Elvis Is Wrong

by Billy Shepherd and Johnny Dean

And John told us: "We admire Elvis Presley a lot for what he has done for the pop business. But we'd never want to make films the way he does . . . he just knocks one out in a few weeks. The way we hear it, he knows almost exactly how much money he'll take at the box-office, because his following is constant. But we found, with the earlier films, that we did pretty well even in countries where there wasn't much of a pop-record market".

Pretty well? At this time two years ago, "Help" had topped four million pounds at the box-office and "A Hard Day's Night" was not far short of that staggering figure.

So the chats went on about what to do in films. And, of course, they're still going on today. The Beatles could have leapt in and done anything that looked remotely good but their high standards of professionalism meant that only the best would do. Finding the absolute best, in any field, is a long-term job. You just have to wait . . . and see!

A reader, and Beatle fan, wrote in to one of the pop weeklies as 1965 came to its conclusion and pointed out some interesting facts about the number of records which shot in the charts at the Number One spot in the first week of release. Now this is, obviously, a tremendous achievement. Oddly enough the first to do it, and that was back in 1958, was Elvis, with his "Jailhouse Rock" . . . and he repeated the dose later on with "It's Now Or Never" and with "Surrender". Cliff Richard and the Stones did it once each . . . but by the end of 1965, the Beatles had achieved this feat seven times.

The records involved were: "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me Love", "A Hard Day's Night", "I Feel Fine", "Ticket To Ride", "Help" and the double-edged biggie "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out". Actually that last-named, virtually two "A"-sided record was the first two-sider to top the chart since had done so six years earlier--with "A Fool Such As I" and "I Need Your Love Tonight". This is the very stuff of which pop history is made and it stresses again, with no doubt, just how important the Beatles have been in comparison with other giants of the business.

Still, we were talking about December two years ago specifically . . . and it was all happening. The Hollies recorded a George harrison song; Peter Sellers tackled "Hard Day's Night" in the guise of a Shakespearean actor; "Rubber Soul", the LP, came out with an advance order of half-a-million; the single was an instant chart-topper.

Filming Promotional Videos for "Paperback Writer" and "Rain"

Taped: May 19, 1966
Aired: June 5, 1966

At EMI Studios (Abbey Road Studio One), beginning at 10 a.m., the Beatles taped promotional clips of "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" in both color and black and white for television stations around the world. Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg had worked with them before at Ready Steady Go! and they were to use him again in the future for Let It Be.

They had lunch at the Genevieve restaurant on Thayer Street, near EMI, and taped more film in the afternoon. That evening Alan Civil recorded his French horn solo on "For No One."

November 16, 1963 - The Jack Paar Program

Taped: Saturday 16 November 1963
Aired: Friday 3 January 1964

As part of the Beatles' autumn tour, they played Winter Gardens in Bournemouth. The three rival American television networks - NBC, CBS and ABC - were permitted to film the hysterical audience and part of the show. Paul and John were interviewed by John Darsa for the CBS coverage. Life magazine photographer Terence Spencer with his assistant also arrived at their hotel, the Branksome Towers, outside Bournemouth and was quickly accepted into the inner circle. Brian Epstein was particularly keen on the publicity that a large spread in Life would produce. However, The Beatles did not turn up for the shoot that would have given them the January 31, 1964 cover, which went to Geraldine Chaplin instead. Terence Spencer: "The Beatles must be the only people in showbiz ever to have turned down a Life cover."



November 16, 1963 - CBS Evening News
Taped: Saturday 16 November 1963
Aired: Thursday 21 November 1963

Cowboy Ringo

by Billy Shepherd and Johnny Dean

We were in on a lot of the chats as to what the Beatles should actually do. You may remember there was talk of them doing a Western "A Talent For Loving," but eventually they scrubbed round it. Anyway, they'd bought the screen rights and Ringo especially was looking forward to donning the old cowboy gear. He wanted to be the fastest gun in the group!

This film situation has always caused trouble. Even now it is very tricky. Their producer Walter Shenson explained to us that hundreds of writers were suggesting script ideas but they were all based on the idea of something that happened in the course of a day of the Beatles. And this had been done before, of course. What was wanted was a story in which the boys could appear as John, Paul, George and Ringo, as individuals, not as the Beatles, a group.

We heard the rough story outline of "A Talent For Loving" and it seemed good. But the difficulty was that it had already been published as a book and it was almost impossible to adapt it for the screen without making it seem to have been hurriedly rearranged.

