Sunday, August 7, 2011

The Beatles Third Christmas Record



The Beatles released the third Christmas message for their Fan club in the UK on or about December 17 1965. Once again the manufactured flexi was by Lyntone. This 1965 Christmas message was only released in the UK but not in the United States as it was explained that the "tape had arrived too late" for inclusion. The catalogue number for this flexi is LYN 948.

The flexi is housed in a cardboard cover with the Fan Club newsletter folded and housed within the sleeve. The front of the cardboard cover has a photo of the Beatles (black and white) from the Granada Television Special "The Music of Lennon and McCartney". It features a shot of the group from above looking down with the Beatles holding their instruments getting ready to mime to their latest single "Day Tripper". This photo was taken during the first days of November 1965. The Fan Club logo and the record speed (33 RPM) are indicated at the top of the front cover. The flexi title is featured in blue along the bottom of the photo. The back cover has the title at the top once again in blue and includes liner notes by Tony Barrow. A disclaimer of promotion is in a box at the top as well. In a box written in blue near the bottom of the back cover, the Fan Club (Anne Collingham) thanks EMI and George Martin for the production of the disc. It also states that the Beatles record exclusively for the Parlophone label. At the bottom of the back cover is the issue date, the photo credit going to Robert Whitaker, the Fan club address and the printer's credit going to MacNeill Press, Ltd. London.

The front of the newsletter has the Fan club logo at the top of the page along with the Fan Club address once again. The text contiains Christmas greetings from the Fan Club secretaries, a "year in review" and praise for the new LP "Rubber Soul". It is signed by Anne Collingham. The back features a black and white photo of the Fabs with Ringo and Paul sitting in a stoll, John above them and George sitting at their feet. The inside fold features the script "Happy Christmas Beatle People!" with four individual face photos of the group and seasonal hats drawn on with first name signatures and snowflakes etc.

The label this time is white with gold print. The label features are the same as previous years (see previous postings) with the exception of the record speed being 33 RPM and the title in gold below the playhole. This is a one sided flexi.

The tracklisting for this flexi is as follows: "Yesterday (out of tune)", "All Talking", "Happy Christmas (John)", "Auld Lang Syne (All)", "All Talking", "Same old Song (John)", "All Talking", "Auld Lang Syne (John)", "All Talking".

The recording of the 1965 Christmas message occurred at EMI studio two on Monday November 08 1965 between 09:00 PM and 03:00 AM. Various speech was recorded throughout the session with a proper three takes completed early in the morning. Editing consisted of three attempts the next day on November 09 1965 at Room 65 of EMI Studios and the mono mix was also completed at this session. The production credit goes to George Martin.

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