well: Murray the K pretty much caught on to what they were doing in his first interview: witness his comments about getting their ad-libbing into their soon-to-be-filmed "A Hard Day's Night." And Murray's February 6 interview with Malcolm Davies, for Saturday Club, gives a measure of the Beatles' impact in the United States even before anyone had a chance to see them. The Beatles' own reactions to the madness they've caused are striking as well: it's still new to them; the weariness evident in later tours is a long way down the road. There's a bit of commercial naivete as well: included here are lots of personalized radio station promos, something Brian Epstein clamped down on before the second tour.

But surely if you've got your hands on this set, you don't need to be told why this material is important. It was the Beatles' first visit to America, undertaken when, however confident the Fab Four were, they could have no way of knowing the degree to which the country would fall at their feet. It was one small step for four men ... never mind.

Perhaps what we should explain is how the set is laid out and why we made some of the decisions we did. You may be wondering, for example: if the idea here was to present every available audio and video recording of the visit, why are the three Ed Sullivan Show performances not included on the DVDs? And why are they included on the CDs? The same goes for material from the Maysles Brothers documentaries.

Easy. In a roundabout way. We didn't want to include anything that's commercially available - that is, that you should have in your collection in its official version - in the form in which it has been released. The Ed Sullivan Show performances and the Maysles Brothers film (or at least, a new version of it) are available on commercial DVD, but not on CD, and we felt that including the material on the CDs served a purpose - it helps tell the story, and it offers the material in a handy audio form for those who, for example, want to hear it on their iPods. In the case of the Maysles material, we haven't simply presented the soundtrack: we've broken it up and put its important components into the chronological sequence. We also included, on the third DVD, "What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A." -- the Maysles film as it was seen in 1964, and quite different from the newly recompiled and expanded version in "The Beatles: The First US Visit" -- which, of course, you should own.

Beyond that, a few notes about the compilation. This material, audio and video, has been around for years, spread over compilations and documentaries and specials of all kinds, or just lying in the archives of AP, CBS, the BBC and other organizations, just waiting for the Darthelves to come along and do their thing. In some cases, considerable reconstructive surgery had to be done. The famous Kennedy Airport press conference, for example, has been stitched together from many sources - as of course, you'll hear, because the sound quality varies. But it's the most complete version you'll hear in a single sitting. (The video version, by contrast, leaves the sources as they were - in newsreels, for example, which we've left intact, repetitive though they sometimes are). The Brian Matthew Saturday Club interview, similarly, was stitched together from several sources (mostly, the BBC broadcast and Maysles material - much as was done in "The Beatles Anthology," which, of course, you should also own.)

The four CDs are filled to capacity, so what we left off - rather than go to a fifth disc - is material from the Beatles' arrival back in London. That material, however, is all sourced from video anyway, and is included on the third DVD. In compiling the DVDs, we tried to keep as close as we could to a one hour limit, to avoid quality loss. And it works out this way: DVD 1 includes newsreels and raw footage - some of it silent - from the first part of the group's visit, from their arrival on February 7 through their Carnegie Hall concert on Feb. 12. Okay, we don't have the Carnegie Hall concert, in either audio or video. Believe me, the Darthelves have tried everything, including sending attractive young elvettes to try to sweet talk the tape out of retired stagehands rumored to have a copy. No dice.

The second DVD brings together the best quality video we've seen of the Washington Coliseum show (augmented with the recently discovered video version of "Long Tall Sally" and a video excerpt from "From Me To You") and the Miami rehearsal for the Ed Sullivan Show. And the third DVD gives you "What's Happening!" and the return to London.

As for the source details - too much to include here. Get yourself a copy of John Winn's marvelous "Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume 1: 1957-1965." Everything you need to know is on pp.130-160. (And you might as well get the successor volumes, "That Magical Feeling" and "Lifting Latches," while you're at it. And for another perspective on the time, it's worth getting hold of Michael Braun's "Love Me Do.")

- Neo, 2006