The Beatles Arrive in Japan (1966)

Location: Haneda Airport + Hilton Hotel, Tokyo.
Date: June 30, 1966

The Beatles arrived at Haneda airport, Tokyo at 3:40 a.m. They stayed at the Tokyo Hilton where they had their own floor, occupying the Presidential Suite. Hotel security was the tightest that the Beatles had yet endured, preventing them from making unplanned sightseeing trips around the Tokyo streets.

There was considerable right-wing opposition - including death threats - to the Beatles playing at Nippon Budokan Hall (Martial Arts Hall), because the building was regarded as a national shrine to Japan's war dead, and it was therefore seen as sacrilegious for a rock 'n' roll group to play there. Because of these threats, the Japanese lined the route from the airport and the perimeter of the hotel with 30,000 uniformed men. It went on to become one of the main rock venues in Tokyo. Some of the staged protests can be seen in the video below:

Behind the Spotlight: Two Years Ago

by Billy Shepherd and Johnny Dean

A resounding plop echoed through the hallways of countless homes on a day early in December two years ago. A personal message from the Beatles, in the form of a six-minute record, the longest track they'd ever produced . . . and full of their zany sense of humour.

Called, simply, the "Beatles' Third Christmas Record," it started off with a crazy, off-key version of "Yesterday," and then John roared in singing "Bonnie Christmas" with a terrible old Scottish accent! And they also had their mickey-taking bit at the protest songs which were cluttering up the charts in the last few months of 1965. John wrote some special words to go with the tune "Auld Lang Syne," bringing in references to Vietnam and so on.

Good fun, all of it. And it ended with sincere messages of regard and thanks from each Beatle to all their hordes of fans. Took quite a while to get right, too--they spent several hours in the studios, working on ideas. It proved, once again, that the Beatles then, as now, are most anxious to keep faith with their supporters.

Actually this pre-Christmas scene in 1965 was much more hectic for the boys than life is this year. There was a tour due to start . . . and there were near-panic plans over their film scenes yet to come.

Beatles Q&A: Harrisongs, Sony/ATV

Question:
How exactly are George's songs affected by Sony/ATV holdings..? Are Harrisongs, Ltd (which I believe hold the publishing rights for all songs done after '68) affected or doesn't Michael Jackson have any management rights over them, which would add a layer of difficulty if later albums like 'Abbey Road' went to iTunes.

Answer:
This is an excellent question, as it speaks to the issue of how Beatles music is released (or alternatively, why Beatles material often isn't released). As far as I know, there are three levels of approval required for a Beatles recording to be used commercially:

1. Copyright of the sound recording: EMI owns all of the Beatles' master tapes, and thus must give permission for them to be used. EMI has in the past suggested compilations (e.g. Sessions) that were never released due to #3 below. Note that this does not apply when only a Beatles song being used (i.e. a cover performed by another artist), in which case only #2 applies.

2. Publishing rights: Sony/ATV, as you point out, controls most of the Beatles' songs in terms of music publishing. The exceptions are Harrisongs Ltd. (post-1968 George Harrison songs), Startling Music (post-1968 Ringo Starr songs), and MPL Communications ("Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You"), which are controlled by the individual Beatles or their estates.

3. The Beatles/Apple: The four Beatles (or their estates) must approve any official Beatles products before they can be released. From most written accounts I have seen, this has been the major barrier in getting Beatles music released. While some compilations have been approved and released (Let It Be...Naked, 1, Love, etc.), it has been slow going in other areas (getting the full catalogue remastered, releasing Let It Be on DVD, getting Beatles music on iTunes, etc.).

So, to answer your original question, George's songs from 1963-1968 are controlled by Sony/ATV (a company co-owned by Sony and trusts formed by Michael Jackson), while from 1969 onwards they are controlled by the Harrison estate through Harrisongs Ltd. So that would mean that for Abbey Road to be included on iTunes, for example, you would need to secure the publishing rights from Sony/ATV (for Lennon/McCartney songs), Harrisongs (for George's songs), and Startling Music (for "Octopus's Garden"), plus approval from EMI and Apple. The inclusion of Harrisongs in the equation, to my mind, does not add a layer of difficulty, as you would already need to secure permission anyway from the Harrison estate (as part of #3) for any Beatles material to be released.

-LOTB

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